Ninie Ahmad: Off her yoga mat.

From THE YOGA DORK July 13, 2010

With all these world record yoga events and baited sun breaths waiting for the Eat, Pray, Love merchandising avalanche, have we really forgotten about the Fatwa?

The wha? Hey, watch your language! No, really, at the end of 2008 and early ‘09 we had fatwas flying out from every direction. OK, mostly the east. To be specific, the Muslim regions of Indonesia and Malaysia. Just to bring us all up to speed, a Fatwa is otherwise recognized as a religious edict, a kibosh, or ban on things that are deemed ‘haram’ or harmful. The Fatwa Councils of both Indonesia and Malaysia made news by slapping one of these fatwas on our beloved yoga, inciting outrage by practicing yogis who also practice Islam. In short, both cases saw retractions on the ban so that asana was eventually permitted so long as the freaky chanting and “mind body connection” remained absent. Turns out Indonesians didn’t care anyway. (Note the Bali Spirit Fest, formerly Yoga Fest, 2010 went off without a hitch).

We’d all but forgotten about the yoga ban in Malaysia until we heard from Ninie.

Ninie Ahmad is as close to a Malaysian yogi rock star as they come, her image gracing oodles of magazine covers, appearances on numerous TV shows and a role as an official Adidas ambassador. So why was her most recent moment in the spotlight cruelly edited in accordance with the F-word?

Via FreeMalaysia:

“(On Sunday, July 4) I was informed that Astro [Malaysian Satellite TV] will not air my episode of Project Alpha that is scheduled tonight because the Quality Control (QC) department said that under Fatwa law, they could not air a Malay person teaching yoga.”

For your reference, ‘Project Alpha’ is a reality show like ‘Top Chef’, but about bloggers! Sadly Ninie was denied her time to shine, because of yoga.

That’s ridic! some of you say. Is it yoga censorship?? But Malaysia isn’t devoid of yoga naysayers. So, fairly miffed and confused, Ninie has taken to twitter to defend herself from detractors in 140 characters or less:

We’re no scholars, but we are pretty sure yoga can be practiced in tandem with most religions, or with none at all. (though, due to the sensitivity of the matter might we suggest in our best publicist tone that Ms. Ninie reconsider her ‘about’ section where she mentions attending yoga “religiously” and her decision to “join the cult”… just sayin’)

Anyway, the physical practice is supposedly allowed, so why was yoga cut from programming? We think Astro at least owes an explanation! Dang it, anyhow. Besides, if the country of Malaysia is going to ban public displays of yoga,  how’re they going to make bank off this EPL-crazed tourism wave?

Stay strong Ninie. One love.

Earlier…

• Fatwa News: Yoga Ban Reversed! Malaysian Muslims Free to Practice Yoga, without Chant
• Malaysian King Not Cool with Ban; Still Hope for Muslim Yogis?
• Indonesian Muslims to Yoga Fatwa: Who Cares?
• Bikram Responds to Fatwa, ‘Yoga has absolutely nothing to do with religion’

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Special thanks to Yoga Dork for the mention and online hugs from yogis all across the map.

The universe is working its magic, I can feel it!

From FREE MALAYSIA TODAY, July 12 2010

By Ken Vin Lek and G Vinod, photo by Ted Adnan

KUALA LUMPUR: Astro had pulled the plug on an episode called Project Alpha which was to feature Yoga instructor Ninie Ahmad.

The episode, which was supposed to be aired on the HITZ.TV channel on July 4, was supposedly scrapped because of the Fatwa Council’s prohibition on Muslims practicing Yoga.

In her blog posting, Ninie said: “(On Sunday, July 4) I was informed that Astro will not air my episode of Project Alpha that is scheduled tonight because the Quality Control (QC) department said that under Fatwa law, they could not air a Malay person teaching yoga.”

This is not the first time that she has faced such problems with regards to Astro.

Back in June 2008, Ninie was invited to be a guest on the talk show called Ek Eleh hosted by comedian Afdlin Shauki, but Astro did not screen the recording.

“To my utmost surprise and biggest horror, they replaced my (almost 20 minutes of full-on) interview with ‘the best footage’ out of all 26 episodes…

“They could have had the courtesy to at least call and inform me in advance. I feel sorry for them for they feel the need to do this and for the Malaysian media which still feel reluctant to feature me and help promote yoga even though it’s not banned in Malaysia,” she said in a blog posting then.

Despite numerous attempts, FMT could not contact Astro’s officials for comments.

In November 2008, the Fatwa Council declared that Muslims are prohibited from practicing Yoga because of its Hindu roots.

The move drew flak from several quarters, including the royalty, with Negeri Sembilan’s Tunku Naquiyuddin Tuanku Jaffar asking, “Where do we draw the line?”

“Islam is a progressive religion and the ulama (scholars) should be confident of the followers’ faith rather than micro-managing their way of life.

“If I go to a church or a Buddhist temple, is there any fear of me converting?” he said.

On Nov 26 that year, former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Muslims could continue practicing Yoga, minus the chanting of mantras.

Fatwas or religious edicts are not legally binding, but they are highly influential in Malaysia, where Malay-Muslims form just over half of the country’s 27 million people.

I thought I will never live the day to hear myself in perfect (and sexy!) Jakarta-Indo accent and vocabulary.

This month, I’ve made it

From Cita Cinta, edition 28 APRIL – 12 MAY 2010. For full view, click HERE

That reminds me I have to post up my experience from Bali Spirit Festival 2010 already!

Peace and strength to our friends in Bangkok.

If you can still handle YOGA & ROCKSTAR overload..

From Women’s Health

Sting, who made yoga manly not to mention sexy, has an heir. Adam Levine, Grammy winning lead singer of Maroon 5 and a hipster style icon, is a self-proclaimed yoga devotee.

Levine who shares his playlist and workout below loves to move in mysterious ways. With the help of instructor Alanna Zabel, the tall, trim and handsome front man used yoga to cure chronic back pain, quit the gym forever and become a wiser guy-all at the ripe old age of 29.

WH: How’d you wind up at yoga?

AL: A year and a half ago, my trainer recommended I try working with Alanna to help with my flexibility issues. I’m naturally very tight in lower back and my hips and hamstrings too. My first class felt like someone was ripping my body apart. It wasn’t what you’d call peaceful. But I was excited by the idea that the more dedicated I became the more effortless it would become to relax and give in to that tightness. Yes, the torture subsided a bit over time.

WH: How did your body change?

AL: Physically I have always been on the slender side. When I started practising I instantly felt more sculpted. Yoga carves you into a different person-and that is satisfying physically.

WH: Did it change how you work out?

AL: I had been lifting weights for years. After our first yoga session, I vowed never to lift another weight again.

WH: Do you believe in the mind-body connection?

AL: I was skeptical, to say the least. I was wary of the cliche´s associated with yoga: spirituality used as a marketing tool or Eastern philosophy sold at Starbucks to disenchanted lawyers and accountants looking for meaning. What I soon realised is that yoga welcomes everyone-that’s extremely appealing.

WH: How do you maintain your practice on tour?

AL: Being a traveller, yoga is by far the most convenient way to exercise while I’m on the road. You don’t need anything but a few metres of space and a mat. And I can always find at least an hour a day to practise. (Levine even made videos with his teacher to take on the road with him.)

WH: What is your advice to people who think they are too inflexible to do yoga?

AL: Start simple. Yoga will drastically improve you in every way imaginable. But let’s face it, I only practise yoga because the classes are always packed with beautiful women. (I am totally kidding.)

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The Yoga Teacher’s Report

Alanna Zabel: Adam was so tight when we started to work together that he would actually roll back if he was sitting. Shortly after he learned Warrior 1 and 2 he noticed a difference in the way his body performed.

His spine is curved-it’s a genetic thing–so we’ve kind of incorporated moves to loosen up his spine. Too much lower body and abdominal work would actually hurt him because he’s slightly bound in the lower back. We do a lot of dog-cat tilts and do a lot of Warriors, to stretch his legs and relax his lower back.

I can tell you, Adam has the same intensity in yoga as he does in a music video. We work every day when he’s at home. He even hired a camera crew to videotape one of our sessions so he could watch the DVD in hotel rooms across the USA. He’s so excited about it. He’ll call from the road and ask, ‘Do I need a block? Do I need a strap?

He even creates a new playlist for each session. I’m usually the girl who brings the good mixes and they’re nothing compared to his. But we do have the same taste in music. We like Alicia Keyes, Maxwell, Marvin Gaye, Amy Winehouse.

I’ve seen him with his friends and his girlfriend and he so wants things to be right. Men tend to have a hard time expressing how they feel but he’s so passionate and well spoken. But with some yoga they can be like Sting.

Adam is really focused; he’s really persistent; he’s a good man. He lives yoga.

More articles on Adam Levine and yoga.

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Even our generation’s coolest (if not hottest) rockstars are living yoga. Are you?

Love and yoga-ta rockstar Friday!

OUR VALLEY HAS POTHOLES OF GOODIES AND NINIE AHMAD TELLS US WHERE SHE DIGS.

TEXT LEE YANG CHING PHOTO SHERMEN MOKHTAR

Ninie Ahmad, yoga instructor and founder of BE Yoga at Metropolitan Square, has a larger-than-life personality.

NAME THE FIVE THINGS YOU LOVE MOST ABOUT KL.

I am annoyingly optimistic, and see the positive side of everything which most people hate! The unpredictable weather humbles me, the unpredictable traffic trains me to be patient, the unreliable Internet connection allows me to read book when Twitter is not loading, the unpredictable Muftis that let CNN air ‘Malaysia bans exercise for Muslims’ on its primetime news in late 2008!

HOW DO YOU START YOUR MORNINGS AND HOW DO YOU END YOUR DAY?

I wake up every morning about 5am to practice 90 minutes of Ashtanga yoga Primary & Second Series if I have to teach seven in the morning. On days I don’t have to teach (yoga) that early, I wake up at 7am to my Ashtanga routine before I start my day. Before I sleep, I put myself into the ‘Corpse Pose’ which is aimed at clearing my mind of everything.

WHAT IS YOUR IDEA OF HAPPINESS?

When I no longer have to judge how I look in the mirror and what others wear. When I can still smile and be grateful for the sun and rain, while everyone around me blames the weather for ruining their day.

WHAT GOT YOU INTO YOGA?

The curiosity of how most yoga masters in their 90s look like my father when he was 45 and still stand on their heads. I hope when I turn 50, I will stay looking 25 and still be able to stand on my hands!

WHAT ARE YOU MOST PRIZED POSSESSIONS?

My wisdom of knowing that I don’t have to kill another living being as food for my survival (I have been a vegetarian for four years for health & ethical reasons) and knowing yoga will make me live longer, looking good, if not look good longer.

DESCRIBE YOURSELF.

I describe myself in www.ninieahmad.com as ‘The small girl with a little yoga centre and a big dream to share her gift & love of yoga to more Malaysians and mankind online’ but I know many describe me as ‘The small yoga instructor with a big car and bigger pair of jugs’. Ha haa!

WHAT ABOUT KL INSPIRES YOU?

Having been sent to Asia-Pacific countries for the past couple of years as Official Yoga Ambassador for adidas Malaysia, I know KL is the city I want to grow old and die in – despite the traffic, public transport and parking problems – its people, food and buildings have the most soul, heart and kindness.

IF YOU COULD TELL PEOPLE ONE THING ABOUT YOGA, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

Yoga is the only workout that heals illnesses and prevents injuries, the only game we don’t have to compete with someone else,  the only physical activity that lets us be our own judge and cheerleader at the same time – and the only sports that lets us break our own record everytime we try!

WHERE ARE YOU ORIGINALLY FROM?

I was born in Johor and I spent five years of my teens in a boarding school in JB but my family have been residing in Bangsar for the past 20 years. You don’t get more Bangsar when your parents’ house is exactly in front of Bangsar Village entrance!

DO YOU THINK MALAYSIANS EXERCISE ENOUGH?

Based on most Malaysians (if not Malaysian Muftis) judgment that yoga HAS to be banned as it involves chanting & meditation all the time, of course they don’t exercise, read and have common sense – enough!

Visit her site at www.ninieahmad.com to be inspired by all things Yoga!

For full interview, get your copy of KLue March 2010 out in newsstands today.

I came across this very interesting article on The Star today that explains almost every reason I gave up meat and chicken a couple of years ago: health, ethical issues and environment beyond anything else.

Everytime I tried to share the benefits of giving up meat in my previous blog at The Yoga Instructor Diaries, my comment boxes got bombarded by shallow remarks of “Islam doesn’t ban eating meat, why are you making a big fuss out of it?”. For me, it’s as simple as ‘bad food’ like junk food and carbonated drinks; they are not Haram per se but I know it’s not good for me and by not consuming it, I know I will live longer and healthier – it is not rocket science and I live just fine so why not?

For those who still have no idea on the list of diseases meat contributes to human digestive system and how consuming meat shortens the lifespan of our tired mother Earth, read this.

Be kinder to your body, and the planet – don’t eat meat this Nov 25.

By ALLAN KOAY

WHY is eating meat like driving a car? This may sound like the start of a joke, but it really isn’t. Consider this fact from the British Government’s Climate Change Programme 2006: If everyone in Britain were to abstain from meat one day a week over a year, this would save 13 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. The carbon savings would be greater than taking five million cars off the road.

Malaysian Meatless Day campaign chairman Pishu Murli Hassaram: ‘A lot of people come up to me and say: I’m eating less meat now.’

We’ve always known that eating meat has impacts on our health, but few of us know that the consequences extend to our environment as well. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, livestock farming contributes significantly to the major environmental problems we face today. Think about this: a European cow emitting a year’s worth of methane is comparable to a family-size car travelling 70,000km. Cow and pig waste worldwide weighs 5.5 billion tonnes annually. The gas from that and from the millions of tonnes of fertilisers used in the Amazon to grow animal feed, called nitrous oxide, is a greenhouse gas 295 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

All that, plus the fact that land is being deforested for livestock pasture, and you have more than enough reason to go vegetarian. But no, it doesn’t mean you should drop meat from your diet right away. The World Meatless Day campaign aims to get as many people as possible to go meatless for just one day, on Nov 25.

When the International Meatless/Animal Rights Day was started in 1986 by the Sadhu Vaswani Mission in Pune, India, it was borne more out of compassion for living beings and a view towards world peace than anything else. The social service organisation then chose Nov 25 because it was also Sadhu T.L. Vaswani’s birthday.

According to Malaysian Meatless Day campaign chairman Pishu Murli Hassaram, Sadhu Vaswani was a spiritual thinker, philosopher and educationist who also fought for animal rights and vegetarianism, so his devotees decided to celebrate his birthday by abstaining from meat.

As things progressed, they set up a new organisation called Stop All Killing which is the organisation driving the campaign now.

“Reverence for life is the first step towards world peace,” says Penang-based Pishu. “If you respect life, you create an environment where people respect all living things. When you respect all living things, you will have less wars and murders.”

Pishu stresses that the campaign is non-religious and is based more on ethical principles. It is aimed at creating awareness about the cruelties committed against animals, and creating a world of non-violence.

A vegetarian diet also has its bonuses; numerous studies have shown that vegetarians live healthier and longer, and have lower rates of cancer, heart diseases, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, kidney stones and gall stones. Some even argue that humans are not meat-eaters because of our physical features, such as our flat nails and the absence of incisors. Humans also have carbohydrate digestive enzymes in our saliva, which carnivores and omnivores don’t have. Also, our long intestines are designed for a high-fibre diet and ill-equipped for meat digestion.

“We have been conditioned to believe that we cannot survive without meat,” says Pishu. “Using environmental issues to ask people to eat more vegetables would be more effective. When you tell someone to cut down on meat for his health, he would discount it. It’s like how people will smoke even if you tell them it’s bad for them.”

Pishu observes that there is a growing understanding on how meat-eating contributes to pollution and environmental destruction. “There is a town in Belgium called Ghent that goes meatless every Thursday. The whole town takes part. There is a very strong movement now to start Meatless Monday (such a campaign was recently launched in Sao Paulo, Brazil). In Europe, the trend towards a vegetarian diet has increased tremendously.

“The main drivers were not the vegetarians,” says Pishu. “It was the non-vegetarians who wanted to have a change. Sometimes people don’t want to eat meat seven days a week. It’s a growing trend which we want not only the public to know about, but also the food industry.”

But today, in organic farming and biodynamics, there is a growing awareness not just of keeping our food free from chemicals, but also of viewing a farm as a complete living organism consisting of the land, plants and animals. Therefore, shouldn’t a vegetarian diet also mean a chemical-free production that does not damage the land?

“That’s the final destination but, for me, it is sufficient to get people on the road first,” says Pishu. “Once people are on it, that ideal will eventually happen.”

The Malaysian Meatless Day campaign started in 1996, with 800 pledges. Last year, it received 8,563 pledges. The most successful campaign to date is in Indonesia, with about 35,000 pledges.

In Penang, just like in previous years, there will be a charity carnival on the third Sunday in November as part of the promotion of Meatless Day. “Over the years, Meatless Day in the Penang region has become iconic,” said Pishu. “A lot of people come up to me and say, ‘I’m eating less meat now.’ The ethical part of going meatless is a very personal issue, but the environment problems are very important, and they have reached a very critical stage, such that we have to do more,” Pishu adds.

To make a pledge: e-mail meatlessday@hotmail.com or penangmeatless@yahoo.com / fax: 04-261 0126.

Although I personally don’t see how giving up meat just one day a year is going to be enough to help save the environment, but at least that ONE DAY WITHOUT will give you an idea of how you would still live without eating meat and how good you’d feel the day after.

DO YOU KNOW THAT?

• Because of its complexity, meat and its kind have to rot in our stomach first before they can be digested?

• Energy consumed for A PIECE of meat, lamb or pork to arrive to your plate is enough to light 100 watt lightbulb for three weeks?

• (from documentary film ‘Meat The Truth’) A kilogram of meat contributes 36.4 kilogram of CO2 and emission of CO2 from A COW for a year is equal to energy consumed to move your car for 70,000 km? Livestock farming generates more greenhouse gas emission worldwide than all cars, lorries, trains, boats and planes added together!

• If you don’t eat meat JUST FOR A SINGLE MEAL in a day, you save 7.6 times more and faster than your house’s energy consumption in one year?

Look at most yoga instructors, today’s biggest rockstars and Hollywood actors that are vegetarians: Chris Martin (Coldplay), Thom Yorke (Radiohead), Brandon Boyd (Incubus), Jack Johnson, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Avril Lavigne, Alanis Morissette, Christy Turlington, Pamela Anderson – they still look good if not better than most other celebrities without eating meat and their bodies are not graveyards for dead animals.

For more reasons and evidence,

• Famous Celebrity Vegetarians, Are You Next?
• Kentucky Fried Cruelty
• Vegetarians Have Better Sex
• Why Red Meat, Cow Milk and Low-Fiber Diet Are Bad For You
• Why You Should Turn Vegetarian (too)
• Would You Still Have The Heart To Eat Meat After Watching This? (sadly this clip has been removed due to evident violence towards animals)

Just imagine the whole process of bringing that piece of steak to your plate and tell me if you are still confident that no cruelty done whatsoever at all during the process.

Love and blessed lives to all living beings.