Rep. Ellison (D-MN) to Speak at D.C. Conference on U.S.-Muslim Relations

Govt. Officials, Scholars, Policy Experts to Convene Tuesday, May 5th WASHINGTON, April 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs Madelyn E. Spirnak, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Maldives Ahmed Shaheed, among many scholars and policy experts will discuss the future of U.S.-Muslim relations at a conference on Tuesday, May 5th in Washington, D.C.

The Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID), a non-profit think tank dedicated to studying Islamic and democratic political thought, will be celebrating its 10th anniversary with an academic conference and banquet titled, "How to Improve U.S.-Muslim Relations: Challenges and Promises Ahead."

The conference will bring policy experts and academicians from around the world to discuss the challenges and promises ahead for the future of U.S.- Muslim relations, including whether the current administration's proposed policy changes indicate the beginning of a more positive relationship and what role Islam will play in the development of democracy in the Muslim world.

WHAT: CSID 10th Annual Conference, "How to Improve U.S.-Muslim Relations"

WHEN: Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

WHERE: Sheraton Crystal City Hotel, 1800 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, VA 22202

SPEAKERS: Keith Ellison, D-MN; Madelyn E. Spirnak, Deputy Asst. Secretary for Near East Affairs, Department of State; Ahmed Shaheed, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rep. of Maldives; Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Visiting Professor at Harvard; Shibley Telhami, University of Maryland; John Esposito, Georgetown University, among many others.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Maldives Ahmed Shaheed will also be awarded the prestigious "Muslim Democrat of the Year" award for his work in the past decade and a half to strengthen and promote democracy and human rights in the Maldives.

SEE: www.islam-democracy.org for full program and registration.

"We have brought together some of the well-known scholars, politicians, and activists, and thought leaders from the U.S. and the Muslim world to have a serious and genuine debate about how to improve relations and understanding between the U.S. and the Muslim world," said Dr. Radwan A. Masmoudi, President of CSID. "We hope that the conference will come up with actionable items and recommendations for the new Obama administration as it tries to establish dialogue and improve relations with the rest of the world."

Established in March 1999, CSID celebrates its 10th anniversary with this important conference, launching a new decade of work in creating a modern Islamic democratic discourse. The organization was founded by a diverse group of academicians, professionals, and activists from varied religious backgrounds, united by the conviction that Islam's relationship to democracy is in dire need of greater understanding and clarification to facilitate a more fruitful cross-cultural dialogue.

Source: sunherald.com

Maldives constitutional changes

After four years of debate, the Republic of Maldives has ratified their constitution. This event is receiving praise from some and criticism from others.

The changes are said to have put the tourism-heavy country into the ranks of other world democracies. The Maldives is under the leadership of Asia's longest-serving president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. Behind the beautiful sights that draw vacationers is a history of a repressive government, according to World Evangelical Alliance. WEA believes the changes are just as discriminatory as they have been in the past, despite hopes of true liberty. They report that "clearly the Western media still regard religious liberty as a dispensable human right, for the new constitution discriminates and marginalizes non-Muslims." Nowhere in the new constitution were religious freedoms outlined.

Article 2 states clearly that the Republic of Maldives is "based on the principles of Islam." In the past, one official of the country wrote on his personal blog that Maldivians who marry non-Muslims or convert away from Islam risk losing their citizenship. Now, it is written in Article 9 that "a non-Muslim may not become a citizen of the Maldives." Article 16 continues, saying that parliament may restrict freedoms in order to uphold the tenets of Islam. The courts are allowed to decide whether the restrictions are "demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society".

Interestingly, Article 20 is in contradiction to the Islamic law it is trying to uphold when it says that all people shall be held equal before the law.

Article after Article has stipulations regarding religious affiliation and the inculcation of Sharia law. Article 72a3 says all members of parliament must be Muslims.

Considering all this, WEA says it "may be understood that proselytism and apostasy are banned." In the past, Christians have been arrested and physically harmed for missionary activity.

The new law is due to be in place by October 2008. Pray that persecution will not increase for Chrsitians there. Pray that they will carry-on with strength and take bold steps of witness.

Source: www.mnnonline.org

Sea, sun and jihad

Islamist extremism rears its head in the tourist paradise

A RECORD number of tourists, some 650,000, visited the Maldives' upmarket and otherwise uninhabited island resorts last year. But from the populated parts of the Indian Ocean archipelago the news is more worrying. On a January visit to one of its 1,200 white sand and coral islands, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was rescued from a knife attack by a boy scout. The would-be assassin's shout of “Allahu Akbar!” was the latest evidence of growing Islamic extremism in the 350,000-strong nation of Sunni Muslims.

Last September terrorists detonated a bomb in the capital Male's Sultan Park, injuring 12 tourists. Foreign concern mounted in November when a video posted on an al Qaeda-linked website called for more attacks. The almost simultaneous police revelation that the “masterminds” of the Sultan Park attack had received training in Pakistan heightened fears. But the Maldives government insists there is no evidence that international terror networks have infiltrated the country.

Instead it blames homegrown extremism. Scholars who studied in Pakistan and the Middle East in the 1980s and 1990s returned imbued with a conservative strain of Wahhabi Islam, and found the Maldives' young population receptive. In the past ten years more and more women have started wearing headscarves or burqas. Young men have tended to boycott government-licensed mosques.

The richest country in South Asia in terms of GDP per head, the Maldives has widespread internet access, in Male at least. “There is a tendency to imitate foreign terror groups, even if there are no formal links,” says Mohamed Nasheed, the information minister. The government long ignored these developments. Indeed, President Gayoom promoted Islam as the cornerstone of Maldivian national identity. The explosion in Sultan Park, however, led to promises of immediate action to defend the vital tourism industry.

But after 30 years of strong-arm one-man rule, Mr Gayoom is embattled. In 2003 street protests following a series of custodial killings almost toppled his regime, forcing him to promise democratic reforms. The country's first multi-party election is due this year.

With the president's future uncertain, his government has descended into tried and tested repression. The police have reacted with characteristic gusto to Mr Gayoom's call for a “no-nonsense” approach to extremism. The Maldivian Detainee Network, an activist group, says that more than 300 suspected religious dissidents have been detained since September. Men wearing the short trousers and long beards associated with Wahhabism are subject to random security checks. Most suspects have not reached the courts.

Attempts to impose a state-sponsored moderate Islam have fallen flat. The Supreme Council on Islamic Affairs, a scholars' body led by a Gayoom loyalist, has refused to ratify his ban on women veiling their entire body or to allow a fast track for the licensing of moderate preachers. With an eye on the election, the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party has forged an alliance with the conservative religious Adhaalath Party, isolating the government politically.

Mr Nasheed complains that the reform process is impeding the government's ability to act decisively. But Mr Gayoom's high-handedness seems as much to blame for the failings of the counter-terrorism effort. Supreme Council rulings have been countered by ministerial decrees and political objections ignored. Denied access to legal recourse, religious radicals increasingly appear the victims of an arbitrary government. As elsewhere in South Asia, political uncertainty is providing a space in which Islamist extremism can grow.

Source: economist.com

Islamic extremism in the Maldives: Is Gayoom the cause?

By Asif Fuard

As the Maldives sinks deeper into political turmoil with President Mamoon Abdul Gayoom and his political opponents engaged in a bitter clash over reforms, the country is also witnessing the emergence of Islamic extremism. The President, who many call a dictator, survived an assassination attempt recently. The attack came a few months after a bomb went off near a popular park and police battled extremists in an island. These events have prompted the government to take steps to combat the threat of Islamic extremism.

Members of a little known group have taken up arms to defend themselves and promote their version of Islam - Wahhabism -- in the archipelago. The Maldivians say the leaders of the group were educated in Pakistan and West Asian countries and their version of Islam conflicts with the version of Islam stipulated by Maldivian law, according to which preaching of different versions of Islam is a crime.

Reports say India's intelligence arm, Research Analysis Wing, has received information that Maldivian Islamic extremists are purchasing weapons from Indian criminal and terrorist groups while other reports indicate that they were also buying weapons from Indonesia and Pakistan.

These reports also say that Sri Lanka is being used as a transit point in the arms smuggling operation. It is against this backdrop, a few months ago, Sri Lanka and the Maldives signed a memorandum of understanding on intelligence sharing.

Opposition parties blame President Gayoom for the rise of extremism. Gayoom has been ruling this Indian Ocean archipelago for nearly three decades. Of late, he has come under severe criticism from within the country and abroad for the mounting corruption, human rights abuses and social ills such as the growing problem of youth addiction to narcotics amidst a high rate of unemployment.

The opposition's view is backed by research conducted by the New Delhi-based Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses focusing on the Maldives and Pakistan. The research shows that people resort to extremism when they are faced with a non-democratic political system.

On January 8, a boy scout foiled an assassination attempt on the President's life when he grabbed the assassin's knife, saving the executive from death. The assassin, 20-year-old Mohamed Murshid, unemployed and having no previous criminal record, attempted to attack the President when he visited, Hoarafushi in the north of the Maldives.

Earlier a homemade bomb exploded in the capital city of Male on September 29 last year in what was said to be the country's first act of terrorism after the failed attempt by a Sri Lankan mercenary group hired by wealthy Maldivian to overthrow the President in 1988.

Information Minister Mohamed Nasheed told a news conference that the perpetrators might have had extremist connections."Investigations into the September attack showed that there was fundamentalist thinking behind it," he said. In December, three men convicted of carrying out the September bombing were jailed for 15 years. Although the government may have been worried after reports linked some of the suspects to Kashmiri groups, they have since then taken measures to combat extremism in the island.

The government had taken steps to promote moderate thinking through education and banned the traditional Islamic veil in public places, offices, courts, and educational establishments, Minister Nasheed said. He said the government had also banned Muslim religious gatherings unless permission was obtained.

Foreign clerics too have been banned by the government, because it fears they can promote fundamentalism."We do not have madrassas or religious schools, like you see in Pakistan, from where militant thinking comes in," Minister Nasheed said. "In this country, fundamentalism is not spread through teachings."

It is spread by a handful of clerics, according to analysts. The rise of extremism is a threat to the country's tourism industry, one of the pillars of the small island nation's economy. Gayoom has ruled the islands since Nov. 11, 1978, and in recent years has strongly defended the presidential form of government, as opposed to the parliamentary system, which is promoted by the main opposition, the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).

The founder for the MDP, Mohammed Latheef, told The Sunday Times the Egyptian-educated Gayoom is the father of the country's extremism as it was he who had brought the Wahhabi (Islam practised in Saudi Arabia) thinking into the country. "Soon after becoming President, he opened the first Islamic schools. Religious scholars from Egypt were brought to 'enlighten' the Maldivians during the month of Ramadan.

“ Some even shocked the moderate Muslim community by preaching men could beat their wives. School textbooks were revised to follow the dictator's version of Islam. Islam is used as a tool of governance in the Maldives and its people are tired of it," he said.

"There is no rule of law or checks and balances in the system of governance in the Maldives. The judiciary, the legislature and the security forces revolve around a single individual who runs the country. “In a state which has no governance one can expect such incidents taking place," he said.

Source: sundaytimes.lk

Maldives seek Interpol help to arrest terror suspects

The Maldives is seeking Interpol's help to arrest 10 of its nationals, wanted in connection with a bomb blast in the capital Male, who have fled to Pakistan, police said.

The calm of the paradise holiday destination was shattered in September when Islamic radicals set off a home-made bomb, wounding 12 foreign tourists.

Police arrested six of 16 Maldivians believed to be linked to the attack, but said another 10 escaped to Pakistan.

"The Attorney General's office has given us the court order and we have now asked Interpol to issue a red notice," Maldives police spokesman Ahmed Shiyam told AFP in Colombo by telephone.

A red notice allows an arrest warrant to be circulated worldwide, with the intent that the person will be extradited, according to Interpol's website.

Shiyam did not say what charges the suspects might face.

The September 29 bombing occurred outside Sultan Park in Male, wounding a British honeymoon couple, two Japanese and eight Chinese on a city tour.

The two prime suspects, Abdul Latheef Ibrahim and Ali Shameem, fled the Maldives with the help of an immigration officer who is now in custody, Assistant Commissioner of Police Abdullah Riyaz said.

Police in the Muslim nation said those detained received training in assembling bombs at Pakistani madrassas, or religious schools.

President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom said the blast was the first terrorist attack in the Indian Ocean island chain, and has unveiled tough measures to combat Islamic extremism and to protect its vital upmarket tourism industry.

Gayoom, who has ruled the Maldives with an iron fist since 1978, banned fundamentalists from conducting religious services and foreign clerics from entering the country without permission.

Home to about 300,000 Sunni Muslims, the Maldives is a chain of 1,192 coral islands scattered across 850 kilometres (550 miles).

About 600,000 tourists visit the country each year. Tourism and a successful tuna fishing industry has pushed per capita incomes to nearly 2,700 dollars, making the Maldivians the richest country in South Asia.

Source: AFP

Religious tension hits Maldive Islands, a hot spot for tycoons, superstars

While vacationing tycoons and bikini-clad Hollywood superstars blissfully sipped drinks on the Maldives' secluded white beaches, an Islamic revolution fueled by preachers trained in Pakistan and the Middle East was brewing.

On Sept. 29, the two faces of the Maldives collided when a homemade bomb exploded in a park in the capital, Male, wounding 12 tourists, threatening the critical resort industry and sending the clear message that even this remote corner of paradise is not immune to terrorism.

The attack, and a bloody confrontation days later between police and masked Islamic extremists armed with harpoons, stunned this Indian Ocean nation and threatened its careful effort to balance its traditionally moderate Islamic heritage with liberal Western values.

The government reacted swiftly to crush the fundamentalist movement that had risen amid the palm trees and crystal blue waters of its 1,190 coral islands. Authorities banned the veil, arrested scores of suspected extremists, sealed underground mosques and promised a crackdown on radical preachers.

"We are not taking chances," Information Minister Mohamed Nasheed said.

So far, the violence has not frightened off the tourists, who account for one-third of the economy, he said. But "if there is another attack, then we just close tourism here. And we can't afford that," he said.

By far the most prosperous country in south Asia, with a per capita annual income of $2,700, the republic had seemed safe from the worldwide rise of Islamic militancy. Its longtime ruler, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, had harnessed his nation's major natural resource — hundreds of small, deserted islands — to create remote, upscale resorts that fueled explosive economic growth.

But the country also suffered deep divisions.

While many high school graduates went to Europe or Australia for a liberal education, others studied religion at extremist institutions in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and spread their radical beliefs across the islands, said Rohan Gunaratna, a Singapore-based terrorism expert hired by the government. He estimated that several thousand of the country's 300,000 people now follow these clerics.

"They are preaching a deviant form of Islam," he said.

These once marginal preachers have found a new wave of adherents in recent years. The global outburst of Islamic anger after the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the spread of Internet access to this country's remote islands played a major role in the growing fundamentalism, said Hassan Saeed, the Maldives' former attorney general.

"Suddenly, an island nation cut off from the rest of the world became part of the global village," he said.

So did the Maldives. But despite the relative prosperity, there weren't enough jobs for the huge population of young people, and many turned to drugs or radical Islam, Saeed said. The Islamic Council, the government body that runs official mosques, accredits preachers and controls all aspects of religion here, was still distributing decades-old sermons to its imams and was caught unprepared, he said.

The trauma of the 2004 tsunami, which killed more than 100 people here and devastated many islands, also fueled an Islamic revival. Hussein Mohammed, 40, said he was among 200 displaced people originally from the island of Moondu who spent two years in an abandoned textile factory on the island of Gan before getting a new house. Many in the crowded factory sought solace in the translated copies of the Quran the government provided, and within months nearly all the women began wearing head scarves, he said.

"After something like the tsunami, this frightening thing, people became far more interested in religion," he said.

While many of the fundamentalists were not violent, a Maldivian was caught trying to join the Taliban in Afghanistan, another was arrested in India seeking to buy sniper rifles, and a third was jailed by U.S. authorities in Guantanamo Bay, Saeed said.

"For a small country, there were a large number of alarming signals," said Saeed, who quit the government in August, in part because he felt a report he wrote on the looming problem was ignored.

Like villagers on several other scattered islands, the people of Gan found themselves suddenly confronted by a small group of angry fundamentalists earlier this year.

"They said they are Muslims and others are not Muslims and that others should be killed," said Daoud Ibrahim, the clean-shaven imam at the government mosque. "I have never seen this before ... it's against our traditions."

While rows of villagers in knitted white skullcaps prayed in the spacious mosque with its green tile floors, the fundamentalists — dressed in Saudi-style white robes and headdress — took over a tiny mosque of concrete and corrugated metal meant for Bangladeshi construction workers. They pressured Maldivian women to wear head scarves, mocked clean-shaven men as unbelievers and quietly plotted to drive tourists out, officials said.

Some in the group were tsunami refugees from the remote island of Kalhadoo, which embraced a strict form of Islam more than a quarter century ago under the tutelage of a Saudi-educated preacher named Mohammed Ibrahim. Angry at Ibrahim's dissident Islamic views, the government banished him from Male to Kalhadoo, where he quickly turned the islanders into his disciples, said Yousef Ismail, a former Kalhadoo resident who now lives in Gan. Ismail spoke as his wife sat nearby, covered head-to-toe in a black robe.

Police say at least one of the men on Gan, whose cell phone was discovered in the ocean near the airport, was directly connected to the Male blast. On Wednesday, police said the man, Abdul Latheef Ibrahim, had fled to Pakistan ahead of the blast along with nine other suspects from different Maldive islands. Six other suspects were already in custody.

Source: MSNBC By RAVI NESSMAN Associated Press Writer

Maldives fears foreign terror cells as religious tensions rise

The Maldives has begun a crackdown on Islamic militant groups in an effort to prevent international terror networks from setting up cells here, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom told AFP.

The president said a small minority of the Indian Ocean archipelago's 330,000 Sunni Muslims had begun preaching an extremist form of Islam that could affect the peaceful image of the popular tourist destination.

A bomb attack targeting foreign tourists here last month followed by violent clashes with police and security forces had alerted the country to the "very serious threat of extremism," he said in an interview at his seafront office at the weekend.

"Maldivians are influenced by what is happening in the world. They go to Pakistan, study in madrassas and come back with extreme religious ideas," said Gayoom, who is an Islamic scholar from Egypt's Cairo University.

Asked whether foreign groups could be funding Maldivian extremists, Gayoom said: "It is very plausible... We have taken enough measures to deal with the problem. We take it very seriously."

He said there was evidence that extremists may be receiving funding from abroad and the unrest could allow international terror groups to capitalise and set up cells in the country unless authorities applied pressure.

Maldivian police said there was no hard evidence of Al-Qaeda operating here, but that the possibility could not be discounted.

Gayoom, 69, said the Maldives was sharing intelligence with neighbouring India and Sri Lanka as well as Britain and the United States to tackle Islamic militants.

More than 50 people, all Maldivians, are already in custody, according to officials.

The president said Islamic extremism had begun to affect the peaceful coral islands, better known as an up-market destination for honeymooners and well-heeled tourists than a hotbed of militancy.

"They want to lead a very primitive life. They want women to cover their faces," Gayoom said, referring to those already in custody.

"It is not good for the image of the country. We have been a liberal country for centuries."

Last week, the president ordered a ban on bearded mullahs, or clerics, entering his country unless invited by the authorities.

On Sunday he went a step further, announcing plans to bar Maldivians from travelling to extremist religious schools in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia that advocate Taliban-style practices.

"Some of these extremist people have said that it is against Islam to sing," Gayoom said. "This is not proper religious teaching. Uneducated people are falling for it."

On Sunday, he also ordered an investigation into whether religious schools here were sticking to official texts.

Gayoom came to power in 1978 and under his rule the Maldives, a nation of 1,191 tiny coral islands scattered some 850 kilometres (550 miles) across the equator, has become South Asia's most prosperous economy.

He is worried that any sign of trouble could tarnish the peaceful image of the country, where some resorts charge as much as 14,500 dollars a night for the super-rich to stay at exclusive resorts on small, palm-fringed islands.

"We want to be known as very peaceful country with political and social stability. We are determined to preserve that image," he said.

He said the September 29 bombing that wounded 12 foreign nationals had led to cancellations of holidays here, but the industry had since recovered.

Resorts are reporting near full occupancy.

Reforms unveiled by Gayoom two years ago to allow political parties to function for the first time in living memory may have also led to open defiance of authority, according to officials here.

Gayoom said he hoped to complete the democratic reforms within a few months and contest elections due within a year "to complete the work I started."

Source: AFP

Maldives cracks down on extremism

The Maldives Wednesday unveiled tough measures to combat extremism and protect its vital luxury tourism industry after an unprecedented bombing wounded British, Japanese and Chinese holiday makers.

An order from President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom said fundamentalists should not be allowed to conduct religious services and that foreign clerics should not be able to enter the country without special permission.

Ban on women’s covering: The decree, which also outlaws head-to-toe covering for women, comes in the wake of a bombing on September 29 which wounded two Britons, two Japanese and eight Chinese tourists visiting a park in the island capital of Male.

Officials said Gayoom’s order underlined a desire to stem fundamentalism that could undermine the tiny atoll nation’s status as one of the world’s top destinations for well-heeled tourists. “The president addressed letters to the ministries of education and higher education and the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs outlining the measures to curb religious extremism,” the government said in a statement.

Under the tough new measures, the government will also not recognise educational qualifications obtained from madrassas, or Islamic seminaries. afp

Looking for Osama in the Maldives.

Fixing me with a fierce scowl, the imam made it clear I was unwelcome. I can't say I was surprised. Somewhere in his 50s, he wore the long beard and calf-length pants that marked him as a follower of Wahhabiism, the strict fundamentalist brand of Islam that originated in Saudi Arabia. But I was not in Saudi Arabia. I was in the Maldives, the remote and lovely island chain in the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka and southern India.

True, the Maldives is a Muslim country—exclusively so, since the practice of other religions is illegal—and has been since 1153, when the king at the time fell under the sway of an Arab traveler and ordered his subjects to convert. The islands had been predominantly Buddhist, a faith they shared with Sri Lanka, whose Sinhala language is similar to Divehi, the native Maldivian tongue.

But if Islam has a long history in the Maldives, it's not the kind of place you associate with hostile mullahs. Quite the opposite, in fact. With a population of just 360,000, the archipelago is dotted with luxurious private resorts—think Robinson Crusoe with plunge pools—and is a magnet for celebrities such as Tom Cruise, who honeymooned there in December. In Male, the cramped little island capital, tourists are relatively scarce. But the atmosphere, at least at first, seems laid-back and globalized. The skyline is dominated by modern, pastel-colored apartment blocks that would not look out of place in South Florida, and the streets are jammed with shiny new motorbikes, many piloted by sinewy young men in dreadlocks and baggy shorts. I even saw one young woman in a T-shirt that read, "Good Girls Don't Get Caught."

Still, there is no mistaking the Maldives' Islamic character. Alcohol can only be sold to foreigners at resorts, and nearly everyone I spoke with remarked on the growing popularity of beards and headscarves. When I caught up with the surly imam in Male not long ago, he was preparing for afternoon prayers in an illicit and supposedly clandestine mosque, which was hidden behind a row of stores. After he shooed me away, I retreated across the street and watched as a steady trickle of young men—all bearded and sporting abbreviated trousers—disappeared into the alley that led to the mosque. When they emerged a little while later, none of them would talk to me, either.

Some fear the worst is yet to come. In spring 2006, authorities announced the arrest in Sri Lanka of three Maldivians—two women and a man—who allegedly were heading to militant training camps in Pakistan. Charges have since been dropped, and when I spoke to Fatimah Nisreen, a policeman's daughter who was accused of helping to arrange the trip, she asserted that the man had been escorting the women to Pakistan so he could marry them—something he couldn't do at home. But the 26-year-old also described herself as "totally obsessed with Islam" and acknowledged that she regularly visited an extremist Web site, although she has yet to make up her mind about Osama Bin Laden: "There are things I support, and there are things I can't decide on him." [Read More on Slate]

Source: Slate

British Business Magnate Exempted From Religious Law of Maldives

Two huge statues of the Buddha erected on a beach at the exclusive Four Seasons Resort, as part of celebrations for the 55th birthday of British billionaire businessman, Phillip Green, have caused huge controversy in the Maldives.

The statues have openly flouted Maldivian religious law, placing Green, the owner of well known UK high street brands including TopShop, and more accustomed to grabbing UK business headlines, at the centre of a media storm in the Maldives.

The public observance of any religion other than Islam is strictly prohibited under Maldivian law.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

Although one might reasonably argue that no celebrity bash with Kate Moss, George Michael and Jennifer Lopez in attendance, has been convened for religious observance, the law also prohibits foreigners from brining any material which may be used for idol worship into the country.

Articles associated with Buddhism are particularly controversial, given its widespread practice on the islands until the arrival of Islam 500 years ago, and recent moves by religious radicals to remove pre-Islamic traces from religious practice.

Standard practice by airport authorities has been to confiscate statues of the Buddha arriving with foreign nationals, and destroy them or return them to their owners on departure.

However, in Mr Green’s case not only did the state somehow overlook the arrival of two ten metre tall Buddha statues, and hundreds of miniature ones, it has gone to great lengths to ensure that the Buddha-themed celebrations take place without any hitches.

The party officially begun on Thursday evening with a fireworks display put on by the National Security Service (NSS) in a departure from standard police duties. The NSS have also beefed up security around the Four Seasons Resort, ensuring that the celebrities can party in privacy.

On Friday the President’s Official Website proudly reported on a cosy evening chat in which the President had thanked Mr Green for choosing the Maldives to celebrate his special day.

While trumpeting the arrival of “Britain’s fourth richest man” as a “boost to Maldivian tourism”, the authorities simultaneously attempted to prevent any knowledge of the Buddhist statues from reaching the Maldivian public.

A member of staff at the Four Seasons Resort reported that the mobile phones of staff were confiscated by NSS personnel in order to delete images of the statues.

But while images of the Buddha were not allowed out, representations of Maldivian Islam were not allowed on to the island; women wearing veils have been prevented from entering the island over the four day period.

Workers at the resort were also angry that Maldivian men had been forced to work on constructing the large granite structures, despite some voicing religious objections.

This all comes days after Tourism Minister, Mohammad Shougee, told Minivan News journalist, Philip Wellman, at Berlin’s ITB tourist fair, that the government was working to increase contact between Maldivians and visiting tourists, opening up the possibility of construction of further resorts on already inhabited islands.

The actions at the Four Seasons Resort seem to fly in the face of official policy of gradually sharing the benefits and profits of tourism with more local people.

The Buddha statues have been the subject of intense discussion across Maldivian society. Conservative religious opinion has been outraged at what is seen as brazen idolatry. At a time when Maldivian society is ill at ease about the apparent growth of radical Islam, the controversy is presenting a tailor made opportunity to rally around the Islamic flag.

Maldivians of all persuasions have also expressed frustration at the apparent ease with which wealthy foreign nationals have purchased exemption from the laws of state.

There are even rumblings of discontent amongst Malé based expatriates who have complied willingly with the laws restricting religious freedom in the past, only to see high profile expatriates now flout them with government approval.

Phillip Green and his many guests will probably leave the Maldives blissfully unaware, but their flying visit has highlighted serious tensions in Maldivian society about the cultural and economic impact of tourism and the extent of religious freedom.

Sadly it has also highlighted the difficulties the current government faces in managing these tensions.

Tell us your views on the Buddha statues by emailing your comments to minivan.news@gmail.com

Source: Minivan News