Popular preacher arrested in Johor for unlicensed religious sermon, video sparks online debate
JOHOR BARU, May 29 — The Johor Islamic Religious Department (JAINJ) arrested Muslim preacher Ustaz Mat Esa Deraman, popularly known as Tok Ku Pasir Gudang, for delivering a religious sermon without state-mandated accreditation at a house in Pasir Gudang last night.
The arrest was carried out at 8.30pm by JAINJ's enforcement division, with assistance from the Seri Alam district police.
Following that, a two-minute and 58-second video of Mat Esa's arrest was widely circulated on social media.
Celebrity preacher Ustaz Abdullah Khairi shared the footage on his Facebook page, questioning the circumstances of the arrest and Mat Esa's subsequent detention in a lock-up.
JAINJ director Nasri Md Ali said the arrest was made under Section 11 of the Johor Syariah Criminal Offences Enactment 1997 for teaching religion without a license or permit.
'I can confirm that the speaker is still under the department's investigation,' he said when contacted by the media today.
Nasri said checks revealed that the speaker in question is known to give talks to congregations and broadcasts the sessions live on social media.
'The house where he conducts his talks is the residence of another individual that is used as a place for religious talks on a daily basis after maghrib and subuh prayers.
'When the arrest was made, there were several people in the house where the live session were said to be broadcasted on Facebook and Youtube.
'However, checks showed that the speaker's latest video has since been deleted,' he said.
Nasri said the speaker's act of conducting sermons without a valid license or permit was among the complaints brought to the department's attention.
'We had prior instructions from JAINJ's licensing committee to take action on him,' he said.
Based on records, Nasri said the speaker was arrested by the department in 2016 for giving a sermon without valid accreditation.
He added that the same speaker was also investigated, but managed to flee from a JAINJ enforcement raid, during a sermon in 2020.
'This is the third time that the department has taken action on him for teaching or giving religious talks without a license or permit,' he said, adding that the requirement is similar to other states that also require the preachers or organisers to obtain a valid license or permit prior to giving their talks.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
44 minutes ago
- Fox News
What's the right time to get your kids off the family payroll?
America has a parenting problem. We're raising our kids to be dependent adults – financially coddled long past the point of reason. And it's not just hurting them. It's killing our retirement. As a parent of three children aged 23, 25 and 27, I get asked all the time about when the right time is to get your kids off the family payroll. When should you "kick" them out of the house? When should they get off the family mobile phone bill? When should they take over their own car insurance? Over the past 10 years, I've seen firsthand how Baby Boomer and Gen X parents sabotage their golden years trying to bankroll their grown children's lives. Enough is enough. If your kid is 25, has a college degree, and still expects you to Venmo them money for their You Tube TV bill, it's time for a family intervention – not another handout. Let's talk about why it's time to cut the cord and how to do it without wrecking your family dynamics – or your future. According to Pew Research, over 50% of Americans aged 18 to 29 are living at home with their parents. Have we become Italy? Let that sink in. More than half of young adults are still sleeping in their childhood bedrooms, many of them not paying rent, utilities or even their own Netflix subscriptions. Is this really because inflation has grown massively over the past five years? Instead, we've raised and coddled a generation of kids with participation trophies and safety nets so wide they don't know what it means to fall – and get back up. My career started with having $67 to my name in a Boston BayBank account and living in Section 8 housing in South Boston. It motivated me to work hard and become a big success. You could argue though, it's not entirely their fault. In 1980, the home to income ratio was 2 to 1 and now in 2025 it's 6 to 1. Wages simply have not kept up with the cost of real estate. College is more expensive, grocery prices have skyrocketed, and new and used car prices are at an all-time high. But there's a fine line between helping and enabling. And right now, too many parents are crossing it. The right time to get your kids off the family payroll? Between 22 and 25, no exceptions. By that age, they should be working, budgeting and learning how to manage money without your daily deposits. I'm not saying you shouldn't help them through school or during a job transition. But after graduation – or a reasonable gap year – it's time for them to face the real world. If they're still living at home, they need to contribute. Charge rent. Ask them to pay their share of groceries and utilities. Hold them accountable. Parents often ask me what's OK to cover after their kids turn 22. Here's the short list: Everything else – rent, car insurance, cell phone, credit cards, student loans, groceries, even gas – should be on them. Yes, it's hard. But that's life. And it's far better to teach financial responsibility now than watch them flounder at 35 because no one made them pay a bill. You only value what you earn, not what's given to you. Here's what nobody wants to say out loud: you can't retire on guilt. Every dollar you spend bailing out your adult children is a dollar you're not putting into your 401(k), IRA or savings. Over time, it adds up – big time and why many people now must work into their 70s. A recent Merrill Lynch study showed that parents spend an average of $500 per month supporting adult children. That's $6,000 a year. Over a decade, that's $60,000 – money that could grow your nest egg or pay off your mortgage. If you don't start protecting your own future, who's going to support you later? Your kid who doesn't know how to write a check? You don't need to be mean. You need to be clear. Happiness is about expectations met or unmet, so it's time to set expectations. Sit down with your kids and lay out a plan: Set a deadline: "In six months, you'll be covering your own car insurance and phone bill." Charge rent if they're living at home: Even a few hundred bucks builds responsibility. If you want to save it and give it to them when they leave, that could make perfect sense. Offer tools, not bailouts: Teach them to budget, apply for jobs and build credit. Share your retirement goals: Let them see the bigger picture – your financial health matters, too. Loving your kids doesn't mean supporting them forever. It means preparing them to stand on their own two feet. If you really want to help them, stop being their bank. Give them the skills and motivation to earn their own paycheck – and protect yours. Because in the end, your job isn't to raise kids. It's to raise adults.
San Francisco Chronicle
4 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘Everybody is scared:' Trump's travel ban leaves Bay Area residents on edge
Hundreds of people arrived at Raimondi Park in West Oakland Friday morning to pray in observance of Eid al-Adha, a Muslim celebration. Men lined up on a massive white tarp on the baseball field, removing their shoes and laying down their prayer rugs. Women did the same but in a smaller section under a white tent. As people arrived, Ali Albasiery, a business owner and president of the As-Salam Mosque in Oakland, greeted them with a smile, a pat on the back and a kiss on the cheek. Despite his smile and the warm greetings from his peers, Albasiery, who was born in Yemen and moved to the U.S. at 10, was preoccupied by President Donald Trump's recent travel ban on citizens from his home country and 11 others. And he could sense apprehension and fear in those gathering to pray. 'Everybody is scared,' Albasiery said. 'Everybody is rushing and people are panicking.' This past Wednesday, Trump reintroduced the policy from his first term that, when it goes into effect on Monday, will prohibit travel to the U.S. by citizens of Yemen, Sudan, Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya and Somalia. It limits travel from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. Trump said the move — which includes the input of the secretary of state, attorney general, secretary of homeland security and director of national intelligence — will protect the U.S. from terrorist attacks and national security threats. 'As President, I must act to protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people,' Trump said. Trump did not point to any specific examples of terrorist attacks against the U.S. involving the countries banned. He spoke of the recent Colorado attack in which an Egyptian national, who had overstayed his visa, injured Jewish marchers supporting Israeli hostages held in Gaza, but Egypt is not included in the bans. Another justification for the move, according to the president's order, is to target countries whose visitors frequently overstay their visas. Courts blocked Trump's first two attempts to ban travel from certain countries, but in 2018 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld his third try, based on the president's authority over matters of national security. The issue of overstayed visas could give opponents fresh ammunition against the new order, and critics have already argued that it appears to arbitrarily target countries on those grounds. Bay Area groups that advocate for immigrants said they are preparing for a fight, noting that the administration's strategy has extended beyond countries with Muslim majorities and African nations. 'The administration is using a mish-mash of justifications (including what screening measures the targeted countries' governments employ, whether the targeted countries accept deportation flights, and the visa overstay rates from these countries) to assert its actions,' Carole Vigne, legal director at the Asian Law Caucus, said in a statement to the Chronicle. 'The fight to stop this new ban will require more creative and strategic approaches to expose the underlying racism and xenophobia.' Hundreds of people protested at major airports nationwide when Trump announced his first travel ban in 2017. But this week, as Trump issued a new ban involving more countries than he did in his first term, many remain warily silent. Many had been expecting the move, as Trump promised repeatedly to reinstate his bans in his campaign last year. The muted response isn't lost on Albasiery, owner of Shoprite and four other small convenience stores in Oakland, who said he is focusing on helping members of his community. The day after Trump's announcement, he was awakened at 1 a.m. by a Yemeni friend who said his father was forced to leave his mother in Yemen. His father had received a visa, but his mother had not yet; his father was worried he'd be banned from entering the U.S. if he did not leave right away. 'Everyone that has received their visa within the past week or two weeks, they are rushing to get into the states,' Albasiery said. 'They don't know, if they come (whether) they'll be turned back.' The Bay Area is home to more than 4,800 people born in Yemen. The total number of Bay Area residents who come from the 12 countries targeted by the full travel ban is at least 76,000, led by Iran and Afghanistan, according to the U.S. Census. The communities are even larger than those numbers indicate, with more having ancestry from the countries. These diasporas are spread throughout the Bay Area, and many are clustered in the East Bay. Fremont is known for its large Afghan population; Union City is home to a Myanmar community and cultural center; Hayward is a center for the Sudanese community; while the Iranian population is more dispersed throughout the region. Many first-generation immigrants here send money back to their families. Some people are concerned about traveling to their homelands to see their loved ones and possibly not being able to return, depending on their own immigration status. Alaa Suliman, a Hayward resident and professional development officer at the Sudanese Association for Northern California, which represents over 1,000 people from the country in the Bay Area, said this week's announcement is more painful than Trump's first round of travel bans. Sudan is in the midst of a civil war that has killed thousands of people. 'The Sudanese people are literally in the most dire need for support and for international attention,' Suliman said. 'We have to speak up, we have to protest, we have to resist. This is just the beginning of a really long, corrupted journey.' Suliman planned to attend a morning prayer in Hayward with her community on Friday to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. Albasiery, who organized the event in Oakland, said he was spending the rest of the day with his sisters and cousins in Oakland to have cake and sandwiches. He fretted for his friends and for the current state of Yemen, where an 11-year civil war has resulted in 233,000 deaths, 131,000 of those caused by lack of food, services and infrastructure, according to the United Nations. On Friday, Albasiery said most people were trying to stay focused on the holiday. One man, who was standing with a group of friends at the end of the prayer, said he didn't want to talk about Trump's travel ban. 'Not today,' he said. Others said the ban made it hard to concentrate on the holiday. 'It's very discriminatory,' said Waleed Nasser, a 57-year-old San Leandro resident who is originally from Yemen. 'People are trying to come over here and have a better life. I really don't understand what Trump is doing.' Nasser and his son, Mohammed, 19, attended Friday's prayer together. Their mood was somber — they worried about the effect of the ban on their friends and family overseas. 'There's nothing to celebrate when your close Muslim brothers and sisters are struggling back home. 'People can't get food. Children are dying, " Mohammed Nasser said. He said he didn't understand the rationale behind Trump's ban.
American Military News
5 hours ago
- American Military News
Trump revives travel ban, barring nationals from Iran, Afghanistan, and elsewhere entry to US as of next week
This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission. US President Donald Trump on June 4 signed a proclamation resurrecting the travel ban from his first term, ordering a new ban on citizens of 12 countries, including Afghanistan and Iran, from entering the United States. Trump said the travel ban is necessary to protect Americans from terrorist attacks such as a June 1 attack in Colorado in which authorities say a group of people demonstrating in support of Israeli hostages held by Hamas was attacked by an Egyptian national. 'The recent terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, has underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted, as well as those who come here as temporary visitors and overstay their visas. We don't want them,' Trump said in a video message. The suspect in the Colorado attack, Mohammed Sabry Soliman, threw fire bombs and sprayed burning gasoline at the group, according to police. Fifteen people were injured. US Homeland Security officials said Soliman was in the country illegally after overstaying a tourist visa. Trump compared the new travel ban to the 'powerful travel restrictions' he imposed on a number of mainly Muslim countries in 2017 shortly after his first term began. He described that action as one of the most successful policies of his first term and a key part of preventing major foreign terrorism attacks on US soil, citing terrorism attacks that occurred in Europe in recent years. 'We will not let what happened in Europe happen in America,' Trump said. 'We cannot have open migration from any country where we cannot safely and reliably vet and screen.' In addition to Afghanistan and Iran, the countries on the new travel ban are Burma, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. The ban takes effect at 12:01 a.m. Washington time on June 9. Though the restriction does not effect travelers from Egypt, Trump said in 'light of recent events' he ordered the secretary of state to update him on the review of the practices and procedures of Egypt 'to confirm the adequacy of its current screening and vetting capabilities.' In addition to the ban, there will be heightened restrictions on visitors from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela, the proclamation said. Trump said he remains 'committed to engaging with those countries willing to cooperate to improve information sharing and identity management procedures, and to address both terrorism-related and public safety risks.' The travel ban issued during his first term banned citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen. It resulted in chaos and confusion at airports in those countries and at US airports as travelers were either barred from boarding their flights to the United States or detained once they arrived. The travelers affected included students and faculty as well as professionals, tourists, and people visiting friends and loved ones. Trump defended the ban on national security grounds, arguing it was not based on anti-Muslim bias. It was revised amid legal challenges until a version was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018. The new travel ban follows an executive order Trump issued in January requiring the departments of State and Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence to compile a report on 'hostile attitudes' toward the United States. The executive order also asked for an assessment of whether entry from certain countries represented a national security risk.
