Police are investigating complaints of the card game poker being played in Male’, after concerns were raised with a local restaurant manager that patrons were playing the game.
Haveeru reported that police were searching for expatriates who were witnessed playing the game.
“It starts as just having fun. A group of 3-4 people will start playing with a single deck of cards. One day a person lost and he had to pay a lot of money. There was an argument about it,” a restaurant owner told Haveeru.
Gambling is banned under Islamic Sharia law and punishable under Article 88 of the penal code, which defers to Sharia, Haveeru reported.
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Ah yes. Once again the religious zealots crack down hard on one of life's 'pleasures'. Do they not realise in the Islamic faith that if you deprive everyone of every release from their humdrum existence, people will simply indulge in other underground, and potentially more dangerous pastimes? Is this not why you have a growing drugs problem?
Do the government and the religious leaders simply believe that banning something means it won't happen? If so, they are deluded. I know of many, many Muslims who drink or gamble. Surely this is an indication that many simply don't wish to be restricted by the ancient teachings of primitive shepherds any longer. I suspect there are many closet atheists lurking among you who would renounce Islam tomorrow in favour of their freedom if it wasn't so ingrained in your society's psyche that to do so would mean being stigmatised and ostracised.
And now I've lit that fuse, I'll stand back and wait for the fireworks to start. 🙂