Sri Lanka’s SAARC monument has suffered further vandalism and a mosque door was damaged in an ongoing spate of vandalism in Addu City.
On his own website, Islamic Minister Dr Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari claimed that the attack on the mosque was in retaliation for the vandalism of the Sri Lankan statue, which protesters in Addu have criticised as idolatrous. Earlier last week, Pakistan’s monument was set ablaze and later stolen.
Bari referred to the Quran 6:108, which reads “And do not insult those they invoke other than Allah , lest they insult Allah in enmity without knowledge. Thus We have made pleasing to every community their deeds. Then to their Lord is their return, and He will inform them about what they used to do.”
Bari said he told the state broadcaster MNBC that as the monuments were gifted by neighbouring countries, bilateral relations should be considered for the removal of the offending monuments.
“Therefore, this can be solved by talking to the nations that erected [the monuments] and taking them down with their cooperation,” he wrote, adding that he had asked the Foreign Ministry, President’s Office, the Addu City Council and police to discuss the matter with the embassies.
In his interview with MNBC One, Bari said that citizens taking the law into their own hands was not the solution.
In an earlier post on his website, Bari revealed that he had suggested to the Pakistani High Commissioner that the “peaceful and proper way” to resolve the issue was for Pakistan to remove the monument.
The High Commissioner had assured him that Pakistan would do so after the summit was over, Bari wrote.
Bari has maintained that the engravings of pagan symbols on the Pakistani monument are unlawful under the Contraband Act, Religious Unity Act and the Anti-Social Behaviour Act, and should not be displayed publicly in the Maldives.
Meanwhile, the door to a cupboard containing a sound system in a mosque was reported vandalised.
Abdulla Sodiq, Mayor of Addu City, disputed that the mosque had been damaged in retaliation for damage to Sri Lanka’s lion statue, as claimed by Bari.
”I heard the media reports and sought clarification on the incident, and found out that the door to the cupboard containing the mosque’s sound system was damaged with the intention of stealing the microphone and sound system,” he said. ”It is very common in all parts of the Maldives.”
He claimed Dr Bari may have related the two incidents because he had been misled by whomever he had received the information from.
The SAARC monument was damaged on Thursday morning around 1:00-2:00am, Sodiq said, with the face of the statue being smashed.
He said that the lion was the national symbol of Sri Lanka and was not an idol of worship. Police are investigating both incidents.
Deputy Sri Lankan High Commissioner Shaanthi Sudusinghe meanwhile told Minivan News that the Maldivian government had said it would repair and relocate the monuments from Addu City to the convention centre, where they could be given security.
“There is not much we can do,” she said. “This was a gift to the Maldives and it is up to them to look after it. If it is repaired and relocated we will be satisfied.”
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Maldivians should get the f*** out of Sri Lanka. We don't want you racist as******.
we don't need you Lanka ori!
we are arabians by culture. Camels at that!
I'm lost for words at the stupidity of the fellow people of Suvadheeb! This is beyond ridiculous. The lion is the national symbol of Sri Lanka in the same way the rose is the national symbol of the Maldives.
I read somewhere else that disfiguring this monument is equivalent to burning the Sri Lankan flag and I agree with that. How would you feel if Sri Lankans start burning the Maldivian flag?
I always thought the people of Addu were much more mature and intellectual than this after having been exposed to the outside world for over 100 years from the time of the British presense here all those years ago. However, the current generation seem to have lost their brains.
This is a sad day for Addu!
Oh, and yes, don't claim you're from Addu (or the Maldives) if you're in Sri Lanka. After having disfigured their national symbol, you'll deserve what you get!
Maldivians and the people of Addu should take a hard look at themselves and question why the national symbol of Sri Lanka is a threat to Islam! Islam has been here for over 800 years and is it really threatened by this? If so, then I'd question the strength of your collective faith.
I have lived with Christian, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and people from all sorts of other faiths and seen their symbols on a daily basis. None of those has shaken an iota of my belief in Islam. I know full well that neither Islam nor any of these other religions are perfect. All have their short comings, but I'm resolute in my faith.
These acts of vandalism on the Sri Lankan and Pakistani monument are nothing but acts of political revenge. Specifically they're acts of desperation by a certain newly formed political party who cannot stomach the success that the SAARC summit brought to Addu and the region as a whole.
Our politicians do politics after exhausting everything else; as a hobby. If they are serious about politics then this issue of statues definitely caused lots of votes to MDP for what? What is the political benefit the government gets from this statues by enraging a sizeable part of the population? We maybe nuts, we may love camels and you can ridicule us as much as you please, but we will vote, and we have families and friends who will vote in the coming years..
I am not saying MDP govt could be toppled because of this statuegate scandal. But they surely will not get the whole cake to eat.
"The Muslims have turned three Buddha statues into rubble. We have not seen a single Buddhist burn down a Mosque, kill a Muslim, or burn down an embassy. Only the Muslims defend their beliefs by burning down churches, killing people, and destroying embassies. This path will not yield any results. The Muslims must ask themselves what they can do for humankind, before they demand that humankind respect them." - Wafa Sultan.
How does Baaree know the motivation behind the mosque vandalism? Inquiring minds wish to know.
Avoid conjecture, Baaree! "O ye who believe! Avoid suspicion as much (as possible): for suspicion in some cases is a sin" 49:12
Totally agree with Samuel. If we Maldivians have no tolerance for other races and religions, then we should just confine ourselves to living in this Country and stay away from other races and religions. Shame on all Maldivians who had any part to play in destroying the monuments and shame on all of us for tolerating such intolerance in silence, just because it doesn't directly affect us! Well not to worry, pretty soon when the tourists stop coming here and when we start facing intolerance towards us in the countries we visit, then we may have something to think about!!!
DRP and PPM destroyed the idols, MDP in return destroyed the Mosque. Whome should we vote for in the nest election? You decide.
My goodness. Someone should ask all the Sri Lankan expatriates living in the Maldives, exactly how they feel about all this.
And how they feel Maldivians view and treat Sri Lankans in general. In fact, we'll ask them to discuss it with their fellow Sinhalese compatriots, as a group before they get back to us.
We wouldn't want their reaction - should there be one - to take us by surprise now, would we?
It might disturb our peace.
If nothing else, please be truthful here.
Most Maldivians are so racist we regard Sri Lankans, Indians, Bangldeshi's as less than human. We spit them in their face whenever we can.
So don't lets act the nice old angel here. We are so arrogant, ignorant and selfish, that we do not realize the impact let alone the repercussions of acts such as these would have on our image.
I am so ashamed to be Maldivian, and to be called a peace-loving Muslim.
These are imbeciles and Gayoom is behind this unrest. A for Bari I thought that he had a bit of brain but it seems he is an airhead himself. Islamic Republic of Pakistan would not export idols to another Muslim country. How idiotic can Bari and some people be?
As for the Lion, that is the national icon of Sri Lanka and the people of Maldives should be ashamed of this vandalism. I always felt that people of Addu were better educated and more civilised than others in Maldives. It seems that I was wrong. There are as idiotic and more barbaric than others in this case.
My Addu brother from Suvadeeb;
For once you are a bit off track here. Yes PPM raised the ire of local people for votes with the whole monument issue.
However, any sane man would notice if they study the incidents surrounding the defacing of the Sri Lanka monument carefully that it was carried out by the MDP. The use of lubricant oil to deface posters, buildings etc. is a standard MDP tactic. Also, the whole event was meant to play into the MDPs hands. Perhaps it has worked if India can justify increasing a security presence in the region to "battle extremism".
No Maldivian damaged any religious thing or national symbol in Sri Lanka for what I know. What they did is what was in the Maldives, because Maldives is not a country that keeps such monuments (because generally Maldivians dont regard monuments and carved things a good thing). But now of course with this SAARC summit even Maldives own monument is a stupid statue of a bird. Its the first thing that need to be be destroyed. People of Addu had an important consideration for Dhondheeni bird for many centuries without making a statue. So why now the government make a statue of it?
The truth is it is very disrespectful for Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka to bring such monuments that are not in line with the culture of Maldives. So its not us who are rude, but these countries. Look at the monument of Nepal for example..Its the best, and I believe no body will destroy it.
@ Mohamed, I am in agreement with you as those nations who has presented "monuments" of desrespect to the Maldivian law and culture has failed the very essence of diplomatic protocol. Unless ofcourse our diplomats has said "machaa no problem".
Vendalism is a crime! If someone is doing justice himself and taking the law in his own hands it is injustice to the whole society! None can defend this. There are far more evil things than erecting a monument with carved images of animals. This is not a fight for Islam but for power! This was not an aspiration from general public but provoked through the political agenda of the parties which claim they are democratic.
These monuments are not line with Maldivian culture, but mannequins, Buddhist relics in the museum, Hindu gods on TV are?
haha. Double standards and violence is the only "culture" i see here.
If no one had talked about these statues and poisoned the people against them, nothing would have happened. Just another political gimmick which has used religion to play with the minds of the people. Nothing new here. lol.
Everyday Sri Lanka's High Commission in Male flies a flag bearing precisely the same lion. So the Sri Lankans break our precious Bari's "Contraband Act, Religious Unity Act and the Anti-Social Behaviour Act" on a daily basis, for goodness sake. Does his objection then rest on a 3-D lion as opposed to a 2-D lion? Sometimes I wonder if they screw rat-eaten coconut husks as heads on mullahs' necks, at that madharusaa in Waziristan. Capping ceremonies at madharusaas are "meedhaa-kay-umbbing" ceremonies,are they?
crazy crazy Maldivian stupid fellows who are so brainless to believe anything under a political influence. Go kill all the cows in Hulumale and band every milk carton with a cow on it since the cow is a Indian idol of worship hahaha and stop dringking milk or eating beef.. how ridiculousness and funny these people are... hahahaha
Destroying more mosques ought to teach these people a lesson about respecting other religions/philosophies.
The point was to build bridges not burn them...sad.
Peace
this is a diplomatic nightmare! Just shows the lack of foresight, judgement and lack of respect for community sensibilities of this government.
The great and liberal mind that preached not only love and respect for the founders of the great religions of the world but much more than that, faith in them, could not shrink to the narrowness of intolerance for those very religions. Tolerance is not, in fact, the word that can sufficiently indicate the breadth of the attitude of Islam towards other religions. It preaches equal love for all, equal respect for all, and equal faith in all.
it lays down in the clearest words. In fact, the Holy Quran is full of statements showing that belief in this or that religion is a person’s own concern, and that he is given the choice of adopting one way or another: that, if he accepts truth, it is for his own good, and that, if he sticks to error, it is to his own detriment. I give below a few of these quotations:
“We have truly shown him the way; he may be thankful or unthankful” (76:3).
“The Truth is from your Lord; so let him who please believe and let him who please disbelieve” (18:29).
“Clear proofs have indeed come to you from your Lord: so whoever sees, it is for his own good; and whoever is blind, it is to his own harm” (6:104).
“If you do good, you do good for your own souls. And if you do evil, it is for them” (17:7).
it is high time that Maldivians should be taught of how the world is moving towards a global village irrespective of all our differences.They will remain in a corner if they don't walk in harmony with the other nations.