The religious conservative Adhaalath Party (AP) has issued a statement slamming claims by President Mohamed Waheed to AFP that the party included “extremists”.
During a two day official visit to Sri Lanka President Waheed told the news agency that it was “better to work with” with the self-claimed Islamist party despite some elements within the party holding “extreme views”, since excluding the party from mainstream politics risked marginalising it. This, he said, would have a “negative long-term effect”.
“We believe we can work with [Adhaalath], we believe we must work with them, because not working with them would be to marginalise them,” Waheed told the AFP.
“Rejecting them would have a more negative long term effect. Inclusion is better than exclusion. It is better to take them on board. Better to work with them,” he added.
In a statement (Dhivehi) published on the party’s website on Tuesday, the Adhaalath Party said that it had been offended by the remarks and that such comments from the President would affect its relationship with Waheed’s party Gaumee Iththihaadh Party (GIP).
The party also denounced the claim that it held extreme views.
“The Adhaalath Party does not by any means hold extremist views. The party is working to introduce Islamic principles to the country, to protect the Islamic faith of the country and the country’s sovereignty,” read the statement.
“Therefore, the party leadership and its members are deeply disappointed by such allegations,” it added.
The Adhaalath Party is a member of the President’s ‘Forward with the nation’ coalition, backing Waheed’s bid for election in September. The coalition also includes the government-aligned Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) and the Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP), although several key members of the latter have since defected to the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM), while DRP leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali was recently taken to court by a series of creditors.
Local media meanwhile reports that the two parties have had a falling out with each other after the Adhaalath Party expressed concern over a lack of campaign activities.
The recent exchange is likely to worsen already strained ties between the parties, while unconfirmed reports suggest Adhaalath is considering the possibility of entering into coalition with resort tycoon Gasim Ibrahim’s Jumhoree Party (JP).
However President Waheed in local media has maintained he is confident the Adhaalath Party will remain in his coalition.
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happu. no extremists my a*****
Bad move Adaalath.
Salafits are in the mainstream now Egypt. Look at Al Nour party who are the most vocal against Muslim Brotherhood - and allied with the liberals.
You should celebrate being an extreme party now. Extreme is the new moderate.
Not extremist? Yeah, right. And Osama bin Laden wasn't a terrorist, bodybagging women isn't oppression, killing apostates and homosexuals doesn't violate their human rights, stoning and beheading isn't barbaric and child marriage isn't pedophilia. You can use fancy terms like "extremist", "moderate", "fundamentalist" etc but everyone knows these mullahs want to ban music, gender-mixing, pork/alcohol sale, bank interest etc. All they want is to use democracy to establish their Shariah-ruled theocracy where they'll have unquestionable authority. Waheed won't care. He can always leave to the US when the mullahs take over. Dhivehistani peasants will be the ones who have to suffer - and rightly so. Stupidity and willful ignorance has a price.
@Homosexual, your ongoing satirical critique of the hypocrisy of Political Islam is genius. Thankyou for your insights. Even though I sometimes find them hard to digest, my conscience cannot deny the truth of your insights.
As I said to @ABABS, the Islamic Political VISION was always utopian, a beautiful vision of peace, Justice, mercy, Equality, yet - never ever realized. The Legacy of Prophet Mohammed are the ideals he aspired towards, not what he achieved. His suggestions for achieving those ideals, such as the suggestions and the way of the Sunnah were contextaul, to be applied and understood in an extremely barbaric environment. To revive the essence of Islam a whole new paradigm in understanding Islam is desparately needed.
As I said to ABABS, the political vision of Islam has allways been utopian at the best of times. According to Hadith and Seerah, division within the Ummah existed even within the time of the Prophet, towards the end of Prophet’s life particularly. There are a few Hadith which recount such stories.
For example, the Ansar, that is the helpers – or those from Yathrib (named Madina by the Prophet SAW) as opposed to the Muhajirun (Migrants) were hurt that their swords were dripping with the blood of Qureysh and yet the largest portion of the Ghusl (war booty)was given to the Qureysh. Prophet placated the Ansar by stating that the Ansar had the greatest reasure, Himself living with them. He also said that those weak in Faith, new to Islam needed most gifts to teach them about the Forgiving, Merciful nature of Islam. However, this “placating” obviously failed to work, as, for example, later on, the Qureysh often quoted a so called Prophetic Hadith that the leader – the Caliph – should allways be a Qureyshi, which, to me, implies inter tribal conflict which LASTED.
Another Hadith tells of another tribal leader demanding Justice from the Prophet, disgruntled by the distribution of the Zakat and the Ghusl. he was possibly a representative of the Kharwaj (the rebels who lead a Khuruj – a revolt) whom Abu Bakr fought against, demanding that they paid the Zakat for example.
Many Hadith, of varying levels of authenticity, recount stories of tension between the four Caliph’s from the beginning.
Now, I do not wish to say much more as a few will find it offensive. But what I have to say, you can find out for yourself. Find it out by doing some research into why and HOW Muawiyah and Marwan became powerful, which one of the four Caliph’s they were related to. Do some research into different theories as to who killed Ali Ibn Abu Talib, and why, and what his stance was initially against the Karwaj, and why he changed. Do some research into the beginning of the Ibadi movement.
The point is, the whole thing went haywire WAY before the death of Ali Ibn Abu Talib.
It was only through perpetual diversion – created through the task of Islamicising the world, that the Caliphate got away with so much oppression. There were, of course, schisms, rebellions early on (Shiah, Ibadi, Kariji movements.) Later schisms of a lot more depth emerged. But for the majority, early on, the continual focus on an external enemy diverted attention away from the oppressive nature of the Caliphate.
So much more to say about this, but, I think I would like to draw the following points out.
The first point is, history teaches how dangerous, how socially destructive and self destructive it is to use Islam as a political weapon. We are all only human beings, and power corrupts all, no matter how noble the ideals.
The best way to achieve the Grand objectives of Islam (Justice, Mercy, Equality, the revival of the Dignity of the Slave, The poor, the Oppressed, the Orphan) is through a constitutional liberal democracy which balances the will of the majority who are oppressed WITHOUT democracy with the need for freedom of any minorities. Also, a constitution which allows freedom of religion so as to not allow the religion to become used by those seeking power, and therefore, degraded, is also paramount for upholding the objectives of Islam.
You see, the dream of the fundamentalists is utopian. It feeds on the desparate nature of the oppressed for power they have been brutally starved of by tyrants. It also feeds on the narcisisstic will to power of the would be demagogues also.
To realize a true state of Islam, in this modern Maldives, a liberal democracy is what is needed. The anti-democratic and anti liberal parts of the Sahih Ahadith MUST be understood in the context of a violent, tribal WORLD.
To apply these parts in this day and age is against the objective, the ESSENCE of Islam.
Ben, you always write too much. I lose interest after 3 or 4 sentences.
Would you mind consolidating your views (and I'm sure they are valid and interesting) into shorter text?
Thanks
Yo
@ Ben Plewright
Extremist may be bad, but extremely long wrings to make a point is not leas bit less extreme.
And please write (PBUH) after the prophet's name will ya.
@ben P
If I am not mistaken the message from @Yo is u r too old for the web and C21
@Ben Plewright on Wed, 10th Jul 2013 5:45 PM
"To realize a true state of Islam, in this modern Maldives, a liberal democracy is what is needed. The anti-democratic and anti liberal parts of the Sahih Ahadith MUST be understood in the context of a violent, tribal WORLD. To apply these parts in this day and age is against the objective, the ESSENCE of Islam."
Very well said. It's always a pleasure to read Ben's writings here. To those who find them long, please take your time to read them in their entirety as your time won't be wasted (same cannot be said for many commentators here).
If I had the choice, I'd invite Ben to deliver some Friday sermons to educate us all. That'd be far more valuable than the usual, boring, sleep inducing drivel we hear from the local "imams".
The only way to "save", "revive" Islam is to relegate religion to where it belongs - behind politics. This would require a paradigm shift away from the societal pseudo belief that free thought can be successfully regulated.
Without compulsion, the true believers can focus on converting the unbelievers with compassion, respect and empathy rather than terrorizing them into submission.
There would be no hypocrisy of outward conformation. With politics out of the equation, Mullahs would be Mullahs for no other reason than their religious belief.
It is not for this Mullah group to decide whether they are extremists or not. May be Adalath has no idea what extremism means. Someone has to tell them what does extremis means when we apply this on religion. In today’s world view, Muslim extremism is to follow 07th seventh century Bedouin culture and to hold the view that it is true Islam and every Muslim should adhere this culture as if it is divine order. Moderate Muslims are those educated Muslims who want to integrate within 21 century norms still remaining as Muslims and want Islam to be a respected religion discarding illogical irrational and derogatory traditions so that democracy and human rights can go along while preserving Islam as a religion and they hold the view that Quran and Sharia cannot be translated within purview of o7the century vision. Adhalath is an ideological party who fall in this category of extremist and you can’t deny it.
@Ben
You summed it up. Full stop.
The otherside of the coin is
1) May be it all never is from Creator? The eras of Moosa, Easa, Mohammed, within a span of under a 1000 years, were to improve the human corruption, failings etc. and guide them to a right path. Yet, 1500 years later, we literally see no stability; we are infact literally very far from clear waters. From the source of creation, one would really expect definitive movement towards righteousness. It's not like a game is in motion here.
2) you can really draw parallels here with the modern politics. Twist and bend everything to fulfil your hunger for power, money, materialistic needs, etc by stomping, stamping down any activists, and declaring yourself above all. And it's done brilliantly in this case, under the guise of divine guidance.
My take: it's all politics, on steroids.
Thanks for FB. Ababs your insights also brilliant. No I won't write pbuh because I normally write saw, same meaning. Peasants comment was vital. The issue is that Quran and sunnah are not apolitical, in that they contain Akhm or laws. If you take the position that you believe in the sunnah and the uncreated nature of Quran (articles of belief in Sunni Islam) and still believe in separation of religion and state, you will be forced to contextualise the text much deeper to move beyond the surface level cognitive dissonance.
Adhaalath Party akee Dhivehi Raajeyga emme bodu fithuna ufedhi party. No one can deny the coup in the name of Islam. Allah SW will no doubt will punish those who involved. Coup is Haram because it will cause FITHUNA.....May Allah not send any "koafaa" because of these wrong doers. Ameen
These Mullas are de reason y youth is stepin away from Islam..
Okay, since Minivan has decided not to publish my comment due to possible retaliation from the mullahs, here's a link to a video I want Ben to watch. You are the number 3 discussed there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgsrnmzxEUY
Not extremist, you say?
http://minivannewsarchive.com/politics/15-year-old-rape-victim-deserves-flogging-for-crime-of-fornication-adhaalath-party-53861
You consider rape to be a crime the victim commits.
http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=30595
You consider our daughters to be breeding stock to be sold to the highest bidder.
http://minivannewsarchive.com/politics/adhaalath-party-called-on-government-not-to-negotiate-with-gmr-disrupt-national-jihad-of-airport-nationalisation-44180
You consider our people as expendable pawns in your dirty wars.
You are extremists. And you will pay in blood and agony for corrupting this land.
Run and hide if you must. We will find you, even if you hide in a cave in Afghanistan, or under the Saudi king's feet. And we will have our revenge.