#Malaysian hotel industry in the spotlight over no-headscarf uniform policy

This combination of photographs shows Muslim girls wearing the "hijab" dressed as popular cosplay characters during the "Hijab Cosplay" event in Subang Jaya, outside of Kuala Lumpur.

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 The hotel industry here is under the spotlight over complaints that some female employees are not allowed to wear headscarves while at work.

The Union Network International-Malaysia Labour Centre (UNI-MLC) said in a statement on Monday (Nov 6) that it has received numerous complaints from female hotel employees saying that their management does not allow them to wear a headscarf at work. 

UNI-MLC said students in hospitality and tourism courses have also been instructed to remove their headscarves before going on internships or the company would not hire them.

As a result, some employees have no choice but to remove their headscarf during work before putting it back on after work.

“This policy is practiced in international hotel chains that use the same standard operating procedure on uniforms in all the hotels in their chain globally,” its chairman Samuel Cheah Swee Hee said.

He added that there are many other employment opportunities for Muslim employees including working in the backhouse or choosing to work with one of the many hotels that incorporate the headscarf in its uniform.

"The problem is everyone wants to join the 5-star global hotel brand, but they do not want to follow the uniform policy that is their worldwide standard," he said.

However, the International Women’s Alliance for Family Institution and Quality Education (Wafiq) sees the ban as discriminatory and unnecessary, questioning the need for such restrictions in Muslim-majority Malaysia.

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Wafiq secretary Hazlin Chong said the local owners of these international hotel chains have a responsibility to raise the issue to its headquarters and ask for flexibility that allows staff to fulfill both religious and work requirements.

“Wafiq does not see wearing the hijab as a deterrence to any Muslim woman to perform her best at work any more than a person who does not wear the headscarf,” Chong said in a statement, calling the move “religious discrimination”.

UNI-MLC has urged the Human Resources Ministry to address this issue and come up with a guideline to avoid any form of discrimination amongst women in the hotel industry.

"By not allowing female Muslim staff to wear headscarves to work, not only does this deny them of their rights to practice their religion freely but also limit them from pursuing a career of their choice," said UNI-MLC president Datuk Mohamed Shafie BP Mammal.

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Source - TheJakartaPost

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Myanmar (Burma) - Rohingya militants `well-organized

The emergence of a "well-organized and well-funded" Muslim militancy behind attacks on security forces in western Myanmar could further de-stabilize the conflict-ridden region, an international think tank warned on Wednesday.

Harakah al-Yaqin, or Faith Movement, formed by members of the persecuted Rohingya minority, has been blamed for deadly attacks on security forces in northern Rakhine state, including an October 9 assault when hundreds of fighters, armed mostly with swords and sticks, overran three border police bases.
The violence prompted a sweeping crackdown on the Rohingya population, thousands of whom have fled to Bangladesh in recent weeks amid accusations of mass killings and rapes. The government denies the allegations.
In its report, the International Crisis Group conducted interviews with members of Harakah al-Yaqin that suggest it is overseen by a committee of Rohingya emigres in Saudi Arabia.

The research also found evidence of ground operations organized by 20 men, experienced in guerilla warfare, who trained hundreds of locals to use weapons and crude explosives.
Crisis Group's Asia programme director Tim Johnston told dpa at least some of the funding is believed to come from private donors in the Middle East.
"There are real risks that if the government mishandles the situation, for instance with the further use of excessive force, it will push more of the Muslim population in that area to support al-Yaqin, entrenching the armed group and a cycle of violence," he wrote in an editorial published by Time magazine.
"It may also create conditions for radicalization that could be exploited by transnational jihadists to pursue their own agendas in Burma."
Rights groups and Rohingya activists cast doubt on some of the findings and said the majority of the hundreds of thousands of Muslims confined to internal displacement camps and villages across Rakhine state did not support the insurgency.
"Villagers are consistently telling us they want rights and want to return home," said Matthew Smith, founder of NGO Fortify Rights. "No one is telling us they want militancy or armed resistance."
Richard Potter, a researcher with the Burma Human Rights Network, said recent contact suggested the militants had run out of ammunition and scattered in recent weeks.
"If there's money that's being gathered for them I can't see where it's going," he said.

I employ new (Muslim) girl for the shop.

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I employ new (Muslim) girl for the shop.
She was runaway from her husband, the hit her regular.
I show her a free room, and be her self.
I say take first the shit of your head, we live here in a free world.
Nobody press you to be a fucking Muslim.

I say look my roommate (my Siberian hamster) the cage are always open.
I show her a bird, (close first the windows) and let him fly in the office.
I say to her we live her in a free world.
And you are also free here.
Nobody scream to you or hit you.
She start to cry.
I say to her "God bless you"