Category: Society & Culture

Islamic Ministry proposes extremist rehabilitation centre

The Ministry of Islamic Affairs has renewed its proposal for an ‘extremist rehabilitation centre’ to curb fundamentalism in the country.

The idea was first raised in a letter from the Islamic Ministry to the Home Affairs Ministry and the President’s Office in April 2009. According to the President’s Office Spokesman Mohamed Zuhair, joint consultations were held yesterday about how to best take the concept forward.

State Minister for Home Affairs Ahmed Adil explained that six prisoners involved in the Himandhoo case had been transferred to Dhoonidhoo prison for “rehabilitation by the Islamic Ministry.”

The Himandhoo islanders, who had been worshipping in their own mosque without the approval of the state, armed themselves and fought with police and military personnel in October 2007. The then-government claimed it was searching for evidence relating the Sultan Park bombing, which injured 12 tourists.

“The reintegration has been very successful, especially in the Himandhoo case,” Adil said. “It was a very big issue and there were a lot of problems at the time. Now the whole of Himandhoo has been cleaned.”

Himandhoo, explained State Minister of Islamic Affairs Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed, was “a very beautiful example” of the Ministry’s successful rehabilitation programme.

“The former government fought with [the extremists] and put them in jail,” Shaheem said. “Now we don’t fight. We deliver the right information [about Islam] through dialogue. We have a lot of programmes on television, radio, the Hukru Khuthuba (Friday sermon), and we send scholars to the islands.

“We tried our best to control [fundamentalism] in Himandhoo and now there is no problem [there]. All the people are praying in the [official] mosque, when just two years ago the government was fighting with them. Now the island is very good.”

The Islamic Ministry now wants to institutionalise the rehabilitation process as part of its work tackling extremism, he explained.

“We have suggested that the government establish a centre for special studies as a rehabilitation centre to fight [fundamentalists] ideologically,” Shaheem said. “This is an ideological problem, and we can solve this problem by having scholars give them the right information on Islam.”

The Ministry was especially concerned about several groups praying separately at mosques in Male’, Shaheem said, explaining that some had been delivering their own fatwas (religious edicts). However radicalisation in the country was in overall decline, he noted.

“At the moment I don’t believe there are people like Al-Queda [operating] in the county. But there a few groups who support their ideas. We can solve this by giving them the right ideas.”

Spokesman for the President’s Office Mohamed Zuhair agreed with Shaheem that the growth of radical groups had declined across the globe, “a trend I believe has affected the Maldives through better inclusion in society, increased security and a lack of persecution.”

Shaheem also noted that the Ministry’s Religious Unity Act, “which was sent to brother Attorney General Husnu Suood three months ago” and is due to be returned in 1-2 weeks, contained regulations governing the issuing of fatwas and scholars coming from outside the country to deliver sermons.

Most important, Shaheem said, was ensuring that the issuing of fatwas remained the duty of formal national bodies, such as the Fiqh academy and the Islamic Ministry.

“In my opinion, NGOs cannot give fatwas – this is very dangerous,” he said. “In the Islamic world you do not see any NGO’s giving fatwas, it is the duty of national formal body, such as a scholar’s council. [Moreover] one scholar cannot give fatwas for many things – he must share and discuss it with others.”

Minister of Home Affairs Mohamed Shihab observed that religious rehabilitation centres, such as the kind proposed by the Islamic Ministry, “are found in countries like Singapore, Malaysia and the UK as well.”

“There is a detailed programme,” he noted. “Rehabilitation through regilious education is done by the Islamic Ministry. Rehabilitation of drug users is handled by the Health Ministry, while the Home Ministry conducts a [criminal] rehabilitation programme through the DPRS.”

The government’s respect for the diversity of beliefs acceptable within the Islamic faith went as far as the Constitution, Shihab explained: “Extremist beliefs affect the rights of others as afforded by the Constitution. Then the State has to intervene and protect its citizens.”

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President condemns attacks on media

President Mohamed Nasheed has condemned the attacks against the media following attacks on DhiTV and Haveeru on 15 March.

The president said the government would not tolerate “threats or actions against freedom of the press”.

“The Maldivian media is free and open now,” Nasheed said, adding that the Maldivian government “will always support the efforts of the journalists to keep this freedom alive and will value their efforts.”

He urged the public to cooperate with police in identifying the suspects.

The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) meanwhile called on the police to “seriously investigate” death threats made against journalists by extremist bloggers.

Concerns from the media

Independent MP and former Minister of Information, Mohamed Nasheed, said the issue was one of “political punching. People in the government are accusing opposition media and people in the opposition media are accusing the government.”

He said the media has always been divided into two camps, and sometimes looking at the same editorial content from different news agencies “you feel as if two different stories are coming out.”

“Political activists, the religious quarter and violent criminals” are against the media, he said, explaining that the struggle for press freedom was a “tug of war.”

“This is where the temperature needs to be brought down. We need to stop politicising the media and work with them.”

He added that “a democracy cannot see the media as a friend”, but should instead treat it as a medium to dialogue.

Managing Director of Miadhu, Abdullah Lateef, said “so far the government has not been able to give the media enough protection” from violent attacks.

He claimed the former government “used gangsters,” who “still don’t understand this is not Gayoom’s regime.”

“These gangsters don’t value the media,” Lateef said. “They think they can do anything; they attack anyone.”

He said that because the government had not shown the public the value of the media and the work the media was doing, they did not value it: “Even when we go to a scene, it is a risk we are taking.”

Lateef said he had “personally received a lot of threats”, and claimed that “politicians will call and try to make us scared.”

But he noted that “this government has done a lot for us, like giving us the freedom to write without being arrested. I am not afraid of my death – the former government gave me enough threats so I don’t mind.”

Public Concern

The Human Rights Commission Maldives (HRCM) has also “strongly condemned” the attacks on media.

A statement from the HRCM said the organisation “was sad that people are instigating fear among journalists at a time when Maldivian media is not very stable.”

HRCM said it believed the incidents had occurred because of the “judicial system’s reluctance to convict people. They are released into society and are not abiding by laws and regulations and respecting human rights.”

The statement notes that such cases of violence are “alarmingly increasing” and “the Commission is calling for the authorities to take legal action against the people who are releasing these criminals into society.”

“To stop these things from happening we are calling on stake-holders, government, authorities, media, civil society, NGOs and the public to work together.”

Meanwhile the Maldives Journalists’ Association (MJA) condemned threats made against journalists and bloggers and the “continuous attempts to intimidate press freedom by the extremists in the name of Islam.”

The MJA called on the government to take action against growing extremism and said it believed there would be a solution “if the president and all the institutions work to raise awareness.”

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‘We don’t have guns but we can fight with our pens’: Hiriga

Attacks on five senior DhiTV senior officials and the stabbing of a Haveeru employee yesterday afternoon have sparked concern among media outlets that they could be subject to further attacks over their content.

DhiTV reported on its 2 o’clock news yesterday that alleged gang leader Ibrahim ‘Chika’ Nafiz  had been released to house arrest. Soon after the broadcast, a gang reportedly stormed DhiTV studios.

Three hours later a Haveeru printery worker left in a critical condition after being stabbed outside the building.

Police have not yet confirmed whether the two cases are connected, but arrested ten people yesterday evening suspected of involvement in the attacks, including Chika.

“He was arrested in his home last night,” said a police spokesperson, “and today the court gave us five days for further investigation.”

Chika will remain under police custody until the court hearing. Police have meanwhile launched a special operation to investigate the attacks.

The spokesperson said he did not know if the attacks were intended to be a direct message to the media, but said “this really shows how the situation is here.”

‘We will fight with our pens’

President of the Maldives Journalism Association (MJA) and Editor of Haveeru, Ahmed ‘Hiriga’ Zahir, said he believed the incidents were “direct attacks on the media.”

“The ruling party members are consistently blaming the media, and suddenly a gang leader leaves jail and attacks us,” Hiriga said, claiming there were political motives behind the attacks.

“The media is in a very bad situation, it is very vulnerable and young.”

Hiriga said he believed DhiTV and Haveeru were targeted because they are “the most vibrant media in this country” and the attacks were “certainly connected.”

He said the attackers had mentioned Haveeru when they entered the DhiTV building, and the police had been informed of this “but did not take enough precautions.”

Hiriga said he did “not want journalists to be afraid, but they are.”

He mentioned that some TV presenters were now “unwilling to appear on TV, and unwilling to report particular news items” because they were “very much afraid that their lives could be put in danger.”

“When law enforcement agencies fail, anything might happen at any time,” he said.

DhiTV CEO Yousuf Navaal said yesterday that “until we receive assurance [of our safety] that we can report this type of news, we will not cover it anymore.”

Hiriga however described Navaal’s approach as “not very professional”, especially since DhiTV had “asked Haveeru not to report on the issue either.

“The media should be one front and approach [these issues] as a collective, but this doesn’t happen,” Hiriga said, suggesting that Navaal was “reluctant” to report the story “because he has not been given enough confidence that the law is under control.”

Deputy Director General of TVM, Mohamed Asif, said the station had not taken extra security measures and were “hesitant and reluctant to report on these issues.”

Hiriga said media should not give in to intimidation: “We don’t have guns but we can fight with our pens!”

‘Chika’

DhiTV reported yesterday that Chika had been released to house arrest by the Department for Penitentiary and Rehabilitaion Service (DPRS).

State Minister for Home Affairs Ahmed Adil said the media had been reporting the wrong information, and “he was not released to house arrest”, but had in fact been taken to the DPRS for questioning two days ago.

Adil said the DPRS was investigating Chika and “he signed a paper saying he would cooperate and not leave his house.”

Spokesperson for the DPRS Moosa Rameez said Chika had been in the department’s rehabilitation programme for “six to seven months”, and referred Minivan News to DPRS Managing Director, Mohamed Rasheed.

However Rasheed said he did not want to comment on the issue.

A person familiar with the matter told Minivan News that Chika had been brought to Malé from Maafushi jail for an MRI scan. The source said it was common practice to bring prisoners to Malé when they require medical attention.

Police confirmed Chika had not been placed under house arrest, but would not say why he was in his house yesterday evening.

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More threats published against journalist, science envoy and First Lady

Further death threats against Maldivian journalists have been published on a popular extremist blog, this time calling for the beheading of Ahmed ‘Sappe’ Moosa,  the President’s Envoy for Science and Technology and editor of the Dhivehi Observer (DO), and blogger/journalist Ismail Khilath ‘Hilath’ Rasheed “for writing articles which flaunt religion”.

Reports of the threats were published this afternoon on the website of newspaper Haveeru. Rasheed, who was the subject of similar threats published on Muraasil.com last week, is known for being highly critical of Islamic fundamentalism, while Moosa’s UK-based publication has historically been highly antagonistic towards the former government.

“Next time there is the possibility of you making bold headlines on newspapers after your heads roll if you are caught during an outing [for a drink],” the threat read, according to a translation on Rasheed’s blog.

The threat’s author, an extremist blogger known as Jibue, also called for attacks on First Lady Laila Ali “and others who work in Male’, as it will be quite easy to target them as well.”

Rasheed explained that high profile Maldivian women who have chosen not to wear the head dress or buruga, such as Laila and MDP MP Mariya Didi, were frequently called upon to do so “to set an example” by the country’s more religiously conservative bloggers.

He noted that while he was unsure of Jihue’s identity, “other extremist bloggers seem to know and welcome him, and link to his website.”

The situation was “really dangerous”, Rasheed suggested. “There is no reason or common sense – they think they are struggling against this secularist liberal juggernaut and it’s making them paranoid. I think they are feeling cornered, because more and more people are speaking out [against] them. It’s really dangerous and I think anything is possible.”

Rasheed claimed he had considered closing his blog “many times” but said “close friends have advised me against it. It would be really easy for me to live a quiet and private life – I want to run away from this case. I will not go out tonight,” he said.

Sub-inspector Shiyam from the Maldives Police Service confirmed that while the threats had not been officially reported, “police have received information and are looking into the matter.”

Spokesman for the President’s Office Mohamed Zuhair said any such threats were of concern, “religious or otherwise”, and the government was monitoring the situation.

However he observed that during the election campaign it was common for some officials “to receive texts saying things like ‘We will bleed you till you die.’ But I didn’t notice a rise in third-degree murders – most of it is rhetoric,” Zuhair said.

State Minister of Islamic Affairs Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed said such threats from “radicals” were “very bad and have to stop.”

“I call on these groups to stop [issuing threats] and think how they can solve problems through dialogue,” he said.

The Maldives Journalists’ Association (MJA) issued a press statement condemning threats against reporters, urging the government “to take necessary actions against people who issue such threats against journalists.”

“This Association calls on the government to stop the actions of extremists, which contradict with the vast scope of human rights in Islam, and their violation of press freedom,” the MJA said.

Meanwhile Ibn Khattab from IslamMaldives, a website calling for “the establishment of an Islamic State”, observed in a letter to Minivan News that “I doubt that there are many people who have not been threatened in one way or the other online, but we don’t make a big fuss about it.”

“One particular [blogger] by the name of Shadowrunner repeatedly threatens to kill and exterminate others and Hilath has no issue with publishing these comments,” Khattab noted.

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Murder of newborn baby sends mother and daughter to life in prison

The Criminal Court has sentenced a woman and her mother to life in prison for killing an illegitimate new born baby.

Aminath Hussain, 31, and her 64 year old mother Sakeena Ali, both of Omadhu, Thaa Atoll confessed to the crime in court.

According to the court, the baby was delivered in a toilet, after which the grandmother submerged the baby in a pool of water.

They then put the baby into a polythene bag and buried it near the beach.

The Criminal Court has acquitted the 21 year old father of the crime.

Omadhu Case

Police Sub Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said there were “some clues that [the father] had some involvement,” but added that the court had made its decision and the police respected it.

Shiyam said although these types of cases are “not [reported on] a lot” there is another similar case currently being processed where a new born baby was “thrown into the sea” in Laamu Atoll.

Island Councillor for Omadhu Ahmed Abdulla said the incident occurred last year.

He said an islander knocked on his door early one morning when he was preparing to attend the first school assembly of the year.

“He knocked and told me to come out quick,” Abdulla said, “and when I came out, he told me that a baby had been killed on the beach.”

Abdulla said he immediately went to the beach and saw the baby’s legs protruding from the polythene bag.

He said there was blood around the baby’s neck, which appeared to be broken.

Abdulla then informed the police, who told him to monitor the crime scene until they arrived.

Shiyam confirmed the police had received a call from the island office reporting the crime.

Illegitimate children under Sharia law

Because abortion is illegal in the Maldives (the exception being if an unborn child is diagnosed with Thalassaemia), some women travel overseas to perform the operation..

But many cannot afford to so.

Deputy Minister of Health and Family Mariya Ali said “we don’t know a lot about it but there have been other [similar] cases.”

“It’s something that should be considered under child mortality,” she said, adding that there had been no comprehensive studies on the subject.

“We don’t hear about it a lot,” Ali said, “and we don’t know the exact prevalence of these cases.”

She added that many cases are probably not reported.

Mariya said there could be many reasons behind a family choosing to kill a baby, the main reason probably being that “children born out of wedlock still face discrimination” in society.

She noted that other factors, like the mother’s mental state, should be considered when looking at the reasons why people resort to these crimes.

Because under Sharia law premarital sex is forbidden, young couples can find themselves looking for a solution to get rid of an unwanted, and illegitimate, child.

Mariya said the Ministry of Health and Family would “talk to the Islamic Ministry and see how we can deal with these issues and reduce the number of cases.”

She added that “under Maldivian law, this is considered murder.”

Mohamed Shihaab of Child Abuse Watch Maldives did not hesitate in saying a crime such as this one “is not child abuse, it is murder.”

He said “some people think children born out of wedlock do not have a right to life,” adding that it was a major concern for the country.

“We need to look at how justice is served,” Shihaab said. “In how many cases has it not been served?”

“People need to accept we live in a more complex society. The police, the Prosecutor General and the judiciary also need to be more advanced.”

Sheikh Abdulla Jameel said people were not afraid of committing these kind of crimes because the courts did not punish according to Sharia law.

He explained that the Qur’an says a person must be killed if the court finds them guilty of a murder.

“The judge decides how [the person] will be killed,” explained Sheikh Abdulla, adding that “people would be afraid to commit such crimes if the courts start punishing according to Islamic Sharia.”

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Haama editor fined Rf5000 for defaming Yameen

Editor of Haama News Saif Azhar was fined by civil court last Thursday for defaming the character of People’s Alliance (PA) leader Abdulla Yameen.

Civil Court Judge Maryam Nihayath ruled that an article published in June last year claiming that Yameen had US$32 million in his HSBC bank account was defamatory.

Saif was fined Rf5000 (US$385), currently the maximum penalty for defamation in the Maldives. Yameen also has lawsuits pending against Ibrahim Waheed, the journalist who wrote the article, the editor of Jazeera Daily Fayyaz Faisal, the owner of Haama Daily (Axis Maldives) and Ahmed Muhsin, the assistant editor of TVM.

Yameen had sought Rf2,570,000 million (US$192,000) for psychological damages and Rf21,775,305 (US$1.67 million) for material damages, claims which were dismissed by the judge.

Azhar said he was not in town when the article was published and had no knowledge of it, claiming that his journalist Ibrahim Waheed had written the piece.

”In the article we mentioned that the source [of the information] was online news website Manadhoolive,” he said, ”but the judge decided that we had not referred to any source.”

He said the same article published in Haama News was also published in the newspaper Haveeru.

President of the Maldives Journalism Association (MJA) Ahmed ‘Hiriga’ Zahir said the association did not support journalists defaming people’s character.

”We do not support journalists writing stories without any evidence or proof,” he said. ”It’s a practice everywhere to fine journalists.”

Secretary General of the PA Ahmed Shareef said the outcome of the case showed that the country was strengthening its judicial service.

”Journalists have to be more responsible and careful when publishing articles,” he said.

Yameen failed to response Minivan News at time of press.

The former editor of weekly magazine Sandhaanu was also recently ordered to pay Rf5000 (US$389) for defaming Mohamed Ghassan Maumoon, the former president’s son.

Ghassan took Abdulla ‘Fahala’ Saeed to the civil court seeking Rf3.375 million (US$262,600) over an article Fahala had written in the 118th edition of Sandhaanu magazine.

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US State Department critical of women’s rights in the Maldives

Human rights in the Maldives have “continued to improve from the previous year, although some issues remain” according to the 2009 Country Report on Human Rights Practices published by the United States’ Department of State.

The report, published on 11 March, describes a case reported last September by detainees at Maafushi jail to the Human Rights Commission Maldives (HRCM) where “members of the Emergency Support Group (ESG)… indiscriminately attacked detainees.”

President of HRCM Ahmed Saleem said they have “received less complaints than in the past” regarding abuse of detainees.

Under the heading of “Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment” the report reads “the law prohibits such practices, although there were reports of mistreatment of persons by security forces.”

Saleem said the Maldives had endured “a culture of torture” for many years, “but things have changed and are still changing.”

On the unequal treatment of women, the report cites that “In 2008 the Ministry of Gender and Family released data showing an increase in the reported cases of violence against women, although NGOs believed that most cases remained unreported.”

Saleem said “in this country women enjoy more rights than in other countries,” noting that “women have been voting here for as long as I can remember.”

Saleem added that the United States still hasn’t ratified the international Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

“Ninety-nine countries have signed it,” Saleem said, “but not the United States.”

The report also states that “Under [Maldivian] law, spousal rape is not a crime” and “There are no laws in force regarding domestic violence against women or workplace harassment, nor were there firm data on the extent of violence against women.”

Saleem responded to this by saying that “domestic violence is a crime anywhere” and reiterated that the “population of Maldives is unique” and women enjoy many rights that women in other countries do not have.

Another point of concern shown in the report was that of the judicial system releasing known pedophiles back into the communities of their victims.

The report reads “The [Judicial Service Commission] JSC did not publicise deliberations or make recommendations on the hiring, dismissal, or discipline of judges during the year.”

The report says that according to the Maldives Police Service (MPS) “from January to March, 34 cases of child sexual abuse were reported, and 23 pedophiles were arrested.”

It also stated that there was an increase in the reporting of child abuse cases, which the MPS attributed to growing public awareness.

Saleem said the HRCM “is not in favour of the government releasing any criminal unless they are fit to live in society” and have been through a rehabilitation programme.

He added that the HRCM is “sending reports” to change these practices and “things are happening. But it’s not as quick as we want it to be.”

The Department of State’s report further reads “The law does not provide for freedom of religion and significantly restricts it” but only cited one case suggesting that a lack of freedom of religion could be seen as a human rights issue in the Maldives.

The report said that as the Ministry of Islamic Affairs has sole authority to grant preaching licenses, they requested the police investigate an independent prayer group led by unlicensed preachers. This could be seen as an infringement on the group’s rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association (section 2b of the report).

The Ministry of Islamic Affairs said the reason for the investigation was the threat of religious extremism.

The last major concern in the report was the rights of workers, mainly foreign labour workers.

According to the report, the HRCM had reported “some domestic workers, especially migrant female domestic workers, were in some cases trapped in circumstances bordering on forced labor in which employers used threats and intimidation to prevent them from leaving.”

The report adds that “In December 2008 the government established a Labour Relations Authority and a Labour Tribunal to implement the new Employment Law.”

The Tribunal did not begin functioning until April 2009 due to budgetary constraints and lack of office space.

When asked what he thought of the changes in human rights practices in the country, Saleem said “as far as civil rights go, we are a changed country.”

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Comment: That’s a Maldivian in the corner, losing his religion

When Ayatollah Khomeini issued his death fatwa against Salman Rushdie in February 1989 for writing the Satanic Verses, 44 out of the 45 member states of the Islamic Congress (1989) condemned the ruling of the Ayatollah as un-Islamic.

Many critics have pointed out that this was a fact ‘the West’ chose to ignore in its rush to present the Ayatollah’s ruling as representative of Islam’s ‘true nature’ as a religion of intolerance.

It appears the ruling is one that the purveyors of ‘true Islam’ in the Maldives – members of the Wahhabi sect – have similarly chosen to ignore by calling for the beheading of a Maldivian journalist who dares express views contrary to their own. We are told to listen to these voices as ‘true Islam’ while turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the actions and policies of organisations such as the Islamic Conference which recently made it clear that it:

Condemn[s] the audacity of those who are not qualified in issuing religious rulings (fatwa), thereby flouting the tenets and pillars of the religion and the well-established schools of jurisprudence.

The fact that there are now people within the Maldivian society who feel comfortable enough in their own rightness, righteousness and ‘learnedness’ to flout the teachings of Islam in its name by calling for the beheading of a fellow man for his views clearly demonstrates the extent of human intolerance Maldivian society has come to tolerate in the name of religion.

Anyone who does not agree with this particular brand of Islam is now being denied, among other fundamental rights, their right to exist. The only Muslims who will be tolerated in this society are those that follow Wahhabism.

Ironically, this is a kind of practice that the first Commander-in-Chief of the ‘War on Terror’, George Bush, found rather suited to his own policies – he denied members of al-Qaeda the right to be Muslims by doggedly and repeatedly describing them as ersatz Muslims who had ‘hijacked the religion of Islam’; and by pursuing policies that, in turn, validated all such claims.

In defining Islam according to his version of it (‘Muslims are doctors, lawyers, law professors, members of the military, entrepreneurs, shopkeepers, Moms and Dads’) Bush denied the self-proclaimed ‘holy warriors’ the very religion in the name of which they were sacrificing themselves. In so doing, he effectively removed any justifications of their cause, at once turning them into ‘Evildoers’ with no motive and no cause other than Evil, pure and simple.

It is this very practice that followers of Wahhabism in the Maldives are engaging in – by making their beliefs the only ‘true Islam’, they are denying a large section of the Maldivian society their right to be Muslims; and in so doing, are removing the right of many a Maldivian to be treated as equal citizens with the same rights as those who do not practise the same brand of Islam as theirs.

By re-defining what it means to be a Maldivian Muslim they are rendering those who do not conform to their teachings irrelevant to society. Non-followers of Wahhabism are being re-cast as non-citizens, and non-Muslims. Furthermore, they are being made non-human by calling on laws of the jungle, rather than the law of the land, to be applied to them. They become beasts whose heads have to be cut off, a beastly scourge the rest of society should be cleansed of. No longer Dhivehin, no longer Muslims. And no longer human.

The discourse of the ‘War on Terror’ worked in precisely the same manner in successfully rendering ‘detainees’ or ‘enemy combatants’ (not to be recognised as prisoners of war, lest there be any rights) in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib into non-human ‘Evil’ entities with no place in civilisation. As Godless, faithless, non-human creatures outside of legality itself, they could be kept in indefinite detention without trial, abused, tortured and then abandoned.

This is what the followers of Wahhabism are doing to the Maldivian society. Rendering a part of it Godless, faithless and non-human. Their removal from society if they do not conform to Wahhabism thus becomes not just justifiable, but necessary.

Soon, there will be no Maldivian left who does not follow the brand of Islam that they advocate, not because everyone has willingly followed where they previously refused to tread, but because Wahhabism would have become the only definition of what it means to be a Maldivian Muslim.

If – and it is a big ‘if’, given the obfuscation and vacillation of official policy – this is not the future that the Maldivian government has envisioned for the country whose democracy the current President fought so valiantly for, then it should act soon to provide room for the freedom to grow of the Maldivian Muslims who do not follow this brand of Islam.

Let people know – or at least open up the channels through which people can find out – that Wahhabism cannot lay claim to ‘true Islam’ any more than Bush can deny bin Laden and his followers the right to call themselves Muslims; and that there is nothing even remotely like a consensus in the Islamic world regarding the supremacy of the Wahhabi teachings over and above others in the religion of Islam.

If pluralism is the government policy, then make it possible for people to see, and provide the opportunity for them to understand, the pluralism that exists within Islam itself. Expose people to the other side of the debate, let other voices resonate with equal vigour in the various venues and lecture halls the Wahhabis are so effectively frequenting.

The followers of Wahhabism have a captive audience in the Maldives because they are the only act in town, because their script is emotive, and because they have chosen ignorance as the stage to act out their drama. Let the audience develop some discernment, and it will become possible to, at the very least, ensure Maldivians make an informed choice if and when they decide to take this country into a future of being an Islamic State with Sharia as its only law.

Let the Wahhabis know that the government will not let itself or Islam, the religion that it has written into the Constitution, be used as instruments of power in establishing the supremacy of one particular brand of Islam in the Maldives.

Equally important is to stop allowing Wahhabism to (re)define into non-existence a substantial part of the Maldivian population that makes this nation Maldives.

Munirah Moosa is a journalism and international relations graduate. She is currently engaged in research into the ‘radicalisation’ of Muslim communities and its impact on international security.

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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Maldivian journalist threatened with beheading

Death threats calling for the beheading of controversial Maldivian journalist and blogger Ismail Khilath ‘Hilath’ Rasheed have been published on Muraasil.com, a popular publishing platform that allows anyone to publish content in Dhivehi.

Rasheed, a journalist of 10 years experience, is known for being highly critical of Islamic fundamentalism in the Maldives.

The threats, which Rasheed translated from Dhivehi on his blog, called the journalist an “animal who has blasphemed” and said he “had no right to live”.

“Let it be made known to this guy that Maldivians are an Islam-loving and Islamic Sharia law-loving people. Become a terrorist in the name of religion,” demanded the author, identified only as ‘Jihad’.

“I am of the opinion that even if you kill him, you are all innocent. Cut off his head,” said the article’s author, identified only as ‘Jihad’.

The piece was quickly removed from Muraasil following complaints.

Muraasil’s founder Nasrulla Adnan explained that while anyone is able to create an account and publish articles on the site, new authors had to abided by a code of conduct and were carefully moderated. Only regular and approved contributors were able to post content without it being reviewed, he explained.

“Obviously that [content] was posted by someone who has published for a long time,” Nasrulla said. “We took it down and revoked their [publishing] rights.”

Rasheed said he felt the threats were “quite awful” and he was “now afraid some fanatic is going to attack me.”

“The situation with free speech in the country is very precarious,” he said. “We have all these institutions and laws, but extremists are using the umbrella of Islam to to incite violence against women, children and bloggers. I don’t think that Maldivan people should be silent about this.”

President of the Maldivian Journalists’ Association (MJA) Ahmed ‘Hiriga’ Zahir said such threats against the media were not common but were occasionally made by “some fanatical people, particularly when [a journalist] reports on religious matters.”

“One of my colleagues has had threats made against them before by certain groups,” he noted, observing that “much of the media is silent about fundamentalism and religious extremism – even the president is very silent on religious issues.”

“I think most journalists are aware that according to the Constitution there are certain limitations on press freedom, such as not being able to write anything against the basic principles of Islam,” Hiriga explained.

“I think the media needs to be much more open towards covering these issues and not be silent, [even] if they face threats. We are a moderate country and we can’t tolerate this kind of fundamentalism. It does not reflect the views of most people and I don’t think many people in this country are fanatics.”

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