It is possible
that some people faithfully issue the odd grunt in order to force
out that nagging piece of excrement out of their posterior orifices.The
overseas-based Maldive opposition/ dissident movements appear to
be rattled by the Egyptian-trained mullahs heading the Maldive republican
authorities. In a recent speech, the head mullah and president of
the republic repeated his perennial accusation that the Maldive
opposition and dissident movements are bent on converting Maldivians
to Christianity.
In an attempt to absolve themselves of this charge, the opposition
and dissident movements are making knee-jerk-statements such as
“Much as he [the head mullah] would raise the specter [sic]
of Christian missionaries converting Maldivians, he cannot refute
that Maldivians had been resolute
in following the Islamic faith since 1153 AD.” (Click
here to view source).
There is ample historical evidence that not all Maldivians have
always been that resolute in their faith in Islam.
Reluctance to vandalise
Buddhist remains
Islam
was first introduced to the Maldives in AD 1127 and was confined
largely to the southern atolls. The tolerant Buddhist rulers of
the realm, who were based in Malé, made no attempt to forcibly
reconvert the new Muslims back to Buddhism.
Religious tolerance existed in pre-Islamic Maldives.
The Arab-colonialist missionaries, including local collaborators,
were able to exploit the social unrest caused by the growing influence
of a cult based in Malé that demanded the sacrifice of
a virgin every month. In 1153, the king in Malé, Dhovemi
Kalaminja Siri Bavanaadheettha was persuaded to convert to Islam.
That marked the end of religious tolerance in the Maldives. The
Arab-colonialist missionaries persuaded the king to order the
destruction of all non-Islamic places of worship.
Hoping that the new colonialist cult was a transient fad, many
Maldivians in remote atolls did not destroy their temples and
objects of worship. They simply covered these up with soil in
the hope of restoring them when the Arab-colonialist fad passed.
This hardly lends weight to the claim that Maldivians were resolute
in following a foreign doctrine forcibly imposed upon them.
Buddhist resurgence
As the Arab colonialist intolerance dragged on and intensified,
open rebellion broke out in some distant atolls. Barely a century
after the forced conversion of Malé, the chieftains of
Dambidu island in Haddummati atoll openly restored the faith of
their ancestors. A military force was dispatched from Malé
to Dambidu and the locals were forcibly reconverted to Islam and
their chieftains and priests were executed.
So when the sacred months
have passed away,
then kill the idolaters wherever you find them, and take
them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them
in every ambush, then
if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate,
leave their way free to them; surely Allah is Forgiving,
Merciful.
(Koran: Surah
el-Towbah verse 5)
|
Perhaps the Maldive republican authorities and the opposition/
dissident movement would dismiss that episode as an isolated rebellion
by a few misguided apostates. The fact was that freedom of choice
was stamped out and those who made the free choice of returning
to the faith of their ancestors were brutally killed as dictated
in the Koran. The killing was done by the then equivalent of the
National Security Service (NSS). No doubt, the Maldive opposition
and dissident movements regard this as yet another proof of Maldivians
being “resolute in following the Islamic faith since 1153
AD”.
Christian conversion
In the first half of the 16th century the young
king Dom Manoel Siri Dhirikusa Loka left his realm because his
ministers opposed his decision to convert to Christianity. The
ministers "deposed" him and two of their number usurped
the throne in succession. When the Christian king’s followers
succeeded in landing a force in Malé to restore their legitimate
monarch, the second of the usurpers, Ali was quickly deserted
by the militia. He was left to meet a lonely death. There is evidence
in the oral tradition as told by Buraara (transcribed and published
in 1958), that the population of entire islands had accepted the
faith of their king. Again this hardly demonstrated the Maldive
resolve in the faith forcibly imposed on them in AD 1153.
General apathy to
Islam
Until 1967, the chief Islamic justice was the supreme authority
over religious affairs in the Maldives. The chief justices annually
sent a missive to every inhabited island reminding the citizenry
of their religious duties. The population paid little attention
to the missives and the Royal Government did not fully enforce
them. The orders in these missives ranged from toilet etiquette
through sweeping of streets to stoning to death of adulterers.
Click
here to view such a missive issued in 1929 by Hussain
Salahuddine son of Moosa of Malé, chief justice and chief
Islamic authority.
This particular missive was addressed to the headmen and citizenry
of the islands of Inguraidu, Fainu, Kinolas, Midu, Ufulandu, Maduvvari,
Kandoludu, and Kudafurhi of North Maalosmadulu atoll. Among other
things the missive called upon the islanders to grunt in order
to expel any residual pieces of faeces off their rectums after
defecation and to cleanse their orifices with water or stones.
It refers to the ritual of using odd numbers of stones to wipe
private orifices if water could not be found to cleanse them.
Corporal and capital punishments were to be meted out as per Islamic
laws and adulterers were to be stoned to death. the
Royal Government expressly prohibited executions, amputations
or stoning to death
No one took much notice of these annual ranting and ravings of
the mullahs. It is possible that some people faithfully issued
the odd grunt in order to force out that nagging piece of excrement
out of their posterior orifices. In some islands where the headmen
were particularly nasty, fornicators were whipped but the Royal
Government expressly prohibited executions, amputations or stoning
to death.
Given this type of historical evidence, it is a gross exaggeration
to claim that “Maldivians had been resolute in following
the Islamic faith since 1153 AD”.
Exceptions
It must be acknowledged that there are many people in the Maldives
who sincerely follow what they understand to be Islamic teachings.
Without a doubt, they are steadfast in their belief.
It is, however, not clear how many of them would heed the Koranic
commandment to kill the idolaters wherever they find
them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait
for them in every ambush- there are those who say that this
is an elaborate call to engage in terrorism.