Author: JJ Robinson

UK election: hung parliament opens door to ‘ConDem’ coalition

The UK election has concluded in a hung parliament, the first in 36 years, with neither of the three primary parties having enough of a majority to form a government, in a situation that has both political pundits and electoral authorities scratching their heads.

David Cameron’s Conservative party, upon which the current Maldivian government’s economic policy is modelled, made substantial gains across the country, taking 305  seats, but fell short of 21 to reach a majority.

The ruling Labour government, headed by Gordon Brown, suffered a staggering loss of 91 seats but was not as scalded as many commentators had predicted, finishing on 258.

Both parties have now turned to the Liberal Democrats, headed by Nick Clegg, in the hopes of creating a coalition government stable enough to see off the opposition.

Given the widespread dissatisfaction with Labour over the expenses scandal, handling of the economic meltdown and its Middle East foreign policy, many commentators expected the Liberal Democrats to perform far better than they actually did among disgruntled Labour voters. The party took 57 seats, an overall loss of five on the previous election, but the result has effectively put Clegg in the position of kingmaker.

Both Brown and Cameron have already approached Clegg with offers of a coalition government, offering concessions around education, carbon cuts and tax reform, as well as an inquiry into electoral reform, the Liberal Democrat’s main point of contention.

On the surface the policies of the Liberal Democrats mesh far better with those   than the ‘small government’ Conservative, however Clegg has already positioned the Liberal Democrats as Labour alternative, vilifying the party in an attempt to lure dissatisfied voters. A ‘ConDem’ coalition is far more likely, however Clegg’s key supporters are likely to regard such a move as a ‘pact with the devil’.

Major disagreements include standing on the EU, immigration, public spending cuts of £6 billion and defence – areas on which Cameron has said he will not budge.

If a deal cannot be reached, it is likely a second election will be held – a not unwelcome outcome for the many thousands of voters who complained they had been unable to vote before the closing time of 10pm because of long queues, mismanagement and capacity problems at polling booths.

The uncertainty over the country’s political future has caused shares to plummet along with the pound and the FTSE-100, which dropped 138 points.

Meanwhile, as per protocol, the Queen is waiting on the sidelines in Buckingham Palace for the moment she will invite one of the party leaders to form a government.

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Islamic ministry completes religious unity regulations

The Ministry of Islamic Affairs has unveiled sweeping new regulations governing religion in the Maldives, to be published in the government’s gazette and made law under the Religious Unity Act of 1994.

State Minister for Islamic Affairs Sheikh Shaheem Ali Saeed said the new regulations had been produced with the assistance of the Attorney General Husnu Suood and the Maldives Police Service, and would be instrumental in curbing extremist ideologies in the country.

“The Islamic Ministry and the Government of the Maldives strongly support international concern about terrorism,” Shaheem said. “This why at the Islamic Ministry we are doing our best to work together with groups like the MNDF to make sure our country is peaceful.”

Key to the new regulations is the creation of a board with representatives from the Islamic Ministry, the Education Ministry, the Maldives College of Higher Education, the Fiqh Academy, police, NGOs, Maldivian religious scholars and licensed lawyers.

“Their job is to give advice to the Islamic Ministry and the government about how to make religious policy in the Maldives, and how to control these ideas,” Shaheem explained.

“For example, if we want to cancel a scholar’s license, first we will submit the problem to the board and the board will investigate and determine if it should be cancelled. Previously if a minister or the President of the Supreme Islamic Council could just cancel it, and it’s not good to have all the powers in one hand. We need to share it with NGOs and especially the Maldives police, because they have a lot of intelligence about international problems.”

He said he wished to thank “the international community, the President’s Office, the Maldives Police Service and the Maldives National Defense Force for their assistance and input [with the new regulations].

Shaheem noted that the new rules would require private organisations or civil society associations to seek the ministry’s approval before organising sermons by foreign scholars, and added that it was particularly strict concerning the issuing of fatwas (religious edicts) by individuals.

“Individuals issuing fatwas can be very dangerous and increase the level of extremism and terrorism,” Shaheem said.

The new regulations would also restrict the content of public speeches, in that “when a scholar gives speech he must respect both men and women, and he has no right to encourage aggression.”

Such talks could no longer be broadcast or telecast, he said.

New regulations in depth

The stated purpose of the new rules and guidelines is to “protect and maintain the age-old religious unity among Maldivians, eliminate problems that arise in society because of differences of opinion among scholars on religious matters, ensure that information provided to the public on these issues of conflict does not lead to division and strife, provide the opportunity for religious scholars to raise awareness on religious issues among the public, institute an advisory board to the Ministry of Islamic affairs and designate its functions and responsibilities.”

Clause 4 states that the regulations shall be enforced by the Islamic Ministry and authorises the ministry to delegate enforcement of provisions to other parties, while remaining the country’s highest authority on issuing rulings on religious matters.

Moreover, the ministry shall be empowered to issue “official fatwas” concerning issues on which scholars disagree, based on the Qur’an, the Prophet’s Hadiths, consensus among scholars and after considering “the social traditions of the country.”

Under the regulations, the president shall institute an advisory board in consultation with the Islamic Ministry to offer counsel and assistance in enforcing the regulations, including advising the ministry on revoking or suspending licenses issued to religious scholars.

The board shall also advise the ministry on ordering the relevant government authority to take action against “threats to religious unity”, recommend changes to policy, laws and regulations.

The Islamic Ministry will determine the composition of the board and assume its secretariat post.

To be eligible for the board, members must have at least a bachelors degree in either Islamic studies or Shariah law from an institution or university accepted by the Maldives government, while one of the three Islamic Ministry representatives on the board shall be elected as the chair.

Once the regulations are enforced, the Islamic Ministry will issue licenses for religious scholars to preach and deliver sermons.

The criteria for issuing licenses requires that the scholar be a Sunni Muslim of 25 years of age with a degree in Islamic studies from an accredited University.

Moreover, scholars who have been convicted of either a crime with a punishment prescribed in the Quran or of corruption, bribery, sexual assault or a drug-related offence shall not be eligible.

For scholars without the requisite qualifications, the ministry can issue licenses based on the board’s recommendation and the scholars’ experience and contributions to religious knowledge.

Further, foreign scholars must be mindful of Maldivian culture and tradition in delivering sermons or providing counsel.

Meanwhile, the guidelines for issuing fatwas requires that it conform to the Sunni sect and should not be in conflict with the consensus of Islamic scholars. Fatwas can only be issued in line with the Fiqh academy of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), the European Council for Fatwa and Research, the Egyptian Darul-Ifthaqil, Azhar University, the Maldives’ Islamic Fiqh academy, and the Rabiyathul Aaalamil Islamic Fiqh Academy.

Prohibitions

Once the regulations are published in the government gazette, it will be illegal to promote personal views on matters where there is a difference of opinion among scholars.

Sermons should not contain language that “encourages violence” or could lead to “conflict, quarreling and antagonism among the people”.

Moreover, it will be illegal to either telecast or broadcast sermons that “encroaches on the rights of a person based on gender” in opposition to Islamic principles.

It will also be illegal to preach other religions, and disseminate information on “culture and traditions” of another religion in a way that could “engender admiration for it” or build places of worship for religions other than Islam.

Clause 30(d) states it will be illegal to preach a religion other than Islam “through any medium” or disseminate information on another religion in a way that could “draw people’s interest and attention”. Publication and distribution of religious literature translated into Dhivehi will be illegal.

The ministry will also be empowered to order the deportation foreigners “suspected with sufficient evidence” of preaching or proselytizing other religions.

However clause 22 of the regulation states that providing information about other religions for academic purposes, official research or lectures for the purpose of comparison with Islam will now not be illegal. Moreover, the protection and preservation of ancient relics would be exempt from the regulations.

It will remain illegal for licensed broadcasters to air programmes, advertisements or music that either “insult or denigrate Islam”, in line with article 27 of the constitution, which allows for free expression except where that expression contradicts the tenets of Islam. Clause 35(b) of the new regulations explicitly states that internet websites and blogs shall not be exempt from this.

“There are two sides to extremism,” Shaheem explained, “including the extreme irreligious side. Some people are saying their own opinions about the Qur’an and and our beloved Prophet’s (PBUH) sunnah; it is not allowed for anyone to say whatever he wants to.”

It will furthermore be illegal for local businesses or companies to make announcements or publish advertisements with content that is “contrary to Islamic codes of conduct or behaviour.”

Religious subjects may only be taught in the country with authorisation from the relevant government authority, which has to approve the curriculum and syllabus.

The regulations will also make independent or breakaway prayer congregations illegal and subject to police action.

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MJA lambasts government through IFJ ‘Battle for Democracy’ report

A report on Press Freedom in South Asia published by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), entitled the ‘Battle for Democracy’, contains heavy criticsm of the Maldives’ commitment to free and independent media.

The glossy publication by the highly-regarded association, which also issues international press cards, cites President of the Maldives Journalists Association (MJA) and editor of newspaper Haveeru, Ahmed ‘Hiriga’ Zahir, as saying that President Mohamed Nasheed’s words in support of press freedom “were not being matched by deeds.”

“There have been overt and other more subtle efforts by his government to suppress the free functioning of the media,” the report claimed, referencing Hiriga’s comments.

The report also highlights “the potentially grave threat to independent media [in the] government’s decision to publish all press releases, announcements, tender notices and job advertisements in a specialised Government Gazette”.

Describing the recent attacks on media organisations, in which DhiTV was stormed by a gang of six men who threatened staff, and the stabbing of a Haveeru printery worker, the IFJ report notes the attacks “led to bitter exchanges between the MDP and DRP.”

“The following day a DRP official accused the MDP of instigating the attacks and questioned the ruling party’s oft-stated commitment to media freedom. Others spoke of strategies the government had introduced to kill the media.”

The report goes on to note that “government officials were known to be all too quick to use defamation laws to sue journalists and independent media outlets.”

However, no official of the new government has sued a journalist for defamation to date.

“The DRP and its allies as of 2009 had three criminal defamation suits pending against journalists, one by a former Chief Justice against Manas weekly, another by People’s Alliance President and MP Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom against Haama daily, and another by the President of the Poverty Alleviating Party MP Ahmed Saleem against Jazeera daily.”

The report also contained detailed criticisms of the country’s new media council, which it claimed would generate “an adversarial relationship between the media and the public.”

“[The media council] may be at variance with the general practice in media accountability legislation worldwide, which is to encourage self-regulation and promote a dialogue between the media and the public,” the report noted.

As a positive development, the IFJ mentions that “towards the end of his tenure as President, Abdul Gayoom signed in a set of regulations providing public access to information.”

The online version of the report is missing the section on the Maldives, although it acknowledges a contribution by the MJA.

Awards and Workshops

Following his address on Tuesday to mark UNESCO World Press Freedom Day, President Mohamed Nasheed launched the Maldives Journalist of the Year award, to recognise and promote quality journalism in the country.

Beginning in 2011, Nasheed explained that the recipient would be determined on a peer review basis, and not by the government.

“We want to have a free press and we want to do this because we strongly believe that freedom of press is important for consolidating democracy, and we also strongly believe that development can only be achieved through a free press,” he said.

In a further bid to improve the standard of journalism in the Maldives, the Commonweath Secretariat is holding a media development workshop June 14-17 in collaboration with the MJA.

Two senior editors from Singapore, including Bhagman Singh from MediaCorp News and Channel NewsAsia and Deputy Foreign Editor of English-language daily The Straits Times, will be leading the free seminar. Minivan News will also presenting a session on some of the challenges of reporting in the Maldives.

Topics will cover reporting and editing, as well as media law, ethics, media freedom, democracy and international relations.

Commonwealth Secretariat Deputy Spokesperson Manoah Esipisu said the workshop united two commonweath neighbours, Singapore and the Maldives, “in the sharing of expertise and experiences in media development.”

“This cross-cultural exchanges will help to broaden and deepen understanding on journalism and the influence of politics and governance, culture, tradition, environment, education and technology,” he said, adding that he hoped the workshop would lead to “greater consistency in the accuracy, fairness and balance of news reports.”

Maldivian nationals working in the news media are invited to submit an application form through the MJA’s website before June 1.

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Press freedom includes freedom from subsidies: President Nasheed

President Mohamed Nasheed has promised the Maldivian government “will not touch the press, and will not harass the press” despite the existence of rules and regulations to do so, a legacy of the former government.

“We [don’t] want to do this because we believe a free press is responsible for consolidating democracy,” he said, speaking to visiting dignitaries at the closing ceremony of the South Asia Regional Consultation on Freedom of Information.

At the same time, he said, the government did not want to subsidise the press either.

“Right now we are still subsidising the press – especially in terms of land,” Nasheed said. “This is very sad – the government has subsidised one of the very big newspapers with land, and is unable to similarly subsidise any other paper.”

Nasheed said he was “told every day that we should stop that subsidy to that newspaper, but it is one of the most established newspapers – whatever side they take – and is very well laid out with nice pictures.”

Television stations VTV and DhiTV were last week collectively the beneficiaries of nearly 50 percent of a ‘one-off’ Rf4 million subsidy approved and allocated by the same parliamentary committee. 35 percent was allocated to radio and the remaining 15 percent to print media. Online media, including Minivan News, was exempted from subsidies.

Improving the media

Nasheed said he would not invoke the phrase ‘responsible journalism’, as it was “very often a phrase used by politicians when they want to gag journalists.”

“In my mind all journalism is responsible – but how responsible it is depends on where you stand and how you are reading it. When you praise me, I might see it as very responsible – but someone else might see it as very irresponsible. I have always thought that any amount of criticism should be tolerated.”

The press, the president said, should be left to self-determine at the hands of market forces and “come up with their own ideas and sense of responsibility and how they want to behave and report to the public.”

In the spirit of this claim, “one of the first things we did when we came to government was to stop printing the pro-government, pro-party newspaper Minivan Daily. We did this at a great cost to ourselves, because there was no one to report the government point of view, and we understood the gap it would create.”

The government should appear in the news by virtue of its newsworthiness, Nasheed said, “not because we force or pay others to write about us, and not because we have a government subsidised newspaper. Let us stand behind podiums and try to bring the government viewpoint across.”

Successive governments had abolished the newspapers of the previous regimes, he noted, and all the regulations to control the media were still present.

“I have been criticised by many of my friends in my party for not doing this, and therefore not being able to bring the government viewpoint across,” he said.

“I am hoping there will be at some point in time when people will realise that a certain news agency is not always coming out with the truth or being responsible – that people will decide to stop reading or listening to inaccurate media. We believe market forces will encourage media to produce reasonably accurate reports.”

Nasheed said a number “of very dynamic news agencies” in the Maldives had already begun shifting the manner and outlook in which they write, “so people are fairly reported.”

The manner in which the country dealt with media dissidents had progressed markedly, the President said.

“When I was first arrested [under the former government] the gentlemen in the cell next to be one of the best writers in the Maldives, Ahmed Waheed. He was an excellent writer, you couldn’t get better prose from anyone.

“For me, this talk of press freedom has always consolidated itself in this person. After seven months [in prison] he broke. When he was finally released was become totally retarded, he stopped writing, thinking, talking, conversing with anyone. We are unable to salvage or find him at all.”

“I’m not saying this to point out that previous administration was vindictive, or highlight their ways and means and methods, but to point out that this is what we have been facing.”

Nasheed noted that the current government “does not have a journalist in prison, and does not intend to have a journalist in prison.”

This, he said, was despite many of the country’s “most creative” journalists still retaining their connections “to agencies of the previous government.”

“Our core governance and values are very clear regarding press freedom. We want to be as fair as it is possible to be in the world, not as fair as it is dictated by South Asia or even the United Nations,” he declared.

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Maldives among few countries to improve press freedom

UNESCO World Press Freedom Day began with the news that the Maldives index has improved slightly following its 53 point leap last year, an achievement attributed to the new Constitution.

The Maldives is now ranked 102, equal place with Tanzina and Albania and marginally ahead of Turkey and Indonesia. The Maldives is still categorised as ‘partly free’, the reasons for which should be revealed when the country report is released in the coming days.

The rise came despite recent gang violence directed at media organisations and an attempt by police to block radio news coverage following emphatic protests outside MNDF headquarters and the President’s residence in January, drawing concern from the Maldives Journalist Association (MJA) and a number of media outlets.

Worldwide the index declined across almost every region in the world, for the eighth consecutive year, with one in six people now living in an environment without a free press. The only region to improve was Asia-Pacific, with significant strides in Bangladesh and Bhutan.

According to Freedom House, the international body that runs the index, countries are assessed on the developments of each calendar year, including the legal environment in which media operate, political influences and economic pressures.

Meanwhile, the two-day South Asia Regional Consultation on Freedom of Information: The Right to Know was launched in Holiday Inn this morning, by Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture Dr Ali Sawad.

Delegates from the media, government and civil society organisations in countries including Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka met discuss the development and implementation of freedom of information laws as a means of combating corruption and enshrining free press as a fourth estate.

In a video address, UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova noted that “every time we turn on the TV, turn on radio or go on the internet, the quality of what we hear depends on media having acess to accurate and up to date information.”

“The obstacles in the way of our right to know take many forms,” she said, “from lack of resources, to lack of infrastructure to deliberate obstruction. Far too many journalists suffer harassment, intimidation, and physical assault – all in a day’s work.”

Bokova called on government and civil society “to promote freedom of information all over the world.”

Many of the sessions on the first day of the conference focused around promoting freedom of information laws at a state level, however media representatives from countries including Bangladesh and Bhutan noted that even where freedom of information laws were available, they were not always used effectively by journalists.

Dehli Bureau Chief of The Hindu and keynote speaker Siddharth Varadarajan implied that freedom of information laws were less critical to freedom of the press “than our inability as journalists to transcend market forces and commercial considerations… and tendency to report trivia.”

Newspapers in India regularly sold “campaign coverage packages” to politicians come election season, he noted, a practice which “seriously compromises citizens’ trust in media content.”

A further consequence of such practices, he added, was a sense of dissatisfaction among journalists “at our inability to use the power at our disposal.”

“We have a responsiblity to be tougher, harder, and to call a spade a spade,” he said.

In his address, Dr Sawad similarly emphasised the responsibilities that came with the freedom of the press.

“With every right comes responsibilities,” Dr Sawad said. “In a free nation with free expression, the media must not forget its obligations to citizens to report fairly and accurately.”

The Maldives, he said, “has a very young free media, coming out of a culture where it was state owned and regulated. We have the challenge of dispelling the myth that the state represents media.”

Dr Sawad explained since its election, the current government “has committed to a step-by-step dismantling of the Department of Information, formerly the ministry of Information, to replace it with a stronger private media.”

State broadcasters Television Maldives (TVM) and radio station Voice of Maldives (VoM) had been placed under the new Maldivies National Broadcasting Corporation (MNBC), “a separate corporate entity with its own board and budget.”

A key challenge for the fledgling private media however was capacity building and training of its journalists, he explained.

“Private media has a very hard task. A lot of you are just past high school, with a keen professional interest in the field. But as we settle down and lay the foundations of democracy, we have to have to have the capacity to deliver democracy. You cannot give that objective to someone without the capacity to deliver it – the government has delivered democracy, but it has yet to be delivered to the people. ”

“Before the government lies the task of training, educating and strengthening the free press. As we celebrate UNESCO World Press Freedom Day, I call on the media to take up the challenge to deliver democracy with a sense of responsibility.”

The sessions continue tomorrow when President Mohamed Nasheed will launch the Journalist of the Year Award and Sukumar Muralidharan from the South Asian Chapter of the International Federation of Journalists will launch the South Asia Press Freedom Report.

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Indian press report growing concerns over possible terrorist base in Maldives

Concerns that Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba are seeking to establish a ‘sleeper cell’ in the Maldives have re-risen following reports in the Indian media.

The Times of India reported yesterday that India has quickened its efforts to formalise the counter-terrorism partnership between the two countries.

Quoting Indian intelligence sources, the Times reported that India “has noted with concern the sharp increase in the number of visitor from the Maldives to Pakistan, where they spend a lot of time travelling around the country for purposes which are unclear but suspicious.”

The isolation and strategic location of the Maldives make it a tempting target for groups such as Lashkar, which India has identified as responsible for the attacks in Mumbai on 26 November 2008, in which gunmen entered the city by sea and killed at least 173 people and wounded 308.

Minister for Home Affairs Mohamed Shihab travelled to India in early February to meet his counterpart P Chidambaram, in order to draw up a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on counterterrorism cooperation between the two countries that was to be signed in April.

State Minister for Home Affairs Adil Saleem said today Shihab was in Delhi but the trip was on the invitation of the World Bank regarding unrelated matters.

A spokesman for the Indian High Commission said defence agreements between India and the Maldives were “a continuous arrangement” and not specific to a particular incident or group.

He acknowledged that there was “support for fundamentalist groups” in the Maldives but would not speculate on who those groups were or defence arrangements between the two countries. He noted that no agreements had progressed since the minister’s last visit to India in February.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Ahmed Naseem noted that the Maldives and India performed intelligence sharing “very well”.

“India is very concerned about this group Lashkar-e-Taiba; I think all the countries in this region need to be vigilant,” Naseem said, emphasising the importance of “close cooperation with our regional neighbours.”

In a letter sent to the Indian parliament on Tuesday, India’s State Minister for Home Affairs Ajay Maken wrote that “available inputs indicate that Pakistan-based terrorist groups, primarily the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), are making concerted efforts to organise terrorist attacks in various parts of the country, including iconic institutions, prominent industrial installations and tourist locations among others.”

In order to do so, he noted, the group was making concerted efforts to develop links with other countries in the region, including the Maldives.

Other prominent groups posing a threat included Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hizbul-Mujahideen (HM), Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami (HuJI), Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), Al Badr, Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF), Khalistan Commando force, International Sikh Youth federation (ISYF), United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) and Communist party of India (Maoist),” Maken noted.

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Licenses of false scholars will be revoked, warns Islamic Ministry

The Ministry of Islamic Affairs has claimed it will be taking action against religious scholars who spread ‘false information’ about Islam, in a bid to tackle rising concerns over fundamentalism in the country.

State Minister Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed said this action would extend to revoking the licenses of these scholars once the requisite regulation in the Religious Unity Act was returned from the Attorney General’s office this week.

“We will investigate these matters and in the future an advisory board will be appointed to make these decisions,” Shaheem explained.

The first scholar to likely have his license cancelled under the new regulations will be Sheikh Nasrulla, Shaheem said, after the Islamic Ministry received complaints about the Sheikh from the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM).

In a letter to the ministry dated last October, HRCM reported that during a Ramadan sermon to teachers in Gaafu Alifu Villingili, Sheikh Nasrulla encouraged people “to get their daughters married when they are nine years old.”

“We have information that he said ‘my daughter was also married when she was 9 years old’,” HRCM said in the letter, stating that this practice conflicted with human rights.

The commission also noted that “while it is not prohibited to get married at such a young age in Islam, when scholars speak and spread information like this, children’s studies are ruined and they are forced to marry when they are psychologically and physically unprepared for it.”

“We respectfully request [the Islamic Ministry] stop these acts as it confuses people about the Islamic religion and brings intense hatred towards it.”

President of HRCM Ahmed Saleem said today that the Islamic Ministry’s decision to take concrete action against scholars preaching such practices was “very encouraging.”

“I think the ministry has been quietly trying to do things in the background, but it hasn’t been working and they seem to have decided to go public,” Saleem said. “A lot of people have been shifting blame on the Ministry.”

HRCM sent the letter to the Islamic Ministry last year following complaints from the community that young girls were being married, and asked the ministry to investigate the matter.

“I don’t think Nasrulla is the only one preaching it; just taking action against Nasrulla is not enough,” Saleem said.

He agreed that there was “to some extent” conflict between human rights and certain interpretations of Islam present in the Maldives.

“My sense is that people understand human rights as a western concept, but that is not the case,” Saleem said.

“If you talk to some scholars human rights is very much part of Islam – Islam itself preaches human rights.”

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Maldives to introduce study of comparative religion, says State Islamic Minister

State Minister for Islamic Affairs Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed is advocating the study of ‘comparative religion’ in the Maldives.

“It is important for both Muslims and non-Muslims to compare their religions and cultures, and to compare philosophies,” Shaheem told Minivan News, explaining that subject was taught in many Islamic universities across the world, including academic institutions in Malaysia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Visiting Islamic lecturer Zakir Naik is a well-known proponent of comparative religion, and frequently quotes verses of other religious texts to support his arguments.

The religions to be studied in the Maldives course would include “all those in the world: Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, and the other religions,” Shaheem said.

In the lead up to the launch of the course, Shaheem explained that the Islamic Ministry was drafting regulations legalising possession of books concerning other religions, such as the bible, “for educational and research purposes”.

Permitting the study of comparative religion did not mean permitting the worship of other religions in the Maldives, a 100 percent Muslim nation, Shaheem emphasised.

“The subject is comparative religion,” he said. “It will compare between Islam with other religions – such as Christianity and Judaism. At the end of study, students will know the differences and the similarities. When you study other religions, that doesn’t mean you convert to other religions – it is my belief that by the end of this people should know that Islam is the truth.”

Shaheem said the course would only be taught from an undergraduate degree level, and not secondary level “because [students’] minds are not prepared to deal with these philosophies. They are ready for it at university level,” he said.

An understanding of comparative religion would strength Islamic faith in the Maldives, Shaheem said, “because when Muslims study this subject they learn how to deal with other philosophies – they learn about what others believe, the differences between us and them, and what is the right side.”

He said he did not anticipate any objections to the new course, but noted that “the interpretation of Shar’ia has to develop from period to period. The island has become a country, the country has become a region, the region has become a world. Muslims have to be aware of these philosophies in order to deal with others in the world.”

At the same time, Shaheem said, it was necessary for other cultures to learn about Islamic culture.

“They must learn that Islam is not a religion of terrorism and extremism, or an uncivilised religion. Islam is a civilised system, because it provides all the needs of a human being – for example, in Christianity and Judaism philosophies there is no democratic political system, there is no family law, there is no economic system; we have a penal code, code, family law, economic law, even an Islamic banking system. This is why Islam is among the fastest growing religions in Europe, America and the rest of the Western world – Islam is everywhere.”

Shaheem noted that many scholars in the Maldives had studied the subject, including himself, and put himself forward as a potential teacher.

“I have studied this subject in Saudi Arabia, and I am very interested in comparative religion,” he said. “I am sure that when people study these things, at the end of the story they will agree that Islam is the truth.”

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Shangri-La dismisses 14 striking staff, invites rest to return to work

Shangri-La Villingili Resort and Spa has invited striking staff to return to work, after 157 staff stopped working in protest over the dismissal of four villa hosts.

The villa hosts were dismissed after security and a duty manager discovered they had locked themselves in a guest villa with a PlayStation during a lunch break.

Senior management from the hotel chain flew into the Maldives earlier this week to resolve the situation, just as the Ministry of Human Resources and the Tourism Employees Association of the Maldives (TEAM) became involved.

A statement from the resort today said while management “acknowledges and accepts employees’ rights under Maldivian
Law, because of the serious nature of employee behaviour, 14 staff members will no longer be employed by the property.”

“The management will fill the resulting vacancies with Maldivians,” it added.

Other employees “are invited to return to work”, the resort’s statement said, adding that “initial claims that 65 employees were dismissed are untrue.”

“The resolution reflects the desire to move forward in a fair and reasonable manner considering the needs of the local community and all employees. The resort is operating as normal and no guests have been affected,” Shangri-La said.

Minivan News contacted one of the striking employees camped on Feydhoo, who said the protesters would stick to their original demands, which include a written statement from the resort reinstating the dismissed employees.

“Most of the strikers have been given first and last warnings, which means next thing they do wrong they will be dismissed,” he claimed.

The resort’s general manager went to Feydhoo yesterday and called the 14 dismissed strikers one by one to an area secured by riot police, the striker claimed, to inform them of their dismissal.

Vice President of TEAM Mauroof Zakir said those dismissed included the four villa hosts “and 10 staff who management suspects have been leading the strike.”

He noted that the protesting staff had taken a vote yesterday over whether to continue to with the strike “and the majority decided to continue.”

More than 80 staff are continuing to strike, he said, adding that the resort was continuing to operate normally “because the majority of staff are expatriate.”

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