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Editorial
18 March 2007
 If
allegations were to be believed, it has probably taken a British
billionaire knight to restore the ancient ancestral heritage of
the Maldives. These Indian Ocean islands are fast becoming a colonial
appendage of Islam and its mullahs based in the Middle East, Pakistan
and Malaysia. Thanks to the British knight, this may be about to
change.
After a lapse of many centuries, once again, a giant image of the
Buddha adorns in full public glory in a tiny Maldive island, with
the apparent goodwill of the otherwise Islamic Maldive authorities.
The islands were a Buddhist kingdom until AD 1153 when the king
was persuaded to convert to Islam. Our own Divehi Buddhist monks
were slaughtered en masse in true Islamic tradition of
jihad. An attempt to restore the creed of Gautama Sakyamuni
known as Buddha about a century later was brutally suppressed by
the mullahs.
It is therefore commendable that an Egyptian indoctrinated mullah,
the president of the republic Mr Maumoon Gayoom is instrumental
in consenting to the construction of what appears to many as the
first fully functional Buddhist temple in the Maldives in 850 years.
Up until now, the remnants of our ancestral Buddhist heritage unearthed
from time to time have been smashed up into smithereens in much
the same way as the Taliban destroyed the Bamiyan Buddhas.
It is also alleged that the British billionaire staged topless dancing
in the same island. Maldive women wore topless attire in public
at least until the 15th century and in some cases until as late
as the 1950s. Again the billionaire knight appears to be reviving
this Maldive ancestral custom with the full backing of the authorities.
Recently a Maldive deep sea diver contacted this web site after
he discovered several giant Buddhas serenely lying deep in a Maldive
lagoon. According to him the Buddhas looked as if they were deliberately
hidden there at sometime in the past, very likely to keep them safe
from barbaric mullahs. He asked for our advice as to what to do
with the find. We suggested that it was still safer to leave them
there. At some stage in the near future, it is hoped that these
Buddhas could be salvaged and restored to their former ancestral
glory, perhaps with the backing of philanthropic Western tycoons
and the Maldive authorities who seem to be rapidly joining the civilised
world.
There is evidence too, of a Christian heritage in the Maldives around
the time the Roman Empire converted to Christianity. According to
Vatican sources, there was a Christian monk by the name of Theophilus
who was a native of the Maldives. He practiced as a medical doctor
in the Roman Empire in the 4th century of the Christian era. In
the 16th century the Maldive king Hassan IX made an attempt to restore
that heritage by embracing Christianity. This was met with stiff
resistance from the mullahs of the time.
Christianity reached South Asia only a few years after the crucifixion,
resurrection and ascension of Christ. The Christian community established
in South India by Christ's disciple Thomas exists to this day and
is older than any Christian community in the West. It is still unclear
if the same movement reached across the Malabar Sea to the Maldives.
It is very likely that it did. Our Buddhist kings were known for
their tolerence.
Recently the Maldives acceded to the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights and the Optional Protocol to that Covenant.
The Maldive mullahs and some political parties maintain that "religion
is a taboo subject in the Maldives and that preaching faiths other
than Islam is constitutionally prohibited" in the Maldives.
On examination of the Maldive constitution we do not find any such
provision. The only constitutional provision close to this subject
is that Islam is the "official religion" in the Maldives.
So what?
In England and Wales, for example, the official religion is the
Church of England. That does not stop Muslims practicing and preaching
their faith and building mosques all over England and Wales and
the rest of the United Kingdom. Maldivians who live in the United
Kingdom regard it as their Mohamed-given right to be able to kowtow
to Allah in British-based mosques. Like the Maldives, the
United Kingdom is a state party to the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights. Maldivians living in the UK are able
to enjoy freedom of religion precisely because of this Covenant.
What is good for Maldivians in the United Kingdom is good for English
billionaire knights in the Maldives.
The Maldives has a legal obligation to align its domestic laws to
international treaties that it has acceded to. The Maldives cannot
have it both ways. If it has acceded to an international treaty
and continues to insist that it is unconstitutional to apply the
provisions of that treaty then it is in breach of international
law. Maldive politicians who insist that the Maldives is exempt
from discharging its treaty obligations are also in contempt of
international law.
The Maldive opposition MDP, like the ruling Maldivian People's Party
(DRP) has a written commitment to breaching Article 18 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that relates to freedom of
religion.
It is commendable if the DRP Government may now be backing down
from this indefensible position by consenting to what appears to
many people as a Buddhist temple in the Maldives. The opposition
MDP must immediately follow this lead and become civilised.
The Maldive authorities have gone into extreme defensive mode when
news broke out of the Buddha image. They have claimed that the British
billionaire knight was throwing a party to celebrate his birthday
and the Buddha image and the temple were props for a cabaret act.
In all likelihood this sounds like the truth but the Maldive opposition
and its savage mullahs are seeing this as a huge opportunity to
discredit the authorities.
Rather than regarding as an act of homage to the Buddha, Buddhists
are likely to view the prop and the cabaret act as offensive and
an insult to the Enlightened One. It is likely that if a similar
cabaret act carried an Islamic theme then mullah-led savages the
world over would go on the rampage, burning, killing, pillaging
and looting as they did following the Danish cartoons that depicted
Mohamed.
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Feedback
Two emails
We received the following e-mail
shortly after this page was uploaded, from someone who calls
themselves the Free Pens Club maniku@gmail.com
Sir,
The Budda in our
midst. Sir Green knows exactly what he's doing
I am utterly disgusted about knowledgeable Maldivians writing
stuff and nonsense driven by a frenzy to make political mileage
about the Budda in Sir Green's birthday.
Obviously he knows a thing or two about Maldives and the Budda.
That little bit extra that's not too obvious to the uninitiated.
That's probably why he's a billionaire.
It is historical fact that the Maldives before the 12th Century
had no less than 166 Buddist temples, some of which are still
buried under mounds of coral sand. The Maldives had 2000 years
of Buddidt history and only 500 as Muslims. And how? With
Islam as a religion embraced out of fear and utter defeat.
Inscribed on copper plates buried at some of these destroyed
Buddist temples are accounts of how Arab missionaries beheaded
200 priests in just one day in Male', simply for refusing
to renounce their religion. True to the non-violent nature
of the Buddist religion, they did not organize an opposition.
They did not fight back. They just calmly submitted to be
beheaded like goats to the slaughter on Muslim holy days.
And more importantly, they were Maldivians. The best and the
brightest of them!
And once the killing sprees were over, the Arabs began chanting
of their holy book, in the same melodies and tones as one
would hear from the Buddist temples. The sorry masses left
behind without their learned men, never even realized that
with the transformation, the colonizers had taken over their
peaceful religion.
What followed were centuries of rule by pseudo Arab mullahs,
who later began changing the Buddist melodies of the Arabic
verses to how they sing it in Arabia. And nowadays they might
not physically behead Maldivians, opting just to kill their
spirits.
Sir Green or anyone else would know the obvious truth; that
Maldivians aren't Arabs. Maldivians who go to Mecca on pilgrimage
know that the Arabs themselves treat them with racist disdain.
And if present day Maldivians are so full of their 500 year
connection to the middle-east, (never mind the bigoted contempt),
to overlook another 2000 years of history, may God help Sir
Green and all those sorry Maldivians who are jacking up the
Muslim fervour to a fever pitch about the Budda in our midst.
Editor replies:
Your spelling and your sums are overlooked because of the
pertinence of your message!
We received the following
feedback from a British-based Maldivian. The points made are
excellent:
Just read your piece on the Buddha issue.
Actually I even checked your site yesterday to see if you
have written anything :-).
The Maldives was clearly a Buddhist country before so seeing
Lord Buddha's statue from the distance is in a way a small
glimpse into the mysterious (and deliberately hidden) past
of the Maldives and how the islands would have looked then
with their temples and statues. It is a pity though that it
is actually there as part of a cabaret act.
However, it is also quite hypocritical that the current regime
allows the giant Buddha statue but would not tolerate any
mention of Christianity or Christian symbols. I wonder how
President Gayoom would've reacted had Mr.Green asked for a
giant crucifix instead of the Buddha? Now THAT would be interesting.
As for the opposition trying to make political capital, who
can blame them for being so desperate, with an autocratic
regime who accuses them of being funded by Christian missionaries
and who clearly do not give a toss about what anyone else
thinks - Gayoom has just appointed his daughter as the Deputy
Foreign Minister without neither a background in International
Politics nor any experience in the government. As such, anything
to get the people to see his vile and hypocritical ways seems
appropriate in desperate times.
The question is if and when democracy happens, will it be
a true democracy or a "special democracy" as Gayoom
currently calls it, with freedoms allowed only when it suits
the government?
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