The petrol dealers now cry foul over the losses incur by them when fuel prices are reduced. What about the times when fuel prices were revising upward? They bought their fuel stock at a lower price but when the clock struck 12am, they gladly calibrated the fuel pumps to a higher price. Each time an announcement was made in the last minute, we saw people queuing up at these stations to top up their vehicle fuel tanks before midnight to ensure they bought cheaper fuel before the increase in prices took effect. So, who stood to gain when prices of fuel were revised upwards? Why didn't these petrol dealers cry foul then? It is because they were happy to make additional gain in their profits by selling older stocks which were cheaper. Some of these dealers with insider information started purchasing fuel stocks 1-2 days before the announcement, to ensure that they had plenty of lower-priced fuel to sell when the increase in market price was announced, thus making additional profits from there. This had been happening when world oil prices were on an upward trend since many years ago. The more upward revision the government made on fuel prices, the happier these dealers were.

Perhaps now the trend has changed and with the down trend in fuel prices they are feeling what consumers had been feeling throughout all these years. The suffering consumers had to go through every time the pump prices of fuel increased is now being felt by these petrol dealers. So, these petrol dealers should stop whining and just accept the losses. After all, the market trend may not necessarily be on a down trend. Today, we may watch oil prices fall but who knows tomorrow the oil prices may go up. Does it mean that these dealers will maintain the pump prices should the government announces an increase in its monthly revision?

Business is about taking of risks. There may be times that the business makes money while there may also be times when it loses money. These dealers cannot continue to expect to make money every time. They must remember that their gain is the consumers' loss. Let's be fair to each other. Sometimes, we gain, sometimes we lose. If these dealers cannot accept losses then it's better they invest in other businesses which guarantee profits but is there any? If there is one business that profits are guaranteed then I will be among the first to invest in.

Yes, if we compare the US school system and the Malaysian one, the US does not have a streamlined system like ours but the curriculum in all US schools are similar to each other and they are all taught in the English language. As such, we can classify them as having one school system. There are many countries in the world which do not have a streamlined curriculum like our national schools. You don't call these countries' education systems "multiple" school systems, do you?

@OMG!, you are right about the possibility that the US will no longer have a majority race in the future. We are talking about the present. We don't know what will hold in the future. There is also a possibility that the human race or even all living creatures will extinct in the future. Why bother about the future when we are still living in the present and debating about the present? The fact remains that in the present, the Whites, which includes all European migrants who are Caucasians are deemed Whites and they are still the majority in the US. If you want to talk about 'Indigenous Whites' there are none as all Whites in the US are migrants, be they migrants since the time of Christopher Columbus or European migrants of today. The only indigenous people in the US are the Red Indians.

In the US, there are clandestine groups, or more accurately White Supremacist groups which foresee the growing cosmopolitan in the US. These groups, similar to those that we have here are concerned about the erosion of White supremacy and the growing power of the Jews in both the US economy and politics. Then again, that is the US.

If what Zahid Hamidi said is correct why did Putrajaya retract back the letter to the FBI deputy director? Why didn't Zahid explain that to the press?

@menj, you are missing some points here. In the US, despite its diversity more than 80 percent are Whites while the rest are the 'lain-lain'. Besides, the US has never had separate school system from the days before independence from the British. They are unlike us where vernacular school systems has been here for a hundred years. The national schools are only born in the early 1970s.

Let's just say that this issue is deliberately being sensationalised by parties with vested interests to gain political mileage. Personally, I don't think it is a big issue at all. If morality is a big issue in Malaysia then those more pertinent issues like those that you have quoted should be queried by Royal Commission of Inquiries as those issues not only touch on the issue of morality but also the people's monies and environmental impact issues which have very big impact on not just the community but the entire country. So, where are all those 'moral policemen' when they are most needed here?

This is why the Malays must wake up from their slumber and complacency. We must never just accept all those propaganda talks from some politicians and extreme right NGOs and get ourselves indoctrinated by these people to allow ourselves to be besieged by the siege mentality. We don't just listen and accept but rather we should evaluate ourselves if indeed Muslims and Malays here are under siege by the non-Malays and... the Jews?

I would like to tell a story about my school days. When I was a student, I noticed most of my classmates just accept whatever the teachers taught us and very few would ask questions about the subject we were being taught. Even fewer would point out to the teachers that certain things they taught may be wrong. Almost everyone just sat down quietly, jotting down notes and appeared to accept what the teachers said. It appeared as if everyone in the class understood what was being taught by these teachers and that everything that was taught were right. After class, I saw my classmates all clamouring to each other asking their other classmates about things they didn't understand when the teachers were teaching. Some also doubted certain facts given by the teachers. Why didn't these students raised their hands and ask the teachers when they didn't understand what was being taught or raise their doubts when the teachers were still in class?

Sadly, we were brought up in an environment where we do not question what is being told or taught to us and we must listen and obey even though we personally do not agree or doubted. In the end, many of us grow up continuing wit this trend (or indoctrination) and accept whatever taught or told to us by those in authority as gospel truths and those who question these 'truths' are considered recalcitrant and anti-social. Maybe even a threat to national security or religion. In the end, we allow ourselves to be enslaved by those holding power and authority. Who is to be blamed for the predicament we are in? Ourselves. We have the opportunity to voice our thoughts and views but we refrain from doing so for fear of backlash. It is my believe that timidity and thinking within a box will not bring us far in life.

I am neither a fan of K-Pop nor do I agree with the ecstatic-charged girls in tudung going on stage to hug and kiss the K-Pop stars. I think what the girls did was a shameful act and it goes to show how far teenagers would go to as fans of pop stars. However, I choose to leave out religion as a denominator aspect in this case as I personally believe that Muslim or not, young people (or even some older ones) should learn more about self-respect and control even when they are at their high during a concert event. It is okay to present flowers or chocolate and other gifts to their music idols but going all out to get hugs and kisses is simply not the Asian way of demonstrating our support for a particular artiste or pop groups.

Having said that, I think the religious authorities kile Jawi is over-reacting when they threaten to arrest these Muslim girls over their poor manners. The religious authorities should take a more milder and less intimidating approach by meeting up and counsel these girls on the need for self-respect and how wrong is their action in the eyes of Islam. Treating them like criminals over their affection towards their favorite pop artistes is an over-kill, to put it mildly. Should Jawi decide to prosecute these girls for their shameful behavior what statute can they use to prosecute? Charge them for khalwat? They were not alone with the Korean artistes but in front of thousands of screaming fans. There simply isn't any Islamic law in Malaysia which can be used to charge the girls' action. Maybe charge them with committing indecent behavior? If that is the case, then many Malay actresses can also be charged with the same offense when they hug male actors, even though it is just acting a scene in a drama or a movie.

Finally, the Sukan Star TV's Facebook administrator should be probed for the comic strip glorifying Muslim women joining terrorist groups. The administrator should realize the serious implication of the comic strip as acts of terrorism is many, many times worse than some naive kids hugging their idols. The latter is just a moral issue while the former is national security issue. Such depiction is not just distasteful but downright seditious. Is the administrator of Sukan Star TV's Facebook page a supporter or a sympathiser to IS? Rather than issuing arrest warrants to teenagers hugging hunky Korean pop stars, these arrest warrants should be issued to Sukan Star TV's administrator/s instead. Failing to take action against the administrators of that Facebook account may give the impression that the authorities condone the action of supporting and sympathising the terror acts of IS.

@drcfls, what constitute "cultures not in line with Islam"? The Quran said that Islam does not force its believers to adopt just one culture but they are free to practice their own cultures and traditions so long as these practices are in line with Islamic values. This means that Muslims do not necessarily practice Arabic culture and tradition just because The Prophet was an Arab. In fact, even certain element in the Arabic cultures are not in line with Islamic teachings. In Malaysia, does it mean that the Malay culture and tradition is in accordance to Islam while the Korean culture is not? Always remember that the Quran has mentioned that Allah has created mankind in various races, cultures and traditions and Islam is a universal religion for all mankind. As long as we maintain the values of our own cultures and traditions without deviating from the guidelines set by Allah, we can all continue practising our cultures and traditions based on our ethnicity. Now, who among us to decide what constitute a deviation of a particular culture and tradition from Islamic values?

The K-Pop fiasco was actually a group of young teenage Muslim girls who went ga-ga over their idols and in a lapse of lost in self-control embraced and kissed the K-Pop group members. I agree that this is very unIslamic and should not have happened but my question is who started it first? Did the K-Pop artistes go after the girls to hug and kiss them or the other way round? If it is the latter, then the problem is not with either the K-Pop artistes or the K-Pop culture but the girls themselves who lost their self-control and wanted to hug and kiss their music idols.

This is why I say religious education is important to remind our fellow Muslims the dos and don'ts in Islam and that it is not only improper but a sin to hug and kiss a person from the other gender who are not muhrim. If we fail to teach our own fellow Muslims well, can we blame others for our own mistakes? This is why I say that many Muslims are still living in a state of denial. When things go wrong, we put the blame on others and thus freeing ourselves from being responsible. In life, we can still do that and perhaps no one will know but in the end, Allah knows best and we will eventually meet Him where our body parts will speak the truth in front of Allah. There will be way to deny our own wrongdoings and shortcomings.

Your statements about Jemaah prayers and all are completely off-context but I will nonetheless provide you with some simple answers. While Muslims are encouraged to pray Congregationally at mosques and suraus during prayer time, it is not mandatory that one must do so in their prayers. As long as they pray 5 times a day, it doesn't matter whether they are praying in a congregation led by an imam in mosques, or at home with family members or even praying alone. Only Friday Prayer (solat Jumaat) is mandatory for men who reach the baligh age to pray in congregation and even that is not mandatory to be held in a mosque or a surau. As long as we have a congregation of at least 40 men and led by an imam, the Friday prayer is valid in Islam. Islam has made praying easy for believers and as long as we follow the guidelines set by Allah our prayers are no better or worse regardless of where we pray.

Religious talks by preachers and scholars in mosques or elsewhere is good for our knowledge in Islam, which we as common Ummah have limited knowledge about the religion and hearing these talks can make us more aware of our responsibility as Muslims but attending to such religious ceramah again is not mandatory. With the advent of technology, we now can even listen to such ceramah on television, radio, recordings and even the Internet. These new and modern media serve the same purpose as attending a ceramah in mosques but in the comfort of our homes. It is unlike the past where our forefathers didn't have access to such technologies that they had to go to mosques and suraus to listen to religious ceramah. So, it's nothing surprising if every time such ceramah is held in mosques and suraus there are few attendees.

It goes without saying that the threat of IS is very real. However, who exactly is indirectly promoting religious extremism which may eventually leads to religious militancy? In times like this, the religious authorities should be at the front line to preach to Muslims the dangers of Islamic extremism and the need for Islamic moderation. Instead, these religious authorities are constantly reminding Muslims that Islam is under the threat of non-Muslims and Muslims have the responsibility to defend their religion from these threats mounted by non-Muslims and other enemies of Islam. Just how are these preaches and calling going to reduce the incidence of religious extremism? Aren't these religious authorities inadvertently provoking Muslims into taking a hardline stand when comes to religious issues?

The next topic this news article touched on is about the need to maintain the Sedition Act as advocated by the IGP to be used against religious militancy. I have no quarrel with the Sedition Act if this set of statute is used responsibly by the authorities to curb militancy. It is imperative that the authorities should not only be armed with guns and bombs to fight militancy but also with legal statutes for its preventive measures. When under attack, many former ISA and Sedition Act proponents defend these laws by saying that even countries like the US and Singapore have such preventive laws to keep their countries safe from terrorist attacks. My question is are they also using such preventive laws against their political opponents and common people who are critical of their governments? Can our authorities just use the Sedition Act solely for the purpose of preventing religious militancy from spreading and not used against their political and policy opponents? The authorities must understand that the preventive laws was originally enacted to counter communist propaganda, moles and sympathizers who are hiding among our society. These laws were not enacted to curb freedom of speech and ideological differences.