An unislamic silence

These are early signs of going overboard.

In an MDP meeting recently, this is what President of MDP’s Consultative Council on Islamic Affairs Adam Naseem has said as reported on Miadhu.

Quote. "Speaking at the gathering Sheikh Adam Naseem noted that many of the customary practices practiced currently are alien to Islam and are imported to our modern culture from other religions. He said such acts as “holding a moment of silence” was unIslamic and as such, such a moment will not be held in memory of Late Saleem." Unquote.

Following this nitpicking logic, our country will have to start a national house cleaning exercise to weed out unislamic elements if the conservatives have their way. With increasing influence of the religious parties in Maldives, the politics that gets played out could mirror the political chaos that is happening in Pakistan. The politics is not based on issues, instead it is based on keeping personalities in power.

The tragic death of former prime minister and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan is a stark reminder of the gruesome reality of imposing twisted notions of religion in political governance. There are some hard-line radical clerics who believe that Benazir Bhutto was too much of a liberal who supported US in their fight against terror and therefore she must be eliminated. While it may be unseemly to talk about benefiting from a person's death, her death is another chance for the world to realise that dictators and clerics who oppress their people using religion can never deliver peace and no one is safe, for they only create conflict within society.

Islam is a religion of peace. It respects and calls for individual rights, liberty and justice for all. But a country like Maldives which claims to be a 100 per cent Muslim country does not care about individual rights or equitable distribution of wealth to allow its citizens such respect and proper living conditions.

In Maldives, our clerics need to keep their focus and address major issues such as education, housing, health care, employment, drug addiction, equitable distribution of wealth, and social justice. These are the critical issues for our society. Our status as Muslims cannot change with a minute of silence.