Undersecretary at the President’s Office Fareesha Abdulla has said she intends to file a defamation case against Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) MP Ahmed Mahlouf, after he appeared on DhiTV’s ‘Habaru Therein’ (In The News) and accused her of trying to introduce other religions to the Maldives.
“I have asked the Maldives Police Service on January 11, 2012 to investigate this case,” Fareesha said in a statement.
Mahlouf told Minivan News today that “Fareesha, and her husband, I think he’s a foreigner, run a website called Maldives Culture promoting other religions in Dhivehi.”
“Her husband was [previously] deported and Fareesha stayed away from the Maldives for a long time. Under this government, she is now working in the President’s office,” Mahlouf said.
Maldives Culture is a website run by Fareesha and her husband Michael O’Shea, containing English translations of documents about the history, culture and society of the Maldives.
“There’s no Dhivehi in the site – it’s all in English,” Fareesha said. “There’s nothing about other religions, and Michael was never deported.”
Fareesha told Minivan News that while she could laugh off Mahlouf’s allegations, “they have serious ramifications for me. He is a member of the Majlis and people do trust what he says – they may not check the truth for themselves. I am concerned for my physical safety – I may not be able to walk on the streets without being attacked.”
Mahlouf meanwhile claimed that the government was using the police “to try and stop us talking.”
“There’s no way they can stop us,” he said.
Documents available on Maldives Culture cover topics ranging from Maldivian art, history, social customs to historic photographs and maps of the Maldives, and a Dhivehi-English dictionary.
The site also includes translations of the works of famous explorers who visited the Maldives throughout its history, including the Ibn Battuta, François Pyrard de Laval and HCP Bell.
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I expected better from Mahlouf, at times he appears to be a reasonable guy, but i guess he can't resist the temptation of playing the religious card.
Subhanallah! Jews trying to change our own Muslim history! Take notice, my dear Muslim Maldivian brothers and non-fornicating sisters, for these websites are there to turn you to the way of the evil Jew!
Do not be like the Yahoodh! Do not visit this website! Do jihad against it! Flog Fareesha and imprison her husband too!
A cheap move by Mahloof.
The site in question is a valuable resource for our youth and history buffs across the nation.
Party politics will eventually burn this country to the ground.
It appears that we need another showdown, in order that the government understands, what it is that we demand.
The 23rd of December last year, was only the beginning.
Maldivies Culture dot com is one of the most respected websites about Maldives.
Cheap talk with religious cards. That's all criticizers got these days. No facts or statistics. Just cheap talk.
Fareesha, don't fall into this trap. Mahlouf’s statements don't deserve to be acknowledged. That's like trying to explain physics to a 2 year old.
I'd urge Fareesha to use every availabe means to bring Mahloof to justice. He's actually too stupid to understand what's written at Maldives Culture, in any case.
Maldives Culture is a very valuable resource and I've been following that site for many years from its very beginnings. I've learned so much about our history and culture, thanks to the work on that site. My view is that every Maldivian who can read English should read that website for themselves and even get it translated for those who can't read English. They'll become better Maldivians, having done that!
This cheap and vindictive attack on Fareesha and Michael is unforgivable and we should all challenge that. Now, I'm 100% certain that Mahloof hasn't even read any of the articles on the site. If he did, he'd be following the same footsteps of Ibrahim Nasir who claimed that "Christians" were behind the Addu revolt, for example. Maldivian politicians have not changed in centuries. The religions weapon is like their nuclear option!
Mahlouf stoops into the gutter.
Mahloof! Freedom of expression means not to abuse the next person. They have rights too!
Dear Sheikh or whatever Imran Abdulla, please get lost with Sheikh Shaheem's porn movie.
fully support her move to file defamatory charges. Maldives culture is a valuable informational resource.
If mahuloof and other self-riteos cronies thing they make better academics, put your action where your mouth is. talk is cheap.
Its time someone took action against Mahlouf's verbal diarrhoea. Good for you, Fareesha.
I don't know anythihg about this Fareesha or her personallife, but I can agree a bit with Mahlouf regarding the contents in this site. I have visited it a bit and I absolutely found it somewhat baised towards other religions and it does not really give the cinnections between the Maldives and its islamic history. So any one with brains visitng that site might get the real impression and the reason for that site. There is another simialr site like this called the Maldives Royal Family which also has similar contents and some of which are highly questionable and doubtful about its authenticity.
Maldivian history [does/does not] promote other relegions. It shows that we are the proud descendants of idol worshipers. It tells us that our forefathers were idolaters. And we are proud of our culture and history.
@Yasir on Mon, 16th Jan 2012 4:24 PM
"I have visited it a bit and I absolutely found it somewhat baised towards other religions and it does not really give the cinnections between the Maldives and its islamic history."
How much of our history do you actually know? How long have we been an Islamic country? What faith did we have before? How long did we practice that? How many different faiths were there in the country in the last 1000 years?
Can you objectively answer these questions? Are you interested even in finding these answers? Your posts suggests that you're not interested in any of these aspects of our history.
You can't manipulate history. It's already happened. You can't deny the existence of Buddhism, Sun/fire worshipping, Phallus worshipping etc on these islands for thousands of years. What is it that you have a problem with?
Fareesha might have a skeleton in closet. Maybe Mahlouf is true and
here is a link of the kind Yasir is talking about:
http://www.maldivesroyalfamily.com/pleasures_of_the_paradise.shtml
IF Fareesha runs maldivesroyalfamily as a pet project (likely) then there is no question of kufr of the writer. The links to the article highly denigrates Islamic values and is written to offend. This same article appeared in minivan but the link doesn't work because it has been removed. however another tamer article has appeared which was also an unofficial invitation to bash islamic thought. here is the link..
http://minivannewsarchive.com/society/those-who-desire-heaven-3223