Islamic Foundation slaughters goats for public Eid al-Adha feast

The Islamic Foundation of the Maldives has announced plans to slaughter a “considerable number” of goats to celebrate Eid al-Adha, in keeping with the sunnah of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).

The sacrificial ceremony will be held around 8:30am at Maafannu Madharusaa following Eid prayers, the Foundation said in a press statement.

The slaughtering will be carried out by Sheikh Adam Naseem (BA), Sheikh Mohamed Moosa, Sheikh Ahmed Moosa, Sheikh Ahmed Maumoon, Sheikh Izzaddeen Adnan, al usthaaz Ahmed Nizam and many other dignitaries, the Foundation stated.

The Foundation invites all its members, their immediate families, special guests and all Muslim brothers and sisters to a feast prepared from the meat, tonight at 8:30pm.

Eid al-Adha is the latter of the two Eid festivals celebrated by Muslims annually on the 10 day of the Zulhijjah, the last month of the lunar Islamic calendar, the Foundation explained.

“The sacrifice commemorates the willingness of Abraham (AS) to sacrifice his son Ishmael (Ismail) as an act of obedience to the Command of Allah, before He intervened to provide Abraham with a ram to sacrifice instead.”

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Islamic Foundation donates Rf111,111.11 to Pakistan relief fund

Religious NGO the Islamic Foundation of the Maldives (IFM) has donated Rf 111,111.11 (US$8646) to the Pakistan flood relief fund.

The money was handed over to the High Commissioner Akhtar Ali Sulehri in a meeting held at the High Commission of Pakistan yesterday afternoon.

IFM launched a campaign for donating money to the flood victims of Pakistan at a lecture by Sheikh Fareed held at the Artificial Beach on August 27.

The money was collected by putting up fund boxes at different locations in Male.

IFM President Ibrahim Fauzee, Vice President Mohamed Fauzee and many of its members took part in the meeting held at the Pakistani High Commission yesterday afternoon.

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MJA condemns municipality head over scuffle with DhiTV cameraman

The Maldives Journalists Association (MJA) has demanded police investigate Head of Male’ Municipality Adam Manik “for attacking a DhiTV cameraman and snatching his camera while [the cameraman] was covering news outside Male’ Municipality.”

The MJA alleged that Manik attacked the cameraman, Hussain Najah, while he was filming a dispute between Manik and the Islamic Foundation of the Maldives (IFM) on Wednesday.

The previous day municipality workers had removed banners put up by the IFM promoting a sermon by Sheikh Ibrahim Fareed, entitled ‘Entire Medina has dimmed’.

The MJA statement claims the organisation was informed by DhiTV that the journalist was “physically hurt” when attacked. The MJA called on police to investigate the case “and media to condemn the attack and protest against it.”

“The MJA believes Mr Manik has behaved in a very dirty manner, which we have seen from the politicians of primitive societies,” the MJA said.

Manik admitted confiscating the camera but denied attacking the cameraman.

“Cameramen are not allowed to film on government property without authorisation,” he said.

“The Islamic Foundation put banners on plants in Sultans Park. The garbage collectors have standing orders to clean up government property,” he explained.

“[The Islamic Foundation] didn’t come to complain – they came in a large gang. I was out at the time but when I came back I found them hassling staff and saw a DhiTV cameraman hiding under the stairs.”

Manik said he asked the cameraman to stop shooting and give up the camera, “which he did”, and then called police.

“They suggested I return the camera, but I asked them to be present when I returned it in case they tried to destroy it and [blame] me,” he said.

The MJA disputes that the cameraman was filming in an unauthorised area, “as he was filming outside the Municipality office, an area where filming is not forbidden.”

Manik observed that “the media is too occupied with making the news instead of reporting it’, and suggested that the truth would revealed when DhiTV ran the footage.

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam confirmed police had attended the scene to observe the return of the camera to the cameraman.

“No one has reported that the camera man was injured and he has not made a complaint [himself],” Shiyam said. “So far no one has filed a case.”

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Comment: The Evils of Democracy

This article was first published on the website of the NGO Islamic Foundation of the Maldives. Republished with permission.

Democracy is a system of infidelity which opposes the decree of the Creator and an evil that was born and raised in the lands of the West. Islam and democracy can not coexist in the religion of Allah, the Lord of all the worlds.

There is no such thing called ‘Islamic Democracy’ as some people put it because those people who adopt, implement or approve and agree to espouse democracy with its basic principles and fundamentals are openly hostile to the faith of monotheism.

When democracy is implanted in a Muslim society, it becomes a trial which sets apart the faithful Muslims from hypocrites and apostates. Those Muslims who take it upon themselves to fight and defend democracy without a religiously compelling reason hate to see Islam triumph over all other way of life. Most often they love to be in the company of the infidels, hypocrites or apostates and be praised by them while calling themselves ‘moderate Muslims’.

There is no such thing as ‘moderate Islam’ or ‘radical Islam’ in the revealed religion of the Almighty Allah. These are terms invented by the enemies of Islam to create divisions within the nation of Islam.

If someone deeply looks into democracy, he will realise its damaging aspects on any society. Democracy which emerged in the lands of the infidels demands the separation of powers: the executive, the legislative and the judiciary are to function as completely separate entities. Moreover, democracy aims to change the established Sharia and demands to keep separate the religion and the state, which is unacceptable in Islam. In a democracy, the secular majority wins and rules over the divine commandments. If an undesired group or party wins power through elections, then the election results are annulled and the constitution is amended to bar that party from competing in elections again. Such examples can be seen in Algeria, Turkey, Palestine and Kenya.

Democracy spurs sedition and discord by gathering people in parties and blocs, the consequences of which are hatred, fighting and bloodshed.

Huge sums of money are required for the working and functioning of political parties. In most democracies, the murky business of obtaining funds for political parties involves corruption, bribery and the selling of state secrets. The electoral campaigns are comprised of boasting, showing and presenting one’s deeds and withholding from others the deeds that they are due, as well as the use of falsehood and deceit in order to gain people’s votes.

Democracy makes the entire population equal, as there is no difference between a knowledgeable specialist and an ignorant person, an eminent scholar of Islamic theology and an illiterate drug addict, a monotheist and a polytheist, a believer and a hypocrite, an adulterer and a pious man, a child rapist and a holy person.

The proper functioning of democracy demands that most criminals have to be ‘rehabilitated’ and not punished for heinous crimes. The prisons in these countries include gyms and other sports or recreational facilities, swimming pools, libraries with internet services, the best food, medicals etc. To add more, there is a system of parole which allows the criminals to leave the ‘prison’ before the end of their sentences.

Democracy is a system that wastes the money and resources of the country in holding elections. These elections are filled with problems of intimidation, fraud, ballot rigging and other irregularities. No interim government is allowed to take over before fresh elections begin; instead the old leadership remains in power during and immediate aftermath of new elections, paving way for more social unrest.

Many times the opposition refuses to accept the election results with accusations of fraud, and calls on people to come out on streets to protest causing pandemonium and bloodshed. You will realize the deficiency of this democracy and its reprehensible failure to manage people’s affairs when those in the opposition constantly call for premature elections, along with its ensuing chaos and disorder.

Democracy leaves the door wide open for spoilers and all the undesired elements in the society to carry on with their work of spreading mischief in the land. Democracy also coexists with the oppressive regimes and the spoilers of social life with all its constituents: gay and lesbian rights movements, narcotics and other substance abuse groups spring up into action.

Therefore, homosexual marriages, selling of intoxicants and the right to renounce Islam have to be allowed under the guise of protecting human rights. Hence, a need for legislation to regulate all such cursed acts and behaviour which in turn produces deputies who pass on laws against those prescribed laws of Almighty God.

In a democracy, candidates jockey for positions of power with promises they do not keep after winning the election. The candidacy for elections is contrary to the guidance of Prophet Mohamed (PBUH) who said that Muslims do not confer the command of an emirate on he who asks for it.

Less privileged or deprived people have no chance of being on the electoral lists because becoming a candidate requires spending huge amounts of money in order to get people’s votes, which apparently go to the one who pays out more for bribery or propaganda work by the media.

So, in a democracy money can buy positions of power, and as such, the seats of the legislature or parliament mainly consist of people from the upper class or people backed by them. It is absolutely impossible to enact any laws urging their businesses to spend money in a way that might benefit the poor. The reality is the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

The most prominent people in a democracy are the politicians. The pious scholars of Islam, renowned scientists and men of knowledge have to follow the guidelines set by these politicians. Some of these so called politicians occupy seats in the cabinet, parliament and others work as party activists etc, but the truth is, they are ‘political prostitutes’. Most often they shift from one alliance to another or change parties and is devoid of any shame in behaving so for their worldly gains.

If you take a closer look at democracy, you will realise the deficiency and failure of that system to manage the people’s affairs and elect leaders capable of running the country in a way which benefits the masses. You will also undoubtedly ascertain the appropriateness of the Islamic way in generating the leaders and appointing rulers or emirs.

It is wrong to say that Muslim lands had been ruled by dictators or authoritarian rulers in the past centuries. The revealed Holy Scripture of the Muslims instructs the rulers to rule justly by obeying the commandments of Allah and with consultation (shura).

Throughout history the Muslims always had Consultative Assemblies comprised of learned men to advise those in power. The idea of dictatorship, authoritarianism, monarchy or royal dynasty rule began to creep into the Muslim lands when Muslim masses influenced by the West began to forget the proper method of statehood in Islam.

The Maldives has been ruled for quite a long period of time by authoritarian rulers with the power to enact draconian laws through the rubber stamp parliament. The Maldivian people were sick and tired of their ruling elites, their extravagant behaviour, nepotism and corruption etc.

The rampant moral degeneration, drunkenness and drug addiction made the Maldivian society plunge into chaos in the years between 2003-2008. The opportunity was ripe for the irreligious people who opposed the authoritarian regime to manipulate the situation by calling on the West to impose democracy on Maldives amid threats of economic sanctions.

There were many who thought that after democracy had been installed the problems created by the old authoritarian regime would disappear once and for all. However, in addition to those social problems that already remain, democracy has begun to create more problems in people’s lives by dividing the masses into parties or groups.

More often, rival factions compete for influence within the same party and today the so called political parties in Maldives are on the verge of bankruptcy or collapse and state funding is insufficient to keep them functioning. Soon the political parties in Maldives have to rely on foreign donations and grants of which the most likely consequence of this would be foreign control.

Money can buy power, so if the West decides to bring a certain opposition party into power, they increase funding for that particular party. In addition to all these problems, the party in power and the opposition parties are always at each other’s throats, as a result the ordinary people have to bear the brunt of the entire disharmony or disruptions within the community.

The so-called democrats in Maldives claim that they were the only ones who worked tirelessly to bring an end on nearly half a century of oppression. They say that these religious mullahs and bearded fundamentalists only acted like timid chickens and were unable put up a formidable resistance even to defend their ideals. They dare to say that these religion mongers kept hiding behind the backs of prodemocracy activists just to gain favours when everything happens to be over.

If so, then why for the past three decades did countless numbers of Muslim scholars – bearded men who offered five daily prayers and burqa clad women – continuously end up in jail or under house arrest? Where were the pro-democracy activists and human rights campaigners when breast feeding mothers were taken into police custody on the suspicion of trying to endanger religious harmony?

The so called prodemocracy activists only emerged during or after September 2003, when a violent drug addict was beaten to death by prison guards and the shooting incident there which killed a few other drug-related criminals.

It was so because the democrats became convinced that the authoritarian ruler faced pressure from the West to allow political parties to be formed in the Maldives.

The democrats might try to argue that they were in opposition since the early 1990’s. It is a wrong notion to say that they were campaigning for democracy then. The voices raised in those days were not for democracy but for reform or perhaps for change of power. Those voices disappeared into the wilderness because they were not backed by the West.

The spread of democracy in Muslim lands is a victory for diabolical forces of Jews and Christians who spend vast amounts of money and sacrifice much to keep Muslims divided.

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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