Category: Society & Culture

Anti-Majlis protests hit the capital’s streets

Hundreds of protesters have today gathered near parliament to call on the abolition of the Majlis, citing anger over the passing of a bill to extend MP privileges within the state budget.

Activists, which sources have claimed support a number of political parties, joined civil servants, NGOs and other workers near the parliament building to protest against the actions of the Majlis, leading police to restrict access to some streets around the area.

The outrage was said to have been sparked yesterday when parliament passed allowances for parliamentarians that the protesters believe is ‘’way too much’’.

According to the new bill, parliamentarians will receive an additional Rf20,000 to their salary for attending committees, while also being allowed to import vehicles without paying any duty on them. The parliament also approved measures to reinstate the salaries of independent commissions, while failing to address the reduced salaries of civil servants.

This decision has led protesters to claim that MPs were working for their self-interest in the name of working for the nation and citizens in their work.

By this afternoon, a group of protesters brought a box written “Majlis Fund” that was passed beyond the police barrier, before they joined others in heavily criticizing the country’s MPs.

As a result, local media reported that tempers also flared within parliament, as rival MPs clashed with each other forcing speaker Abdulla Shahid to cancel today’s sitting. Haveeru said that some MPs had argued to withdraw the bill for amendment, with Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Ahmed Maloof one of the names said to support a repeal of the privileges bill on claims that it was against the “pulse of the people”.

Today’s street protests follow on from similar action undertaken last night by the ‘Tortured Victims Association’, which was disrupted after some people present clashed with the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) parliamentarian group leader Moosa ‘Reeco’ Manik, verbally assaulting him over the issue of budget.

The protest, which involved around 20 to 30 people over practices of torture allegedly committed under the rule of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, ended up as a protest against all the parliamentarians. A few protesters then marched towards the house of Speaker of the Parliament Abdulla Shahid later in the evening.

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Inmates in Maafushi prison allegedly injured after clashes with prison officers

It is alleged that violent clashes between inmates and prison officers have erupted at Maafushi prison over the last few days as inmates reportedly attempted to inform prison officers about the illness of a cell-bound inmate.

”On Monday night an inmate’s medical condition appeared to become serious and the other prisoners tried to call to the prison officers, but they never responded.  So the inmates knocked the prison bars to get the attention of prison officers,” a person familiar with the incident told Minivan News on condition of anonymity.  ”Then a squad of prison officers came to the cell and beat down those who shook the bars.”

He claimed that violence again erupted yesterday afternoon after prison officers armed with metal and wooden batons came inside the cell leading to violent clashes between prison officers and the inmates.

”One inmate got a broken shoulder, another inmate broke his nose and another injured his eyes because prison officers hit and broke the glasses he was wearing,” he alleged. ”Nobody cares for the inmates, only some politicians speak about it, but only for political purposes and not with the intention of correcting anything.”

He also claimed that recently, inmates had demanded to see the prison warden over allegations that prisoners who were kept in isolation for hours were also tortured with batons.

”There has never been any treatment programs held inside the prison, all that the prison officers do is threaten and torture,” claimed the anonymous source.

The source also claimed that fellow prisoners were expected to very soon “stand up for the nation” and reveal the secrets hidden behind the work of the political figures in the country.

”Infamous ‘Chicka’ [Ibrahim Nafiz] will also be out from the prison one day, he will tell the people publicly about the work former Commissioner of Police Brigadier Adam Zahir assigned him to do,” he said. ”It would not be kept as a secret anymore.”

Head of Department and Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Services [DPRS] Moosa Azim told Minivan News that clashes between inmates and prison officers take place very often and that it was ”nothing too serious.”

”Everyday there will be a clash between the inmates and prison officers,” said Azim. ”We give the highest priority to the safety of the inmates, then the safety of our staffs.”

He said that he had no information about the clash that occurred yesterday and Monday night.

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Restaurant apologises after police called over “festive” Christmas menu

Management at the Jade Bistro cafe on Boduthakurufaanu Magu have apologised to any Maldivians that may have been offended by a “festive” lunch promotion offered over the Christmas period that has since attracted protests and the attention of police in the capital.

The offer was criticised as a Christmas celebration by religious groups like the Adhaalath Party and the Islamic Foundation of the Maldives (IFM), which have both praised local police for yesterday stopping the promotion at the café.

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said that officers had been sent to the cafe after complaints were received from a member of the public about the incident.

‘’The place was decorated for Christmas with items related to the celebration, police arrested one person from the cafe to clarify more information about the case. They were also released last night,’’ said Shiyam.

In a statement addressed to the “people of Maldives”, the management at Jade bistro apologised to anyone “offended” by the incident, which it said had been a special promotional lunch for expats living and working in the Maldives.

“Our intention was never to upset anyone,” the statement read. “We offered a promotion to those who were away from their homes and families and wanted to enjoy a traditional meal with friends. This promotion was simply about good food and nothing else.”

Jade Bistro added in the statement that the restaurant appealed to a number of different nationalities and “that it regularly offers different themed menu promotions.”

However, the leader of Adhaalath Party, Sheikh Hussein Rasheed, said that celebrating Christmas was unlawful and that it was a responsibility of the police to stop those events.

‘’In a society there will be different types of persons,’’ said Sheikh Hussein. ‘’It really does not matter whether it is allowed in Islam for non-Muslims to celebrate their religious days, because it is prohibited in the constitution of the Maldives.’’ He also added that everyone including foreigners should respect the laws of the country.

IFM President Ibrahim Fauzy added that it was prohibited in Islam to allow non-Muslims celebrate their holidays in places where Muslims live.
‘’It is unconstitutional and prohibited by many laws at the same time,’’ said Fauzy.

A group of protesters also gathered near the café last night to express disapproval for celebrating Christmas.

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JSC fails to convince Civil Court of its misconduct complaints procedure

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC), an independent body constitutionally mandated to oversee the ethical standards of the country’s judiciary, yesterday failed to convince the Civil Court that it had any form of standardised procedure for dealing with complaints against judges.

The JSC is currently defending itself against allegations of allowing bias and favouritism to influence its decisions on complaints of judiciary misconduct and was yesterday required to provide documentary evidence to the court proving the contrary. However, the evidence may have opened up more questions about its operations in the court.

The current case relates to action being taken by Treasure Island Limited, which is suing the JSC over allegations that the body had dismissed three complaints of misconduct it made against Interim-Supreme Court Justice Mujthaz Fahmy and Judge Ali Naseer for reasons of favour and bias towards the judges.

Civil Court Judge Mariyam Nihayath said that the documents submitted by JSC did not clarify for her – as had been claimed they would – that a standard operations procedure was in place to prevent arbitrary decision-making on complaints of judiciary misconduct. She added instead that the documents submitted to court by JSC as evidence had raised questions of whether the commission had any procedure at all for dealing with complaints.

Judge Nihayath said in addition that it appeared that any member of the Commission had been free to individually decide that a complaint did not need further investigation, despite having claimed otherwise.

The JSC, set up by the 2008 Constitution, is required to get a majority or consensus vote from members in all complaints-related decisions. It is also required to keep records of how each member voted for a specific decision to be reached.

At the behest of Treasure Island, the court had asked to see records of meetings at which Commission members agreed not to look into the company’s allegations any further. The JSC failed to locate the documents after conducting a “thorough search”.

Last week, the JSC admitted that some complaints procedures did not conform to either constitutional stipulations or its own regulations, though the commission maintained that it did have a specific method in place nonetheless.

This method, as explained by the JSC in the court, involved a process of “administrative screening”, whereby the Chair pre-selected which complaints were about judiciary misconduct and therefore worthy of deliberation and decision by members.

The rest were responded to by a letter, signed by the Chair, informing the complainant that a decision had been made not to investigate the matter any further. Treasure Island had received two such responses to its complaints.

This ‘administrative’ method, the JSC said, was far less time-consuming than that stipulated in the Constitution and saved members time to attend to their constitutional duties.

Of the three randomly selected such responses submitted to court by the JSC yesterday, Judge Nihayath noted that they were not signed by the Chair – only one of them was found to have been signed by the Vice Chair and another by a member.

Furthermore, she said, two of the letters included the words “the Commission has decided”, allowing the inference to be made that the decision not to investigate had been taken by the JSC and not the signatory acting alone.

JSC Legal Representative Abdul Faththah said he could not explain why the decisions had been conveyed by the three different figures instead of the Chair alone, as in the “administrative screening” process he outlined last week.

The phrase “the Commission has decided” being included in the responses, Faththah explained, was not about the individual decision itself, but related to a decision taken in November 2008 in which the ‘administrative” alternative to the Constitution had been agreed upon.

Judge Nihayath also asked Faththah why it was that two of the letters had been signed by the then JSC Chair and Vice-Chair respectively, yet a member with no other authority, Hassan Afeef, could also write to a complainant dismissing their claims.

“I don’t really know why that happened on that day”, Faththah said. “Perhaps, I said in the last submission that the procedure was for the Chair to sign the responses’, but, he said, that did not seem to be the case.

Fathah added that he had randomly selected the letters shown during the case from a file especially kept for responses to complaints dealt with by the “administrative screening process” of the JSC as opposed to its Constitutional stipulations.

Judge Nihayath will also hear Treasure Island’s response to JSC evidence on January 5, when she will also rule on whether or not to summon witnesses that have been requested by both sides.

She has scheduled the last hearing for 19 January 2010 when both sides are expected to make their closing submissions.

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HRCM calls for government to provide permanent homes for tsunami victims urgently

The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) has expressed concern that Maldivian victims of 2004’s Indian Ocean tsunami have remained in temporary shelters ever since, calling on the government to urgently provide permanent housing for such people.

”It has caused the victims to face obstacles in gaining basic human rights and experience difficulties for a long period of time,” said the commission in a statement. ”The state should give high priority to provide shelter for the victims.”

The HRCM said that it met with people living in the temporary shelters, some of which it had learned were very old and in need of refurbishment. The commission claimed that some of the shelters did not have sewerage systems, meaning water supplies could have been polluted.

”Due to these reasons, these persons are at a disability from the right for education, the right for protection and safety and the right to establish family,” the HRCM said.

The commission added it had met with the country’s Centre for Disaster Management several times to discuss solutions for the complaints it had received.

”A naturally delicate country like the Maldives should always be well prepared for any disaster – natural or otherwise – that could potentially happen, and it is necessary for the Centre for Disaster Management to be ready to provide first aid urgently in case.”

The HRCM also said that there is also a potential risk of outbreaks of illness in the temporary shelters due to the living conditions.

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Flag burnings and assault claims have not dampened Eye from Zion “success”: DMC

An Israeli opthamologist NGO has been praised for providing the “most successful” medical camp the Maldives has ever seen following its conclusion last week, despite protests including the burning of Israeli flags and the alleged assault of a government under secretary, Abdulla Shahid, Coordinator for the country’s National Disaster Management Centre (DMC) has claimed.

Shahid claimed that for the hundreds of Maldivians who had not “been too scared” to travel for a consultation or s surgical procedure on their eyes with the NGO, a free service was on offer that was only available otherwise at the country’s private medical clinics.

“There has never been such a successful camp,” he said, despite allegations of “scare mongering” and an assault on a relative of one patient arriving at a hospital for an operation with the NGO.

However, the visit of the Eye from Zion NGO, which had been working at hospitals across the country offering “eye surgery camps”, has seen a number of protests taking place against it, with high-profile politicians such as Umar Naseer and former State Islamic Minister Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed joining the movement.

Both men have claimed following a protest held in front of the Tsunami memorial on Friday December 17, that their opposition to the NGO was not anti-Semitic or targeted directly at Jews, but rather a sign of “solidarity” with fellow Muslims about concerns with Israeli foreign policy, particularly in Palestine.

Both politicians spoke along with other figures at a rally of hundreds of people gathered in Male’, some carrying banners in both Dhivehi and English with messages ranging from “Say no to Israeli terrorism” and “Jews said Allah is poor” to “We are with anyone who fights Israel & USA” and “Bloody Zionists”.
However, Shahid told Minivan News that he believed that the protests were more often the result of “political” considerations rather than solidarity with Palestinians. Therefore he claimed that for the hundreds of people screened at camps in Male’, Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll and Addu Atoll, who “couldn’t afford to fly to destinations like Bangkok for specialist treatment”, the arrival of Eye from Zion staff on December 9, 2010 was an important sharing of expertise from a “knowledge-based economy”.

“From the first day [the NGO worked] at the hospitals, religious groups had begun displaying their banners outside and they even tried to attack one person. The person has since filed a complaint with the Country’s Human Rights Commission,” he claimed.

According to Shahid, the person who alleged the attack, themselves a political under secretary, claimed to have been assaulted after trying to take a relative for an operation with the Eye from Zion group, a process that was eventually carried out.  The alleged victim was unavailable for comment when contacted by Minivan News at the time of going to press.

Ultimately, with the screening of some 215 people in Male’ alone, Shahid said that 16 patients had undergone surgery with Eye from Zion doctors in the capital and 104 had received consultations from the NGO. DMC figures stated meanwhile that 137 people were found to have been treated in Thinadhoo, Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll.

However, Shahid conceded that the protests, along with a campaign of “scare stories” that were being spread around the country involving “organ harvesting”, had taken their toll on numbers actually turning up for surgery, some of whom he said “were too scared to take part” in the eye camps.
“In Addu Atolll there were rumours going around that the doctors were putting strong glue in the eyes of patients,” he said. “These guys [protests organisers] need to bring surgeons to the country to help start treatments for people.”

These “stories” included claims reported by NGOs such as the Islamic Foundation of the Maldives (IFM) that it was advisable to take “precautionary measures to avoid any foul play” from Jewish doctors that were “ notorious for illegally harvesting organs from non-Jews.”

The furore over the visit of Israeli surgeons under the Eye from Zion banner has led to NGOs such as Jamiyyathusalaf to call for the provision of “military training to all Muslim Maldivians and familiarise citizens with the use of modern weaponry” before “Jews take over the country”.

Distancing itself from what it called “hysterical” statements such as these, the co-founders of the IFM told Minivan News earlier this month that they believed by adopting a “pro-Israel” stance and working with NGOs like Eye from Zion, the Maldivian government was losing support and credibility among its people.

However, Shahid claimed that from the perspective of the DMC, cooperation with specialist NGOs was seen as hugely beneficial, no matter their national origin.

“There have been several camps all set up with different NGOs. This is the first time we have had a group from Israel,” he said. “However, we don’t have any set practices in regards to what nation we invite NGOs to visit from. We would welcome help from anywhere.”  Former Deputy Leader of the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), Umar Naseer, who had been one of the speakers at the Tsunami Memorial protest, said last week that he believed that protests continuing throughout the week were a reflection of “concern over the continued relationship” between the governments of Israel and the Maldives.

“Israel continues to bombard cities and continues to occupy Palestinian lands,” he said. “As Muslims, we have one basic principle; if one of us is hurt, we all are. Similarly, if Palestinian people suffer, so do we,” he said.

Naseer claimed that the government had turned a “blind eye to the frustrations of its people” and that the protestors believed that the “Maldives should not accept Israeli NGOs or their aid”. “Once we have settled the issue [of Palestine], then we can have normal relations,” he said.

Before resigning from his position as the Islamic State Minister on Thursday December 23, Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed of the religious Adhaalath party said that he didn’t see the protests against Eye from Zion “as a religious problem” but as a reflection of dissatisfaction with Israeli foreign policy. “The thing is injustice, we are not enemies of Jews and Christians,” he said. “We don’t want Jews to kill Palestinians; they are not obeying the UN or international law.”

Prior to his speech at the Tsunami memorial protest, Miadhu last week reported that Shaheem had used his Friday sermon on the same day – December 17 – to claim that the history of Jewish people was “full of deception, trickery, rebellion, oppression, evil and corruption”.

According to the report, Shaheem had said that they [Jewish people] were always seeking to cause “mischief on the earth and Allah loves not the mischief-makers”.

“So it is not it is not acceptable that one who would stab the ummah in the heart could heal the eyes. This philosophy is not acceptable,” he said.

Shaheem did not elaborate or confirm if he had said these comments when questioned by Minivan News at the time. The former Islamic State Minister claimed that he had used his Friday Sermon to call for peaceful protest.
“I asked for no problems to be created for the [Eye from Zion] doctors,” he said.

Ultimately, Shaheem said that protests against the policies of the Israeli government have been occurring all over the world in London, Paris and New York and this didn’t mean “these people were against all Jews”.

“Our problems are with groups like Zionists,” he said.

Shaheem pointed to the London-based protestor, Brian Haw, who has spent many years camped outside London’s Houses of Parliament in part of ongoing peaceful demonstration linked to opposing UK governmental policy such as backing invading Iraq back in 2003, as a reflection of the “democratic” importance of protesting and solidarity.

“He is just one man sleeping in a tent protesting, yet he is not a Muslim,” Shaheem said.

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Expat accused of machete attack on Maldivian

An expat working on Gan in Laamu Atoll stands accused of attacking an islander with a machete.

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said that the alleged incident occurred last Thursday.

”The Maldivian received serious injuries to his hand after the attack and is undergoing treatment,” said Shiyam.  ”The expat is now under arrest.”  Shiyam declined to provide further information.  “‘More information will be provided after investigation is concluded,” he added.

Island Chief of Gan’s ‘Thundi’ district, Mohamed Saeed, said that the alleged attacker was Bangladeshi in origin.

‘”He works for another islander on this island,” Saeed said. “The Maldivian was injured and was admitted in the hospital.”

He said that the case was not reported to the island office.

Last month, a Bangladeshi expat working in Male’ was stabbed to death after he refused to give his mobile phone upon being ambushed in the city whilst on his way to work after breakfast.

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MJA condemns protesters’ blockade of journalists

The Maldives Journalist Association (MJA) has said that two journalists and a cameraman from the Maldives National Broadcasting Corporation (MNBC) were verbally attacked and obstructed from covering a protest by the Adhaalath Party in Male’ last Friday .

The MJA has claimed that protesters had been found to have deliberately obstructed MNBC staff, as well as allegedly “verbally attacking”  its journalists.

”As freedom of gathering and freedom of journalism are rights guaranteed under the constitution, any act that obstructs from gaining these rights are not acceptable,” said MJA.  “And we condemn any person that encourages such actions.”

The MJA said that despite any considered bias in MNBC’s broadcasts, ”we call on everyone not to obstruct the work of any journalists working in MNBC, and it is not something this organisation will support.”

During Friday afternoon, the Adhaalath Party held a protest against the government’s decision to transfer all the students to the land of EPS School until the new Arabiyya School building was finished.

Arabiyya school was closed after cracks in the building’s wall led to it falling, a development which was linked to the structure’s age.

Some students were forced change to other schools because the capacity in the building they were transferred was inadequate for all the students.

However, parents and students were unhappy because of a wish to study in Arabic.  Arabiyya is the only such school in the country thought to offer such a service, according to protesters.

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Comment: Holy Politicians’ strategy for solving the Israel-Palestine conflict and resisting reason revealed – sort of

The arrival of Eye from Zion, a specialist Israeli NGO of ophthalmologists, appears to have presented our Holy politicians with their best campaign fodder yet.

There must have been much strategising and pulling together of ranks among them. One can almost hear the tactics and the commands now at the Holy Politicians HQ (HPHQ). Wouldn’t it be nice to be a fly on the wall?

In the spirit of transparent governance – a la Julian Assange – yours truly is publishing below a sort of MuniLeak; transcribed excerpts from a secret meeting at the HPHQ situation room that never of course happened last week. Here is what one might have imagined being discussed by key campaign strategists during a brainstorming session on how to get the most political mileage out of Israel and its band of doctors.

The session was led by a man – true identity hidden from view by a balaclava fashioned from a beard connected to a turban – who assigned tasks for each set of key players among important HPs:

“You, the academics and the professionals, take to the airwaves immediately – you find a way to ground this hatred in theology. Buy airtime on national TV. Make sure you get a doctor in, perhaps a lawyer too.

Get a Holy Joe Public as well. Discuss, in an appropriately learned circle, the hypothesis that Eyes = Zionism. Infer, in scholarly tones, that the woman who leaves her eyes uncovered is an undercover Zionist. Espouse the dangerous links that Eye Care and the optics chain must surely have with Zionists – just look at their logo. It has an eye on it, only a fool would be blind to what they are really saying: I heart Zionists.

Anecdotal evidence works well with the audience. The doctor must have a few personal stories to tell – how about one where he eyeballed a Zionist in a white coat lurking around the eye surgery…? We must also find one among us who would be willing to testify on record – “Zionists took my eyes!” Can we upload his testimony on YouTube, perhaps?

Meanwhile, any elected government official must use their position to get the message across loud and clear: we must hate Jews to love Palestinians. Get the Friday Sermon – that’s the key – there is no other audience quite as captive, or suggestible, as those seeking religious guidance.

All those men, unable to leave until we have finished what we are saying – no matter what we say. Brilliant! If we can get them to take to the streets afterwards, we have it. Excellent. How should we approach this?

We must use the Qur’an, it is our most powerful tool. Remember that Dutch politician, that MP Geert Wilders? I know, he hates Islam and Muslims, but a good tactic is a good tactic – whoever uses it. Wilders found ways to pick and choose verses from the Qur’an to make the outrageous claim that our Holy Book sanctioned the 11 September 2001 attacks.

He made a film out of it, super-imposing verses of Qur’an on video footage of the attacks. Despicable.

Unlike Wilders, we are not abusing the Qur’an to spread hatred against Muslims, we are using it to spread hatred against Jews – that makes our actions right and Wilders’ obviously wrong. The end always justifies the means (and the contents) of the message – let’s not forget Goebbels’ genius!

Hands up if you like the idea. Right, we have a consensus. We must get a government official in a high place to execute the plan. We already have the power of the sanctity of the Islamic Centre behind us, if we can give maximum possible authority to the voice that speaks from its pulpit on Friday, we’ll nail it. Any suggestions? Yes – getting an elected government official from the Islamic Ministry itself, with a doctorate, that is a good plan. Excellent. You are worried that we may not be able to locate such a figure?

You think that no one with that level of education and such high office would be willing to use their knowledge and position to incite hatred? Leave it to me – I know for a fact there is at least one who would think it an honour, a privilege and a right.

The Holy Shopkeepers – they must all contribute a roll of blue and white cloth from their fabric shops. The Holy Wives at home, they must begin embroidering the Star of David, double-quick. By the time the sun begins to set on Friday, if we get even half the people who were urged to hate Jews at the noon sermon to appear on the streets with their freshly made Israeli flags to burn and messages of hatred written in English to hoist, we are half-way there.

Throughout all this, we should continue our successful tactics for setting the news agenda.
First we must make absolutely sure that the media remain wholly oblivious to the obvious: Israel is not home to Jews only; Israel is not the only home of Jews. Make sure the media does not mention the million plus Muslims who are Israelis and make up 30 percent of the country’s population.

Avoid at all costs, also, any media recollection of the history of Maldivian relations with Israel, established in the 1970s. This would make it seem like these are relations established just recently – the political leverage we can achieve from that my brothers, is boundless.

The media, also, appears to have little or no idea that there are many different ways in which hundreds of thousands of people across the world – Muslim and non-Muslim – daily demonstrate their empathy with the Palestinian plight and their disagreement with Israeli policies without resorting to anti-Semitism, hatred and violence.

If we remove any connections between realpolitik and the ongoing Israel/Palestine conflict, we can easily reduce the complexities of the situation to a simple equation: loving Palestinians = hating Jews.
Campaign tactics always work when they are simple. What a beauty this one is. Nor must there be anything in the media about the long Maldivian tradition of support for the Palestinian cause without ever needing to hate either Israel or Jews.

People must not remember such draconian traditions – peace is passé. We all know that this type of tolerance among Maldivians is born out of the ignorance of the Right Islam. Remember, the ultimate goal is to make them believe most of the last two millennia never happened – that is the key to our perpetual rule.

Speaking of setting the news agenda – we must always remember to thank God for how lucky we are to have the type of media we do. None of our counterparts in any other democracy across the world has it so easy – we are blessed here with a free media that has no idea of its powers or responsibilities, and remains wholly unbound by any such thing as a code of ethics or a set of principles by which to abide. Fourth Estate, Public Watchdog,

Muckraker…these are concepts that are yet to even enter the realm of Maldivian media consciousness. Glory be!

If any of you feel a bit guilty about the visually impaired who are denied treatment, just think of this: for every Maldivian whose heart is filled with anti-Semitism, who had never before thought of separating Jews from other human beings solely on the basis of their religion and now does so, the world moves one step closer to finding a solution for the Israel/Palestine conflict.

We must ensure that our progress along this noble path is recorded. Not just for posterity but also for the present. We must appreciate the value that every single picture of a man, woman or child burning an Israeli flag is worth a thousand – Rufiyaa? Riyal? Dollar? AFA?

Our donors would have documentary proof, with those pictures, that we are worth all the money they are pouring into us. Every picture is evidence that we attained our goal of increasing the number of Muslims who hate. That we have managed to spread this message of hate amongst a people who were at peace for centuries – that is our biggest success so far.

Let us continue on our glorious path –remember this: only reason can resist us. Let us ensure fanatical hatred leaves little room for rational thought.”

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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