Non-Muslim Maldivians.

FREE MOHAMED NIYAZ IMMEDIATLEY.

2010-05-29T07:03:00.000-07:00

We call on the Maldivian Government to immediately free Mohamed Nazim.

His human rights must be respected.

The full force of the law must be applied to find and bring those who attacked him to account for their crime.

Zakir Naik wants Muslim Maldivians to kill Non Muslim Maldivians

2010-05-26T06:23:00.000-07:00

Muslim Maldivians beware. This the dangerous propaganda this man is spreading.

Watch video and decide for your self . Do you really want your children to be taught these kinds of things?

Do you think Zakir Naik will create more intolerance in Maldives?

2010-05-25T08:25:00.000-07:00

After watching his videos, we think that Zakir Naik will turn Maldivian against Maldivian, father and mothers and sons and daughters against each other. He preaches intolerance.
His ideas are not good for the future of our beloved nation.
Please look this one video. There is many online.

Information limiting culture is not good for future

2010-05-22T06:49:00.000-07:00

Some practices of Muslim Maldivians are sadly very damaging to themselves, their children and society. Muslim Maldivians take censorship very seriously and there are many things banned for Muslim Maldivians by their Scholars.

Take example this conversation on Facebook:

Hathim Ah Long Ali Ok, serious question is serious ... How strict is Maldivian law towards the showing of ''other faiths'' on Cable TV. I was watching Nat Geo, and they were showing a really interesting program about Jesus Christ, Bethlehem and the Palestine-Israel Conflict all rolled into one ''Inside Bethlehem'' I believe... So 10 minu...tes in as I was getting more engrossed in it .... The program suddenly cuts to black and the channel is completely cut leaving an empty screen... Was it pure coincidence or are they not allowed to show such stuff on Cable? - I did some surfing and even Animal Planet was cut off .... So just bad timing perhaps?

Ashjay Roronoa Winchester
They always censor such programs. Remember the Great Easter Mysteries. I was really looking forward to it, and they censored it. They basically cut off all these programs, as I remember the documentary series about the bible being cut off too. Interestingly, I dunno how stupid the cable guys are, but they did let me watch The Devil's Bible. Nice programs, educative, but I dunno why they need to censor. If we watch these, does it mean we are suddenly going to convert? No. A person with good enough faith can watch programs about other faiths a hundred times, and never convert. If a person thinks this way, they lack a lot of common sense.

Hathim Ah Long Ali
You serious? wow, I thought Cable TV wouldnt do stuff like that.. ... They dont want me watching educational stuff, but they have absolutely no problem letting me watch half nude women on Fashion TV .... I'm not even going to try find the logic behind it

Ashjay Roronoa Winchester
LOL! Believe it or not, the cable tv censoring has been going on for a long time.

Hathim Ah Long Ali
Ahh, I hardly watch tv and if I do, I only watch animal shows and the news lol ... The whole censoring caught me off guard... I'm pissed now :@
Yesterday at 1:09pm ·

Slim Jo Lira
Its only not censored in the late night reruns. Gets on my nerves too.

Ashjay Roronoa Winchester
Oh yeah, maybe that's why The Devil's Bible wasn't censored. I watched it very late, right after that ancient weapons program ;D

David James
Ashjay , saabahey thikuraa hihvarah , nan ves araifi dho officers list ah .

Vitte Visham
James,k ge nan ves araifi officers list ah.congratulation James. =)

Ashjay Roronoa Winchester
LOL! I knew James was our top entertainment person on this group.

David James
heheh , kaleymenge hiyaaluthakaa e kolhu nuvaa konme meehe ei entertainer e nu. this is not new to me.

David James
I have removed my name . i dont like it.

Vitte Visham
ooh :-\

Munzir Ali
sensaru kuree eyy. A few months ago, History channel was about to show a very controversial film called 'the last temptation of christ' and Bnet blocked the channel.

When Maldivians are deprived of knowledge that is generally available around the world the population is more ignorant of the world . By censoring information Muslim Maldivians are pushing themselves and their families and the whole nation into further ignorance.

Soon all the people may be Islamic Scholars who know all the good Muslim books and the correct Path to Heaven of Islam.

But many educated Muslim Maldivians and Non Muslim Maldivians who do not like such restrictions to information will leave the country.

Then WHO will operate computers, windmills, solar panels, airplanes etc?

The good moral of the Muslim Maldivian

2010-05-18T08:38:00.000-07:00

There are many Muslim Maldivians.
There are Sunnis and Sufis. There are Salafis and Wahhabees and different beliefs and different sects. Many Muslim Maldivians perform a few religious obligations perfunctorily while others are zealous in dedication to prayers. Some never set a foot inside a mosque unless relative or friend or enemy is dead. Some never bow head towards Mecca but if you ask they say they are Muslims. Some people recite Gur'aan and Solavaai fulu daily. Some Muslim Maldivians sometimes change some of their religious belief. Some people have travelled dozens of times to the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina.

Muslim Maldivians do not have any ill will or hatred for people of other religious beliefs. Many Muslim Maldivians life outside Maldives among Christians, Hindus, Buddhists etc. Many Muslim Maldivians send their sons and daughters to live and study with people of other religions in countries where there are other religions. Many Muslims have friends who are Christians.

The good moral of the Muslim Maldivian is defend and protect the minority Non Muslim Maldivians from any discrimination or persecution because of their religious belief.

Who are the Non Muslim Maldivians?

2010-05-13T08:42:00.000-07:00

They are just like the other Maldivian. There is no physical difference. One difference is what they believe about this universe and creation.

Muslim Maldivian believe that everything was created by a being they call Allah and so on...

There is many kind of beliefs among Non Muslims. Some Non Muslims are Hindhus. Others are Buddhists. There is atheists. There are Christians and satanist and etc.

The other difference is Non Muslim Maldivians do get Human Rights in their own country.

Except for this different belief they are the same as Muslim Maldivians.

There is no physical difference. They are your sons and your daughters. Your mothers and fathers. Your brothers and sisters.

Join Non Muslim Maldivians & Friends with Instant Messaging & Video Chat

2010-05-11T10:02:00.000-07:00

By popular demand the Paltalk Chat Room with Instant Messaging & Video Chat for Non Muslim Maldivians and Friends will be opened again.

To join Non Muslim Maldivians & Friends download Paltalk free. Room is in Other section under Asia, Pacific, Oceania.

Click here to download Paltalk and join Non Muslim Maldivians & Friends

Please not that at times the room may be closed due to unforeseen circumstances

Islamic Law Strangles Free Speech

2009-06-21T11:17:00.000-07:00

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - I am being patted down by a female Danish security officer in the basement of the parliament building in Copenhagen and I have a thought. I have just triggered the metal detector - my heels, I'm sure - en route upstairs to the Landstingssalen, formerly the parliament's upper house. There, I am scheduled to deliver a speech at the invitation of the Danish Free Press Society, or Trykkefrihedsselskabet. (Say that three times fast - or slow.)

Indeed, I am holding the text of my 20-minute address inside a folder in one of my hands, now rigidly outstretched as I am being searched. The speech is called ``The Impact of Islam on Free Speech in the U.S.,'' but as I am checked for bombs and knives and whatnot, my thought is of the impact of Islam on free society everywhere.

Such a thought surely tops the heights of ``political incorrectness,'' I know. But what should I do - not express it? Not think it? Not even notice that Western civilization, in skewing to accommodate the jihad threat of Islam within, has already traded away too much precious freedom?

As the security officer continues patting me down, I follow this forbidden train of thought to the realization that it is only due to the incursions of Islam into the West - Islam with its death penalty for criticism of Islam - that I am now standing here under guard. Here we are (for there is a long line behind me by now), participants in a conference to consider Islam's censoring impact on free speech, and Danish security is doing its best to prevent Islam from censoring the speech of anyone here permanently. This strikes me as an exceedingly hard way to prove a point.
Not that there are many people likely to try outside the elegant, security-ringed conference room upstairs. In PC lingo, security in the basement is looking for ``terrorists'' or ``extremists'' - those postmodern designations for perpetrators of Islamic jihad that, presto, turn everything Islamic into something generic. Still, with Islam comes jihad, and with jihad comes Islamic law (Sharia), no matter what ``experts'' tell you. And because Islam is a growing presence in the West, Western countries must now and presumably forever expend vast sums of money and manpower to manage - not defeat, just manage - the jihad that can break out in acts large and small at any time. Increasingly, this also means deferring to Sharia. Finally, my pre-conference frisk is over. Hallelujah, I am no threat to society and allowed to pass. I go on to meet for the first time the great author Wafa Sultan, and meet again the great Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders, the two most illustrious speakers on the conference roster.

Both Sultan and Wilders, of course, live under unrelenting, permanent and Islamic threat of death for their critiques of Islam, in a very real way suffering every day for defying Sharia's prohibition against criticizing Islam. But does the outrageousness of their plight resonate with their fellow citizens? I don't think so. I think we've all grown much too used to it, and dully complacent.

But imagine if I had written, circa 1970, that for his critique of communism, Ronald Reagan lived under unrelenting, permanent and communist threat of death in his beloved California, that he couldn't travel the streets of Los Angeles without a massive security retinue, that he could no longer even sleep in his own home. Wouldn't Americans have become rightly agitated over the communist enemy within?

I think the answer would have been yes, but the point is, no such mortal homeland danger existed at that time for those who spoke against the leading threat to Western-style liberty. Today, a mortal homeland danger does exist. I won't tell you what it was like to slip in and out of the Wilders security bubble during the course of his stay in Copenhagen, but suffice it to say, it is both a veritable shame and an outrage that his life depends on that bubble, and that for speaking his mind in defense of Western-style liberty he has lost his own freedom.

The same goes for Wafa Sultan, who, for attacking the repressiveness of Islamic law (under which she existed for 30 years in Syria), also lives privately a similarly wary, hunted life that necessitates protective security measures.

Remember, this is happening in the ``Free World.'' Whether in Denmark, Holland or the United States, the heavy hand of Islamic law is pressing in on its leading critics, squeezing the freedom out of their existence. It is time to say enough - literally enough, for example, and stop Sharia by stopping Islamic immigration - and throw off the rising chokehold of jihad-advanced Sharia. I guarantee it will take a lot more effort than just patting down the occasional free speechnik, but I also guarantee that for the sake of free speech it is worth it.

By Diana West

Are we living in the era of Islamic censorship?

2009-03-16T09:04:00.000-07:00

In last few months three important developments took place which were although directly not related with each other but they have some connection between them. First, just before Indian economic capital Mumbai was attacked by Islamic terroists on 26 November last year the largest Islamic body OIC approached the supreme law making body of the world UN with a resolution to make it compulsory for the countries of this world to declare vilification of prophet of any religion as illegal as well denouncing the efforts to use term Islamic terrorism in reference to terrorism.

Second, Government of Nederland decided to prosecute president of a political party of this small European state for hurting the sentiments of Muslims with his film “Fitna” based on some controversial ayats of Quran. After the decision of government of Nederland Geert Wilders decided to visit few European countries with message of his controversial film and United Kingdom was one of them. Geert Wilders was banned from UK government and was told to refrain himself from entering into the borders of Britian. Geert Wilders tried to defy the government orders but he was arrested at the airport and expelled from Britain. Geert called this development as a great set back to the freedom of expression.

In third incident, one leading English news paper published from West Bengal in India “The Statesman” reproduced an article from a British news paper and this article become bone of contentious between News paper and Muslim society. Local Muslim groups objected to this article as they found it with some objectionable remarks on their prophet and in few hours of this publication anger come out on streets and local administration intervened and later succumbs to pressure of Muslim groups and decided to arrest editor of news paper with one of his employees although both were released immediately on bail.

All those examples that have been described above did not have any connection between them but still they indicate for one common question. Are we living in the era of Islamic censorship?

This question should be answered by us if we boast to be living in modern world where everyone enjoys the equal freedom. Some times it seems as we are surrounded with hypocrites and pseudo-liberals where Islam has been given privilege on every other religion because no author, publisher, commentator find itself in any regulation or self imposed censorship when it comes to the subject of critical review of any religion other than Islam. Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and Jainism all the religions and its scriptures, deities and prophets have been painted in every possible ways which is nothing less than vilification of these sacred figures but any of this religion never approached UN to pass a resolution to stop the criticism or critical review of their scriptures or deities. This difference is pregnant with some larger implications on the society.

Values of modern world could not be imposed on other religions giving full immunity to one because one religion has potential to turn their anger in violence which could ultimately culminate in clash of civilizations.

In last few years world has been exposed to a new threat of extremism and intolerance and this phenomenon is cultivated with theory of atrocity on Muslims. It is very difficult to understand why Muslims around the world always talk about their grievances and impose the responsibility of their grievances on other countries and people. Core of this theory revolves around the exploitation of resources of Middle East from western countries in common and US in particular but it is not the only case even India is also not out of the orbit of this theory. Indian Muslims also being taught how they have been treated with second class partisan behavior. But the most important aspect of this theory is how honest its propagators are and this is the parameter from which we can measure the honesty and political motivation behind this theory.

Theory of atrocity on Muslims is very much related with privilege of Islam and danger of Islamic censorship. Muslims around the world have not only been told how that they have become victim of exploitation but they are told their religion has also been targeted. This theory has made the Muslim across the world over conscious about their religious identity and every step for modernity is proportionate to merging of their religious personality with modern world. This fear psychosis of Muslim society has been exploited by Islamic religious and political leaders very shrewdly.

Continue reading here

The dysfunction of the Muslim world corresponds directly to the persecution of dissent.

2009-03-08T07:04:00.000-07:00

Emerging Muslim Freethinkers and the Battle of Civilizations

by MA Khan

05 Mar, 2009

The Muslim world is obviously in a mess. Political instability, unbridled corruption, lack of economic development, widespread intolerance and violence, and lack of freedom, liberty and human rights are some of the traits that characterize Muslim societies most glaringly. All indications suggest that things will get only worse over coming decades.

Amongst many factors that differentiate Muslim societies from most other progressive and more peaceful societies are its missing freethinkers—namely critics and reformers—who are able to criticize the troublesome aspects of its societal core, its religious foundations. Other societies had its problems in the past. However, those societies allowed the emergence of progressive freethinking scholars, philosophers and reformers. They exercised variable measures of liberty to criticize, to point fingers at, the underlying reasons, including the religious ones, of the many ills of their societies. Jewish societies produced brilliant minds like Benedict de Spinoza, Carl Marx and Albert Einstein amongst many other; Christianity produced great thinkers like Rene Descartes, Emmanuel Kant, David Hume, John S Mill, Bertrand Russell and many more. Some of these thinkers, Spinoza for example, attracted ire from religious authorities, faced excommunication. Nonetheless, their ideas and views were not choked out; instead, they were disseminated with some measure of ease; security to their life was not threatened. The resilience, the power, of their progressive and reformative social, political and philosophical ideas eventually triumphed. As a result, those societies reformed, secularized, progressed and prospered.

But Muslims societies, the core of which is most intimately integrated with its religious ideals, have never really allowed the emergence of its own breed of freethinkers and progressive reformers, particularly over the past eight centuries.

[........]

As long as intolerance of dissenting ideas remain in force, Islamic world will unlikely emerge from its current malaise and lack of material progress. It is unlikely to change any time soon. There is, however, a glimmer of hope. Kicked out of their home countries, some Muslim dissidents—harbored by the liberal West—are showing their intellectual prowess. Muslim apostates like Ibn Warraq and Ayaan Hirsi Ali have written bestselling books. Most of all, they, for the first time, are pointing fingers at the debilitating nature of the Islamic theology, which must undergo modernization as have other creeds.

Read it all here

A Muslim Hero Defies Threats as he Fights Radical Islam

2009-03-07T05:24:00.000-08:00

Dr. Sami Alrabaa
If what happened to Salahuddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor in chief of the Bangladeshi Weekly Blitz and peace activist, and his colleagues, happened in Tibet or Burma, for instance, the international media would rush to these regions and report about them meticulously, and human rights activists worldwide would take to the streets and demonstrate against the oppressors.

Mr. Choudhury is fighting radical Islam in one of largest Muslim countries of the world (150 million). If the West does not support Choudhury’s struggle, a whole society will increasingly drift to Islamism. Bangladesh is being Talibanized day after day.

Choudhury was assaulted on February 22, 2009 by a bunch of radical Muslims affiliated with the Awami League, the party of the recently elected Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed – the same party that claims that it is secular and supports the rule of law.

To add insult to injury, after the premises of the Weekly Blitz were infiltrated by a radical gang affiliated to the Awami League which accuses Choudhury of being an agent for Israel, he and his colleagues were attacked and severely abused by officials of the DGFI (military intelligence).

Choudhury and his co-workers suffered critical injuries.

Choudhury filed a case against the attacking gang and officials of the DGFI. However, a lawyer and advisor to the Prime Minister by the name Shintu urged Choudhury to drop his charges, otherwise he would face fatal consequences – including an extortion of TK 500,000 (about $8,000).

The current atrocities against the Weekly Blitz mark a series of attacks. From 1996-2001, numerous journalists were assaulted by members of the Awami League. In 2003 Choudhury was also attacked, arrested, and brutally tortured for 17 months by government agents. His “crime?” He called for establishing relations with Israel and advocated moderate Islam. He also advocated genuine interfaith dialogues between Muslims and followers of other faiths.

The persecution of Chouhury was meant to appease Islamists across the country, whose number is rising dramatically; an outspoken moderate Muslim must be muzzled by all means.

Since 2003, a court in Dhaka has charged Choudhury with blasphemy, treason, and sedition, and he has been subjected to all kinds of harassment.

Dr. Richard Benkin and Congressman Mark Kirk eventually managed to bail Choudhury out. If these outspoken peace-loving gentlemen, the U.S. Congress, the European Parliament, the Australian Senate, and numerous human rights organizations had not interfered, Choudhury would be dead by now. According to the Bangladeshi law, sedition charges deserve the death penalty.

Yet Choudhury is not intimidated. He says,

“People are punished for crime, for creating anarchy and for putting humanity into horrifying terror. But, could we ever believe that someone would be arrested, tortured and imprisoned for long 17 months just for being in favor of global peace, inter-faith dialogue, ending religious hatred and thinking of everything good and noble for mankind? In my case it did happen and after being released on bail keeping the sedition charge very much alive. According to the allegations, my crime is: I am a living contradiction to today's phenomenon in the Muslim world, a Zionist, a defender of Israel and a devout, practicing Muslim living in the second largest Muslim country in the world."

On the issue of interfaith dialogue, which all peace-loving people cherish, Choudhury says,

"Through dialogue we can learn about one another's beliefs and faith. You and I, yes we can challenge belief and build on faith. By this simple action we deepen what it means to us as individual and as a group the idea of being guided, inspired and even acting according to God's plan. The whole idea of faith, trust, and belief is a philosophical debate between individuals from the central point our self and the peripheral our community. Religions can be based on theology but more importantly it should be based on our perception and understanding of God's words as individuals and not as a mass. This had been the reason as to why I promote interfaith dialogue. Religion does not promote hatred however men have promoted hatred by favoring one religion over the others; usually it is their interpretation of what religion means which is based on theology or the word of God as interpreted by men of small minds. Some monotheists accuse others of worshipping idols and having false gods. Some radicals go as far as destroying historical temples. This can be seen when Christians had statues to represent images of Jesus or the Virgin Mary they were either destroyed or painted over. Romans destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Christians and later Muslims destroyed Hindu temples in India or parts or other parts of the world. The first Christian priests were destroying the spiritual icons of natives, and saying they worshipped idols in nature. Hindus destroyed Muslim and Christian Mosques and Churches. The list goes on an on. However, there is another aspect of religion that is often forgotten those from the tradition who have made a contribution to stopping hatred, which promotes better understanding."

Also, Choudhury vehemently opposes the Islamist propaganda spearheaded by Saudi Arabia which propagates that Jews are the enemy of Allah. Choudhury advocates peace among followers of all faiths, and demands that the culture of hatred and violence be out-rooted.

Choudhury is a real hero. He is a valiant fighter who chose to stand up in a hostile environment and fight radical Muslims. He was offered asylum in several Western countries, where he could live in peace. But he turned down all these offers and opted for fighting the virus of out times: Islamism, and added, “If someone is willing to say no to Jihad, he must say it on the ground.”

If the West, and in particular America, is serious about the war on terror, they should wholeheartedly and by all means support Choudhury and all those Muslims who are in the same front on the ground.

All of those writers, Muslim-born, who live in the West, like myself, or Westerners who write about Islam and the need for its reform are undoubtedly doing a good job, but they are preaching to the converts. For reform to become a tangible reality on the ground the world needs heroes like Choudhury.

A Nobel Peace Prize for Choudhury would fuel further his energy and rally more public support for his noble fight. Choudhury is sacrificing himself for peace in his country and the world at large.

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Dr. Sami Alrabaa, an ex-Muslim, is a professor of Sociology and an Arab-Muslim culture specialist. Before moving to Germany he taught at Kuwait University, King Saud University, and Michigan State University. He also writes for the Jerusalem Post.

Why Should I Respect These Oppressive Religions?

2009-02-11T12:02:00.000-08:00

Whenever a religious belief is criticised, its adherents say they're victims of 'prejudice'

by Johann Hari

The right to criticise religion is being slowly doused in acid. Across the world, the small, incremental gains made by secularism - giving us the space to doubt and question and make up our own minds - are being beaten back by belligerent demands that we "respect" religion. A historic marker has just been passed, showing how far we have been shoved. The UN rapporteur who is supposed to be the global guardian of free speech has had his job rewritten - to put him on the side of the religious censors.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights stated 60 years ago that "a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief is the highest aspiration of the common people". It was a Magna Carta for mankind - and loathed by every human rights abuser on earth. Today, the Chinese dictatorship calls it "Western", Robert Mugabe calls it "colonialist", and Dick Cheney calls it "outdated". The countries of the world have chronically failed to meet it - but the document has been held up by the United Nations as the ultimate standard against which to check ourselves. Until now.

Starting in 1999, a coalition of Islamist tyrants, led by Saudi Arabia, demanded the rules be rewritten. The demand for everyone to be able to think and speak freely failed to "respect" the "unique sensitivities" of the religious, they decided - so they issued an alternative Islamic Declaration of Human Rights. It insisted that you can only speak within "the limits set by the shariah [law]. It is not permitted to spread falsehood or disseminate that which involves encouraging abomination or forsaking the Islamic community".

In other words, you can say anything you like, as long as it precisely what the reactionary mullahs tell you to say. The declaration makes it clear there is no equality for women, gays, non-Muslims, or apostates. It has been backed by the Vatican and a bevy of Christian fundamentalists.

Incredibly, they are succeeding. The UN's Rapporteur on Human Rights has always been tasked with exposing and shaming those who prevent free speech - including the religious. But the Pakistani delegate recently demanded that his job description be changed so he can seek out and condemn "abuses of free expression" including "defamation of religions and prophets". The council agreed - so the job has been turned on its head. Instead of condemning the people who wanted to murder Salman Rushdie, they will be condemning Salman Rushdie himself.

Anything which can be deemed "religious" is no longer allowed to be a subject of discussion at the UN - and almost everything is deemed religious. Roy Brown of the International Humanist and Ethical Union has tried to raise topics like the stoning of women accused of adultery or child marriage. The Egyptian delegate stood up to announce discussion of shariah "will not happen" and "Islam will not be crucified in this council" - and Brown was ordered to be silent. Of course, the first victims of locking down free speech about Islam with the imprimatur of the UN are ordinary Muslims.

Here is a random smattering of events that have taken place in the past week in countries that demanded this change. In Nigeria, divorced women are routinely thrown out of their homes and left destitute, unable to see their children, so a large group of them wanted to stage a protest - but the Shariah police declared it was "un-Islamic" and the marchers would be beaten and whipped. In Saudi Arabia, the country's most senior government-approved cleric said it was perfectly acceptable for old men to marry 10-year-old girls, and those who disagree should be silenced. In Egypt, a 27-year-old Muslim blogger Abdel Rahman was seized, jailed and tortured for arguing for a reformed Islam that does not enforce shariah.

To the people who demand respect for Muslim culture, I ask: which Muslim culture? Those women's, those children's, this blogger's - or their oppressors'?

As the secular campaigner Austin Darcy puts it: "The ultimate aim of this effort is not to protect the feelings of Muslims, but to protect illiberal Islamic states from charges of human rights abuse, and to silence the voices of internal dissidents calling for more secular government and freedom."

Those of us who passionately support the UN should be the most outraged by this.

Underpinning these "reforms" is a notion seeping even into democratic societies - that atheism and doubt are akin to racism. Today, whenever a religious belief is criticised, its adherents immediately claim they are the victims of "prejudice" - and their outrage is increasingly being backed by laws.

All people deserve respect, but not all ideas do. I don't respect the idea that a man was born of a virgin, walked on water and rose from the dead. I don't respect the idea that we should follow a "Prophet" who at the age of 53 had sex with a nine-year old girl, and ordered the murder of whole villages of Jews because they wouldn't follow him.

I don't respect the idea that the West Bank was handed to Jews by God and the Palestinians should be bombed or bullied into surrendering it. I don't respect the idea that we may have lived before as goats, and could live again as woodlice. This is not because of "prejudice" or "ignorance", but because there is no evidence for these claims. They belong to the childhood of our species, and will in time look as preposterous as believing in Zeus or Thor or Baal.

When you demand "respect", you are demanding we lie to you. I have too much real respect for you as a human being to engage in that charade.

But why are religious sensitivities so much more likely to provoke demands for censorship than, say, political sensitivities? The answer lies in the nature of faith. If my views are challenged I can, in the end, check them against reality. If you deregulate markets, will they collapse? If you increase carbon dioxide emissions, does the climate become destabilised? If my views are wrong, I can correct them; if they are right, I am soothed.

But when the religious are challenged, there is no evidence for them to consult. By definition, if you have faith, you are choosing to believe in the absence of evidence. Nobody has "faith" that fire hurts, or Australia exists; they know it, based on proof. But it is psychologically painful to be confronted with the fact that your core beliefs are based on thin air, or on the empty shells of revelation or contorted parodies of reason. It's easier to demand the source of the pesky doubt be silenced.

But a free society cannot be structured to soothe the hardcore faithful. It is based on a deal. You have an absolute right to voice your beliefs - but the price is that I too have a right to respond as I wish. Neither of us can set aside the rules and demand to be protected from offence.

Yet this idea - at the heart of the Universal Declaration - is being lost. To the right, it thwacks into apologists for religious censorship; to the left, it dissolves in multiculturalism. The hijacking of the UN Special Rapporteur by religious fanatics should jolt us into rescuing the simple, battered idea disintegrating in the middle: the equal, indivisible human right to speak freely.

From Common Dreams

Constitution or Shariah Law?

2009-01-27T08:44:00.000-08:00

Recently, the special Majlis is forced to stay put on disagreements over whether to include Islamic Shariah law in the constitution. The government is equally uneasy of religious dissent apparently on the rise in the Maldives and fearful of the growing Islamic extremism in The Maldives.

In this state of affairs both opposition and the government is reluctant to enter a new stage of constitutional reform and practice in regard to fight for the basic right of freedom of religion.

This basic right is clearly stated in international human rights instruments, particularly Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Article 18 of theInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance". UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS Adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 217A (III) of 10 December 1948.

Until today, the main problems regarding the protection of freedom of religion have never entered the arena of Special Majlis and in constitutional reform. A constitution as the supreme law of the land sets out the basic structure of the governmental system in every nation. The constitution of every country, however, has different characteristics that can influence the form of the state.

As regards the freedom of religion, we often hear about the different concepts of a religious state, secular state and other types of state.

The Indian Constitution, which added the word “secular”, shows that India is a secular state that places special emphasis on the values of freedom of religion and tolerance.

The First Amendment to the American Constitution guarantees freedom of religion for each of its citizen.

In relationship between constitutions and freedom of religion, the countries that have majority Muslim populations are divided into four categories.

First, countries that openly declare themselves to be Islamic states.

Second, countries that have officially adopted Islam as the official religion of the state.

Third, countries that declare themselves to be secular states.

Fourth, countries that make no such declarations in their constitutions.

If Maldives belongs to the first category, then the question arises as to what is the real concept of the state that was created by our founding fathers?

The question is when did Maldives became an Islamic state and How?

What was the religion of our fore fathers?

Originally Maldivians followed the Dravidian Mother-Goddess worship and its rituals. The country underwent a conversion to Buddhism about 2,000 years ago which brought about an unprecedented flourishing of the Maldivian culture, including the language which by then developed its own script. Almost all significant Maldivian archaeological remains and cultural accomplishments are from that period. But about 800 years ago the country was converted to the Muslim religion.

A confessional state can only be based on a particular religion, while a secular state prevents religion from interfering with state affairs. Moreover, Can Maldives be or become a nation through its constitutional reform?

A religious state that protects and facilitates the development of all religions adhered to by the people without any differences in treatment arising from the number of a religion’s adherent?

In this context, it is essential that the State has a constitutional obligation to protect the freedom of religion of each of its citizens, when the Constitution is held in one hand, the holy book must be held in the other hand. This means that these two things have to work in harmony and that one cannot contradict the other.

Maldives is one of the countries that lack experience as regards the protection of freedom of religion through the constitutional reform mechanism. In fact, this mechanism is an important tool in other countries when the freedom of religion finds itself under attack by state action.

Constitutional reform in Maldives is confined to the review of laws. This means that the Maldivian constitutional system and its practice need to be developed more seriously. Due to the lack of constitutional protection mechanisms, there are currently huge obstacles in the way of citizens seeking to affirm their basic rights to freedom of religion.

The Maldives is going through a period in history which the nation has never seen before. Through the constitutional reform Shariah Law is included or not. In a modern and in a liberal democracy the constitution and its government function on basic human right in which includes.

1. A secular state.
2. A just and trustworthy government.
3. A free and independent people.
4. A vigorous pursuit and mastery of knowledge.
5. A balanced and comprehensive economic development.
6. A good quality of life for the people.
7. Protection of the rights of minority groups, religion and women and children.
8. Cultural and moral integrity.
9. Safeguarding the environment.
10. Strong defense capabilities

Out of the above ten most basic human rights. A free and independent people are one of the main principles of Islam and in a constitution. In a Shariah law or in a constitution or both combined, the most important is to create free and independent people.

Independent people are able to produce dynamic and positive new ideas which are beneficial for the promotion of individuals, families, society and country. Independent people are not a society which exempted from the rules law and ethics. It must be used as a base to develop a strong society and country.

An independent and free people must be able to select and choose for themselves, besides adopt an open attitude towards external cultures and traditions which do not go against values and ethics and that contribute towards the development of the nation. It is not merely slogans and declarations but requires sacrifices and serious efforts which contribute towards the development of the country.

IF Shariah Law is to be included in the constitution, what is the reason to make or amend the constitution at all?
when rule of law and regulation is written in Allah’s words in Holy Quran?

United Nations tries to outlaw criticism of Islam!

2009-01-14T20:34:00.000-08:00

An ominous initiative that is discussed many times here -- the UN's efforts to silence those who call attention to the ways in which Islamic jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify their actions and make recruits --gets attention in the New York Daily News.

"UN-acceptable censorship: The United Nations tries to outlaw criticism of Islam," by Floyd Abrams for the Daily News, January 14:

Almost 500 years ago, on the wall of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses, characterizing as "madness" the notion that papal pardons could absolve individuals for their sins. As viewed from Rome, Luther had maligned, even defamed, the church. Luther was eventually excommunicated. His conduct ultimately led to the creation of a Protestant Church in Germany and a Reformation throughout Europe.
It is difficult to believe that in the 21st century anyone would seriously propose that conduct such as Luther's should be deemed illegal. But a few weeks ago, the General Assembly of the United Nations took a giant step in that direction. It adopted - for the fourth straight year - a resolution prepared by the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference calling upon all UN nations to adopt legislation banning the "defamation" of religion. Spurred by the Danish cartoons of 2005, some of which portrayed the Prophet Muhammed in a manner deemed offensive by the OIC, the resolution was opposed by the United States, most European nations, Japan, India and a number of other nations.

Nonetheless, it has now been adopted. [...]

From the very first OIC resolution to the current one there has never been any ambiguity about its purpose: to intimidate those who might criticize Islam. As phrased in the original OIC resolution introduced by Pakistan in 1999, Islam was "frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism." But it is a fact that however one may debate about whether "Islam" bears any responsibility for acts of terrorism ranging from the murderous 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington to the more recent massacre in Mumbai, terrible acts of violence have been committed in the name of Islam. It is also the case that repeated human rights violations, including female genital mutilation, also have occurred in the name of Islam.

It is one thing to urge that all Muslims should not be criticized because of these acts. But the notion that it may or should be made a crime even to "associate" Islam with crimes too often committed in its name is inconsistent with any notion that both freedom of speech and religion should be protected. What cannot be even negotiable is the freedom, the unfettered freedom, to publish challenging books, movies and - yes - the Danish cartoons.

Be sure to read it all.

Intellectual Censorship in Islam: A Matter of Life and Death

2008-12-01T12:15:00.000-08:00

Many seem to believe that The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie is the only intellectual who has ever been persecuted for “insulting Islam.” But the story does not begin – nor does it end – with Rushdie. Writers, poets, intellectuals and free-thinkers have been suffering – and dying -- for “insulting Islam” for more than 1400 years.

One of the more famous victims was Mansur Al-Hallaj. Al-Hallaj was a 10th-Century Sufi (Islamic mystic) master, famous today for being a mentor of popular Sufi poet Rumi. The specific charge was uttering “I am the Eternal Truth.” (Only Allah can be “The Eternal Truth” in Islam.) This was simply the logical outcome of Al-Hallaj’s Sufi beliefs, which held that “God” is found in all of us. It was, however, blasphemy according to the followers of Imam Hanbal (founder of Sunni Islam’s most reactionary school of Islamic law), who engineered Al-Hallaj’s persecution and eventual execution by crucifixion.

Today the weapon is more likely to be a gun or a knife than a cross, but Imams and mullahs and their collaborators are still killing or persecuting Al-Hallaj’s modern-day heirs and getting away with it.

Here are just a few of the prominent victims from the last 20 years:

Ali Dashti

Iranian statesman and Islamic historian. Dashti was imprisoned and tortured to death in Iran in the early 1980s for writing “23 Years,” a “warts-and-all” biography of the Prophet of Islam.

Hitoshi Igarashi

Japanese translator of The Satanic Verses, was stabbed to death in July 1991.

Ettore Caprioli, Italian translator of The Satanic Verses, was attacked with a knife in the same year, but survived.

Aziz Nesin, Turkisk publisher and writer, who had printed extracts of The Satanic Verses in a Turkish newspaper, was attacked by a crazed religious mob in 1993

They cornered him in a hotel and set it on fire, killing 37 people, but Nesin, an elderly man in his late 70s, escaped.

William Nygaard, Norwegian translator and publisher of Rushdie’s book. Nygaard was shot four times in the back in 1993 by an Islamic extremist.

Naguib Mafouzworld-famous Egyptian author and Nobel Laureate. An elderly man in his 80s, Mafouz narrowly escaped a knife attack in 1994, after Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahmame, spiritual leader of the armed fundamentalist group al-Gama'a al Islamiyya, issued a death fatwa on his head. His “crime”: writing a book decades before that “insulted Islam.” Mafouz, physically and mentally traumatized by the attack, no longer writes.

Taslima Nasrina Bangladeshi-born physician, poet and author. In 1993 Nasrin, a self-declared apostate, was sentenced to death by Muslim clerics for “insulting Islam.” That year 300,000 people demonstrated in her native land, calling for the poet to be burned alive. She escaped to the West, but still hides, her life blighted by a price on her head and not one but two death fatwas issued by pious Muslim clerics.

Farag FodaAn Egyptian writer and human rights defender. Foda was shot dead by militants from an Islamic fundamentalist group after being branded as an apostate by officials at Al-Azhar, the leading Islamic educational institute in the world.Anwar Sheikha Kashmir-born man of letters, was targeted with a death fatwa for writing books that explored the imperialist nature of Islam. As a young man, Sheikh admitted to have been a fundamentalist who murdered innocent non-Muslims in cold blood during the partition of India in 1947. He now lives discreetly in a Western nation.

Nasr Abu Zaid - Egyptian Quranic scholar. Abu Zaid was convicted in Egypt of being an apostate from Islam in 1995. He was involuntarily divorced from his wife of many years for advancing the cause of textual criticism of the Quran. He escaped to the West in fear of his life as a convicted apostate, where he reunited with his wife, but remains a target for assassination from Islamic fanatics.

Rashad Khalifa - Islamic reformer, an Egyptian immigrant to the USA. Khalifa was founder of a controversial movement in Islam called the “Submitters”, who deny the authenticity of many Islamic traditions. Declared an apostate in a fatwa issued by 38 Islamic scholars in Saudi Arabia, Khalifa was murdered in 1990 in Tuscon, Arizona. Although the crime was never solved, the prime suspects have been linked to the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization led by Osama Bin Laden.

Matoub Lounes - Popular Algerian song-writer, political activist for Algeria’s Berber people, and singer, Lounes was murdered in 1998. The murder remains unsolved, but the radical Islamic gang, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), is the main suspect. The GIA had kidnapped Lounes in 1994 and held him hostage for two weeks.

Dr. Younis Shaikh a Pakistani physician and lecturer. Convicted of blasphemy in Pakistan in 2001 for the “crime” of stating the Prophet of Islam’s parents were not Muslim and the prophet was not circumsized. Sentenced to death in August 2001, Shaikh at this writing (January 2002) languishes in jail while his sentence is appealed.

Robert Hussein (Born Hussein Q’amber Ali)a Kuwaiti-born businessman. A former Shiite Muslim, Hussein was convicted of apostasy by an Islamic court in his native land in 1996 for the “crime” of converting to Christianity. He escaped to the West under threat of death with assistance from Christian missionary groups and published a book called “Apostate Son.”

Nawal El-SaddaawiEgyptian feminist and author of many books. In 2001, El-Saddaawi narrowly escaped conviction in her native land as an apostate. A conviction would have forced El-Saddaawi to divorce her husband in recognition of Islamic law that Muslims cannot remain married to apostates. Her “crime” was stating that the Muslim Hajj pilgrimage had Pagan historical origins. Once imprisoned for her outspoken feminist views, El-Saddawi courageously remains in Egypt although clearly a target for assassination from a radical Islamist.

Tahmineh Milni, an acclaimed Iranian filmmaker. Arrested in August 2001 and charged by Iran’s Islamic religious establishment with “waging war against God”, Milni could be executed if found guilty of the charge. Her “crime” was making a film that contained references to the miserable conditions of women under the Islamic regime of Iran.

Khalid Duran, Moroccan/German academic and critic of Islamic extremism. In 2001, Duran, while teaching at the university level in the U.S., evoked death threats from the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan for writing a book called “Children Of Abraham: Explaining Islam to Jews.” The death threat was the direct result of an anti-Duran public realtions crusade engineered by the Washington, DC-based Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) Duran went into hiding as a result of the Jordanian edict. Curiously, Islamic apologist Dr. John Esposito of Georgetown University’s “Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding” gave the keynote speech at CAIR’s annual fund-raising dinner only a few months after this incident occurred, seemingly untroubled by CAIR’s role in soliciting the murder of a fellow academic.

Mahmoud Muhammed Talal, Islamic reformer, SudanTalal wrote many books criticizing Sharia (Islamic law). He was convicted of apostasy and creating “fitnah” (religious tourmoil) by an Islamic court in Sudan and hanged for this “crime” in 1985.The above is only a small representation the number of intellectuals, writers, artists and reformers who have been systemically terrorized, imprisoned and even assassinated by Islamic thought police on all continents, even in the so-called “free” West. (As the Norwegian national William Nygaard and the U.S.-resident Khalid Duran can undoubtedly confirm).

This “censorship by terrorism” not only shows the widespread lack of intellectual maturity that is prevalent in the Islamic world today, but also begs a more disturbing question: how accurate are of many of the books and articles currently being published about Islam?If an author or academic addressing the subject of Islam, whether in fact or fiction, must continually look over his shoulder for the knife or gun of a fanatic, it should not surprise us that many such works tread a very thin line between truth and apologia. The bland books about Islam authored by the likes of Karen Armstrong and John Esposito have never elicited any death threats or fanatical attention; astute readers may well ask themselves why?
By Susan Stephan

MALDIVES: Religious freedom survey, October 2008

2008-10-16T09:29:00.000-07:00

The Maldives is well known as a tourist destination, but its severe repression of freedom of thought, conscience and belief is less well-known. The Maldives is one of the few states – such as Saudi Arabia - that allows only one faith to be practised publicly, and even insists that all citizens must be Muslims. Islam itself can only be openly practised in the government-favoured version of Sunni Islam, Forum 18 News Service has found. The public practice of other faiths – including other forms of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity – is banned. The state closely monitors all forms of religious expression, Forum 18 notes, and the cramped living conditions most Maldivians endure facilitates this. Maldivians are - justifiably – fearful that they will face severe consequences if they publicly and identifiably defend everyone's right to freedom of thought, conscience and belief. No candidate in the country's first multi-party presidential election, for which a run-off is due on 28 October, has called for improvement in this aspect of the country's human rights record.

The Maldives government claims to tourists that the Indian Ocean archipelago represents "the sunny of side of life", yet it severely represses freedom of thought, conscience and belief. The Maldives is one of the few countries – such as Saudi Arabia - that legally allow only one faith to be practised publicly. However, the Maldivian authorities go much further even than that, insisting on homogeneity in religion and that all citizens must be Muslims. Islam itself can only be practised in the government version of Sunni Islam. The public practice of any other faith – including other varieties of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity – is banned.

The Republic of the Maldives is a collection of 1,190 coral reef islands in the Indian Ocean, south west of Sri Lanka. Only 200 islands are inhabited, with 44 used exclusively as holiday resort islands. The Maldives has a population of about 300,000 citizens, plus about 65,000 migrant workers. About one third of the population lives in the capital Male, in an area of about 2 square kms or just over three quarters of a square mile. This means that most Maldivian houses are overcrowded, and individuals mostly have no privacy. State control of the opinions and actions of Maldivians is made easy by these poor living conditions.

Since 1978, the Maldives has been under the regime of President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. For the first time ever, multi-party presidential elections were held on 8 October 2008. According to the official count, President Gayoom won the largest share of the votes of the six candidates. But this was not enough for an outright victory, so a run-off election (currently due on 28 October) will take place between President Gayoom and the largest opposition party's candidate Mohamed Nasheed.

In 2003 the death of a prisoner, who had allegedly been beaten by police, sparked public protests. Demands escalated for political reform and human rights. In June 2004, yielding to internal and external pressure, President Gayoom announced plans to make changes to the Constitution to bring it into line with modern democratic and human rights norms. On 7 August 2008 President Gayoom ratified the new Constitution, a major step in the political reform process. Yet, the reform process bypassed the issue of religious rights.

The Maldives has ratified many international human rights standards, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). However, on acceding to the ICCPR in September 2006, the government lodged a reservation over Article 18 (which covers rights to freedom of religion and belief), specifying that "The application of the principles set out in Article 18 of the Covenant shall be without prejudice to the Constitution of the Republic of Maldives.". This reservation effectively nullifies the commitment.

The lack of religious freedom for all Maldivians (whether or not they are Muslim) is enshrined in the present and previous Constitutions, and clearly violates the ICCPR's provisions. The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Asma Jahangir, in a February 2007 report (A/HRC/4/21/Add.3) following her August 2006 visit, expressed concerns about a wide range of restrictions on religious activity. She urged the government to change the law to allow all residents of the Maldives to be allowed to choose their own religion or belief, to end the ban on manifestation of non-Muslim religions or beliefs, and called on the government to review its reservation to Article 18 of the ICCPR.

Government-defined Islam the only permitted faith

The new 2008 Constitution brings in separation of powers and a bill of rights. However, religious freedom remains a taboo subject in the Maldives. The government claims that Islam is a vital cultural trait of being Maldivian, and therefore religious freedom is not an issue in the Maldives. It categorically ignores the existence of non-Muslim Maldivians. The new Constitution spells out more strongly than before that all Maldivians have to be Muslims.

Article 36 states that "The exercise and enjoyment of fundamental rights and freedoms is inseparable from the performance of responsibilities and duties, and it is the responsibility of every citizen: (..) (g) to preserve and protect the State religion of Islam, culture, language and heritage of the country".

Article 9, Section D (which defines citizenship) states that "a non-Muslim may not become a citizen of the Maldives". On 17 May 2008, the Information Minister Mohamed Nasheed (not the same person as the presidential candidate) admitted on his personal blog that: "When the revised constitution gets introduced, it will operate to take away the citizenship from citizens of Maldives who may have a faith different from Islam." He made this statement after stating that: "Maldives leadership and the Maldives people have always said that Maldives is, as a matter of fact, a 100 percent Islamic nation. However being Moslem is not a requirement of law; and is subject to dispute by some. There are many who argue that there may be Maldives nationals or dual citizenship holders possibly professing a different faith."

The minister's earlier statement has the worrying implication that Maldivians who convert away from Islam, or who are children of Maldivians married to non-Muslims, risk losing their citizenship under the new Constitution. This is in line with the Maldivian reservation to Article 14 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which stipulates that all Maldivians should be Muslim.

The Protection of Religious Unity Act (Law No. 6/94) regulates all aspects of religion in a way that ensures religious homogeneity. Maldivian non-Muslims and Maldivians who do not wish to practice Sunni Islam in the state-approved way have to hide and even deny their convictions and beliefs. In the past, Maldivians suspected of having converted away from Islam have been imprisoned. While imprisoned, these people were publicly branded as "traitors", "second class citizens", "immature", as well as being accused of having been led astray by "foreign forces". They were released from prison only after signing a declaration that they believed in Islam. After their release, they were shunned and are still regarded with suspicion by government officials and members of the public. Some of them lost their jobs.

The treatment of these people still serves as a warning to all Maldivians. Fearing the grave consequences of disobedience to the government's religious line, Maldivians are inhibited from identifying their own convictions. The cramped living conditions most Maldivians have to endure make it easy for the government to detect religious or political dissent.

Even Maldivians living abroad do not dare to identify as non-Muslims. They feel that they are observed and checked by fellow Maldivians and blacklisted if they fail to obey the government's religious rules.

Maldivian non-Muslims and other Maldivians who do not want to practice their faith in the state approved way cannot practice their own faith. They cannot even pray the way they want. Kneeling down, folding hands or using religious symbols like crosses, candles, pictures or statues can lead to government action. Performing movements in the Namaadu (namaz or Islamic ritual prayer) differently to the state-approved way can also lead to arrest by the police.

These restrictions also apply to foreign workers, who can only practice their faith privately when Maldivians are not present. This is especially difficult for the many Hindu and Buddhist labourers, who live without any privacy in large, crowded accommodation or as servants in Maldivian houses.

Strict state censorship

Maldivians face great difficulties in obtaining information about non-state approved beliefs. This is a particularly severe deprivation for those Maldivians who do not follow the state's religious views. Maldivians are not allowed to possess religious material – whether holy books, audio and video tapes, CDs and DVDs, pictures or artefacts - that is not approved by the government. Sometimes private houses and mosques are raided by police in their search for non state-approved religious material. When found, all such material is confiscated. Electronic media, radio broadcasts, the internet, and printed material are all censored by the government. Access to foreign non-Muslim religious media, such as the Dhivehi (the Maldivian language) Christian website Sidahitun.com, is blocked inside the Maldives. Everything deemed to be outside the government's interpretation of Islam is banned.

Such tight state censorship extends to Maldivians living abroad. Bookshop owners in India and Sri Lanka who tried to sell religious literature in Dhivehi that was not approved by the Maldivian government, have been harassed and threatened. This continued until they removed the material from their shelves. The luggage of Maldivians returning to the country is searched and all unauthorised religious material is confiscated. Foreign citizens arriving in the Maldives – whether as migrant workers or tourists – also have their luggage searched for "un-Islamic" materials. Small quantities of non-Muslim literature for personal use are generally permitted to foreign tourists. However, this does not include such material as Christian Scripture in Dhivehi.

State intimidation of those who think differently

Maldivians are also not allowed to discuss their faith with anyone. No-one is allowed to discuss religion without the explicit permission of the government. Even imams are only allowed to discuss religion after passing an exam and being certified by the Government's Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (SCIA). The SCIA also writes the Friday sermon to be delivered at mosques. Imams who refuse or fail to follow these regulations may face serious consequences. In March 2008 the SCIA banned Afrashim Ali, who has a doctorate from Malaysia's International Islamic University, from preaching in public until he had lived in the country for at least one year. Dr Ali previously contradicted the SCIA by openly arguing that singing was not un-Islamic.

Also in June 2008 the SCIA banned a book co-authored by former attorney general and presidential candidate Dr Hassan Saeed with his brother, Melbourne University professor Abdullah Saeed. The book, "Freedom of Religion, Apostasy and Islam", published in Britain in English in 2004, questions the validity of the apostasy law in Islam and advocates the need to rethink and reform the apostasy laws. However, it does not discuss the case of the Maldives.

The restrictive attitude of the Maldivian government leads to the isolation of religiously non-conformist Maldivians, whether Muslim or of other faiths. They do not even dare to discuss their beliefs with their spouses and children. The political intimidation of the public and the official denigration of religiously non-conformist people have led to widespread mistrust and fear. Children of people who are suspected of holding alternative religious convictions are sometimes interrogated by their teachers about their parents' opinions and convictions.

Constant intimidation and oppression leads people to act contrary to their own convictions and beliefs. Some people feel forced to perform Muslim ritual prayers (in the state-approved way) to avoid any possible suspicion. They also feel forced to teach their children according to the government's will instead of their own conviction. They are forced to observe the fast during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. After the first week of this year's Ramadan, which began in early September 2008, a Maldivian radio station announced that the police had already arrested 76 people for not fasting.

No freedom within education

Although "everyone has the right to education without discrimination of any kind" in Article 36 (a) of the new Constitution, this is contradicted by Article 36 (c). This reads: "Education shall strive to inculcate obedience to Islam, instil love for Islam, foster respect for human rights, and promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all people." Accordingly, all teaching material has to be approved by the government.

In the past history textbooks have been banned for reasons such as including texts about the sixteenth century Reformation of the Christian Church in Europe. In May 2008 a local school library was closed following the discovery of a book containing stories "based on stories of Christianity". Islamic Studies is a compulsory subject for all students up to school-leaving examinations. There is no provision for non-Muslim students to be taught in their chosen religion or beliefs. The 64,000 expatriates living in the Maldives are not allowed to open schools for their children, or to practice their faiths openly.

Non-Muslim marriages and burials barred

Contrary to the Islamic principle that forbids coercion, the Maldivian government only recognises Islamic marriages. Non-Muslim men who want to marry a Maldivian woman are required to convert to Islam. Without this, any marriage is illegal. Similarly, Maldivian men are only allowed to marry Muslim, Christian or Jewish women. However, marriages to women of Christian and Jewish faiths are subject to biased administrative policies which make the process cumbersome. In addition, marriages performed and registered outside the Maldives are not legally recognised in the country, unless they are registered at the Family Court in the Maldives. This Court only recognises marriages performed in an "Islamic way," at approved institutions.

There are no provisions for the burial of non-Muslims. Public institutions, such as prisons and hospitals, have no facilities (eg. places for private worship, dietary provision) for non-Muslim people. Thus, even the religious freedom of the dead and those closest to them is not respected.

Fear of standing up for religious freedom

Some Maldivians risked much, when in 2003 they started to publicly voice opposition to political oppression, and called for more human rights. However, so far no Maldivian has dared to publicly stand up against the violation of religious rights. The government's policy of labelling all such attempts as high treason has successfully inhibited Maldivians from standing up against this oppression. In the 2008 presidential election campaign, no candidates spoke up for freedom of religion or belief in the Maldives, and some called for this fundamental right to be further restricted. All of the candidates stressed that they wanted to defend the Islamic identity of the country.

How can religious freedom come to the Maldives?

The Maldives is the only country worldwide that legally prescribes and enforces homogeneity in religion. Maldivians are - justifiably – fearful that they will face severe consequences if they publicly and identifiably defend everyone's right to freedom of thought, conscience and belief. Because of this fear, Maldivians hope the international community will support their struggle. One step to do this is for states and human rights organisations to urge the Maldivian government to implement the recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Asma Jahangir, in her report (A/HRC/4/21/Add.3). Maldivians themselves, not just tourists, also want to experience "the sunny side of life" in the Maldives. (END)

By Odd Larsen, Forum 18 News Service

New Maldives constitution severely restricts non-Muslim rights

2008-08-10T11:23:00.000-07:00

The Institute on Religion and Public Policy strongly condemns the new constitution ratified by the Maldives' legislature yesterday. The constitution fails to provide basic guarantees of rights and freedoms in the country for non-Muslims and also violates internationally accepted human rights standards and norms.
Article 9, Section D states that "a non-Muslim may not become a citizen of the Maldives." By denying citizenship to some people on the basis of their religion, the country is violating religious minorities' freedom of worship.
"This denial of citizenship to non-Muslims is an extraordinarily harsh measure which places the Maldives among the worst countries in the world in regards to the legal foundation for freedom of religion and belief," said Institute President Joseph K. Grieboski.
In addition to denying non-Muslims citizenship, the new constitution establishes several other precepts which threaten the freedom of religion. The new constitution favors Sunni Islam over other forms of Islam, establishes certain aspects of Sharia law in the Maldives and limits the freedom of expression and thought to "manners" which are "not contrary to a tenet of Islam."
The Institute's Expert Committee on Legislation and Implementation is currently crafting a comprehensive analysis of the new constitution for expected release in September.

To go to source click here

Maldivians have arrived at a fork in the road

2008-05-23T10:55:00.000-07:00

One of the most important and essential parts of a modern society is the freedom of its individuals and the respect of the human rights of its members.

Will Maldivians take this road?

Or will we continue to debate how much of a woman should be covered, and how a Muslim apostate should be killed, and how “lightly” we should beat "our" women, and whether it’s lawful for a Muslim to befriend Jews and Christians and greet them or wish them well?

Are we going to continue with an educational system that consist of hate brainwashing towards non Muslims which we call it Islamic studies?

Or will we teach our children secularism, equal treatment of women and religious tolerance?

Are we to consign our children to become soldiers fighting to establish the rule of Allah on Earth, which is the Sharia law that supersedes and aims to abolish every man made law and constitution?
Will we be happier as subjects of a dictatorial theocracy?

Or are we going to be on the side of humanity that advances the world scientifically, medically, and technologically, striving with the civilized world to better the life of every human being?

Non Muslim Maldivian are refugee

2008-05-21T16:01:00.000-07:00

Information minister Mohamed Nasheed has admitted on his personal blog that Maldivians who convert away from Islam, or who are children of Maldivians married to non-Muslims, risk losing their citizenship of the country under the constitution in progress.

The issue is believed to have been raised with government by international diplomats visiting Maldives during the development of the constitution.

A prominent lawyer who wished to remain anonymous told Minivan News the clause was “not practical” and would “formally introduce asylum seekers from the Maldives”, doing “more harm than good in the international community”.

He also acknowledged “practical” issues with the clause, saying it would be difficult to implement.

But Nasheed says a last-minute change is unlikely, because “it will be very difficult for Maldives mentality to accept Maldives citizens may belong to a different faith...No Maldives leader would want to rock the boat.”

The anonymous lawyer agreed public pressure was likely to prevent parliamentarians from opposing the clause.

The constitution has still not been finalised, and the attorney general’s office (AGO) has now raised over 200 issues of consistency, wording and practicality, to be addressed by the constitutional drafting committee and Special Majlis (constitutional assembly) before ratification. However the citizenship question does not appear on the list.

And presidential candidates were reluctant to adopt a position on the issue ahead of the country’s first multi-party presidential elections, expected once the constitution comes into force.

Former attorney general Dr Hassan Saeed, now standing as an independent candidate, said the issue was of “very little relevance” as “we do not have a non-Muslim population”.

Mohamed Nasheed (Anni), contesting on the largest opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) ticket, said the MDP “can’t have a position outside the constitution”.

However another candidate, Umar Naseer of the Islamic Democratic Party (IDP), said to local newspaper Miadhu: “In my government there would be no chance [of] any other religion.”

And Sheikh Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari, head of the religious Adhaalath party scholars’ council, told Minivan News in a May 13 interview he personally supported the tightening of citizenship regulation.

Citizenship is dealt with in the existing constitution, in force since 1998, in clause 5, which reads as follows: “Persons mentioned herein below shall be citizens of the Maldives: (a) every person who is a citizen of the Maldives at the commencement of this Constitution; (b) every child born to a citizen of the Maldives; and (c) every foreigner who, in accordance with the law, becomes a citizen of the Maldives.”

But the constitution in progress adds additional subclauses which specify (in unofficial translation) that “citizenship cannot be wrested away from a citizen of the Maldives”, “Any person who wishes to relinquish his citizenship may do so in accordance with law,” and “despite [earlier] provisions...a non-Muslim may not become a citizen of the Maldives.”

Despite the wording specifying citizenship cannot be “wrested away”, lawyers and government interpret the clause as removing citizenship from those who leave Islam or are children of non-Muslims.

“No Maldives politician would want to take the case up,” said Nasheed on his blog. Yet, he contends, “they all would privately agree that citizenship of the country he is born in, or his parents belong to, is...a human right.”

The anonymous lawyer said that because parliament is televised and “they [MPs] want to get re-elected”, a change through parliament was unlikely, but also said it would be “difficult” to reduce the impact of the clause through legislation.

Maldives takes Valentine's Day to heart

2008-02-15T12:17:00.000-08:00

Unsigned love letters, flowers, tokens and trinkets of undying affection. This is not a page from a romantic novel, but how youngsters in the Islamic Republic of Maldives plan to celebrate Valentine's Day.
Valentine's Day celebrations and marketing gimmicks have, according to many, reached a new high this year, with everything from mobile phones ringtones, to mood candles chocolates, clothes, body scrubs, perfumes and lingerie being sold in the name of "love".
Mobile phone operator Wataniya is offering subscribers a choice to order and deliver fresh roses to their sweethearts by simply sending a text message to a three digit number. For 50 rufiyaas, customers also get a choice of selecting between a red, pink or yellow rose, Wataniya informed in text messages sent to hundreds of customers.
City hotels in the capital island of Male are offering quiet candlelight dinners, with soft music and flowers. In a country where alcoholic drinks are out of bounds to locals for religious reasons, few restaurants are offering non-alcoholic wine to diners.
"I plan to give my girl friend some flowers, and a soft toy," said office worker Amjad Aneese as he browsed through a clothing store trying to figure out if he should also buy a pair of denim's for his girl friend.
A cosmetics shop selling imported crèmes, lotions and body scrub, is selling a red rose with a surprise gift – an itsy bitsy teeny weeny red thong. "We have sold about 50 roses," said the 19-year-old shop assistant Nafiu Hussain.
Five minutes from speedboat to any of the 90 odd upmarket resort islands, it's a different story.
South Asia's most exotic honeymoon destination has lured extravagant romantic overseas visitors looking for the ultimate Valentine's experience to fill up resort rooms where guests pay up to 14,000 dollars a night to sleep in wooden cabins built over turquoise blue waters.
This collection of over a thousand tropical islands is already a year-round haven for loved-up couples who want to immerse themselves in themselves.
"We are here to spend a week to do a bit of scuba diving and just relax," said American Micheal Peat as he waited with his partner to board a seaplane to a resort where prices start from 1,600 dollars onwards for a night on Valentines Day week.
While most are careful not to flash their Valentines Day intentions, the country's religious followers see the occasions as yet another attempt to pollute the Maldivian culture and value system with what they see as western influence.
"Its sort of un-Islamic," said flight steward Mohamed Ashraf reflecting some views of this Sunni Muslim nation of 369,000 people. "It only benefits card shops and eating places."
Other conservatives see a Christian twist to the annual love day.
"Valentine's Day is a Christian based festival in that sense Muslims who follow the religion strictly don't observe the day," said Mauroof Hussain, a member of the ultra-religious Aadalath Party.
But such opposition is sporadic and does not enjoy any mass support in this country that is trying to stamp out Islamic extremism from flourishing in the archipelago.
Even those who are not necessarily taken in by the Valentine's Day hype concede that an annual "love feast" can do little harm.
"I don't have a boyfriend this year, but the girls in my department have planned to wear red to work on Thursday. No harm in having a little fun," grins office worker Farah Ahmed.

No red Roses for Saudi Sweethearts.

2008-02-13T08:46:00.000-08:00

Saudi Arabia’s religious police have banned red roses ahead of Valentine’s Day. Forcing couples in the conservative Muslim nation to think of new ways to show their love.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has ordered florists and gift shop owners in the capital Riyadh to remove any items colored scarlet, which is widely seen as symbolizing love, newspapers said.

“They visited us last night,” the Saudi Gazette quoted an unidentified florist as saying.

It is not unusual for the Saudi Vice squad to clamp down ahead of Valentine’s Day, which it sees as encouraging relations between men and women outside of wedlock, the newspaper said.

Saudi Arabia imposes an austere form of Sunni Islam which prevents unrelated men and women from mixing, bans women from driving and demands women wear a headscarf and a cloak.

Islamic extremism in the Maldives: Is Gayoom the cause?

2008-02-05T07:03:00.000-08:00

By Asif Fuard
As the Maldives sinks deeper into political turmoil with President Mamoon Abdul Gayoom and his political opponents engaged in a bitter clash over reforms, the country is also witnessing the emergence of Islamic extremism. The President, who many call a dictator, survived an assassination attempt recently. The attack came a few months after a bomb went off near a popular park and police battled extremists in an island. These events have prompted the government to take steps to combat the threat of Islamic extremism.
Members of a little known group have taken up arms to defend themselves and promote their version of Islam - Wahhabism -- in the archipelago. The Maldivians say the leaders of the group were educated in Pakistan and West Asian countries and their version of Islam conflicts with the version of Islam stipulated by Maldivian law, according to which preaching of different versions of Islam is a crime.
The Maldivian government has banned the veil as part of security measures to confront Islamic extremism
Reports say India's intelligence arm, Research Analysis Wing, has received information that Maldivian Islamic extremists are purchasing weapons from Indian criminal and terrorist groups while other reports indicate that they were also buying weapons from Indonesia and Pakistan.
These reports also say that Sri Lanka is being used as a transit point in the arms smuggling operation. It is against this backdrop, a few months ago, Sri Lanka and the Maldives signed a memorandum of understanding on intelligence sharing.
Opposition parties blame President Gayoom for the rise of extremism. Gayoom has been ruling this Indian Ocean archipelago for nearly three decades. Of late, he has come under severe criticism from within the country and abroad for the mounting corruption, human rights abuses and social ills such as the growing problem of youth addiction to narcotics amidst a high rate of unemployment.
The opposition's view is backed by research conducted by the New Delhi-based Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses focusing on the Maldives and Pakistan. The research shows that people resort to extremism when they are faced with a non-democratic political system.
On January 8, a boy scout foiled an assassination attempt on the President's life when he grabbed the assassin's knife, saving the executive from death. The assassin, 20-year-old Mohamed Murshid, unemployed and having no previous criminal record, attempted to attack the President when he visited, Hoarafushi in the north of the Maldives.
Earlier a homemade bomb exploded in the capital city of Male on September 29 last year in what was said to be the country's first act of terrorism after the failed attempt by a Sri Lankan mercenary group hired by wealthy Maldivian to overthrow the President in 1988.
Information Minister Mohamed Nasheed told a news conference that the perpetrators might have had extremist connections."Investigations into the September attack showed that there was fundamentalist thinking behind it," he said. In December, three men convicted of carrying out the September bombing were jailed for 15 years. Although the government may have been worried after reports linked some of the suspects to Kashmiri groups, they have since then taken measures to combat extremism in the island.
The government had taken steps to promote moderate thinking through education and banned the traditional Islamic veil in public places, offices, courts, and educational establishments, Minister Nasheed said. He said the government had also banned Muslim religious gatherings unless permission was obtained.
Foreign clerics too have been banned by the government, because it fears they can promote fundamentalism."We do not have madrassas or religious schools, like you see in Pakistan, from where militant thinking comes in," Minister Nasheed said. "In this country, fundamentalism is not spread through teachings."
"We do not have madrassas or religious schools, like you see in Pakistan, from where militant thinking comes in. In this country, fundamentalism is not spread through teachings." - Minister Nasheed
It is spread by a handful of clerics, according to analysts. The rise of extremism is a threat to the country's tourism industry, one of the pillars of the small island nation's economy. Gayoom has ruled the islands since Nov. 11, 1978, and in recent years has strongly defended the presidential form of government, as opposed to the parliamentary system, which is promoted by the main opposition, the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).
The founder for the MDP, Mohammed Latheef, told The Sunday Times the Egyptian-educated Gayoom is the father of the country's extremism as it was he who had brought the Wahhabi (Islam practised in Saudi Arabia) thinking into the country. "Soon after becoming President, he opened the first Islamic schools. Religious scholars from Egypt were brought to 'enlighten' the Maldivians during the month of Ramadan.
“ Some even shocked the moderate Muslim community by preaching men could beat their wives. School textbooks were revised to follow the dictator's version of Islam. Islam is used as a tool of governance in the Maldives and its people are tired of it," he said.
"There is no rule of law or checks and balances in the system of governance in the Maldives. The judiciary, the legislature and the security forces revolve around a single individual who runs the country. “In a state which has no governance one can expect such incidents taking place," he said.

Laws for the Protection of the Islamic Religion and Maldive Honour (Satire)

2008-01-01T11:26:00.000-08:00

Entirely convinced that the purity of and enforced adherence to the Islamic Religion is essential to the further existence of the Maldive people, and inspired by the uncompromising determination to safeguard the future of the Maldive nation, the Reichjitungemajlis has unanimously resolved upon the following laws, which are either already in place or have been enacted for ratification by the Reichsuljumhourija

Please visit maldivesroyalfamily.com to read the full satire

Join the 21st Century!

2008-01-01T09:48:00.000-08:00

Applying sharia to a society is a guaranteed recipe for disaster. Such a deleterious outcome is somewhat masked in the Arab Middle East because of oil. Were it not for the black gold, Arabs would be pounding sand.

Perhaps, something positive will emerge if Muslims were to emulate the West. (I know, that's shocking!) For starters, human rights (not treating a female as some property of her "guardian"), rule of law (instead of the age-old wasta), capitalism (as opposed to banning interest), tolerance of Jews (not getting an orgasm while thinking of killing them) and letting go of Arab superiority (which is truly an inferiority complex).

Another thing: most Westerners don't care about Islam and Muslims. If anything it's the actions of the Muslims that is waking up the West and making it notice the backwards umma. Maybe -- just maybe -- if Muslims hadn't obliterated two buildings in New York, murdered Aussies in Bali, terrorized and raped children in Beslan, exploded bombs in London and tried to cause mayhem in Canada, then the West might not portray them in a negative light.

Oh, and passionately advocating for the beating of hijab-free Muslim girls and the killing of those who leave the decrepit religion and perpetual war against non-Muslims doesn't help either.

This juvenile and utterly illogical effort to puff up the West as some evil monster that wants to crush Muslims and which thus must be opposed (or destroyed), so that the umma can prosper is pure poppycock.

Tell your umma to stop causing shit and join the 21st century!

With thanks to Isaac Schrödinger pakistani-born ex-muslim convention-refugee pro-usa

The angry beggar at the feast

2007-12-31T11:10:00.000-08:00

Recently I was at a community function and seated next to a local beggar who usually hangs around the neighborhood with his hand out always asking for spare change. I can't say the food was particularly good but most people took it in stride, he however lashed out and began shouting that the soda was poison, the food was disgusting and the particular food that he wanted and had been promised wasn't available. Eventually after eating some more, he left angrily.

On a scale of civilizations, Islam is the beggar at the feast. The modern world has birthed an incredible wealth of technologies and products, economic prosperity, human rights and freedoms. Knowledge and communication have been expanded as never before and mankind has gone from the depths of the ocean to set foot on the surface of the moon and within a decade Mars.

Liberal dogma has it that this 'feast' is one that excludes the developing nations and takes place at their expense, but it is not. Israel and Singapore are radically different countries but they are examples of how even small countries can harness technological and commercial energies to become players in the arena. Japan rebuilt itself after the devastation of WW2, two atomic bombs and American occupation to become a technological and economic superpower. Even in the 50's when Israel was less than a decade old and poor, an Israeli university was already running a supercomputer.

Anyone can join the feast, any country genuinely committed to

1. Educating its citizens

2. Progress

(Note that I didn't even include freedom on the list, because Singapore manages to do without it. But even these two terms scare Arab Muslim countries badly enough because they make it difficult to control the population.)

When the 21st century dawned, the Arab Muslim world's response to it in 2001 was the most brutal terrorist attack on a major civilian target in history. A target specifically associated with commerce and prosperity. Since then Islam has brought a new wave of terrorism across the world from Bali to Istanbul to London to Madrid. The bloody tide is supposed to usher in a Caliphate but all it is ushering in is the growing awareness by millions of Americans and Europeans that Islam is incompatible with a 21st century civilization.

Why does the beggar get angry at the feast? It isn't because he doesn't have enough, it's because he chooses not to have enough. There are plenty of people who are deprived, but the professional beggar is an entirely separate category, he transforms his inadequacy into his identity. This is the nature of Islam.

The new Islamic identity celebrates the inadequacies of the Muslim world as virtues. Muslim men can't look at women dressed normally without wanting to rape them, this their Imams transform into a virtue and a reflection of the "immoral women". Muslims can't get along with Non-Muslims, this the Imams claims is proof that Muslims are oppressed. Muslims display intolerance for the everyday practices of the people they live among, including their wine and their pork products, their Imams claim this represents a lack of respect for Muslims rather than the other way around.

Arab Muslim tyrannies can't participate in the 21st century and rather than changing their countries, they funnel dissatisfaction into terrorism against America and Israel and blame the whole thing on "outside interference". The beggar at the feast strikes again.

Islam has made such a natural ally for the left because both reject the idea of progress as immoral. The left has chosen to embrace global warming's call for "Back to the Caves" and the Arab Muslim world is already living there. Both piggyback on 21st century technologies like the internet while furiously employing it to denounce technology and the civilization that generates it. If the left represents the disgruntled epicurean and the Islamic hordes are the barbarians at the gate, their commonality is based on a need to overturn the social, moral and political order of the nation.

The endless Western aid that pours into the Muslim world represents welfare. The Marshall Plan funded the ability of devastated nations to get back on their feet (perhaps excessively so) while the US and the UN's programs continue to pour money in to nations that cannot productively use it and that choose to remain backward. No matter what you give the beggar at the feast, he will stay angry because anger is his identity. It is in the end humiliating to be a beggar, even if one chooses it, and humiliation spawns anger. And that anger burns the keenest and must be directed outward when that humiliation is the product of your own choices.

Islam has chosen to be the beggar of the new millennium and engaged in an orgy of violence to overturn civilization and become its master, building a caliphate of ignorance on the ruins of the civilized world.

With thanks to Sultan Knish

Warning - Vigilance Required

2007-12-20T09:27:00.000-08:00

We have recently had an attack. It is quite possible that those kind of elements may be planning an attack on a tourist resort during Christmas. It is a scary thought. But the warnings are out there. The possibility of a holiday strike is there, and we should maintain general vigilance at all times.
There are warnings from Islamic clerics: do not participate in the infidels' festivities, do not wish them holiday greetings, do not endorse or participate in any manner what Muslim hardliners see as celebrations of infidelity and the rejection of Allah. This way of thinking is being reemphasized among Salafist communities and it instills a contempt and hatred for non-Muslims particularly on the occasions of their holidays and could become the rationalization for an attack during the Christmas holidays.

The Jihadists have an eye for the grand symbol, and this could conceivably take the form of a strike around Christmas.

Constitution or Shariah Law?

2007-11-22T08:43:00.000-08:00

One of the important developments in our constitutional structure was the establishment of the Special Majlis; as a response to the demand for a strengthening of the checks and balances in the system of state administration and constitutional reform.
The improvement in the constitutional reform situation and the amendment has been very slow and its has been dragging for the last 5 years for petty political reasons by the two main political parties, the main opposition party Maldives Democratic Party MDP and the ruling party Dhivehi Rayithunge Party DRP. Recently, the special Majlis is forced to stay put on disagreements over whether to include Islamic Shariah law in the constitution. Both, main opposition part MDP and the government are equally uneasy of religious dissent apparently on the rise in the Maldives and fearful of the growing Islamic extremism in The Maldives. In this state of affairs both opposition and the government is reluctant to enter a new stage of constitutional reform and practice in regard to fight for the basic right of freedom of religion.
This basic right is clearly stated in international human rights instruments, particularly Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Article 18 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance". UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS Adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 217A (III) of 10 December 1948.

Until today, the main problems regarding the protection of freedom of religion have never entered the arena of Special Majlis and in constitutional reform. A constitution as the supreme law of the land sets out the basic structure of the governmental system in every nation. The constitution of every country, however, has different characteristics that can influence the form of the state. As regards the freedom of religion, we often hear about the different concepts of a religious state, secular state and other types of state.
The Indian Constitution, which added the word “secular”, shows that India is a secular state that places special emphasis on the values of freedom of religion and tolerance. The First Amendment to the American Constitution guarantees freedom of religion for each of its citizen.
In relationship between constitutions and freedom of religion, the countries that have majority Muslim populations are divided into four categories.
First, countries that openly declare themselves to be Islamic states.
Second, countries that have officially adopted Islam as the official religion of the state.
Third, countries that declare themselves to be secular states.
Fourth, countries that make no such declarations in their constitutions.
If Maldives belongs to the first category, then the question arises as to what is the real concept of the state that was created by our founding fathers? The question is when did Maldives became an Islamic state and How? What was the religion of our fore fathers? Originally Maldivians followed the Dravidian Mother-Goddess worship and its rituals. The country underwent a conversion to Buddhism about 2,000 years ago which brought about an unprecedented flourishing of the Maldivian culture, including the language which by then developed its own script. Almost all significant Maldivian archaeological remains and cultural accomplishments are from that period. But about 800 years ago the country was converted to the Muslim religion.
A confessional state can only be based on a particular religion, while a secular state prevents religion from interfering with state affairs. Moreover, Can Maldives be or become a nation through its constitutional reform? A religious state that protects and facilitates the development of all religions adhered to by the people without any differences in treatment arising from the number of a religion’s adherent?
In this context, it is essential that the State has a constitutional obligation to protect the freedom of religion of each of its citizens, when the Constitution is held in one of our hands, the holy book must be held in the other hand. This means that these two things have to work in harmony and that one cannot contradict the other.
Maldives is one of the countries that lack experience as regards the protection of freedom of religion through the constitutional reform mechanism. In fact, this mechanism is an important tool in other countries when the freedom of religion finds itself under attack by state action.
Unfortunately, constitutional reform in Maldives is confined to the review of laws. This means that the Maldivian constitutional system and its practice need to be developed more seriously. Due to the lack of constitutional protection mechanisms, there are currently huge obstacles in the way of citizens seeking to affirm their basic rights to freedom of religion.
The Maldives is going through a period in history which the nation has never seen before. Through the constitutional reform Shariah Law is included or not. In a modern and in a liberal democracy the constitution and its government function on basic human right in which includes.
1. A secular state.
2. A just and trustworthy government.
3. A free and independent people.
4. A vigorous pursuit and mastery of knowledge.
5. A balanced and comprehensive economic development.
6. A good quality of life for the people.
7. Protection of the rights of minority groups, religion and women and children.
8. Cultural and moral integrity.
9. Safeguarding the environment.
10. Strong defense capabilities

Out of the above ten most basic human rights. A free and independent people are one of the main principles of Islam and in a constitution. In a Shariah law or in a constitution or both combined, the most important is to create free and independent people. Among the characteristics of these people is that they are creative and innovative. Independent people are able to produce dynamic and positive new ideas which are beneficial for the promotion of individuals, families, society and country. Independent people are not a society which exempted from the rules law and ethics. It must be used as a base to develop a strong society and country. An independent and free people must be able to select and choose for themselves, besides adopt an open attitude towards external cultures and traditions which do not go against values and ethics and that contribute towards the development of the nation. It is not merely slogans and declarations but requires sacrifices and serious efforts which contribute towards the development of the country.
Up to you the people of The Maldives and to The Special Majlis.
IF Shariah Law is to be included in the constitution, what is the reason to make or amend the constitution at all. when rule of law and regulation is written in Allah’s words in Holy Quran?

Islam and the nation-state

2007-11-22T07:15:00.000-08:00

Throughout the world, one of the most prevalent causes of war, terrorism and political instability is the ongoing weakening of the nation-state system. There are several reasons that the nation-state as a political unit of sovereignty is under threat. One of the most basic causes of this continuous erosion of national power throughout the world is the transformation of minority-dominated enclaves within nation-states into ungovernable areas where state power is either not applied or applied in a haphazard and generally unconstructive manner.

While domestic strife between majority and minority populations has been an enduring feature of democratic and indeed all societies throughout history, the current turbulence constitutes a unique challenge to the nation-state system. This is because much of the internal strife between minority and majority populations within states today is financed and often directed from outside the country.

Traditionally, minorities used various local means to engage the majority population in a bid to influence the political direction or cultural norms of the nation state. The classic examples of this traditional minority-majority engagement are the black civil rights movement in the US in the 1960s and the labor movements in the West throughout the 20th century. By and large, these movements were domestic protests informed by national sensibilities even when they enjoyed the support of foreign governments.

Today while similar movements continue to flourish, they are now being superseded by a new type of minority challenge to national majorities.

This challenge is not primarily the result of domestic injustice but the consequence of foreign agitation. The roots of these minority challenges are found outside the borders of the targeted states. And their goals are not limited to a call for the reform of national institutions and politics. Rather they set their sights on weakening national institutions and eroding national sovereignty.

MUSLIM MINORITIES throughout the world are being financed and ideologically trained in Saudi and UAE funded mosques and Islamic centers. These minorities act in strikingly similar manners in the countries where they are situated throughout the world. On the one hand, their local political leaders demand extraordinary communal rights, rights accorded neither to the national majority nor to other minority populations. On the other hand, Muslim neighborhoods, particularly in Europe, but also in Israel, the Philippines and Australia, are rendered increasingly ungovernable as arms of the state like the police and tax authorities come under attack when they attempt to assert state power in these Muslim communities.

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Fighting and Killing is an Islamic Principle.

2007-10-07T01:13:00.000-07:00

The God of Islam in The KURAN (Quran) says:
Then Fight and slay the Pagans (every non-muslims) * wherever ye find them, and Seize them (altawba 9:5)
Fight against those who (1) believe not in Allâh, (2) nor in the Last Day, (3) nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allâh and His Messenger (4) and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (i.e. Islâm) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. (altawba 9: 29)
Allah told them to kill non Muslims any where and they will get many Virgins Girls (from 41 to more than 12 500 Virgins Girls for each Muslim man ) in their Paradise as a Reward for obeying Allah and killing the non Muslims people in there Holy War: i.e. THE JIHAD
Look to some Kuran Teachings that Teach Musilms
To Fight and Slay the Non-Muslims
The Way of those on whom You have bestowed Your Grace, not (the way) of those who earned Your Anger (such as the Jews), nor of those who went astray (such as the Christians). (alfatiha 1:7)
Fight them, and Allah will punish them by your hands, cover them with shame, help you (to victory) over them, heal the breasts of Believers, (altawba 9: 14)
And yet another translation
Fight against them so that Allâh will punish them by your hands and disgrace them and give you victory over them and heal the breasts of a believing people, (9:14)
But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans * wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); (altawba 9:19)
And yet another translation
Then when the Sacred Months have passed, then kill the Mushrikûn wherever you find them, and capture them and besiege them, and prepare for them each and every ambush. But if they repent and perform As-Salât (Iqâmat-as-Salât), and give Zakât, then leave their way free. Verily, Allâh is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (see V.2:105) (altawba 9:19)
(V.2:105) Neither those who disbelieve among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) nor Al-Mushrikûn (the disbelievers in the Oneness of Allâh, idolaters, polytheists, pagans, Christians how worship Jesus as God, etc.) like that there should be sent down unto you any good from your Lord. But Allâh chooses for His Mercy whom He wills. And Allâh is the Owner of Great Bounty. (albaqara 2:105)
And in the following verses you will see that Muhamad identified Christians as Disbelievers and Mushrikûn because he did not understand the Christian faith neither the Trinity - the Godhead in the Bible - nor the personality of Jesus Christ as the Eternal Son of God. Therefore, Muhamad considered Christians as Mushrikûn.
According to him, disbelievers are those who say:
"Allâh is the third of the three (in a Trinity)." But there is no ilâh (god) (none who has the right to be worshipped) but One Ilâh (God -Allâh). And if they cease not from what tthey say, verily, a painful torment will befall the disbelievers among them. (almaida 5:73)
They indeed have disbelieved who say: Lo! Allah (God) is the Messiah (Jesus Christ ) , son of Mary (almaida 5:17)
Fight against those who (1) believe not in Allâh, (2) nor in the Last Day, (3) nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allâh and His Messenger (4) and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (i.e. Islâm) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. (altawba 9: 29)
The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter;(almaida 5:33)
Fighting is prescribed upon you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knoweth, and ye know not. (albaqara 2:216)
O Prophet! rouse the Believers to the fight. If there are twenty amongst you, patient and persevering, they will vanquish two hundred: if a hundred, they will vanquish a thousand of the Unbelievers: for these are a people without understanding. (alanfal 8:65)
Based on the previous verses, we conclude that Islam considers Christians as Pagans, Disbelievers and Mushrikûn, because they:
1- Believe not in Allâh of the KURAN, nor forbid what has been forbidden by Allâh of the KURAN and his Messenger.
2 - Do not accept Muhamad as Prophet and Messenger from the True Allâh (LORD God )
3 - Acknowledge not the religion of Islam as it is From God.
4 - Worship Jesus Christ as the Eternal Word of God.
5 - Believe that the true Allâh is the One True God In His Trinity as revealed in the Holy Bible.
Thus, Islam teaches that Christians and others should be Killed in the name of Allâh.
Islam pushes Christians to believe that Jesus Christ is not more than a prophet otherwise they will be KILLED by muslims.
Again
Fight against those who (1) believe not in Allâh, (2) nor in the Last Day, (3) nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allâh and His Messenger (4) and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (i.e. Islâm) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. (altawba 9: 29)

The conversion obsession

2007-09-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

The Islamic world is truly obsessed with conversions. At least 7 Islamic countries apply the death penalty to those who convert from Islam: Sudan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Mauritania. But in other states, like Egypt, converts are condemned to prison, not as apostates but for contempt of Islam, as Hossam Bahgat, a member of the Egyptian Initiative for personal rights, explains.
According to government daily Al-Massa’, all imams are unanimous on the need to kill the apostate Hegazi. They say that sharia (not the Koran) must be enforced and it calls for the death penalty.The more moderate say: if the apostate hides his conversion, does not broadcast his decision, then it is not necessary to kill him; he can live. If he lets it be known, then he causes scandal (fitna) and must die.

from: Asia News

Islamic and Christian proselytising

2007-09-20T06:36:00.000-07:00

Islam protects itself against conversions by putting apostates in prison or by killing them. But its obsession with conversion includes a series of privileges it claims for itself. So much so that in many Muslim countries, even those that are supposedly secular, the right to promote the Islamic faith is taken for granted and is not enshrined in law. Conversely, the right to promote any other religion is considered de facto and de jure unacceptable.
Islamic propaganda is part of the state’s mandate. In Egypt for example public institutions disseminate songs, prayers, movies and written material that praise Islam and denigrate Christianity. Inevitably this favours conversions to Islam. By contrast, Christian propaganda (tabshīr) is banned by law.
Recently in Algeria, a new law was approved that condemns anyone promoting the Christian faith and anyone who converts to Christianity. Of course, some might say that this kind of law is directed only at Protestant proselytising. True! But Muslims proselytise as well? Should the law not be the same for everyone?
Saudi Arabia is undoubtedly the country where double standards in matter of religion are the most glaring. One example: Saudi Arab Airlines’ website explicitly warns its passengers that Bibles, crucifixes, and any other non-Muslim religious symbol are prohibited on board. If any are found they are confiscated. Another example is when two pieces of wood happen to end up across one another. However inadvertently that may have come about, the resulting cross becomes ipso facto a religious symbol and police are known to have ordered people who happened to be nearby to step on them.
Anti-Christian propaganda is also found in how words are used. In Arabic Christians are called Massihi. In Arabia they are also called Salībi, crusaders, and Nasrami, Nazarenes. Interestingly, at the time of the Crusades Christians were by and large referred to as Faranj or Franks. But the most commonly used word today is kuffar, unbelievers who must be killed. For the past 30 or so years, its use has increasingly spread around the Muslim world.
By some estimates, the number of Christians who convert to Islam in Egypt is around 10,000, usually prompted by practical reasons like the need to divorce, or to marry a Muslim woman (or man), or to get a job. Rarely does faith come into the picture.
More recently there has been some talk about thousands of Muslim converts to Christianity. Protestant missionary centres, based in the United States (the Zwemer Institute* has been mentioned), are said to offer money, apartments, passports, etc in exchange for conversion to Christianity. Such charges have often found their way into the Muslim press in relation to the Hegazi affair.
In Arabic Tabshīr means ‘evangelisation’ and has taken on negative connotations. In Egypt and other countries anyone guilty of Tabshīr can end up in prison or pushed out of the country. On the other hand, dawah, which means a call to join Islam, has positive connotations and is seen as duty for every Muslim. In some Muslim countries dawah has its own ministry (or Ministry of Islamic Propaganda, a bit like the Vatican’s dicastery De propaganda fide).
When shall there be a spiritual Islam?
Leaving Islam is seen as a religious, social and political outrage.
From a religious point of view, converts abandon the true faith for a false one. Indeed, the Qur’an itself warns that “The only religion approved by GOD is ‘Submission’ (Qur’an 3:19),” and “Anyone who accepts other than Submission as his religion [. . .] will not be accepted from him, and in the Hereafter, he will be with the losers” (Qur’an 3:85).
From a social point of view, someone who converts to Christianity and encourages others to follow him or her becomes a cancer on society.
From a political point of view, anyone leaving Islam is a traitor, a spy against his own nation who deserves death, because Islam is always viewed as a community, the Ummah.
....
....

Read the full report here

Intolerance Warning

2007-09-15T06:22:00.000-07:00

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan has begun. In addition to fasting from dawn to dusk, Muslims are obligated to read the entire Koran during this month. Non-Muslims should be aware of some of the things their Muslim neighbors will be reading in the Koran:
The unbelievers among the people of the book and the pagans shall burn forever in the fire of Hell. They are the vilest of all creatures. (98.6).
Surely the vilest of animals in Allah's sight are those who disbelieve. (8.55)
The unbelievers are your inveterate enemy. (4:101)
Mohammed is God's apostle. Those who follow him are ruthless to the unbelievers but merciful to one another. (48:29).
It is unlawful for a believer to kill another believer, accidents excepted. (4:92)
Believers, take neither the Jews nor the Christians for your friends. (5:51)
Make war on them [non-Muslims] until idolatry shall cease and God's religion shall reign supreme. (8:40)
Fight against them until idolatry is no more and God's religion reigns supreme. (2:193)
The true believers fight for the cause of God, but the infidels fight for the devil. Fight then against the friends of Satan. (4:76)
We will put terror into the hearts of the unbelievers. (3:150)
I shall cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads, strike off the very tips of their fingers. (8:12)
When the sacred months are over, slay the idolaters wherever you find them. (9:5)
Fight against such of those to whom the Scriptures were given as believe in neither God nor the Last Day, ... until they pay tribute out of hand and are utterly subdued. (9:29)
Prophet, make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal rigorously with them. (9:73 and 66:9)
Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you. Deal firmly with them. (9:123)
When you meet the unbelievers in the battlefield, strike off their heads. (47:4)
These and other passages in the Koran, which are considered Allah's literal word, will be important to non-Muslims until the imams preach to their congregations that these passages are no longer valid. So far, it has not happened.

By Carl Goldberg

Young Muslims begin dangerous fight for the right to abandon faith

2007-09-14T14:53:00.000-07:00

....
“Sharia schools say that they will kill the ones who leave Islam. In the West people get threatened, thrown out of their family, beaten up,” Mr Jami said. “In Islam you are born Muslim. You do not even choose to be Muslim. We want that to change, so that people are free to choose who they want to be and what they want to believe in.”
Mr Jami, 22, who has abandoned his studies as his political career has taken off, denied that the choice of September 11 was deliberately provocative towards the Islamic Establishment. “We chose the date because we want to make a clear statement that we no longer tolerate the intolerence of Islam, the terrorist attacks,” he said.
“In 1965 the Church in Holland made a declaration that freedom of conscience is above hanging on to religion, so you can choose whether you are going to be a Christian or not. What we are seeking is the same thing for Islam.”
Mr Jami, who has compared the rise of radical Islam to the threat from Nazism in the 1930s, is receiving only lukewarm support from his party which traditionally relies upon Muslim votes. His outspoken attack on radical Islam has led to a prelaunch walk-out from fellow committee founder Loubna Berrada, who herself rejected Islam.
She said: “I don’t wish to confront Islam itself. I only want to spread the message that Muslims should be allowed to leave Islam behind without being threatened.”
....
By the Book
— 14 passages in the Koran refer to apostasy
— According to Baidhawi’s commentary, Sura 4: 88-89 reads: “Whosoever turns back from his belief, openly or secretly, take him and kill him wheresoever ye find him, like any other infidel. Separate yourself from him altogether. Do not accept intercession in his regard.”
— The hadith, tradition and legend about Muhammad and his followers used as a basis of Sharia, tells of some atheists who were brought to “’Ali and he burnt them. The news of this reached Ibn Abbas who said: ‘If I had been in his place, I would not have burnt them, as Allah’s Apostate forbade it . . . I would have killed them according to the statement of Allah’s Apostate, ‘Whoever changed his [Islamic] religion, then kill him’.”
— According to hadith, a special reward in Paradise is reserved for the killer of apostates
Source: Times archives; Barnabas Fund

with thanks to Times Online

Why are Muslims leaving Islam?

2007-07-25T03:02:00.000-07:00

Ergun Caner, the dean of Liberty Baptist Seminary, and his brother openly discuss why they left Islam in this rarely seen video.

Islam is dragging the Maldives backwards to 7th century Arabia

2007-07-22T09:35:00.000-07:00

But in his summation the judge noted “the girl had reached puberty” and found “she was a willing partner,” because she had not screamed, struggled or told her sister-in-law or step mother about the event. He found the men guilty of consensual sex before marriage, and imposed the minimum sentence of eight months banishment.
From Minivan News

Homosexuality in Islam

2007-07-11T16:53:00.000-07:00

In addition to the 72+ whore al-eens (virgin sluts) that Mohamed promises (writing in his pseudonym of Allah) he also assures Muslims of the use of young boys for pleasure in his jannah paradise.

Koran 52:24 "Round about them will serve, (devoted) to them, young male servants (handsome) as pearls well-guarded."

Koran 76:19 "And round about them shall go youths never altering in age; when you see them you will think them to be scattered pearls."

The mullah pictured here could not wait for Mohamed's jannah bordello and so he has sex with a "scattered pearl" right in the middle of the street. Mullahs, imams, sheikhs, muftis, Mohamed and other assorted Islamic perverts are above the law.

When Catholic priests molest children there is a law, there is a justice that holds them accountable. The imams ARE the law, justice and the government in Islamic states. So they can do their shameful acts in public. Who is going to stop them?

Click image to go to the Gay Islam website
al-Fatiha

To the Adhaalathu Party and other jihadists

2007-07-08T18:36:00.000-07:00

Leaders of the Adhaalathu Party and others who want to force Islam on the rest of us!

Let me keep this short and simple, in case you decide to invoke Mohamed’s Sunnah of illiteracy and pretend you do not understand what I am saying.

When Islam is established fully in Maldives under your party, what protection would there be for 6 to 9 year-old girls against pedophile freaks who want to emulate Mohamed’s Sunnah of having sex with 9-year-old girls? Can your best friend count on you not demanding that he gives his 9-year-old daughter for you to have pedophile sex? That was exactly what the dirty child-molester, your prophet Mohamed did to Aisha the daughter of his best friend Abu Bakuru. What if you want to invoke that Sunnah to help you claim those 72 Whore-al-Eens in Mohamed’s bordello called Jannah?

The father of my 4 children arranged for a old, ugly man to have sex with me

2007-07-05T09:14:00.000-07:00

After I left school I married my boyfriend. I was faithful to him. We had 4 children. During this time he divorce me 3 times because I complain about his affairs with other women. After he divorce me three times he arrange for ugly old man to have sex with me so he can marry me again. He need this because he want me to look after the children.
The price I pay not to be separate from the 4 children I love more than myself is to have sex with the old man. I will write you my painful experience later.
I will not believe this is the law of a god. This is the rules of ignorant people and satan. Muslims are bad people and I am suffering for being under muslim law.

Islam's not for me

2007-07-03T02:00:00.000-07:00

lyrics by "Bom bin YurShu"
Click to listen

They tried to tell me my religion was wrong.
They tried to tell me to follow Islam.
They said their "Prophet" was a righteous dude,
But I found out none of their words were true.

I read the Qur'an and I read the Hadith,
And the sickness of Mohammed was apparent to me.
He justified perversion in the name of Allah,
When he married a girl too young for a bra.

She was playing with dolls when the "Prophet" came.
Her childhood was stolen in Allah's name.
Aisha was nine when he took her to bed.
Don’t tell me that fool's not sick in the head.

I ain’'t gonna follow no child molester, sex offender, Prophet pretender.
I ain’'t gonna follow no child molester! Islam's not for me!
Islam's not for me!

The sickness of the Islamic mind,
Has caused some mullas to be blind.
To justify their "Prophet" they will justify sin,
So the sins of the "Prophet" are repeated again.

All over the world in Islamic states,
Nine year old girls suffer cruel fate,
Sold into marriage to twisted men,
And Aisha’s sad story is repeated again.

I ain’'t gonna follow no child molester, sex offender, Prophet pretender.
I ain’'t gonna follow no child molester! Islam's not for me!
Islam's not for me!

Do you care about women all over the world?
Do you care about those little girls?
Better stand up and fight for human rights,
Speak out against the laws of Islam!

I ain’'t gonna follow no child molester, sex offender, Prophet pretender.
I ain’'t gonna follow no child molester! Islam's not for me!
Islam's not for me!
Islam's not for me!

Many thanks to www.islamcomicbook.com/lyrics1.htm

The diary of a Malidivian

2007-06-24T02:28:00.000-07:00

The diary of a Malidivian, currently living in the United Kingdom, where the Religious Police no longer trouble him for the moment.In Memory of the lives of Maldivian Politicians, lost in double stand between religion and politics. when their self’s burnt down. The Religious Police is watching them and would not allow them to leave the building, nor allow the Firemen to enter.
24 June 2007
A Memo
From: Royal Press SecretaryTo: His MajestyDate: 1st February 2006Subject: CartoonsAs Your Majesty requested recently, in order to divert public attention from the regrettable demise of a small number of pilgrims in Makkah during the last Hajj, Saudi newspapers were instructed to revive the four-month-old story of cartoons about the Prophet (PBUH) in a Danish newspaper, and turn it into an attack on Denmark, together with a "spontaneous demand by the people" for a boycott of Danish goods. So far this has worked reasonably well, although major Danish exports are bacon and lager beer, which we do not import, except as "special consignments" for some members of your family. There has also been some unfortunate "collateral damage" in that "Nido" was wrongly identified as a Danish product when it is in fact Swiss; also the boycott has resulted in several thousand Third World expatriates being laid off in the Saudi plants of the Danish dairy company Arla. However we cannot be expected to take the troubles of the entire world upon our shoulders. What is becoming to a concern to me is the "Denmark fatigue" that is clearly emerging in our newspapers. It has been an enormous strain on them to produce up to four reports a day from a story where nothing is essentially happening. It is also apparent that "reader fatigue" is setting in, and that instead of yet another article on Denmark, they would much prefer to read in great detail all the minutiae of Your Majesty's travels around the world, the full transcripts of your after-dinner speeches, and other matters of great interest and importance .
I have therefore given some thought to "spicing up" the story, and have come to the conclusion that we ought to find some other country, ideally small, harmless and inoffensive and with exports that do not appeal to your family, to demonize in addition to Denmark. I have therefore been reviewing all published representations of the Prophet (PBUH) to establish what countries could be blamed for them. Sadly, there are many representations out there, perhaps more than we ever imagined.
This picture is of an early Renaissance fresco in Bologna's Church of San Petronio, created by Giovanni da Modena and depicting Mohammed being tortured in Hell. Whilst theologically incorrect (it is in fact the Pope who will be tortured in Hell), I would not recommend antagonizing the Italians at this time, simply because of the volume of Italian marble that is imported for use within our royal palaces and public buildings.
This is present-day imagery that can be bought easily in the souks of Iran, and confirms how doctrinally unsound these Shiite Muslims are. However I would recommend against targeting Iran at present, for the same reason that you in your royal wisdom have chosen not to criticize their building of nuclear weapons; we want to avoid being seen as "Pro-Israeli". This is a representation of the eviscerated Prophet (PBUH) in the Eighth Circle of Hell as described in the Italian Poet Dante's "Inferno", where he quotes the lines
No barrel, even though it's lost a hoop / or end-piece, ever gapes as one whom I / saw ripped right from his chin to where we fart: / his bowels hung between his legs, one saw / his vitals and the miserable sack / that makes of what we swallow excrement. While I was all intent on watching him, / he looked at me, and with his hands he spread his chest and said: "See how I split myself! / See now how maimed Mohammed is! And he / who walks and weeps before me is Alì, / whose face is opened wide from chin to forlock. The poet lived in what is now Italy, which I have touched on before. The artist, Gustave Doré, on the other hand, is French. However your Majesty would appreciate the difficulty of boycotting a country where you and several members of your family have summer residences. This is by an Islamic artist, from somewhere in Central Asia. However, no-one is going to be interested in some place called Uzz-Wuzzistan, or care if we stop importing Yak milk.This depiction of Mohammad at Madinah is of Arab origin. However, we can't boycott ourselves, can we? (If his Majesty will permit me this small jest!)In this picture, Mohammad is shown as trampling on the Cross and Ten Commandments, which, while admirable in itself, is still a Haram likeness. It is set in the Netherlands, which would qualify as a small and harmless country, only exporting flowers to my knowledge. However, thinking ahead, they are in Group C in this year's World Cup, and we are in Group H. If we meet later in the competition, having victimized them over a 300-year-old picture, then we would definitely get a very serious kicking with the rest of the world cheering them on, and a great loss of face for us. Discretion is the better part of valor in this instance.

In this image, the Prophet (PBUH) is depicted in an advertisement for bouillon cubes. It is German. However the Germans have a reputation for being very aggressive, and would definitely boot us from one end of the park to the other in the World Cup. Best left alone. The North Frieze on the Supreme Court building in Washington, DC features a bas-relief sculpture of Mohammed, in between other law-givers Justinian and Charlemagne. If His Majesty will permit me my little jest, we know a few guys in Afghanistan who have experience in removing statues from rock faces! (We may have to wait a few decades, though!).

Another image from the USA, this time the sacriligious "South Park" episode called "Super Best Friends". Whilst I do not propose boycotting the USA, His Majesty may wish to be reminded of some of their blasphemies, for such time as and when this decadent country falls, like an over-ripe plum, into our lap. The final image is the most promising.Published a mere 30 years ago, and in itself a very dashing depiction, it is nevertheless a Haram covering for an illustrated story. And the good news is that it was written by Hergé, a Belgian! Belgium is a small, harmless country that only exports, to my knowledge, chocolates and beer, but not Your Majesty's favorites. Also, they are not in the World Cup! I recommend them as the next country to threaten, once the Saudi public tires of Denmark, which will alas be very soon. Victory, as we both appreciate, is all a matter of choosing the right fight.
PS, the Germans have gone on the offensive. I did say they were very aggressive.
PPS I have now learnt that France Soir in France, La Stampa in Italy and El Periodico in Spain have also published these cartoons. Tomorrow no doubt their competitors will do the same thing. I fear that we are going to lose the initiative here, we can't boycott everyone, we could become a laughing stock. Guidance, please. Should I order the Saudi papers to follow standard procedures and ignore all this bad news?
Press Secretary

Muslims are required to be terrorists, says Adhaalath

2007-06-15T04:16:00.000-07:00

The truth is out at last! The Hizbul Adhaalath (Maldivian Islamic political party) web site has openly published a comment that says “In reality, even if someone calls us [Muslims] terrorists we would be proud. The fact is that terrorism is a quality that we [Muslims] are required to have"

Reading with an open mind instead of reciting

2007-06-13T07:29:00.000-07:00

We have received a few emails. Most of it not very nice. The following email is from a lady with an open mind. The writer understandably wishes to remain anonymous :-

' I was taught to recite the Quran in Arabic as a child. I did not understand anything. A few years ago I tried to read a Quran translation in English. I understood nothing because it was very complicated. Then I tried learning about Islam on the internet. There is a lot of things in easier ways to understand. I started reading with an open mind instead of reciting like a fool. After reading the stories about Mohammed and Islam , I understand Islam is about killing and women. Mohammed killed many people. He ask us to kill, cutting hands etc. Then there are many rules about women. Very bad rules. I don't believe in Islam anymore. Mohammed is not a prophet. I cannot believe in something violent and cruel. I know why there is fighting and trouble where there are muslim every where. I have left Islam."

Community Censorship Plagues the House of Islam

2007-06-08T06:34:00.000-07:00

Even worse than the official censorship is censorship imposed by the community, which then becomes self-censorship. Friends, colleagues and even ordinary acquaintances all impose strict censorship rules on me under the guise of being concerned about my personal safety or honor. They demand that I tone down my strong views about sensitive issues.
Freedom of the press in the Muslim world cannot be separated from freedom of expression in general. Journalists, due to their conspicuous public role, risk their lives everyday. They have been targeted and killed in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, Somalia, Sudan and other countries. The Muslim world is not a friendly place for freedom of speech at all.
Journalists, creative writers and artists all share the same fate. The writer in a Muslim society is in shackles. Every time I put pen to paper it is a struggle against the tyranny of community-imposed self-censorship. Nowhere is Rousseau's statement that "Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains," truer than in the House of Islam.
Everything is a taboo. Whenever a Muslim writer takes up a pen he starts tiptoeing in a minefield. You have to follow the flag signs of religious, cultural and social taboos. You should tread carefully avoid shame, social estrangement or even death.
The beheading of the Sudanese journalist Mohamed Taha Mohamed Ahmed in early September was the latest example of community punishment of a journalist/writer.
Writers have to endure internet blockages and black ink splashed on their art magazines and school textbooks. One of the most bizarre censorship actions I have ever seen was the blotting out of the sexual organs of a historical picture of donkey standing in an old Arabian market.
In the House of Islam, you cannot have a principle other than that of the community. Every thing you do is referred to Islam. The mantra is "that's stupid BUT...But we cannot do this because we are Muslims." One hears this expression ad nauseam. In the Islamic world you cease to be a human being. You become only a Muslim, whatever that entails.
You are not allowed to be a person with vices and virtues, you cannot follow your own reasoning, and you cannot be unpopular or defend an unpopular idea. You cannot go out of the circle. To express yourself freely means to risk death. And death indeed if you change your faith. Invention itself is considered as an act of blasphemy.
.......
........
To survive in such unfriendly atmosphere like this, journalists in the Muslim world have become like parrots that only echo the official line. Torn between the call of professionalism and that of censorship, they have to always adhere to the call of the latter. If it takes a village to raise a child in Africa, it takes a community to kill a writer, artist and a journalist in the Muslim world.

By Bashir Goth. He is a veteran journalist, freelance writer, the first Somali blogger and editor of a leading news website.

Further reading:

Intellectual Censorship in Islam: A Matter of Life and Death

Censorship, Violence, Hate, And Persecution - In The Name of Islam

Islamic Censorship Has Struck Youtube!

Censorship and Persecution in the Name of Islam

Govt Bans 37 Publications On Islam

Economics of Religious Freedom

2007-05-30T08:50:00.000-07:00

There are many reasons because Maldivians are intolerant towards their fellow countrymen of other faiths. One of them is because there is a large Islam educated clergy who do not want to lose a part of their market to other religions. They have Koran classes, they have the jobs in the mosques...etc. If other religions were allowed they will lose the monopoly they have on religious affairs. That is one reason why they teach intolerance towards other faiths.

Islamic Politics

2007-05-29T22:06:00.002-07:00

Qur’an and history shows that Muhammad taught and led a totalitarian movement enforced by the sword similar to those led by other fascists and dictators. The government of Maldives compares very well to any totalitarian system of government. Ahaalath Party is a Islamist fundamentalist and Islamic extreme party which shares with the totalitarian regime of the dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's government to centralization of political power and establish Islamic domination in The Maldives. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom is using Islam as a political movement and he is using Islam as a sword to crush the reform process and the democratization of Maldives. With the help from Adhaalath Party.
The dictator Maumoon Abdu Gayoom’s mandate isn't about building a few mosques, schools, or other centers to meet the needs of Maldivians. But to change the existing laws into Islamic laws and to make the supreme council of Islam in The Maldives the hub of the political spectrum and dominate Maldives by Mullahs and Islamic extremists. The way for Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and the Adhallath Party to do this is to masquerading Adahhath Party as a religious and a political party ( Party of Allah) But the religious disguise is becoming paper thin, as non-Muslims of Maldives and the amount of Maldivian leaving Islam is increasing day by day. We will publish the total no of Non Muslim Maldivian and their respective religions on this site shortly. Beware the crusaders are on the move and it has begun.And we shall prevail.

2007-05-17T08:29:00.000-07:00

A nation is made of people. For the common good of all people it is the responsibility of every citizen to grant his fellow citizens human rights. Not in part and pieces. But in totality.
Those who try to force beliefs that go against these rights are unfeeling and insensitive towards his fellow citizens. They do not have a right to behave in this manner.
Maldivis should not continue to enforce a particular religion on all its citizens. There must be room for people of all faiths.

People own a nation. The idea that a particular religion owns a nation is antiquated, unreasonable and heartless.

No religion should claim or own our nation.

My friend is moving out...

2007-05-14T07:16:00.000-07:00

My friend has rented out the small place he has and is packing his bag to take his family out of the country. He is moving to Sri Lanka so that his children will have better education and a life free from the religious intolerance of Maldivian society.
There is a brain drain happening. There are people who do not wish an ideology or religion to be imposed on them. Throwing them out or expecting htem to move is not right. Room and space must be created that they remain in Maldives and contribute to the nation. After all it is their nation too.
Maldivians must be granted their rights as human beings if we are to join the rest of humanity. Maldives will not progress unless the state and religion are separated.

More responses...

2007-05-14T06:55:00.000-07:00

އެއްވެސް އިރެއްގައި ޤާއިމްކުރެވިފައި އޮންނަ ސަރުކާރެއް ބާރުގެ ބޭނުންކޮށްގެން ވައްޓާލުމަކީ އެއީ ކުރިމަގުގެ ޖީލުތަކަށް ދެއްކޭ ވަރަށް ނުބައި ނަމޫނާއެކެވެ. އައު ޕާޓީއަކުން ވެރިކަމާ ހަމަ ޙަވާލުވާއިރަށް އެވީ އެވެރިކަން ވައްޓަން އިދިކޮޅު ޕާޓީތަކުން ނުކުންނާށެވެ. އެހެންވެއްޖިއްޔާ ވެރިކަން ވެއްޓުން ނޫންކަމެއް ދިވެހިންނަކަށް ނޯންނާނެތާއެވެ. ހުޅަނގުގެ ޑިމޮކްރެސީއިން ލިބޭ ނަމޫނާއަކީ މިއީތޯއެވެ؟ ދިވެހިން ބޭނުންވެގެން އުޅޭ އިޞްލާޙީ ބަދަލަކީ މިއީތޯއެވެ؟

The western democratic model is based on the ballot box. This is the peaceful method devised that people may decide things without resorting to arms and violence.

ބޭރު ޤައުމުތަކަށް ކިޔަވަންދާ ބައެއް ދިވެހިންގެ ޙާލާމެދުވެސް ސަހަރޯވެރި ވާވަރުވެއެވެ. މިބައިމީހުންނަށް ވާގޮތަކީ މިމީހުންގެ ވިސްނުމުގެ ފެންވަރުދަށްކަމުން މިމީހުން ދާ ކޮންމެ ޤައުމެއްގެ ސަގާފަތަށް ރޭރުވެވެނީއެވެ. އާގޮތެއް ފެންނައިރަށް އެގޮތް ރީތިވެގެން އެނޫން ގޮތެއް ނެތްކަމަށް ވަނީއެވެ

What this Mullah is preaching is what he learnt in a madrassa in a foreign country.

ދީނީ ޢިލްމުވެރިންގެ މަޖިލީހެއް އޮތުމުގެ ބޭނުންތަކުގެ ތެރޭގައި ރާއްޖޭގައި އުފެދިގެން މިއުޅޭ ދީނީ ޚިލާފުތައް ނައްތައި، ދިވެހި ރައްޔިތުންގެ ދީނީ އެއްބައިވަންތަކަން ޙިމާޔަތްކޮށް، ދީން ދެމެހެއްޓުން ހިމެނެއެވެ. ރާއްޖޭގައި އެހެން ދީނެއް ޤާއިމުވިޔަނުދިނުން ހިމެނެއެވެ. ދީނުގެ އަޞްލުތަކުން ބޭރުގައި ތިބެގެން ދީނުގެ ކަންކަމުގައި ފަތުވާދީ ހަދާ މީހުން ރާއްޖޭގައި އަބަދުވެސް އުޅެއެވެ. އަދި މިކަން ކުރާ މީހުންނަކީ އެކި ސިފައިގައި ތިބޭ ބައެކެވެ. މިފަދަ ކަންކަމަކީ ދީނީ ފިތުނަ އުފެއްދުމެވެ. މިއީ ހުއްޓުވެންޖެހޭނެ ކަމެކެވެ.

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This man and his organization has no right to enforce their religion on me.

Response to Adhaalathu Party continued..

2007-05-13T05:14:00.000-07:00

More nonsense in the Adhaalat Party website on this article.

މުސްލިމުން ވަނީ 1100 އަހަރަށްވުރެ ދިގު މުއްދަތެއްގައި މުޅި ދުނިޔޭގެ ވެރިކަން ކޮށްފައެވެ.

There is no known record of Muslims ever having ruled Australia.
Or for that matter North and South America. Or China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Norway, Finland, Iceland or south Africa. And a lot more places.

Adhaalath Mullahs and Islamic Virgins

2007-05-12T12:56:00.003-07:00

The final achievement in life is to be nearest to Allah in heaven ( 7th heaven )says Adhaalath Mullahs.
There are, various levels or degrees of that. If a believer of Islam produces the highest deed in the faith, he is awarded that level of heaven, the nearest to the prophet Muhamed or the nearest to Allah.
If a believer of Islam blows himself up with a bomb and in the process kills many innocent people, provided he does it to defend his belief, that highest level of heaven is guaranteed to him according to Adhaalath Mullahs. This way of killing people no victim is innocent in the process of killing to defend Islamic loyalty. Those killed and wounded in a terrorist attack are not innocent in the eyes of the Adhaalath’s Allah. The objective of their god Allah is to subject all humanity to one belief. Adhaalath, stop preaching us and our children to defend Islamic loyalty and your belief. Adhaalath Party believes the guilty, and infidels, are all those who do not agree that Allah has everything under control. Oh Adhaalath !
Well, I do not understand this violent religion. From my point of view, that the faithful members of Adhaalath Party arrives in the highest heaven and is awarded the everlasting blessings of rivers of honey and everything he wishes, that includes alcohol, homosexuality , lesbians and orgies, not the least of which is a harem of pure virgins to charm himself in eternal sexual pleasure. Having sex in heaven? Oh Adhaalath!
Adhaalath fanatics please excuse my ignorance but you are the Mullahs who preach everything under the sky even if it comes to “ space technology ” as if you are the godly sprits who can wed 4 to 11 women and satisfy them at the same time. I need some explanation but I would like to know where all those virgins come from, since a virgin is only virgin one time, what happens to them after they are used? Millions of them need to be in supply throughout eternity. They must be coming from the mansions of gold where the prophet Muhamed lives since the eighth century!
Now, Mullahs imagine this , a heaven where there are more women than men! In the course of eternity, besides lots of honey and wine, which will eventually taste awful, imagine a level of heaven where virgins come in, are used, and then discarded to give room for the next! Or, is it that those virgins, upon being used, are somehow disposed of and dumped somewhere? Having lots of sex in between drinks cleanliness will be top priority . Changing blood-spattered sheets and all the rest. Who does the laundering ? Oh Adhaalath!
It seems that those virgins will either continue to be used after losing their virginity, but with no brains like you lot! This way, those innocent creatures can endure their sexual slavery for eternity. With no brain to think! This is what you Mullahs are preaching . Don’t think. Brain is only to read Quran and obey Allah, Don’t think! Says Adhaalath Mullahs!
Your characterization of the Islamic heaven is the limit in fantasy! Perhaps heaven is just that, after all: ADHAALATH MULLAHS IGNORANCE!

Mullahs destroying Islam

2007-05-12T12:56:00.002-07:00

This is what I am saying since last six year and I am glad to find out that there is someone who have the same understanding. I like this guy.
SENIOR VICE-PRESIDENT of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) Dr Kalbe Sadiq today blasted the ‘Mullahs’ for destroying Islam. He said their ill-conceived fatwas (edict) had not only painted Islam in black hues but had also stopped its progress. Dr Sadiq assailed both Shia and Sunni ulema (clerics) for straying away from Quranic path.
Dr Sadiq said Islam laid stress on ‘pen culture’ but Muslims had resorted to ‘gun culture’. Delivering lecture on ‘Islam versus Muslims’ on Sunday, Dr Sadiq said these Mullahs had tarnished the image of Islam in the past and the process was still continuing. He said they had issued ridiculous fatwas, which hampered the progress of the religion.
He said both Sunni and Shia clerics were responsible for present deplorable situation of Muslims. He squarely blamed the ulema for lack of unity in Muslims. Dr Sadiq said these clerics had been fighting among themselves but asking the community to unite. “It is absurd situation”, he said.
Pointing out that Islam was not responsible for the conduct of Muslims, Dr Sadiq said the community had strayed away from intellectual approach and justice. He said Islam did not allow unjust approach against any community.
Dr Sadiq reiterated that birth control was not anti-Islamic, as the religion had laid stress producing good generation and not on degeneration. Dr Sadiq said even though Islam did not permit abortion, it however had not asked the believers to produce child without having resources for his upkeep.
He also attacked Saudi Arabia King Abdullah for his corrupt way of life. He charged chief Mufti of mosque in Medina for resorting to all anti-Islamic activities. Dr Sadiq said history had enough examples that both Shia and Sunni monarch led anti-Islamic life.
He said there had been ulema who even issued fatwas against use of rifles in army or construction of steamship in Turkey. He said Shia ulema had been living lavish life, which was against the tenets of Islam.
Referring to Shia clerics of Lucknow, Dr Sadiq said their participation in luxurious marriages was against Islam. “It is religious crime on their part”, he pontificated and invited the ulema community to debate with him on issues raised by him.
Source: Hindustan Times.

Adaalath and hypocrites

2007-05-12T12:56:00.001-07:00

What adhaath says always contradicts real meaning of what they want to say and so is Islam. http://www.minivannews.com/news/news.php?id=3232

That’s why Islam and Adaalath are hypocrites http://www.adhaalathu.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=46&Itemid=53&show=1
After all how can a Mullah cheat another Mullah.

Mullahs

2007-05-12T12:56:00.000-07:00

I don’t think community based conciliation existed in the Maldives. The state and the religion has the authority, in particular when it comes to punishment. As Islam is a religion of punishments, the state been the God and the God been the state. An atoll chief and or the community will not have the authority of the supreme mini Gods to judge and punish people. Many local customs have been destroyed by the Mullahs as is the case happening now .
In a few years, Blue Jeans and T shirts will be history in Maldives. Blue jeans and T shirts brings death and evil sprit to our nation and destroy it says the Mullahs. Keep the Mullahs under control as they will not hesitate to burn those before your grand children sees it.

A small response

2007-05-12T12:05:00.000-07:00

This article on the Adhaalathu Party website is fascist and unacceptable.

އަޅުގަނޑުމެންނަކީ މުސްލިމުންކަމުގައިވީހިނދު

Are they talking about their party members or Maldivians? There are Maldivians of other faiths and beliefs. It is just there is no recognition that they exist.
އީރާނުގައި ޤާއިމްކުރެވިފައިވާ ވެރިކަމުގެ ނިޒާމަކީ ޑިމޮކްރެސީގެ އުޞޫލުތަކާ އެއްގޮތަށް ހަމަޖެހިފައިވާ ނިޒާމެކެވެ

The political system in Iran is not a democracy. It is a "theocracy".

ނަމަވެސް ހުޅަނގުގެ ޙަޟާރަތުގެ ޢުމުރަކީ އެންމެ 200 އަހަރެވެ.

The roots of western civilization go back to ancient Greece.