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Opinion 20 June 2005
After the article “The dark side of the Maldives” was published, this website has received many insults and threats. Obviously, the forces that want to keep the Maldives in the Dark Ages are afraid that true democracy would come to Maldives, for then they would not be able to manipulate the hapless Maldivian people at their will, like they have been doing for centuries. Let no one be fooled: the insults and the threats throw light on what kind of people are behind them. No one should have any hopes in these 'defenders of the faith', because these are no freedom-loving democratic gentlemen concerned with the welfare of the nation and its citizens, but crude and brutal Islamic propagandists who are afraid to lose their cold and steely grip on the Maldive nation. The forces of religious tyranny are only too keen on quoting the hackneyed Quran statement "That there is no compulsion in religion." They do so to appear liberal and broad-minded to Western audiences, in order to make themselves more palatable to European observers. But if there is truly no compulsion of religion in Islam, why is it that they insist in not allowing any other religion other than Islam in the Maldives? Why are they so deceptive? It is a fact that mealy-mouthed hard-liners like to quote this Quran verse for the benefit of Westerners, pretending that Islam is a tolerant religion. But if that verse is taken literally, then the fact of making a particular religion compulsory on the Maldive Nation, is contradictory to the Quran and to Islam itself. So in this issue it is quite obvious that these frauds don’t mind contradicting the Quran when it is convenient for them. Another favourite statement of these fork-tongued Muslim propagandists is that “Islam does not call for intolerance of other beliefs”. So they pretend to be broadminded and, for the benefit of the ‘Christian’ or ‘Western’ gallery they may also say that “In fact Islam does embrace the two Holy books sent down to Moses and Jesus and accepts them as Messengers of God, which also happens to be the title of Prophet Muhammad.” Again, these people are not ashamed of grossly displaying their double standards, for they do not explain why the Bible is strictly forbidden in the Maldives, whether in Dhivehi or in any language. But not only the Bible, any type of literature relating to what the Maldive government perceives as Christianity is outlawed. This ban also includes movies like "The Passion of the Christ", “Ben Hur”, “The Ten Commandments”, "The Life of Abraham", "Quo Vadis" or even “The Prince of Egypt” (a cartoon movie about the life of Moses that is not forbidden even in Iran, Vietnam or North Korea). If Muslims are truly not intolerant of the beliefs of Christians, why is the Maldivian government so paranoid about stamping out even the smallest Christian name, Bible verse, greeting card, or Christmas tree from the face of the Maldives?
But this nonsense finds its fullest expression in the fact that these so-called “open-minded” Muslims, cannot avoid attacking Christians, by always reminding us that only THEY are right. Here at least they cannot hide their short fuse concerning tolerance, for this necessarily means that ALL the others are wrong, because Muslim ideologues love to say in their hat-trick propaganda that: “The Islamic doctrine is a renewal of the message sent to earlier Prophets because the message of old had gotten corrupted by the very same people who were charged to keep the message clean and pure.” They have the nerve to say this even after they just have mentioned that they “tolerate” the other “Holy Books”! So why don’t these people make up their mind? Why do they pretend to be what they are not? For whose benefit are they playing their pathetic hide-and-seek games? A free press is an essential part of a democratic system. A democratic nation should be ruled by people who are not only prepared to be criticized, but who also are able to assess their own shortcomings within a spirit of fairness. But the Muslim hard-liners are totally blind to seeing anything wrong with their own policies and behaviour. They are mere charlatans lacking in sincerity and integrity, unable to look at their own faces in the mirror. They cannot stand to be contradicted, so they have no ideas beyond their determination to forbid any possible opposition, and to throw insults and threats to those who are against them. They count on creating an atmosphere of fear where no one will dare to oppose them. And the scary thing is that in their religion they have permission not only to hate, but even to use violence and kill their opponents. We stand for what we have written in “The dark side of Maldives”, because the notion of the “progressive promotion of Islam" in the Maldivian nation is nothing short of horrifying. Let us suppose that these Islamic promoters fully succeed. Where will it lead the Maldives? Where will this end? Maybe only after the Maldives has suffered all the consequences of Islam under a Taliban-style government, with its subsequent harvest of misery and lawlessness. At any rate tourists should stay away from a country where the Islamic ideology is being actively promoted by the state and its opposition movement, for Islam (despite one or two isolated verses that may be interpreted as promoting 'tolerance') more in line with its general spirit, states the following in the Quran: “Take them and kill them wherever you find them” and “Choose no friend nor helper among them” (Suras An-Nisa 4:89, 91 and al-Baqara 2:191) Since the battle of Badr, all Muslims who kill their enemies are justified by Muhammad’s words: “So you did not slay them, but it was Allah who slew them, and you did not smite when you smote, but it was Allah who smote!” (Sura al-Anfal 8:17) These verses of the Quran are used by violent Islamic youth worldwide to justify their hatred, their violence and their crimes. Muhammad himself commanded that his own enemies be brutally killed, one after the other. He even let a mass grave be dug for the last Jews of Madina whom he accused of treason during the battle of Khandaq. Hence, promoting such a doctrine and claiming exclusivity for it, is indeed irresponsible in a country that should be welcoming the European and Australian “Christian” tourists and that should educate its youth to do so. One frightening fact is that in present-day Maldives, most of the Maldivian youth is very supportive of terrorists like Bin Laden, with popular singers like Ali Rameez at the forefront. Furthermore the Maldive Government is guilty of secret, but active, involvement in the promotion of virulent anti-Christian hatred by freely distributing a CD in 2004 that graphically portrayed atrocities allegedly committed by ‘Christians’ against Muslims in Maluku province, Indonesia. The aforesaid CD was distributed with the clear purpose of spreading hostility and contempt towards Christians, and with this only a fraction of the radical anti-Christian agenda of the Islamic center in Male’, the Religious Affairs department of the Maldivian Government and the Arab schools in the Maldives, among other official organizations, has been mentioned. If one day all their foul deeds would be exposed, there would be no room in any website to write them all. Now, when many people in Maldives talk about freedom and democracy, it is high time that the Islamic theocracy, with its legacy of tyranny, hypocrisy, and active promotion of hatred, makes way for true freedom and true democracy to shine over our country. Islam as national religion is only convenient for politicians and mullahs. Let the double-standards end and let there be light in the Maldives. |
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