Malaysia Seeks To Promote Islamic Tourism

23/07/2008

BERNAMA: Islamic nations can further boost their cooperation, particularly in the tourism
industry, by encouraging travellers to visit religious sites in Muslim countries, Tourism Minister
Azalina Othman Said said. She said there was huge potential for "religious tourism" in these
countries, especially in Malaysia, given the diverse cultures, religions and places of worship of
various faiths.

"I believe Malaysia has the capacity. We have a lot of mosques and we have a great history of
Islam. Also, thousands of Hindu devotees come here for Thaipusam," she told reporters when
responding to a question on how Islamic nations could complement each other to develop the
tourism industry.

Religious tourism or commonly referred to as "faith tourism" is a form of tourism people travel
individually or in groups for pilgrimage, missionary or fellowship purposes. According to World
Tourism Organisation an estimated 300 to 330 million pilgrims visit the world's key religious
sites every year.

Azalina said she was in discussions with Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri
Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is also in charge of religious affairs, looking into strategies on
how Malaysia could promote "religious tourism".

Malaysia, with 60 per cent of the population Muslims, is a member of the Organisation of the
Islamic Conference and a member of D-8, a group of developing eight Islamic countries, which
have formed an economic development alliance. Other members of the D-8 are Bangladesh,
Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey also have the potential to develop religious
tourism given their rich cultural and religious background.
 Tour Of Malaysia's Living Museum
16/07/2008

By Shanti Gunaratnam

http://www.nst.com/ His English is impeccable as is his Bahasa Malaysia. Abdul Rahim Haji
Hashim, son of Haji Hashim Datuk Demang Haji Abdul Ghani, is the primary caretaker of Villa
Sentosa. He looks typically Malay though and this is also reflected in the beautiful house built by
his father 88 years ago in Kampung Morten, the only Malay village at the heart of the city near
the Malacca River.

Listening to Abdul Rahim, 72, talk about Kampung Morten is like taking a walk back in time to
when the British ruled this land. He will tell you how Kampung Morten, on the banks of the
Malacca River, came about, how his father, who was the village headman, built Villa Sentosa,
which is now a "living museum".

He will also tell you how he studied under some of the best teachers in Malacca during the
British rule, which explains his command of the English language.

Colonial Character Not a single day goes by without tourists coming to Villa Sentosa to
experience what it was like to live and grow up there during colonial times.

Inside the house, nothing much has changed, not even the cups, saucers and glasses used to serve
drinks. There are tea sets from England too, which the family uses occasionally. Sometimes,
these are laid on the beautifully set tables for tourists to see and admire.

Indeed, time seems to stand still at Villa Sentosa, except maybe for the plants growing in the
front yard.

"This was how we used to live when my late father and my 11 siblings stayed in this house," he
says. He and his family still live in the house and he has turned it into a museum of sorts.

What's so remarkable about Villa Sentosa is that the mainly timber house was constructed
without a single nail. There are four rooms and an equal number of halls, a long kitchen, a
beautiful porch and a well maintained backyard that faces other traditional Malay houses there.

Abdul Rahim guides guests around the house, telling them about the intriguing collection of
costumes, embroidery, furniture, muskets and an interesting array of Malay items. Among these
are a 500-year-old Majapahit keris, a 100-year-old Quran, Mign Dynasty ceramics and family
photographs.

He says Villa Sentosa offers four things - Malaysian culture, history, architecture and hospitality.

There are more than 100 traditional Malay houses in Kampung Morten but all are smaller than
Villa Sentosa and definitely not as grand though each house and its occupants have their own
stories to tell about life in the village.

Heritage Village Kampung Morten was named after F.J Morten, the land commissioner of
Malacca during the British rule, in 1920. At that time, there were already some 100 houses there,
of which Villa Sentosa is one of the oldest. The Malacca State government has declared
Kampung Morten a heritage village. Villa Sentosa is open to visitors from 9am till 1pm, and
from 2pm till 5pm, everyday except Friday when the opening hours are from 2.45pm till 5pm.
Entrance is free. For details and appointments, call 06-282 3988
China Steps Up Tourism To Taiwan
23/07/2008

http://www.bbc.co.uk/: Large groups of Chinese tourists are set to begin arriving in Taiwan as
restrictions are further relaxed.

Most will fly in on newly inaugurated direct weekend charter flights, which began operating
earlier this month.

China had promised that that it would allow up to 3,000 of its citizens to visit Taiwan every day.

Nearly 2,000 Chinese tourists arrived in Taiwan on July 19th, all travelling in mandatory tour
groups.

Their visit is the result of agreements reached between officials from China and Taiwan last
month - which also saw a deal reached on establishing direct weekend charter flights.

Up until now, China has tightly regulated the number of people allowed to travel to Taiwan, with
fewer than 300,000 visiting each year, compared to nearly five million trips made to China by
Taiwanese visitors.

The Taiwanese government also hopes the new arrivals will provide an important boost to the
local economy. And, if the spending habits of the first group of Chinese visitors earlier this
month was anything to go by, those expectations are likely to be realised.

Local media reported that the first group of more than 700 visitors spent around $1.3m
(£650,000) - an average of $1,857 per person - and that the figure was a conservative estimate.
Religious Tourism is Peace Tourism
We talked in previous issues about different types of tourism dominant in the world, and were
able to conclude that for us the best kind is Religious Tourism. This tourism follows in the
footsteps of the prophets and saints, because their life is a guide for believers and their method is
a beacon illuminating the way forward. Their mausoleums are mosques where people pray,
contemplate the lives of these great personalities, implore God for forgiveness, help and to
provide them with peace and security in this world and in the afterlife.

In reviewing the course of these prophets, including the most important with missions on earth,
we find that they were messengers of peace, and guides of humanity towards tranquillity. They
established the foundations of peace and justice on earth. As Muslims, we believe that their
message is an eternal one which God wanted to be a beacon illuminating the way of generations
throughout history, so that peace reigns on earth.

These prophets are Noah (Dean of messengers and confidant of God), Abraham (the father of
the prophets and the one chosen by God), Mosses (who spoke with God), Jesus (The word of
God) and Mohammed (the beloved of God and the last of the prophets and messengers). They
struggled to convey the divine message to Earth and were God's commissioners.

Having known that the essence, content and source of the message of each of these five
prophets is the same, we realize that we are facing an extraordinary force for peace, as an object,
method and reality. They can unify the world on the basis of principles and values of peace based
on universal justice.

Their message was the same, despite the different eras in which they were sent, and their
diverse method in spreading it. This is not surprising given that their source and legislature is the
same God. The content of the message always called for the spreading of peace and mercy on
earth, and to distinguish between acts harmful to the person in his life and the afterlife and those
that are beneficial in his life and beyond.

Beneficial acts include: faith, unity, justice, charity, trust, abstinence, courage, patience, the
call to virtue and warning against vice, the preservation of family ties, exemplary treatment of
parents, benevolence towards neighbours, settlement of rights, faithfulness to God in all actions,
counting on God and his aide, accepting his fate and judgement, believing in his messengers and
their information and what is of benefit to man and society, and to various creatures on earth, in
order to ensure their preservation. Environmental sustainability must be achieved for future
generations.

God has laid down these laws as a tribute to human beings and to preserve their interests. If
left to their own desires the people can transgress taboos and encroach on the rights of others. In
his great wisdom God sent Messengers, reminding the people of the divine commandments,
warnings against sins, preaching to them and reminding them of their debt to their ancestors. If
the new information is repeated, it will awaken minds. The people who are most ready to listen,
will have more understanding. Those with more understanding are more active in their practices.
 But the path is not always full of flowers. Religions have been repeatedly misused. The
message of peace and mercy they conveyed has been used to justify the most heinous human
crimes. Surely the vice is not in religion itself; whoever wants to commit a crime has no
difficulty in finding a justification. Therefore, caution should be exercised in the interpretation
of religion. A distinction should be made between the human interpretation of religions, or
doctrines within the same religion, in order to isolate the self indulgent interests of certain
groups, which have caused incalculable pain and evil, and the intentions of divine religions,
which are a source of mercy, happiness and good for humanity. These are the values which the
great prophets called for and made their sacrifices for.

An example of religious tourism

If these are the benefits of prophets, they have rights over believers. It is the duty of the
believers to visit the prophets graves and mausoleums, for prayer and invocation. Such visits are,
without doubt, one of the main sources of religious tourism.

There are many examples of religious tourism destinations, but we will confine ourselves to one
example of the Hajj at The Holy Ka'aba that every Muslim must carry out at least once in
his/her life time if they can afford it.

The Hajj

The hajj is an obligation which could be described as the largest, oldest, peaceful tourist
march. It is followed by the largest conference in the world involving millions of Muslims with
their ethnic, linguistic and cultural differences. It would be no exaggeration to say that the Hajj is
the most perfect representation of collective human behaviour, because of the precision and
organization that characterize it. Social interaction between individuals during the performance
of various rituals has important advantages and benefits. It is, perhaps, the same benefit as was
anticipated by the Prophet Ibrahim when he left some of his family members in the arid and
inhospitable desert, and implored God to make sure that people would have compassion for
them before he requested God to provide them with earthly goods. His imploring is mentioned in
the holy Quran:

"O our Lord! I have made some of my offspring to dwell in a valley without cultivation, by Thy
Sacred House; in order, O our Lord, that they may establish regular Prayer: so fill the hearts of
some among men with love towards them, and feed them with fruits: so that they may give
thanks." (Sura Ibrahim/37).

It will need much more space to explain the social and psychological benefits of Hajj in this
article. But we will consider some related aspects.

The performance of Hajj to the holy house, scrupulously observing its rituals, is an ideal
education in the way in which man must live safely and at peace with his environment. This was
stressed by a contemporary writer: "I believe that the season of Hajj is a model of peaceful life to
be followed by mankind, irrespective of their differences and increase in population. So, are
prohibited, carrying weapons and hunting. Even the stones, in Stoning the Devil, must be small
and discarded without excessive force... And in talking, disputes are banned for fear that things
get out of hand, leading to discord and infighting. "

On a purely psychological level the Muslim who performs his pilgrimage feels a kind of
purification from his sins, and a release from feelings of guilt that often cause psychological
illnesses. Moreover, the Muslim who goes on Hajj believes that it will open the door to paradise.
That is the ultimate goal for which he works his whole life. Thus, the human being substitutes
positive feelings for other negative ones and accordingly finds tranquillity, security and peace.

Religious Tourism and peace

We saw through a single example of religious tourism, the Hajj, the multiple beneficial effects
which are visible (material) and non-visible (spiritual). The same can be said during visits to
major mosques in the Islamic world and holy places in Iraq (Najaf, Karbala, Kadhimiyah and
Samara) and Palestine (Jerusalem and Al-Khalil), for example. We cannot describe all these
places, but it is very important we learn the following lessons:

-- Religious tourism is the best kind of tourism, because it can give the individual security,
tranquillity and peace, because of its spiritual and worldly returns, and its collective character.
Therefore, officials in places of authority are required to devote full attention to this type of
tourism, describing it as a tourism of peace. This must be widespread at all levels to consolidate
the spread of peace and love between nations.

-- Religious tourism, in its various forms, is the biggest organized group tourism in the world. It
is estimated to involve hundreds of millions of tourists and tens of billions of dollars annually.
Accordingly, the proper management of this kind of tourism in any country will reflect positively
on all economic sectors such as transport and communications and other sectors, while
promoting other types of tourism: nature, heritage tourism linked to the country's culture, rural
and cultural.

-- The role of apostles and prophets and their teachings was essential for the development and
progress of mankind. Even if they appeared at different times and in various regions, their role,
mission and purpose was the same: namely to help humanity to develop and progress
scientifically and spiritually.

-- The revitalization of the trails of prophets and saints, making sites tourist attractions to educate
new generations in the principles of peace and mercy as intended by the divine message, is a
decisive step towards the dissemination of the principles of peace and justice in the world,
knowing that the majority of the world's population is monotheistic.

-- Tourism is regarded as one of the most important means of rapprochement, interaction,

communication and meetings between civilizations. The influential international tourism
organizations must ensure and consolidate the general ethical values that tourists and the host
country must respect, so that everyone can benefit from the various forms of tourism: religious,
health, social or economic.
 Let Religious Tourism be the top priority of those who are responsible for tourism in the
Islamic world. Thus, they should devote considerable attention to mosques which have
mausoleums of prophets and saints, including Ahl al-Bayt (descendants of the Prophet). A visit
to these places should be a source of inspiration for lessons on unity, security and peace, and a
way of preventing dissension, differences and disputes.

Fellow travellers on the roads of peace continue your march and God bless you