Government offices will operate from 10am to 2pm during the Islamic month of Ramdan, the president’s office has said.
The month of prayer and fasting begins on June 18.
Although private offices also cut working hours for Ramadan, they tend to run longer than government hours.
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(0)The criminal court has sentenced a 35-year-old man to one year in jail for stealing two packs of razor blades on Sunday.
Hussain Miyad, of Noranmma in Malé, confessed to stealing the razors worth MVR710 in November 2012.
The criminal court’s harsh sentences for petty crimes and lenient sentences for violent crime has sparked public outrage.
The court last week fined a man with MVR200 (US$13) for assaulting his wife.
In 2014, four men were sentenced to between two and four years in jail for stealing lotion bottles.
(0)Dislikes(0)The state wholesaler State Trading Organisation (STO) has pledged to sponsor a speech therapist for an organisation working for the rights of children with down syndrome.
Founder of Beautiful Eyes, Aishath Shifa, welcomed the offer, saying children with down syndrome suffer speech delays which impair the development of other skills.
STO managing director Ahmed Shaheer said the company will allocate a special budget for children with disabilities under its corporate social responsibility programme.
STO donated ten bicycles yesterday to the Maldives Police Services to patrol Malé’s suburb Vilimalé.
(0)Dislikes(0)The criminal court has sentenced a 46-year-old man to life in jail and handed a MVR100,000 fine over one kilogram of cannabis.
Ali Imran, of Coconut House in Malé, was caught with 1131.2 grams of cannabis in November 2012.
Police apprehended Imran at Malé’s commercial harbour for suspicious behaviour and found the drugs hidden under the seat of his motorcycle. At the time, police had received information a cargo boat traveling from India was carrying illicit drugs.
When Imran’s house was searched, police found MVR134,050, US$2200 and 21 diamond stones and four precious stones inside a safe. He had another MVR461,948.26 in an HSBC account.
The criminal court has ordered the state to confiscate the money and the precious stones, stating Imran had not explained how he had obtained the money.
(0)Dislikes(0)The police have seized illicit narcotics from a guesthouse in Hulhumalé and arrested four Maldivian men on suspicion of selling drugs.
Based on intelligence information, the police drug enforcement department raided the guesthouse room around 4:00pm yesterday with a search warrant and found a large rubber packet containing drugs, two empty liquor bottles, bullet-sized rubber packets, and a small measuring device.
The four men, aged 21, 25, 34, and 37, all have criminal records for drug-related offences, the police said.
(0)Dislikes(0)Maldivian school text books, sermons and other published materials on Islam breed hatred and Islamic fundamentalism, says rights NGO, Maldivian Democracy Network (MDN).
The report, which is the first of its kind, analyzed text books used in Maldives for primary and secondary education in order to identify the prevalence of radical narratives in the mainstream academic discourse.
The report noted that the school text books cultivate anti-Semitism and xenophobia, and glorify Jihad or war against those who allegedly “obstruct” Islam.
All Maldivian students are required to take Islam as one of the four compulsory subjects, alongside Dhivehi, English and Mathematics from first grade through twelfth grade.
Islamic studies text books are prepared by specialists at the ministry of education and approved by the ministry of Islamic affairs.
The government is struggling to prevent an outflow of Maldivians seeking to join the civil wars in the Middle-East. The police in January said over 50 individuals have left the country, while the opposition puts the number at 200.
In addition to analyzing text books, the human rights NGO held public forums in several islands to ascertain whether the public view human rights and Islam to be compatible, and conducted interviews with Islamic ministry officials and heads of schools.
Glorifying jihad
In the eleventh grade Islamic studies text book, jihad is defined as “to endeavor greatly,” or “to bravely confront enemies,” and the definition is supported with verses from the Qur’an and prophetic verses or Hadith that stress the importance of a ‘Holy War.’
MDN noted that two whole pages of the book were dedicated to “fruits” of Jihad, claiming that the ultimate fruit of Jihad is martyrdom, for which the reward in Islam is an eternity in heaven.
The text book claims that Muslims who hesitate to perform this “obligatory religious duty have produced bitter results in the past and it will continue to do so if left undone.”
“These discussions fuel hatred an depict the religion as one that is set on building hegemony,” read the MDN report.
An autobiography of a Maldivian man, who was killed while waging Jihad at Syria posted by Bilad-al-Sham media group, claimed that many students studying at the main secondary school, Center of Higher Secondary Education, had chosen to engage in Jihad.
“Though it has a secular curriculum, so far from that very school has come out many shining stars in the path of Jihad and students whose hears filled with the love of Islam. Allah Akbar!” read the biography of Abu Dujanah, who reportedly died in battle in Syria in September 2014.
Us vs. Them
MDN noted that Islamic textbooks for grade one, two and three contain material instilling love for Islam and rarely incites hatred through xenophobic narratives.
“However, from grade four onwards the xenophobic material gradually increases to the point where the radical outweighs the moderate,” the report read.
In the grade five textbook, Jews are described as “devious people” who “do not hold any value to their promises”, leading to stereotyping and has made anti-Semitism the norm in the Maldives.
The text books also incite hate against pagan religions and other Abrahamic religions, and depicts all Islamic Sects expect the Sunni sect as “heresies.”
“For Instance, the grade nine text books dictates a lesson on “deceivers” or “liars” from the Muslim world or Ummah,” read the report.
The books describe the Ahmadiyya sect as a “plot by the British to destroy Islamic Unity,” and says Muslims educated in the West, or Muslims who speak for secularism are considered co-conspirators with the West to undermine Islam.
“Due to the prevalence of these radical ideas, the text books fail to primarily instill a positive interpretation of Islam that is manifested in the [2008] Maldivian Constitution,” concluded the report.
Meanwhile, the ninth grade text book appears to dismiss women’s rights and feminism as part of a ‘western agenda.”
The tenth grade textbook says “slaves must work tirelessly to fulfill their masters needs,” and the eleventh grade textbook outlines discriminatory penalties under Islamic penal provisions for victims of a crime if they are a slave or a non-believer.
“Such discriminatory and racialist attitudes in relation to religion should not be endorsed by educational literature in the modern world where slavery has been abolished,” the report read.
MDN recommends the removal of “discriminatory content” from school books in order to create tolerance and good will to all members of the globalized world.
The assessment was conducted with the assistance of Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives from December 2014 to March 2015.
(3)Dislikes(66)The opposition Jumhooree Party (JP) has officially accepted the president’s invitation for dialogue without conditions and assigned a four-member team to represent the party.
The JP said in a statement today that it hopes “political, social, and economic problems facing the Maldives” can be resolved through discussions.
President Abdulla Yameen had sent official invitation letters to the three allied parties today and appointed two ministerial teams to represent the government.
The JP promptly informed the president’s office that its representatives are deputy leader Ameen Ibrahim, MPs Ilham Ahmed, Abdulla Riyaz, and Hussain Mohamed.
However, at a press conference of the opposition ‘Maldivians against tyranny’ alliance this afternoon, Ameen questioned the sincerity of the president’s offer and called on the government to release detained opposition leaders and supporters.
Ameen said the continuing detention of main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) chairperson Ali Waheed, Adhaalath Party president Sheikh Imran Abdulla and JP senior member Sobah Rasheed is “unjust”.
“If the calls for dialogue is sincere, the government’s unjust brutality should stop. Unless it is stopped, what is there to talk about?” he said.
The opposition parties on Thursday had welcomed President Yameen’s call for talks, but had demanded the release of leaders arrested from the May Day anti-government demonstration.
Adhaalath Party spokesperson Ali Zahir told Minivan News today that the party will make a decision after internal discussions.
Ameen meanwhile noted that the opposition has repeatedly urged the government to hold talks to resolve the political crisis triggered by the arrest and imprisonment of former President Mohamed Nasheed and former defence minister Mohamed Nazim.
While the government insists that the demands to release Nasheed and Nazim are unlawful and beyond the president’s constitutional powers, Ameen said calls for releasing detainees within legal bounds were not unconstitutional.
Asked if the alliance expected a positive outcome from the talks, Ameen said the opposition has not lost hope, but would learn whether the government is sincere when the talks commence.
Meanwhile, the criminal court yesterday extended the remand detention of Imran and Ali Waheed by 10 days and seven days, respectively. The pair were arrested with court warrants in the wake of the May Day protest and accused of inciting violence.
Ameen was also arrested along with Imran and Ali Waheed, but the High Court last week overturned the criminal court’s order to hold him in remand detention for 15 days. All three were members of the alliance’s steering committee and had been on the front line of the May Day protest march.
Ameen said the prolonged detention of the opposition leaders and protesters arrested from the demonstration is “unacceptable” as police have interrogated the detainees and concluded investigations.
Imran, Waheed, and Sobah are kept in small cells apart from the rest of the prison population on Dhoonidhoo, Ameen said, adding that their punishment was similar to criminals serving 25-year jail sentences.
The opposition leaders have met the police upon request, shared information, and do not have criminal records, he added, questioning how they were found to pose a danger to society.
Malé mayor Mohamed Shihab said the MDP believes the detained leaders are “political prisoners”.
(0)Dislikes(0)The ministry of economic development has created an “enterprise development” unit to assist youth entrepreneurs set up businesses.
Speaking at a function held at the Hotel Jen last night, economic development minister Mohamed Saeed said the unit will facilitate loans, provide information and offer other services to startups.
The government will help youth with constructive ideas set up successful enterprises, he said.
The MVR200 million (US$12.9 million) ‘Get Set’ loan scheme is also intended to achieve the government’s goal of creating youth entrepreneurs, Saeed said.
(0)Dislikes(0)A Chinese team of scientists is conducting a seismic survey of the ocean basin between capital Malé and the airport island for a planned bridge.
Male-Hulhule bridge update: Seismic imaging of the sea started today. pic.twitter.com/7snef3HEvX
— Dr.Mohamed Muizzu (@MMuizzu) May 17, 2015
Housing minister Dr Mohamed Muizzu last week said the bridge will run from Malé’s surf point, Raalhugandu, to the southwest corner of Hulhulé island’s airport runway.
The Chinese team is to drill 29 boreholes, 59 meters deep, in the ocean basin to see if it can hold the bridge’s foundation pillars.
Designs for the six-lane bridge is expected to be completed by the end of June this year, the government has announced.
China has previously said it would ‘favorably consider financing’ the bridge if the design proves feasible, while President Xi Jinping said he hoped the government would call the bridge “the China-Maldives friendship bridge”.
It is expected to cost between US$100million to US$150million.
Construction of the Malé–Hulhulé Bridge, first slated to begin in 2014, will now start by the end of this year, and will be completed within two years.
The bridge, a key campaign pledge of President Abdulla Yameen, will also connect Malé to its suburb Hulhumalé, an artificial island located behind Hulhulé and connected by a short causeway.
In March, 227 hectares of land were reclaimed in Hulhumalé for a planned ‘Youth City.’
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