Yesterday, the Adhaalath party organised a large rally at the tsunami monument in Male’, to demand the implementation of Islamic Shariah in the Maldives.
The party was joined by “hundreds” of pseudo-religious NGOs whi lent their collective voice to the clamour for Shariah, supposedly an antidote to ‘murder, violent assaults, robbery, rape and drug abuse’ in the country.
“The whole nation is threatened and institutions have failed,” the party said in a statement. The ‘only solution’, according to large banners put up across Male’, is Islamic Shariah.
What the Adhaalath Party and its friends fail to mention here is that by ‘Islamic Shariah’, they’re referring to a single interpretation of Shariah suitable to their rigid world-view – a minority opinion among the world’s many Muslim schools of thought that all hold different views of Shariah.
Lady Injustice
One common criticism of clergy-controlled Shariah is the perceived injustice towards women. While these concerns are often met with heated denial, they’re also backed up by cold statistics.
In 2009, then Minivan News Editor, Mariyam Omidi, wrote a damning report highlighting the strong gender discrepancy in the meting out of punishment for ‘fornication’ in the Maldives. According to government statistics cited in the report, out of 184 people sentenced to lashing for ‘fornication’ under Shariah law, 146 were women.
Following his verdict in June 2005, a judge in the criminal court, helpfully offered his opinion that women were ‘deceptive creatures’ according to the scriptures.
Almost exactly two years later, another judge ruled that the gang-rape of a 12 year old girl by four axe-wielding men who’d broken in through her bedroom window, was ‘consensual sex’, because the child didn’t scream audibly enough.
Last week, Mukhtar Mai, a woman who was gang-raped and dragged out naked in front of 200 higher-caste men in her village in Pakistan, had her hopes dashed when the courts upheld a ruling by semi-literate, tribal judges against her.
Given these realities, and a long series of cases where Muslim women have been punished for the crime of getting raped, one awaits an answer from the proponents of Sharia as to why a woman should ever step into their courts expecting justice.
Judge, Jury and Executioner
In Islamic Shariah, there is no jury, no defense lawyers, no prosecutors, no pre-trial discovery process, no courts of appeal, no cross-examination of witnesses, no legal precedents, and perhaps most damaging of all, little room for modern evidence.
Former State Minister of Islamic Affairs, Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed, while graciously acknowledging the validity of long established forensic methods of DNA profiling, stated that such evidence could only be used as ‘supplementary’ evidence, presumably while relying primarily on eye-witness testimonies, as practised in Arabia 1400 years ago.
Furthermore, due to the lack of separation of powers in Islamic Shariah, the Mullah is literally the judge, jury and executioner on whose shaky whims the mortal life of the accused rests.
Coupled with the severe lack of capable judges, this is often a recipe for disaster.
Dr. Tarek Al-Suwaidan, a prominent Muslim scholar, blamed the poor quality of modern Islamic jurists on a curriculum that is limited to only subjects related to traditional Islamic jurisprudence.
Highlighting the necessity of familiarity with international law, and current commercial, copyright and cyber-crime laws, he prescribed a minimum requirement of at least a bachelor’s degree in business, law or other specialized field before candidates enrolled for Shariah studies.
Maldivian courts, on the other hand, are plagued by severely under-qualified judges with barely primary level schooling who, according to a February 2011 report by the ICJ (International Commission of Jurists), have also failed to act in an impartial manner.
Political farce
The ‘absolute Shariah’ practised in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan gives credence to Syrian Scholar Muhammad Shahrur’s theory that jurisprudence in the name of God is a farce by those wanting to maintain political power.
Photographs available in the public domain show the former Taliban government in Afghanistan showing off dead bodies of dissenters hung from poles in public, with their severed penises stuffed in their mouths.
In 2007 alone, at least six cases of torture and custodial death were brought against the muttaween, the Saudi Arabian religious police entrusted with enforcing a rigid Shariah state. In one case, a man was beaten to death for being in ‘illegal seclusion’ with an unrelated woman.
In May 2002, the religious police in Mecca prevented school girls from escaping a burning building as they were not wearing the ‘correct Islamic dress’, and to prevent physical contact between the girls and civil firefighters, which they feared might have caused ‘sexual enticement’.
Over forty people suffered severe burns that day, and 14 girls burned to death.
In the Islamic Republic of Iran, the basij militia brutally cracks down on pro-democracy activists in Universities and streets of Tehran, thereby prolonging the Ayatollah’s political reign in the guise of ‘upholding Islamic Shariah’.
The lack of judicial oversight or accountability, coupled with the promise of absolute power, has made Shariah an irresistible proposition for the Islamist political movement.
The political implications of a ‘Shariah’ legal system was painfully obvious in the original draft of the Maldivian Religious Unity Regulations of 2010, which forbade, among several other things, the criticism of ‘religious scholars’, and airing of any views on religion that contradicted the views of a select few who, very conveniently, happened to be the ones drafting the regulation.
Uncodified Law
When a Maldivian man publicly declared his lack of faith to a visiting preacher last year – he was met with a curious reaction.
On the one hand, the preacher on stage, in a long-winded response, ruled that Islam didn’t demand the death of all apostates. On the other hand, by day break, another set of preachers from a local NGO had issued an outright demand for his state sanctioned murder, failing an immediate repentance and conversion.
The dramatic contrast in judgement between the self-declared experts that – under a Shariah law system – would’ve literally meant the difference between the man’s life and death, brings to the forefront the problem of Shariah not being a codified system of law.
There have been several attempts within the Islamic community to correct this grievous flaw, by compiling Shariah laws into a standard code. But observers note that since Islam has no central authority to universally enforce such a codified law, it would depend on compliance, rather than enforcement.
Until such day, the law literally is whatever the Mullah with the gavel says it is.
The deterrence argument
Citing Islamic Shariah, the Maldivian Parliament recently introduced a proposed amendment to the Clemency Act, which would uphold a death sentence passed by the Supreme Court.
The proponents of the death penalty claim that it would act as a deterrent against violent crimes.
As it happens, a New York Times survey in 2000 revealed that American states which practise the death penalty have for decades shown consistently higher homicide rates than states that didn’t. FBI data for 2008 shows that murder rates were up to 101% higher in states that implemented capital punishment than those that didn’t.
According to Amnesty International, evidence shows that the faint threat of a possible future execution does not, in fact, enter the mind of a potential murderer in the throes of violent rage, mental illness, calm cold-bloodedness, or sheer panic.
Human Law
A vast majority of the world’s Muslims live under secular, constitutional law.
Even though laws in Pakistan and Malaysia are influenced by Shariah, they have regular courts and cede ultimately authority unto the constitution, rather than the clergy.
Many secular countries like Britain, India and the Philippines allow religious discretion in civil and domestic affairs governing marriages, divorce and inheritance, but for criminal cases, they all employ modern law – with constitutional remedies, inviolable rights, principles of equality before law, provisions for appeals and the benefit of forensic evidences that has helped ensured justice for rape and murder victims even several years after a crime is committed.
A new thinking
In a sermon at the American Centre of the National Library last year, Imam Khalid Latif said that even non Muslims and people guilty of various sins felt free to openly speak their minds to the Prophet, without fear or hesitation, and fully expecting a patient hearing.
Times have clearly changed, as Islamist resentment against differing opinions has increasingly expressed itself as violent attacks on intellectuals and liberal reformists, further expanding the shadow of fear and intimidation under which Islamists operate.
Ibn Rushd, the celebrated philosopher from the Islamic Golden Age, also said that revelation and reason are not contradictory, but complementary.
Swiss born intellectual Professor Tariq Ramadan, one of Foreign Policy magazine’s Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2009, argues that the Qur’an should be interpreted in the changed historical context of modern times.
Citing a German law demanding equal treatment of sexes as an example of proper Shariah, Ramadan asserted that “There are laws coming from non-Muslim minds that are more Islamic than laws coming from Muslim minds in Islamic countries.”
Indeed, those who swear by the immutability of God’s law, ignore the fact that Shariah has been compiled, polished, amended and refined by Islamic jurists for centuries after the Prophet’s death.
Dr. Abdul Fatah Idris, Head of Comparative Jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University agrees that with changing times, the traditional classical jurisprudence is no longer sufficient, and a ‘new thinking’ is required to deal with a changing society.
The failure of Islamic Shariah in modern times reflects this failure of the clergy class to adapt to changing times.
As with others before them, politicians in the Maldives are projecting an alluring vision of an idealistic sin free society to a disgruntled public as ‘Shariah’ – ignoring the fact that it has been a staggering, disastrous failure in every other modern nation that has experimented with clergy justice.
While loudly touted by vested interests as ‘the only solution’, Shariah is unfortunately ill-equipped to solve the average modern Muslim’s daily problems, and unlike modern law, has demonstrably failed to ensure justice and security for men and women in every part of the Muslim world.
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Its quite clear the writer did not grasp the full meaning of Islamic Shariah. Islamic Shariah is not merely the Hudood Laws. That is something the Islamophobes conveniently leave. A person who is an Arabic Language illitrate (the books of Islam are on the language) go on force a thought that is related to the faith of the people who does not believe in that religion. What more is needed to discard this peice of gibberish into the dustbin.
Before you go into a convulsion at the mere mention of Shariah, understand what it really means. Aprox. 70% of Shairah deals with rituals of worship. We should not resort to fear-mongering as this will only create animosity & hatred among us. Let us not be paranoid.
An excellend article by an American scholar on Shariah.
“A Proud, Patriotic, Shariah Practicing American”
http://muslimmatters.org/2011/03/11/yasir-qadhi-a-proud-patriotic-shariah-practicing-american/
Anti-Muslim & Anti-Islam activities are spreading like a wild fire around the world. We need to think where we are heading. Else we may see another Genocide in the world. A larger one than Hitler even
Escaping the Hurricane: Reflections on Anti-Shariah Hysteria
http://www.lamppostproductions.com/?p=1677
A good argument. Whether this will resonate in the minds of those who promote Shari'ah as a solution is another question entirely.
Frightening women and politicians would be THE most effective way to defeat the objectives of the Shari'ah brigade. However we have to address, and mention, the fact that our political institutions have lost public confidence in them and are regressing towards the most abhorrent tribalism this country has ever seen to date.
The democratic experiment is failing and needs to be propped up before it implodes or explodes, depending on whether intraparty or interparty struggles wins the ultimate race to destroy any chance of consolidating proper democratic institutions in this country. It seems hard, nay, impossible, to imagine that we could prevent the eventuality of a collapse of this democracy. Whether an Islamist state, military democracy or authoritarian puppet regime will replace our aspirations towards a semblance of equal rights and opportunities remains to be seen.
these guys who gathered doesnt even know what islamic shriah is...fake people fake intentions...... islamic shariah is man made not fit for this age..... under islamic shariah more convicts ll be free .
Yameen Rasheed this is your perspective. I honestly do not think you understand the holistic concept of Islamic Sharia or how it applies to everyday lives of people.
Sharia touting mullahs complying with the dessert sartorial and tonsorial fashion of 6th cwntury love to hear their own shrill voices on loudspreakers amplified by modern elecronics all invented by those pork eating and wine drinking infidels! They even wear on the streets sunglasses made by Chinese who relish lard-fried rice!
if sharia law comes to maldives, that will be the end of it all, islamic rules allow murder by stoning and chopping off limbs, this is not a great picture for Maldives, do we want to encourage more men to beat their wive's?? and it is not an antidote for crime, you can never eradicate crime, but control it, and islamic sharia is not the answer, there is nothing sexual about a 6 year old girl, by making her wear burqa, your are indirectly saying that little girl has sexual appeal. this is absurd and sick. more violence will rise as religious views colides, and we dont want to encourage extreme muslims who does not think twice to kill an "infidel" and have a terrorist attack on the resorts cos of "Haraam"
Well documented and reasoned. Very relevant to ask the question: whose interpretation of Islamic Schariah? We do not have scholars of Islam in this country but we do have extremist groups who want to bring in their practices and who are influenced by fanatics from other Muslim factions. The present day Islamic "leaders"are backward. They have no principles or what it takes to move a society forward. They are wrapped in their own greed for power and control.
@Fracture, Munshid, Aharen-
Why don't you present something valid like a logical reason in refuting the authors claim? Clearly you three understand Sharia and Islam better than him.
I'm not particularly against the death penalty, but in order for the person to be sentenced to death, I believe a huge investigation should take place and a lot of evidence should be presented.
But giving too much power to the likes of Adhaalath and co. is not good for this country. We don't want stoning sessions in Galolhu Dhandu after Friday prayers every week.
But I have always said this. Instead of trying to solve the problem using police crackdowns, or useless gatherings such as this by representatives of Al Qaeda, how about we try and tackle the cause of the problems first? Clearly, people who rob do so because they do not have enough to survive. Tell me I am wrong, because I for one know what hard lives Maldivians are leading, especially those in Male' who originally came from other islands. And when they move here with all their families, and find almost no jobs, or have jobs which don't pay enough, their survivability really does depend on stealing. Wonder why the younger thieves of Male' are never really questioned by their parents on how they got the money, or laptops or whatever?
Many of these youngsters don't have a proper education. Teacher don't care like they used to 10 or 20 years ago. Even they themselves are trying to survive by going for tuition sessions elsewhere and earn more by doing so. When students come out of Dharumavantha, Majeediyya and Aminiyya, imagine how many would make it to A Levels or a Diploma. Most of the Maldivian students except few are made to believe that after they are done with their O Levels...that's it, it's time to look for a job. And believe me, we have enough jobs in this country. What Bangladeshi immigrants are doing...why can't us Maldivians do? This culture of "bad" jobs need to disappear. Students clean bathrooms at McDonald's while at university in other countries. They distribute flyers. They do all this, because they have goals and are motivated.
And how many students who finish their A Levels really do make it to university or any other form of higher education? This is just adding up to youngsters who live in the Maldives, with NOTHING to do. Some survive off their rich parents, others don't, and these are the ones who usually get involved in gangs because they can actually survive and feel a self of belonging by being a gangster. The recognition their teachers didn't show them at school, they get at gangs. And in a gang environment, once you're in, you never get out easily. You try to uphold your gang pride, and ultimately get into violent situations. This is how things work.
Why not tackle these problems first, before calling for "solutions" which have almost no guarantee of working?
Islamic Sharia is no doubt the best solution for humanity, but the problem is the corrupt judiciary. Most of the judges in Maldives are not well educated, who were handpicked by former President Gayyoom and his brother Hameed. The majority of the judges are either educated in Pakistan or in one of the middle easter countries like Egypt, Saudi , etc. These countries have the worse track record of injustice to their own people and human rights abuse. Yes! these countries also have the Islamic Sharia, but do they practise it the way it should be!
As human beings our behaviour cannot be like that of an animal. It is logical that moral and ethical behaviour of human beings have to be decided by its creator and not by themselves. This is what we called the devine law which is the origin of Ismaic Sharia. In the name of human rights, same sex marriage is allowed in many parts of the western society. If this is OK, tomorrow we will see the human getting married to animals. This wil keep on going and there is no boundry for behaviour if it has to be decided by us, the human beings.
In summary, Islamic Sharia is the best solution for humanity, if exersised properly. This requires well educated and uncorrupt judges who are of the highes moral standards.
What amazes me is this. We are struggling to implement even our existing laws. 99% of those who are brought infront of judges go free due to lack of evidence. No one can deny that our existing procedures are based on Islamic Sharia, which is a Constitutional obligation.
So, my question is, what difference is "Islamic Sharia" going to make? You can ONLY apply Sharia once ther person is convicted. What's Adhaalath proposing to improve the conviction rate? Imposing "Islamic Sharia" isn't going change that.
Let's say, you implement "Islamic Sharia" as Adhaalath sees, tomorrow. The very same people who've been appearing 20 times or more before the courts will be there once again. None of them will go anywhere near sentencing due to "lack of evidence"! So, what is Sharia going to buy.
As usual, Adhaalath is playing a political game, using religion, without offering anything meaningful. Adhaalath has never offered anything meaningful to our society so far.
Minivan has yet again brought an opinion piece. This has become the routine. Instead of reporting any demonstration or support for islam, minivan plays it down. An opinion piece is then published. What a joke of "minivan" !!
Readerss please refer a more balanced view from BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/beliefs/sharia_1.shtml
I see a lot of people here saying that Yameen Rasheed doesnt understand Shariah. Well, to me every single word Yameen has said here makes perfect sense. Im not against religion or shariah. But instead of simply saying that Yameen Rasheed doenst understand Shariah somebody please attempt to refute Yameen's arguments with convincing logic. I honestly dont understand what these so called 'educated' 'learned' people are talking about.
Everything has gone according to plan. The pawns are throwing themselves into the fray, calling for 'shari'a law'. At long last, my wait is nearly at an end.
Excellent work, Yameen Rasheed. You've done an excellent job of refuting, and disproving the mullah's claims. Keep the truth close to you, and we will never be defeated.
@Ahmed Bin Addu Bin Suvadheeb: Allow me to clarify something for you. Under 'islamic shari'a law', there is no need for evidence. For example, if you rape a woman and then accuse her of 'illegal sexual intercourse', she'll be brought to the stony firing squad and murdered to chants of 'allah ackbar!'.
All you need to do is bribe the judge.
These adhaalath parteys are purposefully misdirecting the people's vision. Instead of dealing with the problems of society, they're using the suffering of Maldivians to further their own arrogant ambitions.
There must be people educated in Islamic Studies in this country, who have other views on Islamic shariah, rather than focusing on death penalty and womens dress code. I sincerely call upon them to join this debate before it's too late for this Nation.
minivan news is run by a bunch of islamophobes, who has a clear anti-islam agenda.
no news report on the large demonstration, no photos.. simply a "comment" from a self-hating atheist.
for those who are commenting, please be aware that by going against shariya you are going against islam itself and will loose your faith.
the maldivian constituents is very clear, it says that maldives is an islamic state and all laws made in the country must be made withing the islamic shariya, so the tens of thousands of men, women, children who gathered yesterday were simply demanding the implementation of what is written in our constitution.
the sheer number of people who gathered shows the strength of islam in this country and insha allah, we will succeed in implementing the islamic shariya, no matter how much the anti-islam gang oppose it and no matter how much of propaganda is spread by people in this website.
yameen raheed ((why did this person even have a muslim name?? considering the hatred he goes spreading around about islam, the prophet, muslims, etc in his blog, facebook, and in minivan news)) has done an excellent copy and paste job. simply vist an islamophobic website copy something from there and pasted here as an article!
most of the things he has written are simply twisted facts or outright lies. telling one thing and omitting the next. for example, the lie about fire fighters preventing people leaving a burning school in mecca! i wonder how much mentality such a person have for believing such fabrication. Any one can google that story and understand the truth.
Does it really matter whether Shariah is blue or greenish blue?
No.
What does matter is how the general public sees it. What good is a bridge, a road if no body is using it. At the moment, there are multiple variations of each and every single ayah, every hadhees, interpreted slightly differently depending on where he learned. And that is a fact.
What we need to do is practically, not theologically, figure out what will help the Maldivians out of this misery that we are in now. Religious wise, economy wise, humanity wise. The miracle of this world is humanity. And not anything else.
i just came in to say that this is the worst "news" website ever in maldives... I just visted here to tell you that and to see what kind of vomit you threw against islam today.
when will those porn stars in this stupid government take action against this website? After all, the constitution says that no expression aginst islam can be expressed in maldives. but this website is making that clause in the constitution as a joke.
the gang running this site is connected with the top gun of the country but this is a little extreme.
i wonder why the people of the country are lying idle when these missionaries goes on insulting their faith. isnt there just a single person to do anything?
unfortunately, i'm out of country, otherwise i wont lye idly watching when the constitution is stepped upon like that and the faith is insulted by the gang running this site.
call me a whatever name u secularist like, see if i give a fu#k!
why didnt minivan news cover yesterdays large demonstration?
because there was no counter protest by the secularists.
last time when there was a 10,000 strong demonstration against zionists and a secularist protest of 10 people. the heading of minivan news was "youth gather against extremism... also in other news there was a demosntration by Adhaalath"
what do secularists propose to stop the crimes in the country?
more prisons?
sorry, now also half of the sate budget goes on feeding, clothing, and looking after and treating the criminals in prison.
more laws?
now also there are plenty of laws. but who is following them. simple example: the constitution says that no expression against islam can be expressed in maldives, but do even minivan news follow that?
more police?
so many police in the country, recently they have been given the green light to use non-leathal weapons also. but no one is frightened of them.
appointing more judges?
the current people sitting in the courts like the spream court bench was appointed by the joint effort of both MDP and DRP.
more CCTV camera?
arent we surrounded by them now also? major streets have it, all the government offices have it, even hospital is filled with it.
what else?
WE NEED FULL IMPLEMENTATION OF MALDIVIAN CONSTITUTION. YES, WE NEED SHARIYA WHICH IS THE SOLUTION TO ALL OUR TROUBLES.
yes to islam, yes to shariya!
Well said Yaamin, well said The Balrog. Yaamin your articles go very deep, as usual, well researched! I wonder when the women would start realizing that they'd not make a goodmdeal with Sharia.
Besides that, I don't fear that Sharia will be exercised in our country anyway. Ridiculous to even demand for it in the 21st century!
My suggestion: Send the supporters of the protest to a Sharia practicing country and let them live like it for a while...
mariyam/ ainth/ V:
none of you have given any counter arguments to this article.. simply saying the article is 'anti islamic' and written by 'islamophobe' is not an argument..
adhaalath party and others do the same thing your doing, which is to try to shut people up by calling them anti islamic and suppressing them with fear..
why dont you show any examples of where sharia has worked in the modern age? everywhere it is used for political purposes, it will be the same in the maldives if it comes here
Amusing how some people can't handle criticizm. "please be aware that..." and "the constitution says no expression against"... WTF.
If you were clean, you wouldn't fear criticizm.
Dear Ainth,
YOU may need to google a bit around, before you call Yaameen a liar. Find the article about the prevented rescue of school girls here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1874471.stm
There are various other websites which write about it, if you don't like BBC
An interesting article.
If the people of the Maldives want a backwards, repressive, misogynist set of laws then sharia is perfect for them but it will isolate the country as no decent, civilised, people will ever visit there.
i really wish someone teach these constitution mockers of this site a lesson.
suddenly yameen becoming a women as marina. pathetic!
we dnt want this to keep on happening in maldives http://sun.mv/7163
implement shariya now!
lets go protest against this anti-islam website first. whos with me? lets gather around their office and let them hear our 'comments'
we will not stop until islamic shariya is fully implemented in the country. you wait and see.
Maldivian constitution upholders vs secularists. Interesting..
let the game begin.
If you want shariah, you will have it soon enough and at the point of a sword - but it will come at the cost of freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and equality before the law, and the women and non-muslims will suffer most, as they always do in the shariah paradise.
Good luck.
lets hold a referendum to see what kind of law the country should have. I'm 100% sure that overwhelming majority will vote for Shariya to be implemented.
We should import some caves and camels and declare Arabic as the new official language. Every single problem solved.
in love with maldives, islam and shariya
whats so great abt western laws. when the westerners go around randomly shooting people. Cutting of peoples organs. posing with dead bodies. killing innocent for sport. planing to murder children and to run over them over their vehicles... and its just a days work for them.
@mariyanma, I at least checked what Ainth has accused Yameen of and gave a counter argument that she was wrong, claiming he wrote lies. His article is very well researched as we are used of him.
On the other side, as "Curious" has mentioned above, none of you can give a single proof where Sharia is working, why it is NOT a repressive and backwards law.
Do these Mullahs also tell you who's gonna feed you under Sharia? Islamic tourism or what?? Who would like to come to Maldives if you implement such an outdated system? There are other tourism destinations to visit...
We have to agree that there is a fringe group within us who oppose islamic shariah.. this group includes a handful of elements like Hilath, Aniya and Yaamyn who have their own agenda to promote, eg. religious freedom,same sex freedom,..etc. Having thousands of people supporting for shariah at the rally is a huge set-back for their agenda.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-kill-team-20110327
i guess there is nothing wrong when US soldiers paint a grenade pink and give it to the Afghan children and say it's a candy filled egg!
Islam is an alien ideology that was forced on the Maldives.
Islam hides Arab colonialism under the banner of religion.
Why should non-Arabs bow and pray in Arabic toward Arabia? Does God know other languages?
Islam is the biggest plague of the last 1,400 years. Sharia law in the Maldives will only make it worse.
Read how sharia works at
http://islamsfatalflaw.blogspot.com/
I find it hilarious that questioning the veracity of the man-made so-called islamic shari'a automatically means 'hating islam'.
Ah, reminds me of the times in Europe when it was forbidden to question the authority of the catholic church. Oh well, history will repeat itself, and shari'a law and the politicians who use religion will find themselves in a very uncomfortable spot... eh... a few years down the line.
That's when the oil runs out.
What idiots you people are!! What Shariah are you talking about? Try refuting anything Yameen has said ..... I have yet to read a single comment against him actually make any sense.
Shariah if provided by God is implemented by men. There would be no requirement of a justice system if you could trust people to do the right thing, this is what Shraiah requires- trust in those who implement it. This may have been the most progressive system 1500 years ago, but not today. Look at our scholars! Who do you trust?? Afrasheem? Or perhaps the most learned scholar Zaeem Maumoon?
Brain dead morons, do some research for yourselves, don't trust Yameen he is a "secularist", don't trust Minivan they are "missionaries". Name one f@*^ing country with a successful Shariah system, just one!
Shariah has been tried time and again from Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan, you can see the results. You people should be able to understand this just by being alive.
What benighted lives you people lead. Blind, deaf bigoted nut-jobs.
@fail
What do we propose?
None of your so-called 'secular solutions' you've made up will stop the troubles for Maldives.
What you're seeing today is the result of more than three decades of lethargy and ignorance.
@what a joke!:
Unlike the loudmouth barbarians passing themselves off as muslims, we do not believe in disrupting people's lives with loudspeakers, propaganda and large rallies.
Thus, we find no need to 'counter-demonstrate'. The truth always wins against falsehood; no amount of brute can enforce it. Just look at the Arab world today.