Author: Ben Plewright

Letter on freedom and the Maldives

Dear Maldives,

I would like to share my story with you guys, to reflect on the prospect of freedom in the Malsdives.

In July 2001, as a student of Humanities at Curtin University in Western Australia, I met, fell in love with and married a Maldivian woman, an ‘overseas student’ from my Political Sciences class.

Due to certain painful complications, although pregnant with my first ever child, the Australian government was threatening to send my wife back to the Maldives.

Preparing myself to live and work in the Maldives to be with my wife and baby, I looked up the Maldives on the net. I wanted to learn something about the ‘culture’ of the Maldives so that I had an idea of how to go about fitting in.

Guess what came up.

The Maldives Culture website and its terrifying tales of a nation run by a murderous dictator who brutally imposed a rigid, mental strait jacket on his people through the control of the religious thought of his people enraged me.

Images of murder and torture imposed on any who dared to think with their own minds, or exercise an ounce of independent thought, religious free thinking or existential creativity caused me to tremble with indignation that a people could be so repressed. I felt this with a particularly fierce intensity seems I have always deeply cherished creative religious thought. My own background involved personal rebellion against the church I had been brought up in, so I was an individualistic oddball even by post-modern western standards, you might say.

Yet, still believing that for love, the sacrifice of self was noble, I decided I would be conformed to whatever I had to be to make sure I could be with my wife and child-to-be. I would allow this Maumoon to control my mind if it meant I was given a visa to be with my family in the Maldives, as it seemed at that stage they had to go back to Maldives. I felt I had no choice.

The next set of complications started when it became difficult to get our marriage registered in the Maldives. Although one particularly kind Maldivian gentleman tried hard to submit our marriage registration papers to Maldivian authorities and get our marriage validated so that I could get a visa, we kept on getting feedback such as, how can I prove my conversion to Islam was not just for marriage purposes? I received letters from the Imam to verify my revert status, certificates, yet the Maldivian Government still was not satisfied that I was genuine.

I began to panic.

I had nightmares of my wife being whipped for adultery and my son being brought up as a half-caste, illegitimate, ostracised nobody in the Maldives, a “bastard’ to use the term in its technical sense. I was told that this was a particularly grave shame in the Maldives. My hatred of Maumoon, who I believed would do this to my family, my fear of him became so intense, that I nearly had a nervous breakdown.

For the sake of my wife’s health, I put on a brave face as though nothing was wrong. When my son was finally born, my wife fell unconscious. I held my newborn baby son in my arms, loving him, so protective. Not knowing if I would keep him or lose him, I clung to him like a desperate madman. In front of everyone, I broke down and wept all over him, I loved him so much; I could not hold my pain inside me any longer. He was so beautiful, and here was I, his Daddy, who loved him so much, yet felt so completely helpless and afraid, so utterly powerless, and the grief was tearing my soul apart.

It took another six difficult years to have this issue resolved. I was in hell, not knowing whether Australian immigration or Maldivian immigration were going to come through. These were years of panic and immense stress. In that time, we had another child, and my interest in Maldivian politics became deep and personal.

The problem became harder when Abdullah Yameen Abdul-Gayoom came to Perth for a week to settle his son into studies. Trying all I could to get things done in the Maldives, I met up with him and tried to patronise him to use him to get some help for me. Sadly, that plan backfired on me viciously.

During these years, I found myself inspired and encouraged by reading about one particularly brave hero, Mohammed ‘Anni’ Nasheed, and the sufferings and the torture he went through fighting a non-violent struggle against this ruthless dictator Maumoon. This Nasheed character was embedded into my imagination as the archetype of courage, freedom, strength, justice, compassion and liberty.

Though I had never met him, he became something like a cult figure to me. I believed that he was suffering so that all oppressed Maldivians could be free. I believed that he was suffering for me. In my confused, anxious, distressed mind, I felt a deep spiritual bond with this guy, although, at that time he would not have known that I even existed.

Just as the endurance, the non-violence and the suffering of Mohammed Nasheed became the hope of oppressed Maldivians, he became my hope as well.

When my issue was finally resolved, I went to the Maldives for three months. The first thing I did was march into the MDP office wishing to offer my support. Anni and a host of other high profile MDP characters were there as there was some important MDP conference coming up. It was about a year before Anni became President. So I met Anni, and the most embarrassing thing happened. All my stress and anger at Maumoon and Yameen flew out of my mouth in that second. I exploded with rage, sadness, I was trembling. Years of pent up pressure, fear, confusion and anger was released onto Anni. I have no doubt he thought I was a total mad man, and he would have been right. Before I could explain myself to him calmly and plainly, I was whisked out of that MDP office as I had a sea plane to catch. Though I tried desperately hard to meet with Anni again to explain myself clearly, it was never meant to be.

Although my hero ‘Anni’ no doubt remembers me as a mad man, to this day, I still revere him for the sacrifices he made to oust a dictator.

This is why it is so hard for me to mentally digest it if it seems that Anni may have been involved in shady deals (bribing MP’s for example) even if they were deals done in desperation to secure the common good of the Maldives. My education and rational mind tells me, Ben, you know what politics is, don’t be so damned naïve. My rational mind is screaming, you know the way that reality works Ben, get the hell over it, power corrupts, and the path to power is corrupt.

My rational mind knows that the MDP is not entirely a bunch of humanitarian martyrs. I know that MDP has the support of both the liberal thinkers and the previously disgruntled businessmen whose motives may not be national interest. Yet my imagination, my creative mind says NO, not Anni, not he, my hero. It hurts me to digest the truth, but, I am a man, so I am digesting the truth, as unsettling as it is. I went through this same painful loss of faith when I left my church, and I am doing it again. I will be less naïve with my comments from now on.

However, if ever I met Anni again, I would like to remind him, that he is still the hope of many Maldivians for freedom and justice.

President Mohammed Anni Nasheed, I would like to remind you, that for many painful years, you were the hope of the freedom of the people of the Maldives. Your people were lead to believe, through Sandhaanu, through the Maldives Culture website, through Dhivehi Observer website and through Minivan Daily and later through Minivan News, that you would free the people of the Maldives from fear.

This includes the freedom from the fear of being used by corrupt politicians, freedom from the fear of gangsters, freedom from the fear of homelessness, freedom from the fear of hunger and want, freedom from the fear of mind control, and freedom from the fear of the loss of freedom of speech.

For the liberties that you have already given, I am deeply grateful, thank you very much. I am appreciative for all that you have done, and I am sure many of your people are as well.

Again, thank you.

But please keep in mind dear President, that many Maldivians still live in a state of fear, and that it seems that when you made the people believe there would be no more fear of the type they experience, you still have a lot of work to do to fulfill what you have allowed people to believe you would do.

It is less painful to have not hoped, than to have hoped and to have been disappointed, dear President. It seems you have been the source of that hope, you will also be targeted as the source of the pain should the people’s hopes remain unfulfilled. I am sure that you are aware of what that means. You will be punished by the electorate, and in how you will go down in memory, if the hopes of the people are betrayed.

So please, from now on, do everything in your power, to realise your people’s hope, dear President. Put all unnecessary things aside; waste no money on non-essentials, and just GO FOR IT!

Despite the recent disappointments, we still believe in you. Our love and our prayers will help you.

Your Sincerely,

Ben Plewright

All letters are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write a letter, please submit it to [email protected]

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Letter on repressing extremism

Dear readers,

A very liberal sentiment was once expressed by Mohammed ‘Anni’ Nasheed (before he became the President of the Maldives), which many believe is now being proved to have been a naive and a false sentiment.

It was expressed during the course of a small debate held on a rooftop in Male’ before a journalist from Al-Jazeera between Mohammed Nasheed and the Honorable Mr Umar Naseer, at that time the leader of his own IDP (Islamic Democratic Party), and the Honorable Mr Mohamed Nasheed, the ‘then’ Information Minister under the Gayoom adminstration.

Opposing Umar Naseer’s opinion that the government needs to curb extremism through repressive measures for extremism to cease being a threat, Mohammed ‘Anni’ Nasheed expressed that he believed that a government cannot end extremist attitudes through repression.

Despite the fact that recent events in the Maldives (flag burning, the repression of women etc) really do seem to make Anni’s liberal belief seem optimistic to the point of being naive, I can still say that ultimately, I believe Mohammed ‘Anni’ Nasheed was correct.

Repression does not deal with the underlying issues which cause the hatred, it merely makes most people afraid of expressing that hatred openly. At the same time, repression causes that hatred to brew like a pressure cooker.

It has often been argued that these problems of religiously masked hatred were created due to the repression of people’s democratic hopes and ambitions (read some post-modern, pseudo-anarchist view’s on liberty such as Noam Chomsky for example).

US foreign policy is very often blamed by left wing think tanks for the existence of terrorism. However, despite these views, I am also of the opinion that Mr Umar Naseer’s view that the government must repress the expression of hatred, does seem to have some validity to it.

Such a view is becoming increasinly popular amongst Maldivians I have spoken to. Evidence that I have encountered does indeed suggest that the act of merely granting freedom and removing political repression are nowhere near enough to get rid of the hatred expressed through religious extremism.

When freedom is given, often the hatred does the opposite of dissipating – it vents itself fully. It reminds me of a cobra – lying still, wanting to attack yet afraid, then standing strong and venting – ready to attack once it has the power and freedom to do so!

For example, about a year before Khomeini came into power in Iran in 1979, the US felt it had made a mistake giving too much power to the Shah to repress any dissidence. The US encouraged the Shah to remove many restrictions on thought and belief.

The US did this because anti-US sentiment was reaching boiling point and the US felt it needed to alleviate some of the tension it created, and thought that hatred would die if freedom was given. However, Khomeini’s fierce anti-US tapes and messages, banned by the Shah, were all of a sudden made legal and reached EVERYONE, not only the ultra-religious and those in the game of smuggling propaganda illegally.

All of a sudden, the hateful felt the courage to vent that hatred like never before, that whipped the whole nation up into a frienzy of hatred as the ‘fire’ caught on, and WHAM! The Iranian people used the freedom they had been given to throw themselves straight into a darker, more brutal political and ideological prison than what they experienced under the Shah!

When the US encouraged the Saudis to remove certain restrictions, extremist opposition, which lay dormant through repression, came “out of the closet” like never before! The same thing happened in Iraq when Saddam was taken from power.

Yet I have said does not mean that I believe that hatred can be eradicated through repression! It only means that I believe that hatred can only be repressed through repression.

Sometimes, unfortunately, until hatred and violence can be removed from a person’s heart, it MUST be repressed for the protection of others. Ultimately, however, I do believe that only caring and personal humility can take away the disease of hatred in a person’s soul, and that the role of a government should not be merely to repress the expression of hatred.

A Government should also use its power to strive to create a situation where the hearts of the hateful can be transformed through the power of genuine caring and universal love. This may take years of pain and caring to achieve, but it must be achieved.

Ben Plewright

<em>All letters are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write a letter, please submit it to [email protected]</em>

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Letter on democratic culture

For democracy to prevail over the ominous threat of the return of tyranny to the Maldives, it is imperative that enough politicians and Maldivian people take seriously this notion that democracy really does start from the heart through the cultivation of what one may call a democratic ‘culture.’

Etymologically, culture simply means something which has been cultivated.

Structural approaches to democratisation which have not vigorously attempted to cultivate an attitude of tolerance, compromise, willingness to listen and work for the people, have failed.

In the seventies and eighties, the US Government supported right wing dictators all over the world preparing these nations for “liberal democracy.” (Commonly termed the top down democratisation approach.)

The dictators main job was to secure the economic interests of the rich and control the poor with both religion and brutality until the poor were rich enough to be trusted with freedom.

However, wealth did not always trickle down the way it was supposed to. The rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Dictators did not simply step down once an economy was ‘ready’.

Amartya Sen’s idea of bottom up democratisation, seemed to have more success, as so many struggled and suffered at a grassroots level to bring down dictators through activism. Many freedoms were won. Yet can they be maintained without the cultivation of a democratic culture?

Some would suggest that once people are economically developed and free, a democratic culture would emerge naturally.

Karl Marx, offering an inversion of Ludwig Feurbach’s application of the Hegelian thesis on Consciousness, said that consciousness does not determine one’s economic well being and life, but that ones economic situation determines ones consciousness. This seemed to be taken for granted in much of this bottom up democratisation theory. It was thought that if people were poor, they could not be reasonable, and if they had wealth, they could be reasonable and moral.

So, instead of teaching people to be reasonable in the voting arena or anywhere else, if you helped them become economically self determining and independent, then reason and moral consciousness would be created as a natural response to the economic development. Therefore, you don’t have to teach people critical thinking and morality, it grows by itself with economic self realization.

At least, that was the theory.

However, many radical Islamists who push for Jihad are educated and wealthy. Education and wealth does not often stop those inclined to support gangsters from supporting gangsters. It just makes them support the gangsters with wealth and more power.

For corruption and tyranny to be eradicated, people’s hearts need to be changed, and, only a combination of suffering and compassion, can teach people compassion, reason and a sense of true humanitarian moral justice.

I am advocating old fashioned ideological determinism, but something more, that nothing can change, unless the heart is changed, and the heart can be only changed through self sacrificial love.

Perhaps the first change that needs to take place is that the hegemonic super-structural cultural capital of a Maldivian society (I am using the word hegemony in Gramsci ‘s sense rather than the conventional sense meaning ‘power’) needs to promote compassion and tolerance rather than prejudice. That’s right; I am talking about your Islam.

As Islam is the heart centre of Maldives’ cultural capital, it is imperative that a tolerant, compassionate form of Islam is promoted.

Religious identity is at the centre of a person’s subconscious being. What one believes about the ultimate nature of the universe will determine their attitudes in all other areas. If ones ontological foundation is an intolerant, unreasonable deity, such will not be able to be politically open minded enough to be able to have and sustain a democracy.

Other factors are also involved. One needs to be disciplined enough to overcome personal hatreds. One issue which makes politics difficult in Maldives is that things so very easily become personal seems Maldives is such a smal society. This needs to be overcome.

If Maldivians are serious about democracy, and in fact in harmonious existence altogether, respect for diversity and tolerance has to be promoted vigorously before it is too late!

Kindest Regards

Ben Plewright

All letters are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write a letter piece, please submit it to [email protected]

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Comment: Decades of corruption and tyranny leave Maldivians narcissistic and power hungry

Over the years I have closely observed an acute realism in the thinking of many of the Maldivians I have come across.

Such realism is a natural response to all of the corruption and tyranny that has been perpetrated by those who are supposed to be grand and noble.

This realism often leads to a profound suspicion about the motives of others. At times, it takes on an Islamic face. In a sigh of despair many proclaim, nothing can be done, it is Allah’s Will.

An observed manifestation of this acute realism in some is extreme narcissistic power hunger and personal corruption. Many reason, well, there is no way to escape corruption, if I am not corrupt I will get done over by the corrupt guy.

Despite this realism, leaders are still worshipped by some Maldivians although everyone knows the rhetoric and the cult nature of Maldivian political life is based on a whole lot of lies.

Leaders with absolute power get high on the power trip of being worshipped, no doubt knowing that it is only out of fear and selfish ambition that the people are worshipping them. To save one’s skin, or to promote one’s own self, one worships the leader publically.

So taking all this into account, the question arises… Why should one pursue justice when one is intelligent enough to know that we human beings are all corrupt and can never be anything but?

Human nature is selfish, self-deceptive and prone to corruption. Justice and goodness are defined by the powerful, surely there is no such thing as a real right and wrong, there is only ‘will to power…’

This was posed by Thrasymachus to Socrates in Plato’s Republic, and has been debated ever since.

There is a reward for pursuing truth, compassion and justice, not in a conventional economic sense, and not in a this worldly sense. The seekers of good in this life are normally tortured, rejected, and suffer for it.

The evidence that there is a reward comes from those who have suffered and/or died struggling for truth, compassion and justice when they knew they would never see it. The death and suffering of all the martyr’s for love and justice in human history proves that what they have, what they feel, is something much, something far deeper than what can be realized in this life. It is evidence that they have something, know something that is worth dying for.

This something is a hope rooted in an experience of a reality deeper than death. It is a profound sense of the sanctity of humanity which cannot possibly or logically come from this world.

It is awakened through both pain and love. It is the reality which this word justice is founded on.

Yes, justice is real, and it is not relative or subjective. It is the reward and punishment due for ones level of respect for the sanctity of humanity.

The need for justice is innate, and it is the greatest proof of the existence of a Supreme Being there is. Justice is frustrated in this world, and yet we still desire it and believe in it though we know we can never get it on this earth. The fact that this need for justice we have survives even though it is obvious that we will never get justice on this earth proves that this need must come from a source deeper and more powerful than what we can see in this world.

There is an inbuilt, a subconscious homesickness in each one of us for a home we do not know, for perfection and a humanity we have never experienced. This a-priori longing for the unknown is evidence that something outside of that which we perceive has reached down to us and put in our hearts a hunger for that which is existant only in the afterlife. It is the sense of the Divine which is the knowing of the unknown.

Where else would this persistant hunger for justice and perfection come from seems we cannot possibly get it from this world? What would motivate us to struggle for the sanctity of humanity knowing that on this Earth we will never realize it, if the knowledge of this perfection were not somehow built into our unconscious minds as the way the Divine makes us long for the Divine?

Do we crave for a food we have never tasted? So why do we crave for justice when we have never tasted that? Our taste for justice could not possibly have come from this earth, so where does this taste for justice come from if it is not somehow innate, an inbuilt sense of hope which whilst obviously not derived from this earth must only come from beyond it.

It does not help to deny the existence of the Creator in the name of Justice as so many have done. (Marxist’s… just to name the most common group…) Indeed, the existence of a Divine Creator and in an afterlife is the only possible and plausible hope for justice there is.

This is because, whilst some may get justice on this earth, it is painfully apparent that no matter how idealistic and disciplined the seekers of justice or the constitutionally ordained deliverers of justice are, human nature is such that there will always be injustice no matter how hard we work to ensure that this is not the case.

The socialist experiments proved this. I am here in a so called just and civilised society (Australia) and there is still rampant injustice and racism everywhere, even though we had been struggling to eradicate injustice and human rights oppression for over a hundred years.

So if you think Mohammed Anni Nasheed or any other leader can give everybody justice, you will soon be bitterly disappointed. Or if you really believe you can bring justice for everyone, you are either naïve or dangerously deluded.

Indeed, many leaders have held this belief. Due to our human need to feel self important, this belief does not cease in the face of obvious injustice. It does become a delusion. Once a delusion forms, many others form. It leads to schizophrenic paranoia and tyranny. The only way this dangerous delusion can be broken is through humility. Yet sadly, humility is never the thing that propels people into power.

Also, and this is the hard part, this inner hope I speak of is deepened by personal suffering. Suffering without this hope becomes selfishness, bitterness, moral despair, depression or rage. It often brings hunger for blood or hunger for God like status. Yet suffering, if fused with this hope, gives inner strength, compassion, spiritual power, maturity and wisdom.

There is a reward for struggling for humanity, even though it can never be completely realized on this earth. There is also a punishment for exploiting and belittling humanity in the pursuit of personal power.

At the end of all the reward and punishment however, I believe that the source of this hope I speak of is also Merciful beyond what we humans could ever comprehend. We are all as corrupt as each other; we are all hypocrites, all of us human beings. For every good we do we will also do as much bad. It is only through the Mercy of this hope that we have any right to experience the reward for following it because, we all deserve as much punishment as we do reward.

May we strive to awaken this hope in one another through compassion…

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Letter on Maumoon

Dear Maldives,

“It was not done by him alone. It was a whole system that did it. It was Dhivehi tradition that did it. It was Dhivehi culture that did it…”

-President Nasheed from Minivan News article “If you want to sue Shafeeg, you’ll have to sue me,” relating to torture allegations.

Thank you Anni. This insight is a tremendous gift to your people.

I am not a Maldivian, but I have been personally hurt by and afraid of Abdulla Yameen (Gayoom’s brother) unjustly, so I have tasted this aspect of Dhivehi culture that Anni refers to. I have tasted the dehumanising crush of the fear which your nation has been shattered by, and the bitter hatred and anger which it becomes, and I don’t even have to live there.

For you guys, who have to live there and cannot escape it, I admire and revere your ability to push on with life under such heavy oppression. You guys are really my heroes just for being able to do that.

The political system of the Maldives is a vicious, self-reinforcing cycle of fear and aggression which manifests as narcisistic power hunger.

Leaders come into power with the greatest knowledge and the noblest sentiments, yet end up being made pawns of this cycle. In a desperate bid to restore order and civility in times of chaos, pressing corruption and violence, the noblest souls become tyrants even against their own will.

Small corruption is used to fight big corruption when it seems nothing else will work, but this small corruption in turn becomes big corruption when those who use it become addicted to it and enslaved by its power.

A strong hand and an extravagant display of might (the former palace of Theemuge’) is used to crush the will of potential anarchy, but it crushes the soul of the masses in the process. It too becomes addictive.

I saw Maumoon go through all this. Maumoon was a great and profound Islamic scholar and humanist who came to power with the most liberal of intentions. Transparency, democracy, he believed he could give it all. He wanted to, but the ‘system’ got the better of him.

I still have the greatest respect and admiration for Maumoon the scholar and great liberal thinker, but Maumoon the President became the face of that vicious culture Anni is referring to, even against the will of Maumoon himself.

It is obvious that even Anni has faced an inner conflict between his grand, beautiful desire to forgive and the apparent need to resort to tyrannical measures when nothing else works to control corruption and violence.

For true justice to be done for those 111 people mentioned in the cited article, it is not only the perpetrators who must face justice, but the system itself which perpetuates this injustice must be smashed to pieces through genuine acts of sincere tauba (repentance) and sincere forgiveness.

The real enemy is not Maumoon, or his cronies, or the gangsters, no, these are only pawns of the enemy, slaves of the enemy. The real enemy is fear and hatred itself and its system. Only forgiveness can bring true justice, because only forgiveness can destroy hatred and the cycle of fear and hatred it perpetuates.

The cultural cycle has to be ended by someone forgiving, and giving love in return for hatred, as hard as that is. You can’t elevate yourself above a culture run by hatred into the realm of a culture of peace and justice, unless one makes that self-sacrifice of one’s own right to take vengeance, and show mercy, even though vengeance (justice) is your right.

This is not to say that justice must not be pursued. Yet it must be pursued in a rightful manner, even if that drags out for years. The offer of forgiveness must always be extended to those who offer to repay stolen money or make amends for their wrong doings whilst justice is being pursued. Reconciliation must be pursued at the same time justice is pursued. The quick fix tyrannical solutions to eradicating injustice, though they seem like the only way forward when a whole nation is frustrated by corruption and violence, will only perpetuate the cycle of hatred and fear.

Of course, one must be prevented from perpetrating violence by force and by protecting the public from their evil through putting them somewhere (in Aarah), but even there the focus must be on rehabilitating them and helping them heal them so they can be kind, honest people. Even if they can never be released, because they can never be safe, they must be able to find human dignity through creative expression in jail (religion, art, exercise etc…) as the whole culture must change to uplift the essential dignity and sanctity of life.

Maumoon himself has been so intoxicated over the years by this vision of himself as a benevolent and compassionate leader, that he has still not been able to actually accept that he has hurt people. To do so, to accept this, Maumoon would realize that his vision of himself is a delusion, and everything he had ever lived for would seem like a failure. However, unless Maumoon does realize this, and does feel genuine sorrow for his victims, there will never be any real healing for the victims, and the hunger for vengeance which fuels Maldivian politics will burn on.

I wish I could offer this to Maumoon.

Maumoon, you are a great soul, but please realize the truth of what your position had forced you to become. Please don’t despair Maumoon, you can still be great, by asking for forgiveness from those you have hurt. If you don’t do this, you will die a failure. If you do this, you will be the great man you had been created to be as your contribution to the healing of your nation will be greater than anybody’s.

I ask everyone to contemplate these Ayat’s:

“… They should rather pardon and overlook. Would you not love Allah to forgive you? Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (Qur’an, 24: 22)

“The repayment of a bad action is one equivalent to it. But if someone pardons and puts things right, his reward is with Allah…” (Qur’an, 42:40)

“But if someone is steadfast and forgives, that is the most resolute course to follow.” (Qur’an, 42:43)

Believers are described in Qur’an as those who “control their rage and pardon other people.” (Qur’an, 3:134)

Kindest Regards,

Ben ‘Abdul-Rahman’ Plewright

All letters are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write a letter piece, please submit it to [email protected]

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Comment: Sharia punishments would be a sin given the current state of the judiciary

It is natural to want the Huddud (Laws of Qur’an and Sunnah) applied when one is experiencing so much death and tragedy as is happening in the Maldives.

But before the death penalty can be applied, the legal system must be absolutely objective. Unless there is a strong faith in the ability of the justice system, unless there is widespread faith that there are no incompetent judges or possibilities of bribery or subjectivity in the decision making procedure, it is a sin to implement Shariah Law which is a huge Amanah (trust) and MUST NOT BE TOYED WITH!

Before Maldives can implement Shariah, it MUST first establish widespread trust in the judiciary by through serious reform measures.

“O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be (against) rich or poor: for Allah can best protect both. Follow not the lusts (of your hearts), lest ye swerve, and if ye distort (justice) or decline to do justice, verily Allah is well-acquainted with all that ye do.” [An-Nisa 4:35]

The law as we know it is believed by many to be a shocking betrayal of the Quran’s Amr (command) to ensure absolute objectivity. Adhaalath and Al-Qisas (social justice and equity for all) are a MUST before Hadd can be applied!

What if your children were put to death for a crime that was made up? False charges occur very frequently.

What if the drug dealers and corrupt ones who control court rooms in much of the world killed your son or daughter on charges of “terror” or manufactured charges of murder, zina or anything – but all your children really did was try to prevent the drug dealers from harming people? And were killed for that based on false charges made up that they committed zina?

As the Ummah is as one body, and one feels the pain of every other, I cannot but help fend for the potential victims of injustice under a system which sees the rich and powerful use the legal system to exterminate their enemies unjustly.

Think about all those who stood up against tyrants in world history, and imagine if they had of been killed by the State in the name of Islam even though they were fighting for True Islam which is Peace and Justice.

Real peace cannot exist in the absence of justice – how many crimes were manufactured against the activists of history?

It seems that in the system we have, to be a Muslim, which implies standing up for the downtrodden, sick and oppressed, is to sacrifice yourself. This is because truth suffers in this unjust world, but that suffering must be embraced for others if one is to be a person of true leadership, as a leader is called to be ‘a shield for others’ (in Sahih Muslim, Book of Government.)

In many societies, the real criminals walk away from the courts – and in fact control the courts, and that does not look like it can be changed!

So, the killers and the drug dealers will be killing the innocent and oppressed in the name of implementing Islamic Law. Does that sound like Islam to you? That is serious Fitnah (dissension) from Islam…

The Hukm (Law) is deeply sacred, it is a massive Amanah (trust) which must never be taken lightly or under estimated.

Allah is Al Quddus, the Holy, and every injustice is made right in the Qiyamat. Read the Hadith about what is in store in Jahannum for Muslim leaders who missapply the Shariah Law for political ends, or for the wrong Niyat.

A judge is to be held accountable for his motives, and it is a massive Zalim (darkness – injustice) to missapply the Shariah Law.

I do advise anyone wishing to implement the Law to be aware not to play politics with the Sacred Law.

On many occasions, the Prophet (SAW) did not implement the death penalty (Rajm) for certain Hadd level crimes although others frantically pushed for it to be implemented. This was because absolute objectivity could not always be guarenteed in the decision-making procedure.

For example, in the Hadiths of Bukhari and Muslim, as narrated through Sahih Isnad (a reliable chain of narration) we read about some Muslims killing other Muslims because they were ‘not Muslim…’

They said Shahada only at the edge of the sword, it was claimed. In response to the claim that their Shahada was not genuine, the Prophet (SAW) said, “Did you cut their hearts open to see the Niyat (the quality of intention) of their hearts?’

The point being, if there is any chance that there could be a mistake, then only Allah (SWT) can judge in the Qiyamath, the judgement which is in the Akhira – the afterlife. Unless absolute objectivity can be guaranteed, the Prophet did not implement or advise Hadd.

On other occasions, according to Sahih Isnad in Bukhari and Muslim, it was obvious that a child was not the child of the father who thought they were the father. For Malsahah (social utility) the Prophet (SAW) said the child belongs to whom’s bed on which it was born. It was not beneficial to prescribe Hadd though it was technically due.

The Merciful essence of Islam and the Islamic intent of social harmony, social justice, would be betrayed by Hadd in such circumstances although Hadd was technically due.

A Qadi must be a qualified Mujtahid and must investigate the issue extensively before making a decision. Notice the word Mujtahid, notice how this word for study and decision making about the Law requires Jihad – striving or struggle – as is contained in the word. If a Judge exhausts all avenues of possible doubt, only then will he be rewarded for decision making, and those doubts include ones own heart’s doubts!

Justice and truth must exist in the heart of the people before it can be applied to the courts and the system.

All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]

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Letter on powerlessness

Dear Maldives,

The kind of grandiose, egomaniacal, demagogic display one sees in many Maldivians may appear to be a case of too much self-love. But in fact, it is not love at all. It is hate. It is sadness. It is self loathing. It is an aggressive reaction to rejection. No genuine self love there at all.

When one feels powerless to turn this hatred against another, to vent it outwardly, it is turned inward and becomes depression. Then it is seen for what it really is. Emptiness, sadness, hunger for true love, a desparate craving for a sense of genuine self dignity.

So, I would like to tell you that every Maldivian, the mentally insane, the lonely and rejected, the victim of abuse, the aggressive power hungry politician, all, each and every Maldivian is special, unique, and sacred, for one reason, YOU are deeply precious to the Creator as the pinnacle of a Creation done out of the purpose of Self-Sacrificial Love.

When I read about a young man from Velidhoo committing suicide, and about children being killed in gang warfare, I know that that the angel’s grieve for you Maldivians, because they feel how special you are.

I am sorry to get on this website and quack on and on but I have seen too much sadness in your paradise, sadness expressing itself mainly as hatred, yet I can see that underneath it is sadness. I have too much caring for your ppl, because I can see how sensitive and intelligent, how beautiful Maldivians are, and it aches my heart to see people so sacred dying. I can’t help it.

Not enough respect for the sacredness of human dignity, not enough compassion for the mentally challenged and for the victim of sexual abuse because not enough genuine self respect.

I can’t wait to meet the young man from Velidhoo who committed suicide in paradise because there he will know how sacred he really is…

Ben Plewright

All letters are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write a letter piece, please submit it to [email protected]

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