Intolerance grows in the Maldives

[samv]

Tourism Ministry issues circular to close spas and massage parlors

By Ahmed Nazeer | December 29th, 2011 |

After thousands of protesters gathered last Friday and demanded the government “close the spas and massage parlors and such places where prostitution is conducted”, the Tourism Ministry has today published a circular asking all the resorts to shut down their spas and massage parlors.

Press Secretary for the President Mohamed Zuhair today confirmed to Minivan News that the Tourism Ministry had issued the circular.

The circular informs that the government has decided to shut down all the spas and massage parlors in accordance with demands made by the general public during last Friday’s protest to “defend Islam.”

Speaking at a press conference held yesterday, Zuhair said the protesters did not specify where exactly the prostitution was conducted but mentioned that prostitution was conducted inside spas and massage parlors.

He said the government does not know how to differentiate between the spas and massage parlors that are complicit with prostitution and those which are not.

Therefore, Zuhair said the government has decided to shut down all such locales because Maldivians, including high-profile individuals, have been visiting tourist resorts and having spa treatments.

He said the government does not want those high-profile individuals’ good names being damaged by visiting places accused of such crimes.

Zuhair added that some of the individuals making these demands last Friday also conduct business in the tourism industry. Therefore, the government believes that, given their insider understanding of the resort and spa industry, their accusations are well-founded and there is not much to investigate.

This week, five spas run in five resorts owned by opposition Jumhoory Party (JP) Leader ‘Burma’ Gasim Ibrahim were asked by the Tourism Ministry to shut down operations over similar allegations.

The company subsequently sued the government. Meanwhile, the Civil Court issued a warrant permitting those spas to continue operations until the suit has reached a verdict.

Tourism Minister Dr Maryam Zulfa was unavailable for a comment.

Tourism Ministry issues circular to close spas and massage parlors  | Minivan News

 

[samv]

Maldives 'considering' complete ban of alcohol and pork

Hussain Fiyaz Moosa, Haveeru News Service
Dec 28, 2011 - 08:433 comments

Press Secretary and the President's Office Mohamed Zuhair speaks during the press conference held at the President's Office on December 27, 2011. HAVEERU PHOTO/ NASRULLA SOLIH

The government yesterday revealed its plan to completely ban alcohol and pork in the Maldives following the demands made by religious protestors on Friday.

The President's Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair told journalists that the government is considering imposing a nationwide ban on alcohol and pork in response to the demands made by religious protestors on Friday.

"As you are aware of, more than 400 locals are living in some large resorts whereas the population of an island consists of only 200-300. Therefore, the government is looking into ways to completely ban the sale of alcohol and pork throughout the Maldives," he said.

Five demands were put forward at the protest organised by the civil society coalition and opposition parties on Friday.

The demands include removing the SAARC monuments in Addu, condemning UN human rights chief Navi Pillay's comments about Islamic Sharia, not allowing Israeli airlines to operate flights, closing down the brothels in Male and a reversed decision on declaring areas of inhabited islands uninhabited in order to permit alcohol sales.

Zuhair said the government will close down massage parlours in the country as such places are suspected of being run as brothels.

"Those places are not operated with a special permission from the government, but the government has now begun inspecting and classifying those places," he said.

Zuhair noted that the government will not obstruct any decision made by Addu City Council to remove the SAARC monuments set up in Addu.

Referring to the demand made to President Mohamed Nasheed to condemn the comments made by UN human rights chief Navi Pillay in Maldives, Zuhair said no controversial statements were made during the "courtesy call" she paid to the President.

He said the parliament could only respond to the comments she made at the parliament on flogging of women convicted of extra-marital sex, as the government did not arrange her to speak at the parliament.

The Press Secretary further stressed that the businessmen involved in the tourism sector will have to play a major role in preventing Israeli national airline from commencing operations to the Maldives.

"When tourists want to come they will first book the resort before booking the airline and if the resorts cancel their bookings they will not come to the Maldives. The airline will stop operations because it cannot run the business if there won't be any passengers to travel," he said.

HaveeruOnline - Maldives 'considering' complete ban of alcohol and pork

 

[samv]

Mob storms National Museum, destroys Buddhist statues: “A significant part of our heritage is lost now”

By Hawwa Lubna | February 9th, 2012

Several historical artifacts exhibited at the Maldives National Museum, including Buddhist statues were destroyed in a mob attack on Wednesday morning, an act of vandalism that is said to have caused “unimaginable damage” to the treasured Maldivian heritage.

Speaking to Minivan News, a museum official said that a group of five to six men stormed into the building twice, “deliberately targeted the Buddhist relics and ruins of monasteries exhibited in the pre- Islamic collection, destroying most items “beyond repair”.

The official said that the details of the damage cannot be released as the police have asked the museum to withhold the information until the investigation into the attack is pending.”‘But I can say that attackers have done unimaginable damage,” he added.

“This is not like a glass we use at home that can be replaced by buying a new one from a shop. These are originals from our ancestors’ time. These cannot be replaced ever again,” the official exclaimed.

According to a source, a coral stone head of Lord Buddha, an 11th century piece recovered from Thoddoo in Alifu Atoll, was smashed up by the attackers, one of the most significant pieces at the museum inside Sultan’s Park.

The museum was built with Chinese government aid and opened on July 26, 2010.

Other pieces vandalised include the Bohomala sculptures, monkey statues and a broken statue piece of the Hindu water god, Makara, while the two five faced statues discovered from Male’ were also damaged – the only remaining archaeological evidence proving the existence of a Buddhist era in the Maldives.

The glass casings holding the items were also destroyed in the attack.

According to the museum official, some of the attackers who returned to the museum for the second time were apprehended by the police who arrived on the scene.

“Around five to six people were taken under police custody. But by then they had already done the damage they wanted,” he observed.

Minivan News could get the confirmation on the arrest from the police at the time of press.

The attack on the museum coincided with the political unrest that escalated in Male’ on late hours of Tuesday night, after a group of policeman and military allegedly joined the opposition protestors, forcing Former President Mohamed Nasheed to resign the following day.

AFP reported Nasheed as saying that the vandals included Islamist hardliners who had attacked the museum because they believed some of the statues inside were “idolatrous”.

The monuments gifted by the South Asian countries to the Maldives ahead of the 17th summit of South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation SAARC, hosted in Addu city were also denounced as idolatrous monuments and vandalised, including the monument gifted by Pakistan.

Removal of the contentious monuments was one of the five demands of the December 23 protesters, including religious groups and opposition, who also demanded that the government prohibit Israeli airlines from operating in the Maldives.

The museum official who spoke to Minivan News earlier said that he cannot comment on whether the attack was connected to fundamentalists.

‘We are not trying to promote any religion here. These artifacts are used for the purpose of teaching, archeological research and showing Maldivian history to visitors,” he explained. “But a significant part of our heritage is lost now.”

Mob storms National Museum, destroys Buddhist statues: “A significant part of our heritage is lost now” | Minivan News

 

[Avisheik]

Actively tearing down your own history and heritage is only your own loss. It makes you a nation with no past.

 

[samv]

Vandalism at Maldives Museum Stirs Fears of Extremism

Ali Waheed, director of the National Museum, said all but two or three of nearly 30 Buddhist statues were damaged beyond repair. “The collection was totally, totally smashed,” he said.

By VIKAS BAJAJ

MALE, Maldives — The broken glass from an attack by vandals on the National Museum here has been swept away, and the remnants of the Buddhist statues they destroyed — nearly 30 of them, some dating to the sixth century — have been locked away. But officials say the loss to this island nation’s archaeological legacy can never be recouped.

In the midst of the political turmoil racking this tiny Indian Ocean nation of 1,200 islands, a half-dozen men stormed into the museum last Tuesday and ransacked a collection of coral and lime figures, including a six-faced coral statue and a 1 1/2-foot-wide representation of the Buddha’s head. Officials said the men attacked the figures because they believed they were idols and therefore illegal under Islamic and national laws.

The vandalism was reminiscent of the Taliban’s demolition of the great carved Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan in early 2001, and it has raised fears here that extremists are gaining ground in the Maldives, a Sunni Muslim country that historians say converted from Buddhism to Islam in the 12th century. The country has incorporated elements of Islamic law into its jurisprudence for years. Idols cannot be brought into the country, for example, and alcohol and pork products are allowed only at resorts that cater to foreigners.

The statues were destroyed on the same day that Mohamed Nasheed, who won the presidency in 2008 in the country’s first democratic election, resigned his office. Mr. Nasheed said he was forced to do so in what amounted to a coup; his opponents say he went voluntarily. For nearly a month leading up to his resignation, Islamic and other opposition political parties staged protests. Some of them criticized Mr. Nasheed for not cracking down on brothels that masquerade as massage parlors and for proposing that hotels be allowed to serve alcohol on islands where Maldivians live; under current law, alcohol can be served only at the airport or on resort islands with no native population.

Ali Waheed, the director of the National Museum, which was built by China as a gift to the country, said on Monday that officials might be able to restore two or three of the damaged statues, but that the rest were beyond repair. “The collection was totally, totally smashed,” Mr. Waheed said. “The whole pre-Islamic history is gone.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/w...rchaeological-treasures-in-maldives.html?_r=1

 

[Omar1984]

religious intolerance in Maldives is growing from quite a long time,even Maldives President in India seek help from MMS in his India visited where he mentain that Maldives youth going to pakistan for terrorist training.

Taliban in Pak recruiting our youth: Maldives

LOL What a joke. Taliban does not have a helicopter or even a ship. How the hell will they recruit people from Maldives when they are in mountainous area of Pak-Afghan border no where near the ocean. Pathetic indian media, full of lies and hate for Pakistan.

 

[Zabaniyah]

LOL What a joke. Taliban does not have a helicopter or even a ship. How the hell will they recruit people from Maldives when they are in mountainous area of Pak-Afghan border no where near the ocean. Pathetic indian media, full of lies and hate for Pakistan.

Please, don't degrade them. Yes, they even come up with wacky stories about...pretty much all of their neighbors.

It's a good source of entertainment for me

 

[Black Widow]

Intolerance grows in the Maldives

By Sudha Ramachandran

BANGALORE - The rising tide of religious intolerance in the Maldives is threatening the country's young democracy.

Monuments donated by Pakistan and Sri Lanka were vandalized last week as they were seen to be "idolatrous" and "irreligious".

Member-countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) donated monuments to mark the just-concluded 17th summit of the regional grouping that the Maldives hosted.

The monument gifted by Pakistan consisted of an image of its founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, and also featured figures, some of them drawn from seals belonging to the ancient Indus Valley Civilization. Historians have argued that these figures of animals and human beings point to early religion. The Sri Lankan monument was of a lion, the country's national symbol.

On the eve of the unveiling of the Pakistan monument, a mob reportedly led by the opposition Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), the party of former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, toppled the bust of Jinnah. A day later, the monument was set ablaze and the bust stolen. The Sri Lankan monument was found doused in oil with the face of the lion cut off.

Sources in the Maldivian government told Asia Times Online that the vandalization was driven by political motivations rather than religious beliefs. "This is the opposition's way of damping the success of the SAARC summit," a member of the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) said.

The PPM has hailed the vandals as "national heroes" and promised to "do everything" it can to secure the release of the two men arrested over the incidents.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Islamic Affairs has ordered the government to remove the monuments as they "breach the nation's law and religion". Islamic Affairs Minister Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari told the local media that the Pakistan monument was "illegal" as it "represented objects of worship of other religions".

Adhaalath Party president Sheikh Imran Abdulla told Minivan News that the monument "should not be kept on Maldivian soil for a single day" as "it conflicts with the constitution of the Maldives, the Religious Unity Act of 1994 and the regulations under the Act" as it depicted "objects of worship" that "denied the oneness of God".

Sunni Islam was declared the official state religion of the Maldives under the 1997 constitution. This was retained in the 2008 constitution. Article 9-d says that "a non-Muslim may not become a citizen of the Maldives". While the constitution allows non-Muslim foreigners to practice their religion privately, they are forbidden from propagating or encouraging Maldivians to practice any religion other than Islam.

The island nation in the Indian Ocean is formed by a double chain of 26 atolls has a population of about 314,000. It is the smallest Asian country in both population and land area. With an average ground level of 1.5 meters (4 foot 11 inches) above sea level, it is the planet's lowest country.

Although religion plays an important role in the daily lives of Maldivians, the kind of Islam practiced here has never been puritanical or rigid and it is suffused with local cultural practices. Faith in Islam has co-existed with belief in spirits and djinns. Traditionally, Maldivian women did not veil their faces or even cover their heads and men did not grow beards. That is now changing with a puritanical version of Islam taking root.

Religious conservatism has grown dramatically in recent years, as has intolerance. A small but vocal group of religious radicals espousing Wahhabi or Salafi Islam has campaigned for inclusion of sharia law punishments like flogging and amputation in the penal code, used intimidation to force women to veil themselves and declared listening to music as haram (forbidden).

Maldivians who are atheist, agnostic or profess the milder Sufi Islam have been hounded by radicals. In May last year, 37-year-old Mohamed Nazim, who professed in public to be non-Muslim, was threatened by the Islamic Foundation of the Maldives, a non-governmental organization.

Three days later, he went on television and asked for forgiveness. Two months later, 25-year-old Ismail Mohamed Didi, who admitted to being an atheist and had sought political asylum abroad, was found hanging at his workplace.

FULL REPORT >> Asia Times Online :: Intolerance grows in the Maldives

While Muslims seek equal status in West and other non-Muslim country. They provide no independence to non-Muslims where they are in majority.

Except Turkey and Indonesia almost all Muslim majority country are in similar condition. I hope My Indian/Pakistani Muslim bropthers can see that how non-Muslims are tolerant towards them, How non-Muslims allow them to eat-pray-live in non-Muslim land. I was listening to a columnist (Which was a Pakistani Muslims), He said "We should be thankful to West, which allow us to live peacefully in there country. When we see our Arab brothers, they treat us (Pakistani-Indian-BD) like sub human. We can settle with pride in west, while we can not have pride if we are poor (in UAE,KSA and rich Arab land) "


I think this Maldiv example will open eye of Indo-Pakistani-BD Muslims.

 

[Zabaniyah]

Question: Why is this even happening in Maldives?

 

[rama]

Tourism Ministry issues circular to close spas and massage parlors

i was planning to visit Maldives this summer...now heck i'll have to reconsider my plan!!

 

[kingkobra]

LOL What a joke. Taliban does not have a helicopter or even a ship. How the hell will they recruit people from Maldives when they are in mountainous area of Pak-Afghan border no where near the ocean. Pathetic indian media, full of lies and hate for Pakistan.

lol you speak as if we are living in 12th century....

 

[Mike2011]

Global warming is good for the world.