First of all we urge all fellow Muslims to remember the sanctity of this holy day which is Friday, our day of remembrance of Allah thaaalaa. Having said that, to show solidarity with fellow Muslims on our outrage about the current administration's policies on religion and Islam is a commendable thing. However we must note that everyone who joins the demonstration does not have the same aim. Although our sheikh's and leaders have promised a violence free strike, we believe there is room for violence especially as we have a third front which is our hyper active tightly connected group of saboteurs who are the real enemies of Islam. This third front is the local atheists and agnostics and they are hyperactive in social media, creating opportunities to slander Islam and hellbent to create violence. Their aim is simple, to shatter the 100% Muslim label which we are also not in agreement. A country has to have islamic sharia first and then religious freedom at the personal level. However for the sake peace and security, we need this country to be a 100% Islamic state however much a tiny minority disagrees. If they (as they claim) love democracy they better learn to adapt to majority rules.
The purpose of the demonstration shall be to let the current administration know that we are the majority of the population and we have issues with idols. Although all types of idols are “budhus” in dhivehi, there are various names for each form of these objects in other languages. The worst and most severely prohibited type of these is the type of statues that have been fixed in Addu atoll starting with the bird statute in Feydhoo. We have agreement by our ulema that these are indeed haraam objects and we have every right to protest and show our anger.
The budhus cannot even be justified by economic sense as these things were made, transported, fixed and kept under guard all by use of public funds which totals more than 2 million rufiyaas even by conservative estimates. We have better and more pressing issues to address with these public funds.
The political argument against the budhus can be simply stated as the budhus and the whole fiasco about it could not add even one vote to MDP voter base, but it has (we believe it already did) contributed to considerable anger against ruling MDP for appearing to defend this un-defend-able position.
Smart politicians realize a mistake early, acknowledges the mistake, apologizes to the people and make amends to woo the voters back in to the party. But the zeal and willingness to defend the budhus by prominent MDP politicians present their inexperience in politics which we forgive them with pure hearts.
We also have words of advice for our own sheiks and ulema as they seems to have dug a whole for themselves in a political landscape which should have been a peak. The top leadership of Adhaalath needs to learn to function like a real political party and brush their knowledge of diplomatic language to avert crisis amongst themselves. The lack of diplomatic language might have caused the rift between Dr. Bari and leadership of Adhaalath and both positions seems valid except that their differences were aggravated by lack of conciliatory language.
We ask once again all our fellow Muslim brothers and sisters to be mindful of the special time the afternoon of Friday is (which is the time of dua and zikr) and to avoid confrontation amongst ourselves even as we enjoin upon us to do good and to forbid evil.
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2 comments:
Great post
I for one am outraged at the incomplete sets of Barbie dolls being sold at our local stores. I mean, how hard is it to present the smaller collections or at the very least, have Kim dolls available.
As for our stance on the idols controversy; It's a political issue, not a religious one and I do realize this may be a bit difficult for some people to differentiate. Lets take a look at what it actually means shall we:
i·dol/ˈīdl/
Noun:
1) An image or representation of a god used as an object of worship.
2) A person or thing that is greatly admired, loved, or revered.
Now lets be serious. The first definition does not apply in this case as these statues do not represent any of the gods of popular religions of the countries they represent.
If you're going to go with the second definition, you'd have a better case if you were vocally advocating against the ban of mainstream Bollywood media channels as actors and/or lifestyles of these are held in much higher regard.
That being said, it's time to realize that Maldives is starting to progress. With such progress you the "bad" with the good. It might not have been the change you wanted, but it is the change that you needed. As such, this was already a very defining moment in Maldivian history.
“Should we ban music? Should we mutilate girls’ genitals? Should we allow nine year-olds to be married? Should we forbid art and drawing? Should we be allowed to take concubines? Is this nation building?” - Mohamed Nasheed, President of the Maldives.
As long as you do not proactively support the opposite, you are silently supporting the current way of life by not standing up against it. You choose the easier path because as we all know, trying to fight against the tide is much harder.
I also find it hilarious how you keep trying to articulate your propaganda piece in such a way that, externally, it tries to make the opposition look like a minority.
When has any country ever been a 100% [insert preferred religion] ? You can take a persons livelihood away from him and label him as you see fit, but you cannot reach into the depths of his mind and force him to believe in a faith he does not align with.
We're at 7b pop and counting, perhaps it's time to understand that not everyone on the planet has to wear the same cut of cloth. Saying atheists and agnostics are purposefully "creating opportunities to slander Islam and hellbent to create violence" is the equivalent of me saying all Muslims have explosives strapped to their chests and are slyly waiting for their next target. Both statements are equal in the fact that both are incredibly misinformed and extremist. You do not have to try your hardest to paint your enemy in a color that will repulse your followers.
Personally, I do not have issues with the addition or removal of the statues. They have no inherent power except that which we give to them through the process of idolizing. Which is why creating awareness and further educating the masses might help your cause more than the current calls of passive aggressiveness against the whole issue.
We as humans aren't binary creatures. It's never beneficial to deal in absolutes. Live and let live.
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