According to the Pew Research Centre, Indonesia is home to 242 million Muslims and around 29 million Christians – 8.5 million of whom are Catholics. Pope Francis is also expected to visit Papua New Guinea in August, the country’s foreign minister Justin Tkatchenko said in January. A Vatican source saidContinue Reading
The factory in Osaka’s Yodogawa Ward was closed in December due to ageing facilities and production shifted to the factory in the city of Kinokawa that was searched on Sunday, Japanese media reported. The government has criticised the company for taking two months to announce the health impacts of itsContinue Reading
TOKYO: Japanese and Chinese experts held talks on treated wastewater from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, Japan’s foreign ministry said late Saturday (Mar 30), the first such talks to be announced since Tokyo began releasing the water into the ocean last year. Japan and China have been at loggerheads overContinue Reading
JAKARTA: Firefighters have managed to extinguish a blaze that levelled an ammunition warehouse just outside the Indonesian capital after a series of explosions, an officer said on Sunday (Mar 31). The first explosion was heard at around 6pm (7pm, Singapore time) on Saturday at a depot used to store expiredContinue Reading
In Malaysia, guidelines on respectable clothes, checks on young couples, the closing down of 4D betting shops, and religious “moral police” by the authorities are making Ms Siti Kasim anxiety for her country’s potential.  ,
The lawyer fears that the country’s officials ‘” Islamization” may gradually and surely alter the government’s way of life.  ,
Miss Siti Kasim, an outspoken critic of Muslim religious government, said that the imposition of faith was becoming more and more prevalent in the country, used and promoted by officials.
” The issue is that these folks want to pass more regulations to impose themselves on us. Politicians demand that we adhere to this spiritual kind of morality, which we must do. These rules are being implemented by the institutions. But, it is part of political Islam”, she said.
Some of the policies of the states of Kelantan and Terengganu, which have long supported the Islamist party Parti Islam Se-Malaysia ( PAS ), have been put under scrutiny for their social practices. They were equivalent to spiritual police, claim critics.
Muslims make up more than 95 per cent of the people in state such as Kelantan and Terengganu, higher than the 63.5 per cent in Malaysia.
In July 2023 for instance, an operator of a shop in Kota Bharu- the investment of Kelantan- was fined RM100 ( US$ 21.20 ) for allowing her female employee to reduce the hair of a Muslim female customer.
A non-Muslim shop owner was summoned for breaking the council’s bylaw for “indecent clothing” by operating shorts in her store a month later.  ,
The girl was pictured wearing a big t-shirt that covered her clothes.  ,  ,
According to Section 34 ( 2 )( b ) of the 2019 Business and Industrial Trade Bylaws, non-Muslim business owners and non-Muslim employees are required to dress in “decent clothes.”  ,
Following a conversation with the regional government, the Minister of Housing and Local Government Nga Kor Ming announced that the call had been postponed following the incident.  ,  ,  ,  ,
The Kota Bharu Municipal Council enforced and put into practice these rules, which purport to emphasize Islamic values, and likewise forbid advertisements that do not account for the humility of models.
In Kelantan, movies have been prohibited since 1990, the season PAS won the state, with several government staff claiming over the years that they could cause social problems.
A massive fire that broke out on Saturday ( Mar 30 ) at a military ammunition depot outside the capital was being battled by Indonesian firefighters to put an end to it. It resulted in several explosions and the release of flames and smoke into the night sky. According toContinue Reading
JAKARTA: According to media reports, Indonesian firefighters were battling it out on Saturday ( Mar 30 ) to put an enormous fire out at a military ammunition depot just outside the capital. No fatalities were immediately reported from the affair in Bekasi, which is located near Jakarta. Bright orange lightsContinue Reading
The United States announced on Friday ( Mar 28 ) that it was” taking steps” to impose new visa restrictions on Hong Kong officials responsible for enforcing restrictions on immigration to the Chinese city, days after a new national security law was passed. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saidContinue Reading
A natural sciences PhD candidate was deported by authorities at Dulles aircraft in December, according to China Science Daily, a paper affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. She was trying to return to the US to pursue her research. According to the report, the scholar was questioned for eightContinue Reading
The suspect told officials he had entered Malaysia to search for another Israeli member due to a family debate, but the authorities did not rule out the possibility that he might be a part of Jewish knowledge. We do not thoroughly trust this account because we believe there may beContinue Reading