Many Maldivians are depressed and “collapsing inside” under the weight of the silence enforced on their questions of belief in Islam, Mohamed Nazim has said.
Nazim, now often referred to as ‘The Apostate’ by many, openly expressed doubts over his belief in Islam at a public lecture given by Dr Zakir Naik, an Indian religious speaker, towards the end of May this year.
Days later Nazim re-embraced Islam, equally publicly, having received counselling from religious scholars while on remand at Dhoonidhoo. Both events – Nazim’s renouncing of belief in Islam and the rapid reversal that followed -elicited a strong response from both liberals and conservatives both within the country and overseas.
Whatever the opinion on either side, Nazim told Minivan News, the issue of faith – or lack thereof – was not going to go away “simply because it is ignored.”
“Both the state and non-state agencies need to, at the very least, acknowledge that there are a substantial number of Maldivians who think about their faith and, sometimes, question it,” he said.
Nazim said that acknowledgement of their existence was not tantamount to calling for a secular state, as many seem to assume, but rather the first step towards addressing the problems that inevitably accompany any serious questions regarding faith.
Nazim’s repentance and return to Islam after his public proclamation that he was ‘not a Muslim’ happened within days. Reports said the change had been the result of counselling which Nazim had received while on remand. Details of what followed after his proclamation of ‘apostasy’, until now, have been vague.
‘I am not a Muslim’
“I do not believe in Islam”, were Nazim’s exact words to Dr Naik. He asked Dr Naik whether being born to practising Muslim parents made him a Muslim. If so, he asked, what would his status – and penalty – be in Islam?
‘That means you are not a Muslim”, replied Dr Naik, a medical doctor who owns ‘Peace TV’, a religious television channel based in India. During a meandering reply to Nazim’s question, Dr Naik told Nazim that the State was in a better position to advise him than a religious scholar like himself.
However, he added, the death sentence was not mandatory for apostates in Islam. It is only if the State itself is Islamic that the death sentence could be the ultimate penalty: “The Maldives is a Muslim state, not a Islamic State”, Dr Naik said.
Nazim said he sensed the hostility of the audience from the moment he asked his question. Intermittent jeering and calls for violence against him interrupted the rest of his dialogue with Dr Naik. Once Dr Naik’s answer was over, Nazim chose to return to an aisle seat near the exit.
Despite the strategic decision, a man wearing a long knee-length shirt over baggy trousers – a type of dress relatively new to the Maldives but long favoured by Afghans and Pakistani Muslims – punched Nazim in the neck before he ran towards police seeking protection.
After apparently suspecting initially that Nazim was running at them with hostile intent, the police took him into protection and escorted him to Iskandhar Koshi, a police barracks not too far from the lecture venue.
Some people followed him as he ran to Iskandhar Koshi, flanked by policemen. While waiting for the police to decide what was to be done with him, Nazim said, a policeman in plainclothes approached him.
“I know what you guys are up to. It will never happen in this country,” he said ominously, before leaving.
Nazim said his decision to publicly announce his doubts about Islam was one that he had made his own. He had neither discussed the matter with anyone else nor sought anybody’s advice on the matter. He had simply expressed doubts “that I sincerely entertained.”
“I felt as if I was suffocating. The extremism that was taking hold in the Maldives was increasing so rapidly. I could not travel in any vehicle anywhere without having to listen to extremist material,” he said. “I needed to speak about it.”
‘Protective custody’ or protected by default while in custody?
Although officially under police protection, Nazim was taken to Dhoonidhoo, the remand prison, and processed as any other accused. He was first put into what he described as ‘a cage’ – named ‘Arrival’ – while the necessary paperwork was done. An investigation by four officers, who Nazim describes as ‘invariably pleasant men’, lasted around two hours until 2:30am in the morning.
Nazim said he could see the reasons why an investigation was necessary. As the police noted, his actions had become a national issue. Some of the public reaction also implied that it could threaten public order or even national security.
The unprecedented nature of his actions also meant that the police were unsure whether he had committed an offence as defined in Maldivian law. He was told he would be held in Dhoonidhoo until the investigation was completed. He was there for four nights.
Nazim spent the first night sitting on a swing. He had been offered a bed, but he was sleepless and did not need one. The following day he was allocated a cell.
“It was disgusting”, he said. Everything was as left as used by the previous ‘tenant’. In the cells both to his right and to the left were people accused of murder. The cell was cleaned the following day, after his protestations.
He was able to talk to his lawyer the following day, when he was brought to court to be officially remanded in Dhoonidhoo. His lawyer also told him that the Human Rights Commission of the Maldivian (HRCM) would be unlikely to be able to intervene on his behalf as a case of apostasy would not fall within their remit.
The two scholars visit
The Ministry of Islamic Affairs appointed two scholars to counsel Nazim while in custody. They arrived on the third day of his detention. Inside half an hour of talking to them, Nazim said, he told them he was ready to accept Islam as his faith.
The discussion, he said, was honest. He expressed his doubts openly, and agreed that embracing Islam was the best thing for him.
In a discussion with his lawyer, who had visited him ahead of the scholars, they had both agreed that Nazim’s interests would be best served by “living as all other Maldivians do”. He would be a Maldivian, abide by the laws of the country, and live according to its Constitution.
An hour after meeting him, a brief counselling session and a prayer performed together, the two religious scholars who had visited Nazim as an apostate left him a Muslim.
The decision to read the Shahaadhath on national television, he said, was his own. His proclamation of apostasy was made in front of an audience, broadcast on national television, and played out across the Internet. He needed a public forum to demonstrate his return to the folds of Islam, he said, for his own safety.
It was only after he agreed to ‘revert to Islam’, as Dr Naik had referred to the process, that Nazim was allowed a pen and paper, which had requested numerous times during the time he was held in Dhoonidhoo. He had wanted to write to President Mohamed Nasheed as well as international NGOs to highlight his plight.
Once a ‘born-again Muslim’, he had pen and paper and a new cell that was far cleaner than the one he had before. He was also allowed to walk and leave the cell at times.
He was returned to court in Male’ on the fifth day of being held in Dhoonidhoo. Once he recited the Shahaadhath in front of the sitting judge, he was told he was a free man. There was no case against him.
The legal black hole
Nazim said he was not aware of a pending legal case against him, as has been reported by the media. A report of the investigation of his actions had been sent as a matter of routine to the Prosecutor General. The case, as it were, was closed as far as Nazim was aware.
Did Nazim commit a crime? Article 9a (3) of the Constitution states that anyone who was a Maldivian citizen at the commencement of the 2008 Constitution is a citizen of the Maldives. Article 9c states that despite the provisions in Article 9a, a non-Muslim cannot become a Maldivian.
In between however, is Article 9b, which is unequivocal and unambiguous in its statement that ‘No citizen of the Maldives maybe deprived of citizenship’. It does not stipulate any circumstance whatsoever in which a person, once a citizen, can be deprived of their citizenship. The wording of Article 9a, which states that ‘a non-Muslim may not become a citizen of the Maldives’, understood in common parlance, suggests that it applies to those who wish to become a Maldivian.
How does this apply to Nazim? Had he not been ‘born a Muslim’, according to Dr Naik’s opinion on the matter? Was there then a need for him to become one? If he could not be deprived of his citizenship under any circumstance, why would he have had to ‘become a Muslim’ in order to ‘become a Maldivian’?
“When I did what I did,” Nazim said, “legally I was absolutely convinced that there was no way I could not be a Maldivian.”
There is no statutory law covering the issue of apostasy, which means, as stipulated in the Constitution, it is an offence ‘on which the law is silent’, to be considered according to Islamic Shar’ia. If he remained a non-Muslim and, therefore, a non-Maldivian, would Shari’a still have applied to him?
A silence similar to the one that Nazim describes as forcing Maldivians to keep quiet about questions over their faith appears to hold forte over public and official discourse on the subject of Islam.
Life as the only post-apostate Maldivian
Nazim is an affable, dignified and unassuming 38-year-old. He is heavily involved in community development projects, volunteers with many such projects, and is engaged in the development of social policy.
The reaction to his declaration of non-belief in Islam, he said, has been mixed – angry and supportive, superficial and profound. He lost 65 friends on Facebook, the social networking site to which almost every computer literate Maldivian subscribes. He did, however, gain 246 new ‘friends’.
His own friends and colleagues, he said, are uneasy talking about it. Very few have actually discussed it with him. He can feel its presence however, unspoken yet potent, in his every social interaction with another person.
Among the general public, apart from a few threatening text messages and threats left on his ‘wall’ on Facebook, the reaction has been muted since his public recitation of the Shahaadhath.
He does not regret what he did, he said: “Somebody had to do it, it needed to be spoken about. The repression of thought, the lack of debate and a lack of a proper public sphere in which such discussion can take place, is dangerous.”
He recalled Ismail Mohamed Didi, the 25 year-old air traffic controller who hung himself from the control tower of Male International Airport in July after he was ostracised by colleagues, friends and family when he expressed his doubts about his belief in Islam.
One of the two men who publicly expressed their doubts over faith decided to re-embrace Islam and live life as the Constitution says a Maldivian should. The other decided life was not worth living.
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it is clear that a maldivian who leave islam cannot be a maldivian. one reason for the wordings in constitution is so vague is to prevent internationa pressure.
the second reason is both MDP and DRP support these atheist, so they want people to be a maldivian as a muslim and then they are free to leave islam creating a minority of non muslim maldivians which will keep increasing and in 50-100 years they will become a significant minority group.
I believe muslims in Maldives should demand a constitutional change to make the wordings clear. And this will make independent runners for MP to promise the change in constitution and also that will force DRP-MDP secular thinkers to change the constitution
It's nice to have an honest accounting of what happened during those periods. But it really annoys me when the police say things without thinking, trying to excuse the behavior of their officers. The police said they thought he was running AT THE POLICE OFFICERS with "hostile intent." That is absolutely ludicrous. The responded in a way they thought would bring order, but it wasn't to defend themselves, nor was it to save the victim from persecution. But to suggest their reaction was defense is ridiculous. It's silly.
And of course the victim's life is forever changed. No "respectable" Maldivian can afford to be associated with him, and this one act seems to have single handedly ended the activities of one of the NGO's he was supporting. (39)
Secularism within the Maldives is not constitutionally valid, though the death penalty is not in keeping with moderate and liberal Islamic ideologies. The fact that there was calls for this individual's death, for violence to erupt against him shows the growing conservatism in our country and how it has changed the social dynamic to one that would condone and accept violence.
To these people, to be a better Muslim you must be a better Arab. 90% of the 1.5 billion Muslims around the world do not believe that. It's time we stop listening to the views of people like Zakir Naik, Abdulrahman Green, and Bilal Philips and those scholars who exist within this conservative 10%.
People need to stop distorting Islam. Stop converting our best singers. Stop attacking bodhuberu, Maldivian Dress, and Maldivian culture. Stop attacking Harry Potter because he's a little white kid that plays with magic. Really guys!? Why subscribe to ideologies that separate, isolate, and segregate. Why not believe in true UNITY. In peace. In light, and move away from such dark thoughts.
I remember the ugly face of extremist Islam as it emerged that night.
The thugs in white robes, as they ran towards an unarmed Nazim - in full public view, and on prime time TV, with the intention of causing him bodily harm.
They were camped out all night outside the police station, demanding his murder (while conveniently ignoring the verdict of their beloved Dr. Naik who had just moments before mentioned somewhere in his rambling response that Islam demanded no such thing)
The call for violence on facebook groups was no less unsettling. The comments on them equally vile, violent, uncivilized and horrifying for ordinary folk.
The fundamentalist funded NGOs in this country made public comments demanding not justice, but indeed, beheading of the man.
(The fundies just happen to be the only group in the Maldives that are divinely empowered to bypass the courts and due process, preferring instead to straightaway announce their verdict for the rest of us to carry out)
It worries me no end that people, who otherwise claim to be pious, pure and humble, can, at the flip of a switch transform into ravenous, bloodthirsty hounds who'd seek nothing less than barbarism and butchery whenever their little worlds are disturbed.
The ghost of the young man who decided to end it all in the face of unrelenting pressure and ostracism by the only people who should have lent him emotional support, still haunts me.
I can't look at the ATC tower and not feel a sense of loss of a citizen - a meaningless, hollow death spurred by nothing but the hypocrisy of fellow countrymen and women who choose to blind themselves to reality and mercilessly crush anyone else who dares to.
The message of Secularism has been much misunderstood and maligned, with no little help from politicians masquerading as 'scholars' for their own petty ambitions.
But the truth remains. Unless Dhivehin learn to tolerate others, and accept their fellow citizens equal rights to express an opinion, we can never truly aspire to become a nation deserving of the title 'a civilized country'.
I cringe every time I remember the deafening silence from the Media, Human Rights Commission and any of the dime a dozen 'Civil Rights' NGOs in this Nation over the issue.
These are the times I am truly embarrassed to admit I'm a Maldivian.
Minivan news should be renamed as 'Murthad' news what do you think? 😉
One man's theology is another man's belly laugh. True character arises from a deeper well than religion.
I do understand that in a personal level some in Maldives might deviate from religion because either the father or mother relaxed on them at a young age in showing the importance of learning about their Creator and the Prophet (pbuh). Sometimes parents used make Islam seem like another school subject instead of trying to build the love and connection between Allah (swt) and Muhammad (pbuh).
But Maldives remains a country with people who devotes their life to Islam and protecting it. People are not easily fooled and has learnt and educated themselves with various methods used in many countries by christian nations in order weaken Islam or a Muslim majority society in order to lay the foundation for religious freedom which slowly in the western media depicts the minority Christians as the oppressed while the Muslims as extremists.
If those tactics does not work, western nations now openly use military to invade and destroy Muslim nations even though by international law their acts of aggression are classed as illegal. But who really believes in bias organisations such as the United Nations where no Muslim country holds a veto power? While the US and Britain which has decades of bloodshed in the Middle East and Latin America as well as supporting drug lords in Somalia and other western nations - holds veto power in the UN.
When one or two western nationals who are not Muslims get killed by Muslims in retaliation to hundreds of Muslims killed, the UN and western media constantly show the supposedly horrific deaths of the two westerns while the Muslims killed by US Ariel bombardment are just collateral damage which is for the better good?
Any Muslim who still goes along with the notion that non-Muslim country governments wants peace with the Muslims, have obviously not been reading enough. Don't just read from muslim writers, but try reading western writers who say the same thing. The people as a whole in these countries might not want to hurt Muslims, but the governments know that unlike the communist which they fought, they picked a war with Muslims which cannot be stopped just when they think it's time to stop. As Malcolm x said, there is no peace without justice.
Now this apostate in Maldives needs to understand the reason why Muslims are very protective of being even a little bit tolerant towards these things. The amount of money spent by western missionaries in spreading Christianity in Muslims countries can be unbelievable if you try searching around. Especially if we compare it to our small society. In Maldives the judges are worthless when it comes to protecting Islam or victims of crimes. Their decisions are based on wordily matters and not because they fear their Creator. Hence, the need for people to take things into their own hands. When Muslims preach Islam to the word, they are labelled as extremist by those that does not even have any Islamic background or knlowdge.
Then western governments start funding all these moderate Muslims and moderate schools which Western think tanks employed to come up with ideas in ways to change Islam to a level which is acceptable to western culture. I was educated about all these in a British university, so secularist can take this as a moderate tone compared to what an Islamic university would not be shy to be more honest with. Especially when it comes to Wests support for Israel over the decades.
If the apostate as he seems to be called now, wanted to live peacefully and publicly announce his atheism, than it should have been done in the countless numbers of Western countries which should invite him with open hands and some hugs. They might include some candy with it.
They are making it hard for Muslims to leave in their so called democratic societies by banning things which are symbolic to Islam. So why should Muslims close one eye and always be the ones to take the punches? Islam is not a religion which allows Allah's followers to be humiliated. That is the great difference between Islam and all these other religions. There is no borders, race or colour when it comes to brotherhood in Islam. I love my Muslim sisters and brothers more than my blood family. I love my family for their patience in guiding me to Allah.
So you see, Islam is a way of life. It is at a point where it is being chocked poltically, socially and economically. So it is only instinct for those who loves Islam to protect it with their lives. Just as mother would protect her little ones to the last breadth.
Lastly I would like to give a Hadith for all the judges in Maldives.
Rasul Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wasallam) said: “Judges are of three types, two of them will go to the Hellfire and one type will go to Paradise. The one who knows the truth and judges with it – he is in Paradise. One who knows the truth but doesn’t judge by it, will go to Hellfire. The one who doesn’t know the truth and judges between people with ignorance, will go to the Hellfire.” [Abu Daud, Tirmidhi]
What the truth is, is determined by Allah (subhana wa ta’ala). He has spelt it out for us in the Shariah, that is the Quran and Sunnah. If a person passes judgment according to his or her own standards of right and wrong, rather than what Allah has declared as right or wrong, then that judge is judging with ignorance.
Why is there so much hostility directed towards any one who declares disbelief against Islamic ways?
a) Jealousy? That they are restricted from enjoying what they themselves would love to do, guilt-free?
b) Reasoning? That they themselves have the same questions without logical answers? But were afraid to voice? Angry that their forefathers did not seek answers for?
c) That there is no logical proof of the existence of God? Instead more proof is apparent to God's indifference towards different beliefs?
d) That it means they are challenged on their intellectual capacity, for having believed something so stupid all their life?
e) That they are being manipulated and taken all kinds of advantages by the Arabs? Such as almost unlimited tourism in flows through out the year? Where as we have to do so much to lure any in?
f) That some countries are far better and well off, when God has expressly stated that He would not endorse any People who does not believe in Islam?
etc....
It is extremely pathetic that HRCM decides to stay zipped! Only some know they are 'constitutionally' bound to respect the Maldivian Law before abiding to Universal Declarations.
Maldives is party to the HR conventions except one article about Religious Freedom. However, HRCM don't dare acknowledge so. Even the poor Kutti did. The least they could do is say "We are not allowed to say anything under the constitution" - and defend their integrity. Your commission needs to learn what an "Independent" commission stands for and not think about who grants your position.
Ironic how Maldives won the HRC seat given its reservation about Freedom of Conscience...
@Muaz MZ
Islam is a way of life ...its true and that what it is...It is not the only way of life. Different people have made different religions as way of life and those who have made choices do not argue that their choice is the right one for everyone. If you have chosen Islam as your religion, then that is fine. You did not. You were born into it like many people in other religions are too. Those who do not question it, goes on believing they are in the right religion and that is why it is hard for them to accept Islam. Like you feel blessed to be a Muslim, they feel blessed to be born into their religion.
Why do we want to make it a war between Islam and Christianity? It is not. It is only a war by people with agendas other than people's interest at heart. If you feel that people from other religions are trying to spread that religion with money, then do you also see that is what is happening with Islam too. There is money behind all this because it has nothing to do with showing anyone the right way of life.
The only right way for you is what you believe in, what it means to you and how you are going to live your faith. It will never be the right way for someone else when you force it on to anyone.
Everybody is a true Muslim when one learnt to live true to his conscience. Give up greed,lust and anger you will become a follower of Allah for He wishes us to be rightous too.By judging the way we Maldivians behave I doubt that even 5 percent of us are true Muslims.
@Muad MZ
I clicked on your name and ended up on www.sandhaanu.net
The following was an interesting read from there. Linked below the photo of Mohamed Zaki (MZ)
http://www.sandhaanu.net/data/Downloads/PDF/Case%20study%20of%20MZ.pdf especially starting from paragraph 3 of page 6 (from below Mujthaba's photo)
This letter wasn't a bad read either (http://www.sandhaanu.net/data/Downloads/PDF/HRCM-ah-fonuvi-sitee.pdf)...
@Salim Waheed
Once again the sleeping Salim waheed (son of Dr.Waheed and a secularist and a coward who cannot openly come out and say he is an atheists from teenage) Seriously Salim bin Abu Jahal!! You make me laugh!! You want to stop Islamist Scholars and keep them in you US jails? You must be wishing you father was the president dho! May Allah Sw never ever ever give him such responsibility as you are a deviant!! I fear for this nation!! Salim, why dont you go and get you american dream! there you can fornicate, adulterate, same sex, get "nice" with beer and vodka and also do you so called "freedom"!! Remember this country is nation of Muslims only and Insha Allah we will never allow your grand plans to secularised or deislamize this nation from where the Satan Gayoom left! We will fight like our forefathers did for Islam and Nation!!
Religion of peace and tolerance, eh?. What a joke. People are comparing islam to a violent Los Angeles street gang after that incident.
That night, those so-called "muslim" thugs did more damage to Islam than 1 million crusaders could do in a campaign that would last 1 hundred years.
Too bad for them the video was leaked. 😛
Sad say, there are Muslim barbarians among us.
@yaamyn. Your sentiments on this is very enlightening from a non-religious perspective. The trouble is that the religious right cannot accept the fact that they do not have the right nor responsibilty to impose a way of life on other people. This is the inherent cause of the problem in that they cannot fathom the idea that they do not have any rights to make other people follow a particular religion.
Human decency dictates that your own idea of your rights and resposibilities should be mirrored in your fellow human beings. So if muslims have the right to impose Islam on others, then so does Christians and Jews and the like.
FINAL REPORT OF THE MALDIVIAN PENAL LAW & SENTENCING CODIFICATION PROJECT: TEXT OF DRAFT CODE (VOLUME 1) AND OFFICIAL COMMENTARY (VOLUME 2), January 2006
by paul robinson
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1522222##
"This Chapter does not criminalize apostasy, or the abandonment of one’s religious faith,
for several reasons. First, because apostasy is not criminal under current Maldivian law,
prevailing Maldivian norms do not appear to require its punishment. Second, there exists
disagreement among Muslim jurists as to whether apostasy is a Hadd offense.[footnote 217 JAVED AHMAD GHAMIDI, MIZAN (“Balance”) 282 (Dar ul-Ishraq, 2001) (“The verdict (of apostacy)…does not have a general application but is only confined to the people toward whom the Prophet (sws) was directly
assigned.”]
Third,international resolutions define freedom of religion as including freedom to change one’s
religion or belief.Relatedly, this Chapter offers a precise definition for the crime of criticizing
Islam for two reasons. First, Muslim jurists generally support free debate within Islamic
society.Second, the social sanction for making comments which disparage Islam should
provide sufficient deterrence and reprimand".(Volume II p.184)
There is no one who can think freely about anything in maldives. Religion is used to blunt people's mind so that they will lose their reasoning.
People are intimated and pushed to follow islam in Maldives. This is a practice that is imported initially to Pakistan from Saudi Arabia with financial backing of Wahabism promotion, nothing less. They exploited the poverty of South Asia very well, "right". This later is imported to Maldives who had "Madharasa" training in Pakistan.
Unfortunate thing is that, people are scared of talking anything related to religion by intimidation from few.
There is a bunch of wahabis in Maldives who will lose there only way of life and EARNING if people started questioning some of the bullshit they are spewing. I think in 100 years none will be a so called pure muslim which they themself call.
We had a such laid back life style 20yrs ago that Maldivian should be proud of. Now it is only hate and scare mongering. As in middle ages in Europe it will not last... people will rebel.. and change will come.
Hey guys...I am a muslim...hehehe and I am proud of it.
what does the HRCM really do exactly? well, ok, every once in a while they release a press statement advising prison officials of the merits of good hygiene, but what else?
they should change their title to "Selective Human Rights Commission", which is more appropriate, and accurate!
@ Salim Waheed on Tue, 28th Sep 2010 9:17 PM
"It’s time we stop listening to the views of people like Zakir Naik, Abdulrahman Green, and Bilal Philips and those scholars who exist within this conservative 10%."
Could you please name a few scholars whom we should be listening to?
Well said Sensa.
And... Muaz MZ... as much as I hate missionaries of all religions, you have to acknowledge that we have extremist missionaries within our country.
I'm not talking about the usual stuff they do - travelling in groups and trying to find young boys they could influence. No.
Extremist groups here (we all know who they are), supply you FREE with a Hiqab or a "knee-length shirt over baggy trousers – a type of dress relatively new to the Maldives but long favoured by Afghans and Pakistani Muslims" as in the article, and give you monthly MRF 2000 on top of it!
Yes, this is happening in our beloved country! Who do you see in our national dress nowadays? While 50 years ago, hardly any woman was wearing a burugaa, today you see lots of black letterboxes moving around on the streets. I feel sympathy for these women - instead of being trained how to compete in this society where men apparently don't have their reproductive organs under control, they are being left covered up - with a man on their side who seems to be wearing hair in his face which normally grow around his reproductive organs.
Are 2000 Rufiyaa worth to be humiliated in such way?
Salim Waheed how is ur dads campaign going on ? Ur dad backstabbed Anni to get the power of this nation. May Allah (SWA) protect our nation from Munafiq like you and ur Dad. Insha Allah we will brake every wall that you build to secularize this Nation.
Salim Waheed, don't you dare give in to these antagonists and don't you dare give in and reply to this psychos.
Thet are trying to defame you as a secularist and a deviant and are trying to tie everything you do to your father and his work in and for this country.
Dr. Mohammed Waheed Hassan Manik. Vice President of the Republic of the Maldives and elected by the people of this country never stabbed the back of Anni. He never stabbed him in the back. He has ever worked for the people and though he is being sabotaged from within, he continues to work for the people, tirelessly. Endlessly. These people are tying to accuse him through you, don't succumb to their taunts.
Religious fanatics and psychos are trying to use Islam to enslave this nation and to attack all those who believe in moderation and liberalism. Religious fanatics keep on shouting, evoking Allah as though the are his own representatives on earth and saints themselves. Screw these people. They want to put their women in Ninja outfits so they can enslave them. Screw these people.
Look at the way they talk. Infadel this, and piety that. Allah allah allah, as if saying it more times makes one more pious when they are only pretending. These people are fanatics and posers.
They are calling you an infidel and a Munafiq and no one... no real maldivain who is moderate and not psychotic will believe that of you or your father. Well, maybe they'd be inclined to believe it of you because you're a young kid who apparently hates burughas - and there is enough stigma in male' around the burugha issue to encourage people of that idea - but no one doubts your sincerity. And those who believed in Dr. Waheed still do.
We believe that he is being frustrated by this government, by MDP, by the president, by everyone who puts real-politik above everything else. We believe that he is still working for the people who voted him and we believe that the Anni would have never come ahead of both Hassan Saeed and Gasim if it was not for Waheed. So many of us were inspired by him and his educational achievement and by him standing up to Gayoom in the early 1990s when he had something to loose.
That people are attacking him shows that he is sticking by with his values and holding on to what is good and right and true. These people want violence and hatred and evil evil things though they claim godliness. Don't worry, those who are not psychos already know that these people are in fact psychos.
Don't worry about them and their male dominated, women subjugating, backwards, hateful, and psychotic ideologies.
i hope adhaaltha and salaf not start a protest nera minivan news and relase press statments saying kill nazim as he is not genuine abt. is turning back to so called islam...
Religion is a delicate issue in every modern society. In the days of Sahaaba they were the most tolerant of people. They tolerated all religions and got on with each other. Later some time even after the thaabiees, Muslims and Christians used the same place to worship in full of each other, under the same roof. But that was then. They were the best and we seems to have lost their level of tolerance genes in our bodies thanks to natural selection? or whatever. Anyways...
Acknowledging there are non-muslims dhivehins in the country, they (the kaafir group) should well learn to respect the majority however they are. Its no hope calling them dimwits and attacking their very own conscience when the same can be said about the atheists. Nobody can hijack conscience or science or technology. Science is not a product of atheists or agnostics.
@Ali: Beautiful comment by Ali, character comes from a deepr wellspring than religion... Thankyou Ali...
@Yeah, There are many scholars who are way more advanced than the ones you mentioned. I have read a few books by Professor Abdullah Saeed, for example, who is really a thousand times more advanced in Arabic and Islam than Dr. Naik. Dr. Saeed is a Maldivian by Birth who teaches many levels of Arabic at a University in Melbourne, Australia. He has written may books on the Qur'an, on Islamic Thought, and other books.
Dr. Saeed presents the Merciful essence of Islam very beautifully. As he is a master of the Arabic tongue, he presents it in a far deepr manner and can explain aspects of what is written much more comprehensively than what we can understand who may not understand Arabic fluently. He always reverences the Uncreated Nature of the Qur'an, and upholds the truth of the Sunnah, and he goes deeply into the context of the Sunnah and Qur'an to unfold the Merciful essence or intention of it. If I was a Maldivian, I would be bragging about being of the same race as this man who is really a remarkable genius and yet, I find most Maldivians whom I have spoken to have never read him. I find it tragic...
maldivesresortworkers are lying.,... if you know what shahabas do you are aware islam.
The problem is arabization or cultural influence of arabs tradition on a non-Arab area and country/If you are Muslim it is great but for what you have to use arabs tradition and way of behavior and life style if you are Maldivian Muslim or China muslim or/etc.?
Why we are not Maldivians first and Muslims later. Long time back, we are Buddhists and GOD knows what before that. May be conversion to Islam was our destiny. But we (forefathers) should not have had accepted Muslim names. That was the first conquest of Maldives. Now, some enthusiasts who have returned from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and even Pakistan (of all the places) are imposing a "different" Islam on us. If they succeed, this will be our "submission" to the "agents" of "invaders". Do we want to lose our culture,heritage,our friendly nature and our smile? If yes, for what? How many times we will change ourselves? Are we so dumb?
Please enlighten me.
It is absolutely unacceptable that the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives does not consider apostasy part of its remit. If that is the case it is not a human rights commission as understood across the world. Any clause in the Maldives constitution denying freedom of religion is illegal in international law. The Maldives acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) before the current constitution was enacted. The Maldives acceded to the ICCPR stating a reservation. That reservation stipulated that the issue of religious freedom would be subject to the Maldives constitution. The constitution in force at that time and all previous constitutions granted freedom of religion. Revising the constitution to deny religious freedom after the accession to the ICCPR is illegal and is an attempt by the Maldives to cheat the world. Only rogue states do that sort of thing. The only option now available for the Maldives to deny freedom of religion is to withdraw from the ICCPR and leave the community of civilised nations. The Maldives is, after all, a sovereign state and if it wants to live in the Bronze Age as cave dwellers in the 7th century did, the world won't stop it. The Maldives, however, must remember that it cannot have the cake and eat it.
they have taken away the god given right to freedom to choose one's own path and being judged by the almighty himself (not some self-proclaimed spokespersons of god). you cant get bullied in to the rights path. you choose it. the islamic view of life is, that it is a test. those who do good will be rewarded, and those who turn away will be punished. if the answer sheets are given to you, and you are coerced to put them on paper...then what use is this test? or is this a test of how much of this barbarism we can tolerate? exalted
i will choose my own path. and if in that process i come across a point where i dont believe in a god, that is my problem. the cause of anti-islamic hate and religious extremism in our country is THIS. lack of freedom to express, think or discuss these things.
i refuse to worship the wahhabi sheikhs. i refuse to worship anyone but the one god. that is infact what god warned us about in the quran. The most important and basic teaching of islam is oneness of god. so quit worshipping the 'ilmuverin'.
"They have taken their scholars and monks as lords besides Allah , and [also] the Messiah, the son of Mary. And they were not commanded except to worship one God; there is no deity except Him. Exalted is He above whatever they associate with Him. " [Quran 09:31]
May he save this nation from the fitnah of the wahhabi cult and its intolerance.
Again he is back with a big mouth. I think it's better to let him be comfortable on his religion.
Of course, the HRCM reserves to comment on extreme religious issues like apostasy. I can understand them - they are clever to do that, because the full set of human rights can never be applied in this country, or any other Muslim or Islamic country, where religion is directly related to politics.
In fact, it is our Maldivian's bloody human right to believe and practice whatever we want (freedom of conscience), but what can the HRCM do? Start arguing with half-minded Mullahs? Where would it end up?
Where is the HRCM when it comes to interfaith marriages? To be married to a Maldivian, a non-Muslim HAS to convert, whether man or woman (against the Quran). A lot of my friends have gone through this. The HRCM never commented on such issues, where basic human rights of people are denied. And the Mullahs will come out and declare that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. Yeah, I wonder WHY...
I can see that our system is based on fear - fear of the 'divine punishment' and fear that Maldivians might abandon their religion if not under pressure. The fact is, some do abandon, but most love their faith and would never leave it. Now we've got a state of "allegedly" 100% Muslim but probably 20% of them pretending. Nazim was just honest by expressing his doubts. Even the HRCM knows that it was his right to do so, but avoided criticism by not commenting on it.
I think this is just a phase for Maldives. The idiotic Wahhabis will be trying to convert the whole country into the next Afghanistan, but little do they realize that retaliation is inevitable. Day by day, people are coming to realize what the wahhabis are upto, and who they really are. Maldives, is a country which is economically unstable, and relies almost FULLY on tourism. I don't think tourists would visit a second Afghanistan, but all tourists would want to see what is paradise on earth. Wahhabism has never prevailed, and WILL NOT prevail in Maldives. Extremism would ultimately be eliminated when people become more educated, and learn to tolerate each other.
Oh, and those who are looking for a laugh at what these wahhabis, try listening to Radio Atoll. It is hilarious! The only thing they seem to talk about is how the "moonu buruga" is compulsory for women, and how most women would burn in hell.
The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives does not conform to the Paris Principles relating to the Status of National Institutions. In particular it is in violation of section vi (b) of the Paris Principles which states that "To promote and ensure the harmonization of national legislation, regulations and practices with the international human rights instruments to which the State is a party, and their effective implementation".
The HRCM has no right to mislead the world by appending "human rights" to its name. I suggest the commission changes its name to the "Cairo Declarations Commission of the Maldives". Better still, the “Waziristan Caves Appreciation Commission of the Maldives".
Correction: In my last post the reference should read Section 3(b). My apologies.
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The discussion, he said, was honest. He expressed his doubts openly, and agreed that embracing Islam was the best thing for him.
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And they say the Maldives lacks comedy.
@ yaamyn
Exactly. That is very true.