Inter-Research And Studies (IRAS)

By Patrick Winn All Muslims know pork, booze and premarital canoodling violates Islamic teachings. But in Malaysia, home to a rising tide of fundamentalist Islam, senior clerics are warning against more insidious dangers to the faith. Such as death metal. And puppies. And Valentine’s Day. Malaysia is a bastion of Islam in tropical Southeast Asia. It’s also a nation of mall-goers and Instagram addicts. Many in Malaysia see themselves as both devout and cosmopolitan. Their ethos extols mosques and skyscrapers alike. But as Malaysia modernizes, its state-backed religious authorities are embarking on a spree of fatwas. Each is a decree based on interpretations of the Quran. The fatwas are typically seen as guidelines but police can potentially enforce them under Malaysia’s Sharia laws. These days, the fatwas keep piling up. Malaysia’s conservative Muslims appear panicked by the corrosive influence of Western modernity. There’s even an “e-fatwa” site to help the nation keep track of the ...

By Daniel Gordis It would have been hard to imagine that Islamic State’s brutal execution of American freelance photojournalist James Foley would worsen the Israeli public's assessment of the U.S.'s role in the Gaza conflict. But listen to the chatter in cafes and on the checkout line in the market, and it seems that it may have done just that. When the war died down and the cease-fires began, the reservists started to return home. One of them, a student of ours at Shalem College in Jerusalem, had been in the thick of it. When he finally got out for good and came back to campus, I found him in the student lounge, shook his hand and asked, “How are you?” He looked at me for a moment, exhausted, and replied, “Tell me, what happened to America?” The question of “What happened to America?” is very much on the minds of Israelis these days. Taxi drivers, commonly cited barometers of public opinion in these parts, have a simple explanation: “Obama hates Bibi.” It’s not only the driv...

From the Bloombergviews In Iraq, the U.S. is fighting in a de facto alliance with one group on its list of terrorist organizations -- the Kurdistan Workers Party, also known as the PKK -- against another, Islamic State. This odd situation reveals an emerging truth about the Kurdish group: Its terrorist status is falling out of date. At this point it has to be recognized for the constructive role it can play in Iraq and the wider region. On the front lines in northern Iraq, even before U.S. airstrikes began, the PKK proved itself to be the most effective fighting force against Islamic State (formerly Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). Some of its battle units came from Iraq's Qandil mountains, long a base for PKK attacks into Turkey. Still more came from the Democratic Union Party, the group's affiliate organization in Syria, where they have fought Islamic State to a standstill in Kurdish areas. Of course, sharing a common foe with our side doesn't suddenly turn a ter...

The intrusion of Lahad Datu, Sabah by a group of heavily armed terrorists believed to be originated from the Southern Philippines has been one of the major highlights in the current news reports. So, who is actually at fault in this crisis situation? Our main question here is, where is the Royal Malaysian Navy (TLDM) and the Royal Malaysian Air Force (TUDM) as well as the Army (TDM) who are supposed to watch over the waters, air and the lands in our country? Another big question mark to the Ministry of Defense which is currently under minister Datuk Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who is also the Umno vice-president. It was understood that the Ministry of Defense had spend billions of Ringgit under the tenure of the then Datuk Najib Razak and the current Datuk Ahmad Zahid to acquire many kinds of modern weapons, such as the MIG aircrafts, the naval patrol vessels, gunboats, the Scorpene submarines and the Russian made main battle tanks in order to effective secure our nation from enemy intrude...