Founders of the Islamic Foundation of the Maldives (IFM) NGO have claimed that although they do not believe in “hysterical outbursts” and theories of an imminent “Jewish invasion” in the country, a week of anti-Israel protests and flag burning across Male’ has reflected “strong dissatisfaction with the government’s open attitude” to the Jewish state.
During the last six days, Maldivians both in Male’ and some islands have engaged in protest marches and burning the Israeli flag, calling for the deportation of a group of Israeli doctors conducting eye surgery at a number of hospitals around the country as part of a humanitarian work for a group called ‘Eye from Zion’.
Some 739 people in Male’ and 879 in Addu and Fuvahmulah had registered for treatment at eye camps run by the NGO as of December 9.
The furore over the visit of the group of Israeli surgeons led to groups such as Jamiyyathusalaf to call for the provision of “military training to all Muslim Maldivians and familiarise citizens with the use of modern weaponry” before “Jews take over the country”.
Distancing itself from these statements, the IFM told Minivan News it believes that by adopting a “pro-Israel” stance, the Maldivian government was losing support and credibility among its people.
While the government said it has been “consistent” in its opposition to Israel’s foreign policy concerning Palestine, the President’s Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair said the Maldives had tried to maintain positive diplomatic relations with almost every nation and that it welcomed humanitarian aid, such as the services provided by Eye from Zion.
Speaking to Minivan News this week, IFM co-founders Ibrahim Nazim and Ibrahim Fauzee said that although they were not actively involved in protests and flag burnings as an organisation, they did not wish to “prohibit its members” from taking part in the week’s protests that it saw as a “spontaneous reaction” to concerns over Israel’s attitude towards Palestine.
“We’re very concerned about Palestine, but we are neither anti-Israel or pro-Israel,” said Nazim. “We understand there are genuine feelings of concern about Palestine, which is always a central issue for Muslims.”
Nazim said that the IFM did not favour violence as an organisation and that claims by “other organisations in the country” that Jewish people were planning to take over the country were setting back legitimate concerns over the visit of Eye from Zion and Israeli foreign policy.
“What I feel is that some groups are trying to win publicity by making radical statements,” he said. “We do not believe this is good and in the long-term it is not be favourable [towards effectively opposing Israeli activities in the Maldives].”
Nazim said the IFM “understood concerns about offensive nature of burning flags”, but added that “it’s not the first time flags have been burned around the world.”
Fauzee said that he believed the protests reflected the fact that “many people in the Maldives do not accept Israel as a state.”
As an organisation, he said, the IFM backed “the official Iranian position” in regards to Israel and its legitimacy as a state, though he distanced himself from any potential calls for violence against the nation itself.
“[The IFM supports this position] not because the Iranian leader is a great or respected person, but because of the issue of legitimacy regarding the land [Israel] occupies,” claimed Fauzee.
He added that opposition to the Eye from Zion group was very much tied in to Israel’s foreign policy in relation to Palestine and its conduct in Gaza.
Amidst claims that a majority of Maldivians were opposed to the notion of an Israeli state, Nazim said the IFM itself feared that the government were having both open and “secret” negotiations with Israel.
“What are these negotiations? As an NGO we are concerned at this, and such suspicion is shared across the country,” he added. “The more the government gets involved in relations with Israel, the more problems it creates for itself.”
Nazim claimed that President Mohamed Nasheed was now suffering very low approval ratings as a result of allowing Eye from Zion to operate in the country.
“We feel the government should not have any diplomatic relations with Israel,” he said. “There is [political] opposition that wants to exploit this situation; the President is giving them opportunity to do so.”
Nazim added that as an NGO, beyond opposition to allowing collaboration with Israel, it was not opposed as a group to humanitarian aid from interfaith groups as long as they did not try and conduct missionary work in the country.
“Eye from Zion is a radical group that is trying to win the support of islands across the Maldives,” he said. “What we believe is that the protests will die down once the Zionists go back.”
In response to this week’s anti-Israel protests and criticism that the government was engaged in a pro-Israel agenda, Press Secretary for the President Mohamed Zuhair said that the government “holds friendly relations with Israel, as it does almost every other nation in the world.”
“We are not at loggerheads with any states, thugh we have some differences with Burma over the treatment of [formerly arrested dissident] Aung Sun Suu Kyi,” he said. “There is nothing special in terms of agreements with Israel.”
Though Zuhair claimed that the Maldives government has been “consistent on criticising Israel over Palestine and other foreign policy issues it did not agree on”, this was not a barrier to humanitarian cooperation, he said.
Zuhair added that by having bilateral relations with a large number of nations, the Maldives was able to benefit from cooperation based on technical assistance, education and humanitarian aid.
He claimed that the medical expertise offered by Eye from Zion was a strong example of this.
“We ourselves don’t have the means for this type of surgery, which has so far treated 140 patients in Male’ and 40 people across islands in the outer atolls,” Zuhair added. “In this case, the patients that thankful for the treatment they have received, which outweighs the protests against [the doctors].”
David Goldfarb, spokesperson for the Embassy of Israel in New Dehli, claimed that “too much emphasis” has been placed on protests against the visit of Eye from Zion to the Maldives compared to the work they had conducted.
“There will always be extremists ready to sacrifice their own people’s welfare in order to achieve extreme political goals,” he told Minivan News. “The major success of the project has been proven by well over 1000 men, women and children who have flocked to the doctors to receive ophthalmological care, and this is where the emphasis really lies.”
Goldfarb claimed that Israel had conducted a wide range of humanitarian work around South Asia beyond the current project relating to eye surgeries.
“Israel is actively involved in international development and humanitarian cooperation in India, Sri Lanka and in many other countries in South Asia,” he told Minivan News. “This was especially noticeable, for example, after the Tsunami, when Israel was one of the first countries to offer and provide assistance to South Asia.”
When considering ongoing conflict and the difficulties being experienced in Gaza, Goldfarb claimed that the Hamas leadership had themselves “declared an existential war with Israel”, but this was not related to wider aid projects that the country was involved in.
“This has nothing at all to do with the extremely large scale Israeli humanitarian projects in the Maldives and around the world, including in many countries in Asia and Africa,” he said.
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Each day the news reports grow more fantastically apocalyptic. The Pro-West Secularists and the Anti-Israeli Islamists fighting with each other over whose viewpoint is the correct one is a shame. Why don't you two extremes just shut your (insert word here) because we neutrals are not buying it. Join your respective movements and take your dreams elsewhere away from our island nation for eternity. We will be just fine without you. No one in their right mind would promote secularism, zionism and extremism for social change and harmony.
The full potential of a generation whose future has been sold out is sitting at home yelling at their computer screens, smoking pot, stabbing some poor guy, driving your motorbike like a monkey that is about to take a shit in 10 seconds, drink stale coffee and talk DRP/MDP politics, fantasize, work in jobs you don't like and buy s^*t you don't need. This is the best thing you lot can think of. Clap! Clap! Now only a handful of like-minded hard workers and realistic achievers are available.
Moreover, the artificial politicians are looking through the wrong end of the telescope for popularity and money where by blurring the lines of reality and detaching from the real essence of human experience and hardship. It's the future of our country we're talking about not some infantile popularity contest determined via begging for aid or binary sound bites and name calling skills. Grow up! We are only four hundred thousand people. Imagine Palestine!
@ Anbar (The ignorant)
"These Arabs even don’t know a country called Maldives exist."
Check your Maldivian history - dummy!
Here is a little trivia for you while you play "baiy-kakka" at home.
Q- What is the name of the Sultan who ruled Maldives from A.C 1510-13?
@ SJF
"So these people hate Jews because they are all evil and wicked – yet when they perform an act of generosity and kindness they hate them for that also. Guess there’s no solution then."
Are you a hopeless pessimist? There is a solution!
Ask your hard-lined Zionist government to get lost from all the stolen land and free Masjid-Al-Aqsa!
See, how simple the solution is?
@heck
i think you are extremely carried out. there is an obvious distinction between zionest movement that created modern day state of israel and religion of judaism. you can not brand followers of a relgion on a politcal ground.
Alqaida, mossad or zionism are political struggles that are havocking innocent lives.
please be informed most of the israel citizen are agnostic and they do not live by the principles of judaism but most of the people are strong believers of zionism which is regarded as founding pillar of creation of a nation whether or not legally or illegally.
when you protest against israel it is better you guys understand what is zionism and what is judaism.
@ real
by reading your last coments it seems that karl hanson has more facts than you.
so make up your mind & belive the truth if you talk fales always you will be ended up like this & when you die if your muslim you know where you will be in .. read the translation of Holy quran if dont know the place you gona get in hereafter.
@yamyn did you see the number of people yesterday in Ralugandu area....next friday you guys get ready & show us how many people you can get to support the zionists .... cahnge your foolish mind before you die ... cant you see the world is voicing aginst these zionists ..
Phew! What a week!
It all began with a humanitarian gesture from Israel, probably to try and establish some sort of normal relations with an Islamic Country to show that they are not totally isolated from the Islamic world.
Hold on, hold on! I know there are many conspiracy theories flying around about their motives; from harvesting human organs, commencing Israeli flights to Male', Introduction of education on holocaust into our school syllabus, establishing a Mossad representative Office in Male, Maldives establishing formal diplomatic relations with Israel to God knows what else.
These are not far fetched theories for some of us. Some of really believe them. After all, the week before we heard that some Sheikh in Egypt claimed that the shark attacks on a beach in Egypt was the work of a Mossad operation. Yes, the shark was working for the Mossad!
Whatever, their motives maybe it was the exact kind of "issue" that the Islamic fundamentalists in our midst have been dreaming of to promote their political Agenda.
Using a mixed brew of Islam, hatred of jews and zionism, the plight of the Palestinians and conspiracy theories, a small band of zealots were able to whip the crowds into a frenzy to voice their opposition to the presence of Israeli eye specialists.
In the post 9/1l world, these kinds of hatred spreads like wild fire in different countries (both West and East). Spreading Islamophobia in some Western countries (the controversy about building an Islamic Centre near the former World centre site, proposed hearings on Islam by some Republicans, a Florida Pastor's Quruan Burning Day) were similar cases in the opposite hemisphere of the World.
While, we have more immediate pressing serious issues facing this nation, both economic, social and political, we seem to get carried away and some times even drown on issues that are secondary and divisive. We seem to care little even if our social and religious harmony (whatever little there is left) is shred to pieces.
I guess, it's time the Israeli doctors quietly left so that we can at least have some peaceful sleep at night.
You all will see sometime soon Zionism ruling the world. That time there will be peace on whole world. Than also some will keep blabbering nonsense.
hey these people are not zionist or true jews .. they are just Anti Christs... see i have discovered that Gulli Falu project is funded by these crazy lunatics... this soo called the " eye of male', is part of whole plan to make us hate religion
Hani its not about who had made the products we are using or consuming daily.We cannot avoid that,but atleast I think we are not that Inhumane to say what killing of innocent humans are wrtong!! I think you are not stupid and blind to see the cruelty the Palestinians had faced through the last sixty years.The Isreali Zionists had been killing,raping and illegally invading Muslim countries for sixty years. And you want us to welcome Israeli Zionists who come here to cover up all the killing of innocent children,men and women in the name of Aid. Why dont they first help them..they are in need of the basic needs..
I wonder who you are calling a moderate Muslim. Yourself!!Whom I have never seen bow his head to Allah!!!shame on you my friend...
May Allah give you guidance..
The western countries are too content now, and they are too nice as a result. However, when they want something, they go for it, straight and crooked. And they wont hesitate, because they rule the world now.
That is life. Wake up. That is what we would do it if we can; that is what the other countries would do. Its shown in history. Last year, last decade, last century etc.
A few pirates ruled us for 17 years. A few tamils almost took over our country a few years ago.
We, on the other hand, are hell bent on moving backwards to the 6th century, because that was the only time, when muslims ruled the world.
Wake up. The future of the world is not religion. Its science and how well you play political/ecomonic chess on a global scale. And the fact is middle eastern chess game is played exceptionally well by the west/Israel. Good for them. I salute them and congratulate them for their success. The only concern I have is that the mullahs and the arabian idiots would do something that could trigger a nuclear retaliation against Mecca and level it out permanently. Even then, the mullahs would rise with "strike me again and I will kill you"
For those who expect creator to step in, news flash!, he could not care less!
I wonder if anyone of us maldivians arguing here realises the danger we are heading into. The saudi funded, pakistani educated, taliban style intolerant people are growing in our society. Now we are beggining to see their numbers on the street and their influence with the funding they get from saudi and terrorist organisations.
Thia is just the beggining, the tip of the ice berg. The day is getting nearer when these people will come out with guns and bombs and start attaking our public places, hotels and resorts. I dread the day when one of these so called islamist groups conduct a bali type attak on one of our resorts, or hijac a resort like they did in mumbai. All of us know the consequnces of such an attak. This is a very imminent threat and its high time that we realise that islamist groups like Adhaalath, Jamiyyath salaf, Islamic foudation of maldives etc. does not care about our country and people and that they are a bunch of brainwashed people by saudi to promote their policy against the west. We should all forget our differences, whether we are MDP or DRP and stand up against these extremists before its too late.
@zaman,
U are right. Unfortunately, some of our young men are going to Pak for getting arms training. Why?? And against who?
Who is asking them, encouraging them to go for such evil thing & for what purpose?
Should there be any place for such people in our Society??
Should we not expose such people (whosoever they might be - siblings, relatives, neighbours, friends etc)?
Why most of Islamic countries are victims of local terrorism?
Why nothing happens in UAE & Saudi?
Ok 'Great Maldivians' on both sides please enlighten yourselves to avoid the 'embarresment' to humanity. I think even the Isrealis would laugh at you.
whyihateisrael.blogspot.com
http://www.jewishracism.com/JewishRacists.htm
http://www.jewishracism.com/Christian_Zionism.htm
http://www.jewishracism.com/talmud.htm
It is the scientific TRUTH that the 'survival of the fittest' is the most proved fact in the history of mankind. Thus there will only be a one 'master race' who would dominate the earth. So Jews Maldivians & all rest of you you better think twice.
"I think that this ‘noise pollution’ created by islamists only benefits the cause of Israel and portrays them as victims. I believe we shouldn’t have any problems with Jews at personal level. Let them visit as tourists, doctors I really dont care. What bugs me though is collusion of our government with a self declared Zionist group ignoring the feelings of Maldivians knowing fully that Zionism is still the agenda that drives the persecution of the Palestinian people."
Spot on!
Extremists from both sides should be vapourised, whether they are "bearded" or "zionned". Perhaps they can do that to each other.
Let the normal people live in peace, not pieces!
im not surprised by the comments guys. we all know this site is a mdp fan book.
most of the mdp are secular they dnt believe in religion. we see them at street drinking alcohol and getting ganja from ganjaboa. shame on you guys. next thing we may see is those mdp morons converting from atheist to Zionist
im not surprised by the comments guys. we all know this site is a mdp fan book.
most of the mdp are secular they dnt believe in religion. we see them at street drinking alcohol and getting ganja from ganjaboa. shame on you guys. next thing we may see is those mdp morons converting from atheist to Zionist.
http://www.theunjustmedia.com/Jewish%20Zionists/The%20Hidden%20History%20of%20Zionism.htm
visit this link to read the truth about zionism from english authors.
Jews people are a one of a kind.. lunatics and killers. Back stabbers..Mother Earth will never get peace .. War is on lets c who wins...