Innamaadhoo island council, in Raa Atoll, has filed a complaint with the Islamic Ministry against Sheikh Ibrahim Shameem Adam after he allegedly preached inside the island’s Friday Mosque without first obtaining permission.
Speaking to Minivan News today Council President Ibrahim Fayaz said that Sheikh Shameem went to the island last Saturday and requested the council’s permission.
Before receiving a response from authorities, however, Shameem held a sermon on the island, said Fayaz.
“They announced that there will be a sermon that night on the topic of sports and entertainment and held the sermon without our permission and we did not do anything about it because then they say Innamaadhoo council had obstructed religious activities and that we are anti-Islamic,’’ he said.
He said that the first 50 minutes of the speech was very good before beginning to resemble a political campaign meeting.
“He started talking about politics and the upcoming parliament elections and people inside the mosque came out, only a few were waiting inside,’’ Fayaz said.
“More than 200 people gathered outside the mosque in protest to the speech he was giving because it was supposed to be a religious sermon and not a political rally.’’
Fayaz said that islanders came and complained to the council, warning that if the council was not able to stop him the islanders might have to do it.
“So I then went inside and turned the loudspeaker and microphone off, but he did not stop,’’ he said.
“I asked him who gave him the permission to conduct a sermon inside the mosque and he replied by saying that the ‘Higher Authorities’ gave him permission. I do not know who higher authorities were.’’
Political sermons
Fayaz said that Shameem indirectly criticised both Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and the Progressive Party of Maldives’ parliamentary candidates.
“He criticised them in a way that everyone knew who he was talking about, but did not mention the names,’’ he said. “We even called the police that night because there might have been unrest on the island – and five councilors will not be able to stop the islanders.’’
He said that police asked the council to take a statement from Sheikh Shameem, but that Shameem refused to come to answer questions.
Furthermore, Fayaz alleged that the Islamic Ministry would not take any action against him because he was sent by the Adhaalath Party.
Islamic Minister Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed today told Minivan News that he had not received any information of the incident.
In December last year Omadhoo island council stopped Sheikh Shameem from delivering a religious lecture at the local mosque, fearing it might “disrupt the stability and social harmony of the island”.
At the time, Haveeru reported that when the council asked for a formal request for permission, the organisers sent a text message to the council president saying the lecture would go on with or without the council’s permission.
In May 2013 Sheikh Imran Abdulla and Sheikh Ilyas Hussein were obstructed from preaching in Vaikaradhoo, in Haa Dhaalu atoll, whilst Kamadhoo island council in Baa atoll prevented Sheikh Nasrulla Ali from preaching.
In Vaikaradhoo the sheikhs continued with police protection in the presence of local opposition activists.
In September 2013, Maldives Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) Chairman Ibrahim Umar Manik told a parliamentary sub-committee that the commission had stopped religious sermon ‘Andhalus’ conducted by Sheikh Shameem for violating the state broadcaster’s guidelines.
The MBC chairman,along with members of the commission, were summoned before the independent institutions committee following complaints by MDP MPs that the sermon by Sheikh Shameem infringed the rights of the party’s presidential candidate.
“We definitely do not consider [televising the sermon] as anti-campaigning against a particular candidate using religion. [But] around 11:35pm, because his talk was changing a little, we stopped the live [broadcasting],” Manik told the parliament committee at the time.
Current laws and regulations require religious preachers to obtain permission from local councils in order to preach at mosques in their administrative areas.
(0)Dislikes
(0)Related Posts
Comment: Democratic openings and Islamic nahda
Hanged air traffic controller sought asylum for fear of religious persecution
Apostate publicly repents and rejoins Islam, after counselling
Comment: The enigma of the Adhaalath Party and their radical politics
Comment: Democracy derailed
Comment: Maldivian faith to Maldivians
Stupid bloody idiots.
Religion = politics = greedy men who wants power,sex and materialistic demands.
It's exactly the same, the only difference is the times of application. Then, people were too isolated and ignorant, they wouldn't know the difference from a fart and a frog. Religions were the products of hedonistic sex-driven, power hungry men's path to power.
Religions are for stupid people, all the religions are bunch of crazy ideas human being ever invented with fear of death and eventually it became the best tool to keep the average person under tight control. A rational mind may think that if there is no religion then the mass with average brains will behave like animals. The question is, is religion controls people from doing bad things? Definitely NO, if there was no human influence, then the very basic idea of Hell and heaven, and punishment from supernatural being would simply be something people may never care about it. If religions are natural phenomenon, you don’t need human influence to make average person to like it. People would have natural liking for it the same way they have taste for sex, and food. No one likes religions specially Islam, people follow Islam with fear of punishment either by human being who have upper hand on them or some people who fear Islamic hell which was the most horrendous imagination of psychologically disturbed human beings imagined soon after conscious mind evolved . Today we have come to an age that the superior brains can clearly see that the world is not something that was created with any purpose, it was a random accident that put a course of some physical laws which controls the environment we live and we are simply part of this system. In this age we need scientific mullahs not some average moronic brains who can’t think out of box.
@ Andrew Andres : Take a chill pill dude. Yeah you got ur right to free speech in this domain but be wary when you go blasting off every religion just because you don't believe in it.
@(andhiri-andhirin) above wernt you killed by our great king mohamed thakurufaanu? Don't you get tired of making retarded comments about islam or anything remotely worth reading?
@Andrew
Ironic you accuse someone else of hedonism while representing the west..
Honourable Sheikh Shameem should either keep quiet in Maldives or time travel to Andalus of 1400's.
This is just another chap looking to get a fishing dhoni from Gasim.
The Adhalath Party has no credibility with the people except for the very poor, the illiterate, recovering addicts who transfer addiction to drugs to the addiction of power and control, and the psychologically damaged and narcissistic men and women of the Maldives who use this movement as a platform to seek glory and power.
It is my opinion that the Adhalath party is a branch of a worldwide fascist movement /cult. What is becoming clear is that there appear to be a few hundred people in the country, carefully recruited into a world wide movement based on fascist values and ideology. This movement is being packaged as Islam and has taken on the rituals of Islam to deceive us, but that’s where it stops. The doctrine that is being forced down our throats in the Maldives in the name of Islam appear to have at its core misogyny and xenophobia operating at an extreme level.
These movements/cults flourish where there is economic disparity, poverty, ignorance and injustice. The only way we can protect ourselves from this cult is to control us is through economic independence. 49% of our people voted for President Nasheed, a very clear message that the people of the Maldives want economic and social reform and to enter the 21st century. Unfortunately for these people,they were too late for the Maldives. By the time they completed their training for indoctrination, a young man called Mohamed Nasheed led the movement for democracy. We followed.
It comes as no suprise to anyone really that the Adhalah chose to support the JP and the PPM in the Presidential elections. Why wouldnt they? It was the leaders of the JP and PPM who kept the people of the Maldives poor and on our knees begging for everything from education, medical care, jobs to housing. May Allah protect us from these vultures and keeps strong on the path to liberate ourselves and to create a nation we can live with dignity and prosperity
I read the Quruan from page one to the last page. There is nothing to learn with regard to day to day life.
I read the Tripitaka, Dhamma Pada (the Buddhist's book} and the Bible. There are millions and millions of things I learnt. For example about how to treat your neighour and to have compassion, empathy and love.
Then I read the Khadees of Prophet Mohammed. I learnt just a little, compared to the other books mentioned above.
I did not find the word LOVE in the Quruaan. There is nothing to learn in the Quruaan.
As long as there is no fundamentalist resurgence, Nasheedha above,we should let these things pass...
Nasheeda , you must have read something else and if you read and know what it is mentioned there , you can not tell lies about that.
I am not a Seikh but even if you read the translation , you can find everything there .
From meeting a passing by people to even going toilets and coming out from toilet.
Holy Quran speaks everything in life and it even speaks about the bible too.
Please don't try make yourself as a fool here by trying to post false claim.
Nasheeda, if this was a court of law, you can be sued for poor referencing. One of the Names of God in the book is "The most loving", and many different verses on the actions God loves from man/women.
And theres a lot that can be learned from Hadeeth which you clearly have not learned, which is for one honesty.
And similar to the teachings of all abrahamic religions charity, taking care of/responsibilities towards neighbours (from hadith), honesty, self control, discipline and a lot is in there in the Quran and the hadith
Poorly quoting something you found in yahoo answers is pretty stupid considering anyone else can just google it these days.. lol
Nasheeda,
One small example
Quran chapter 19, verse 96
"On those who believe and work deeds of righteousness will (Allah) Most Gracious bestow Love."
Keep lying..
The Qur'an and the stories of the prophet contain wonderful, universal and time-tested values of social justice, equality, non-discrimination and progressivity.
However let us not confuse the message of Islam with the self-serving, megalomaniacal tendencies of interest groups operating in the Maldives such as Adalat, Jamiyyat Salaf, Islamic Foundation of the Maldives etc.
These organizations are just teams of people trying to make a quick buck and gather enough support to propel themselves into the political arena.
Islam is not inherently a tool of repression, it is used as such by greedy people. Any ideology can be abused in a similar way.
"Sheikh" is a label that was devised by Qayyoom for the sole purpose of controlling the minds of the masses. The label is tagged on to people of questionable training and experience thereby allowing them to pose as experts in Shari'ah. Some of them have hardly read any jurisprudential texts or engaged in any study at all. Look at the relative youth of the person pictured above and one cannot doubt the fact that he is a poser.
This damage is done to our country by our political set-up and the need of our leaders to keep our people trapped in the insular, paranoid, xenophobic microverse that is Maldivian society.
These "Sheikhs" often insult our Constitution and our laws, sometimes calling on their supporters to flout them by legitimizing illegal acts using a vague injunction in Islamic Shari'ah. This is done by exploiting the poverty and discontent of the most vulnerable classes. Also the misguided education system in this country has also been geared towards unquestioning servitude under self-professed Messiahs.
I for one do not oppose Islam or its teachings just because persons such as the fool pictured above would like to parade themselves as posterboys for my religion. Rather I would like the public schools in this country to teach their students Islamic ethics/morals and principles which they can build their lives on. Rather than asking them to take metaphors within the Qur'an in a literal sense.
These "Sheikhs" do more damage to Islam than anyone else by going around parroting the most irrelevant and unpractical aspects of Shari'ah rather than the universal values found therein.
Also every Maldivian must understand that Shari'ah law in its entirety has never been claimed to be divine in Islam. The teachings of the classical jurists or their students are also not the word of god. They are but studies in the law conducted by people like us. They might have erred in drawing analogies from broad Qur'anic injunctions leading to diverse views on one subject. You are not required to adopt either of those views so long as you remain within the fundamental bounds of Islam.
Ijma is a concept developed by politicians to maintain the status quo and keep people within certain bounds. So is any form of legislation. It only becomes anachronistic when classical Ijma is turned into dogma by poorly trained preachers and conmen.