MPs reject bill banning alcohol, approve bill governing political parties

The parliament yesterday rejected a bill completely banning the importation of alcohol and pork to the Maldives

The bill on banning the importation of alcohol and pork was presented to the parliament by independent MP Ibrahim Muthalib, which he claimed was an amendment to the list of things that cannot not be imported under 75/4 of the law concerning contraband.

15 MPs voted in favour of the bill while 53 MPs voted against it. Four MPs did not vote.

“The last time I presented a bill banning the sale and usage of alcohol on inhabited islands parliament sent it off the floor claiming that it only banned particular areas (inhabited islands),” Muthalib said, upon presenting  the bill.

“This time I am presenting a bill to ban [alcohol and pork] from being brought inside the country at all.”

Almost all of the MPs were against the bill, claiming that it would harm the country’s tourism industry and its economy.

Meanwhile, another bill governing political parties was approved in a near-unanimous vote 68-2.

Maldivian Democratic Party MP Ahmed Abdulla presented the bill to the parliament on behalf of the government, with the stated aim of strengthening the democracy of the country by providing people “a peaceful” way to participate in political activities.

The bill was approved by the vote of 68 MPs, while 2 MPs voted against the bill.

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13 thoughts on “MPs reject bill banning alcohol, approve bill governing political parties”

  1. Ah, lucky Muttalib, he has escaped a summary, brutal execution without trial in the hands of an enraged mob of women deprived of perfume.

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  2. (Please publish the edited version below)

    Dear Mr Muttalib,

    I humbly request to you to present a bill to the Majilis to ban the importation of condoms to Maldives.

    My reasons to present such a bill is as follows

    1.The contraceptive prevalent use in Maldives has gone down by almost ten points in the recent years. This is an indication there is no market for condoms and businesses that import them will face huge losses. Also the government will not get any revenue from importing them.

    2.Maldives has a high rate of drug abuse especially among its youth. Under the influence of drugs young people would get into bad behaviors especially if there is a condom anywhere around them.

    3.There are almost 4.7 million people living with HIV AIDs in Asia. India has an estimated 2.3 million people positive in HIV AIDs among its almost one billion people. People with HIV AIDs are increasing in Pakistan and Bangladesh that has large Islamic populations. There are more than 100,000 expatriates working in Maldives from these countries. However, the HIV AIDs cases will remain low in Maldives due to the amount of work the Adalat, Salaf, Islamic Foundation and the like are doing to advocate (a) that men marry girls when they are at their teens to ensure they are unspoiled, (b) men should have multiple wives to ensure their sexual desires are fulfilled, (c) men and women should not mix freely unless they are wedded as men has uncontrollable sexual desires, (d) all women should dress in hijab since covering women will bring the attraction level down by 50% leaving men to deal with each other in case a craving for lust develops.

    4.Sex workers will ultimately burn in hell. Sex workers are dumping grounds and therefore should be exposed to all kinds of diseases. There are worst sinners than rapists, child abusers and child molesters. Therefore, the life of a sex worker in this world should be made to feel like hell for them too.

    Yours sincerely,

    Shaya Ali

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  3. Well said Shaya Ali. Obviously logical thinking is not what is behind these crazy sheiks agenda's.

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  4. very very hilarious shaya ali. i hope you dont get some death threats after this.

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  5. Such a bill as banning importation of condoms may be an appropriate for few persons like Shaya and Muttalib, who doesn't care as long as males can full fill their lust and run around around, speaking ill about females, and making every wife pregnant and giving them a child. Yes, according to them they don't have to full fill any duties, to send their children to school, vaccinate them, just one dress, covering from head to toes, which smells like dha....
    i wonder why are they ain't fulfilling the lust them themselves, and not use the females if they really hate them.

    Im sure increasing number of roanuedhuru, is making our community like this.
    thanks.

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  6. Do people like Shaya Ali believe it is funny in any way to write like this? I guess the promoters of Naraka dont even believe in a Naraka. Otherwise they would be more careful about what is written with their pens, or typed with their keyboards. Oh wait, there is no mention of text typed with keyboards in Quran, is there? I guess you are free to write more filth like that then.

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  7. * Under the influence of drugs young people would get into bad behaviors especially if there is a condom anywhere around them. - EVEN IF CONDOM IS NOT TEHRE, THERY ARE NOT BEHAVING ANY GOOD. ATLEAST THE CONDOMS WOULD PROTECT THEM

    * POINT 3 MAKES WOMEN SOUND LIKE OBJECTS. JUST A REMINDER THAT THEY TOO ARE HUMANS

    * leaving men to deal with each other in case a craving for lust develops. - R U SUGGESTING BEING GAY IS OK?

    *There are worst sinners than rapists, child abusers and child molesters - ATLEAST SEXWORK IS IN AGREEMENT AND YOU ARE EQUALLING IT TO CHILD MOLESTING?
    + WHAT ABT ALL THE MEN WHO PAY THE SEX WORKER....THEY R NOT TO BLAME?

    VERY MUCH SINCERELY,

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  8. Dear Shaya Ali,
    Please Show me Naraka! for once. would like to see whther sex workers are really burned in Naraka, or they turn in to Hooraleens! in that case I would like more and more people get in to sex work. By the way, what is the definition of a sex worker in your small world?

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  9. way to go Shaya..oh my...i love this part very much........ "(d) all women should dress in hijab since covering women will bring the attraction level down by 50% leaving men to deal with each other in case a craving for lust develops." ahahahaha

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  10. Re: Shaya's comment.
    You're right, condom use is low in this country, however, i disagree that there should be a ban on importation because it's bad for the businessman who brings it in(you're joking, right?). We should be promoting it's use given the state of our country as a high risk country for an HIV epidemic. That's right, Maldives may not have a high prevalence of HIV infections with it's reported number of 4 HIV+ cases(that's reported, and i will touch on that later), but all the things you need for an HIV epidemic are present here. First thing being low use of condoms, what you had cited as being the number one reason for banning it in the first place. Number two, the high number of drug users, amongst them an increasing number of injecting drug users (IDUs), and commercial sex work are major routes where we can expect an HIV epidemic. Furthermore, same sex relationships, the age of first sexual encounter (it is a known fact that most kids are having sex by the time they are 13), serial monogamy (on average a Maldivian will be married 3 times by the time they turn 30!), gang rapes, child abuse,high prevalence of STIs,low self risk perception, created a situation of a ticking bomb here.
    about drug users and them having sex if you give them condoms, umm.. do you honestly think they won't have sex just because they don't have a condom? The evidence is there, the recent findings showed that half of the injecting drug users admitted to not using condoms with their non- regular partners (Biological and Behavioural Survey 2008). Also an overwhelming majority of the people interviewed, who were injecting drug users, sex workers, men who have sex men, youth, construction workers, resort workers, seafarers, admitted to not using condoms when they have sex.
    Plus, there's high levels of syphilis, hepatitis B and C amongst those interviewed already, they are called proxy indicators for HIV infections since these diseases spread the same way as HIV and the presence of these diseases indicate that people are already injecting unsafely and having unprotected sex. so you're dead wrong in thinking if condoms aren't provided they'll just take up the Quran and read it instead of having sex.
    Do you honestly believe that by men marrying little girls, and them having multiple partners, and women covering themselves up, we'll be safe from HIV? HIV does not discriminate, and as you cited, it is prevalent in other muslim countries too where they've been doing those barbaric things to women for years. here's a fact, what used to be a concentrated epidemic amongst drug users in Iran is now a generalized epidemic effecting the wives of these drug users, women who are covered up and probably share their husband with other women. Same thing is happening all over Asia.
    I suppose from your point of view, those things you listed are the solutions. But I suggested you leave that to the experts, instead of spewing out your garbage which infringes upon the fundamental rights of children and women of this country. It is because of people like you that our sisters in Iran are suffering. It's best to educate the children on how HIV is transmitted, give them the tools to say no to sex at a young age in order delay the age of first sexual encounter, provide condoms to IDUs and youth (since they are having sex anyway!), have proper intervention programmes and encourage HIV testing among the people of the Maldives because as I said before, even though Maldives is a low prevalence country because we continue to think we're safe since there are only 4 cases of HIV, those are just the reported numbers as the take up of testing is low in this country.
    A Maldivian ID Card (or a hijab as you suggested) are not going to protect us. It's time to start wearing a helmet instead.

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  11. Hasn't anyone figured out that Shaya Ali is just being sarcastic???
    The ridiculousness of banning alcohol in this country needs the likes of Shaya Ali to emphasize it and match it.

    At least, I hope you are being sarcastic, Shaya?

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  12. Some Muslims have assumed, for a long time, that HIV/AIDS is an issue that could not affect them. The reality of HIV infection is beginning to surface in the Muslim world.
    It will be equally significant to find out what there is in our Islamic heritage that can be scientifically proven to be of help to others in this pandemic. This should not, however, be a time for gloating and proving to others that that we are better than they are. For the moment what we do know is that simply being Muslim is not sufficient security against a disease that breeds in conditions of misery and affects people living therein irrespective of their faith. And if you have forgotten let me remind you Islam is a religion of compassion and justice.

    We often feel that acknowledging the existence of something bad means condoning it. This is not so. We need to speak the truth about what is happening. ‘Speak the truth,’ said the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), ‘though it be bitter.’ To speak the truth means acknowledging a situation and then dealing with it. When you receive an envelope in the mail and it looks as if it is a summons to appear in court for some debt that you vaguely remember incurring in the past and have forgotten about, it may help you in the short term to ignore it. Opening the letter and looking at the demands and the deadline to pay up may not make you feel nice, but it will enable you to deal with the problem before it gets really immense.
    Regardless of how we understand a natural calamity it does not excuse us, as Muslims, from our duty to respond in compassionate and responsible ways, and to work towards avoiding human suffering in the future as far as possible.

    Before you refer your sisters and brothers as sinners, I think it will help to you to ponder over these questions
    1. Why is it that someone living in the United States (someone who does not wear hijab) can typically survive for twenty or more years longer than someone in Saudi (someone who wears hijab like you suggested) after they have been diagnosed HIV-positive? Does it have anything to do with some having access to affordable medicines and others not?

    2. If a disease such as HIV&AIDS is related only to ‘sexual immorality’ then why are wealthier countries the least affected? In some countries, like the United States, the numbers of those infected are dropping. Are only the people in poorer countries being singled out for punishment by Allah?

    3. Why do children infected by their parents, women infected by their husbands and people infected through blood transfusion have to pay for the ‘sins’ of others?
    I hope you have answers for the above. Because if you don’t you should not have opened your mouth on the subject. Like they say, half knowledge is worse than ignorance.

    Stigmatization is based on ignorance and fear. One day, God willing), those who stigmatize others will realize their foolishness. Stigmatization also hurts those who are guilty of it because it prevents them from asking hard questions about their own lives and values. It is always easier to throw stones at others.
    Now we are sitting with an awful reality: HIV&AIDS in the world and among Muslims. It does not help to say that the enemies of Islam or gay people are responsible for it. It is a reality and the vast majority of people affected by it are not gay or only migrant workers from Bangladesh and Pakistan? How do you as a devotee of Adalath,salaf and Islamic foundation deal with this new reality?

    Note : Prostitution has always been (since the time of Abraham) and will always be, whether we like it or not, the least the society can do is to offer their patrons protection while reducing the spread of the epidemic by not banning condoms.
    On a final note: HIV/ AIDS is not a joke and please do not use it for your entertainment or sarcasm.

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  13. hehe good one shaya...

    By the way, i thought we maldivians are masters of sarcasm. i guess i was wrong...:P This again makes it more hilarious.

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