Controversial blogger Ismail ‘Hilath’ Rasheed was arrested this evening for his involvement in last Saturday’s ‘silent protest’ for religious tolerance, which turned ended in violent after several individuals attacked the group with stones. Hilath was taken to the hospital with head injuries.
According to the Sub Inspector Ahmed Shiyam, Hilath was arrested under a Criminal Court order issued today.
Rasheed’s arrest follows the blocking of his blog by the Communications Authority of the Maldives (CAM) on the order of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs. The Ministry made the request on the grounds that the site contained anti-Islamic material.
Police are currently interrogating some of the approximately 30 individuals who gathered at Artificial Beach on Saturday. Calls for an investigation of the protest were made by religious conservative Adhaalath party, NGO Jamiyyathu Salaf, and ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik.
While pursuing its investigation of the protest for religious tolerance, police have also summoned the developer of the website 23December.com, which this week published slogans calling for the murder of anti-Islamic activists in what organisers later described as a “technical mistake”.
Developer Ali Ahsan told Haveeru that police wanted to understand who was responsible for the website’s conception, development and published material.
“The police also questioned whether those inappropriate phrases or those slogans [calling for the killing of people] were present when the information was published on the website,” he said.
Ahsan, who also edits online publication DhiIslam, said police had confiscated the hard drive used for the development of 23December.com, Haveeru reports.
The investigation into the aggressive error began yesterday, when police questioned Adhaalath Party President Sheikh Imran Abdulla and Civil Coalition official Abdulla Mohamed over the death threats.
Sheikh Imran and Mohamed did not speak directly to the press, however their lawyer, former State Minister of Islamic Ministry Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed, confirmed that police asked them about the slogans published on the website.
Shaheem said that slogans calling for murder were not on the website when it was launched, adding that the “content were manipulated by some people spying on the website”.
Abdullah, who is the lead organiser of the the protest, also told Minivan News on Tuesday that the team had not seen the slogans calling for murder until the day after the launch. ”We corrected the mistake as soon as it was brought to our notice,” Abdullah said.
He said the slogans were earlier attributed as a “mistake on technical team’s side” after they identified some loop holes in the website security, adding that their “suspicions were confirmed” when the website was hacked on Tuesday morning.
President’s Office Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair today issued a statement blaming organisers of the 23 December demonstration for disrupting public order to achieve “hidden agendas”.
He said he not believe that removing the violent slogans from the promotional website was sufficient proof of non-violent intentions.
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@Ahmed bin Addun bin Suvadheeb:
Here is an extremely simplified version of one point of view, responding to your question above
All reference to direct Riddah in Qur’an state that punishment is to be from Allah, does not order a Murtadd to be killed by another Muslim.
Ruling is derived from Hadith from Bukhari, if one leaves their religion, kill him…”
Contextual analysis reveals that this was in the context of the fact that in many instances, to leave Islam was to join another group at war with Muslims, therefore, killing an apostate was only necessary when it was to protect the Ummah, its sovereignty.
Extension of this Hadith in another Hadith reveals the rest of the saying, which is “and joins the disbelievers in attacking Muslims…”
The Suhabba accused many of being Munnafiq, not really Muslims deserving of life, prophet (SAW) protected the so called Munnafiqun so long as they were not a direct threat.
For Prophet and in Qur’a, Riddah and Nifaq one in the same… and because hypocrites were not killed unless they were a threat, implies allowance of freedom from religion so long as one is not a threat.
ONE LAST POINT
In Treaty of Hudaybiyya, Prophet allowed Murtadd to rejoin Meccans, he could...
No death sentence...
where is the freedom that mr.nasheed and his gangsters prmised
@Ben
What do you mean by war? then again who are you or me to define the limits of war.
What is common knowlege here is that this Hillath guy uses every opportunity to wage war against islam and he has been doing this for quite some time. He uses mulitple aliases and writes many blogs all for the same purpose! to infuriate simple muslims. what do you call this? acts of peace?
Ahmed on Thu, 15th Dec 2011 1:24 PM
Anyone who protest for the protection of Islam should be clean and complete all rukuns on Islam. If anyone would blame the others are wrong, first get cleaned himself/herself from all wrong doings. The characteristic to be fulfilled before you protest should be:
1. must have truth faith in Allah (Aqidha)
2. should not have missed any 5 obligatory prayers
3. should have observed the fasting in Ramadan every year.
4. should have given zakath without failure.
anyone who have failed complete any of the above obligations properly is not qualified to stand up to the rally.