Was Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, going against the Islamic teachings of freedom of religion when he said "Maldivians have the right and freedom to choose any religion and follow it, and no one else had the right to take it away from them?" (excuse my translation).How important of a factor is Religion for Maldivians, when it comes to choosing their president?
What is the stand of Maumoon and Anni on religion?
"We will protect Islam and never let any other religion enter Maldives"? Really? Then the question comes is it un-Islamic to say that? Or is it un-Maldivian to say otherwise?
believe it o not maldives is gonna b a secular country soon. btw thanks fo golhaa..
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sacredfreedom.com/download.html
ReplyDeleteTry reading that book :D
There are Islamic states like Malaysia but they officially allow and tolerate other religions. Why are Maldivians so insecure?
ReplyDeleteMaldives is somewhat a secular today.I think if maumoon is elected he would he would keep it as it is.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Maldives just need to follow one religion officially and let other do there thing at home. Malaysia also has huge racio-religious issues to be dealt with
ReplyDeletehaha,, awesome find my man!! hehe
ReplyDelete*Sinningslave: thanks for the link
ReplyDelete*anonymous (2;56AM): I suppose its un-Maldivian to allow other religions to be practiced in Maldives :S
Anonymous (4:16AM): care to elaborate on what you meant by "somewhat secular"?
anonymous (4:34AM): Unlike Malaysia, Maldives doesn't have a diverse range of races. What I was getting to was, if Maldives indeed does officially follow Islam: and I suppose it does, isn't it an Islamic Obligation to tolerate and respect people of other faiths?
Nass: :P
I think most of us Maldivians do not really understand what "secular" means. It does not mean that we are denouncing Islam and promoting some other religion! It simply means that we are tolerant of all the religions. I don't see how this concept is particularly bad. I am a believer in Islam and consider myself a good Muslim. But I think that religion is NOT something we can ENFORCE. You cannot demand people to follow a particular religion. It is something between the person and God. As we can see, despite the claim that we are all Muslim, we see all sorts of believers in this country. It shows that demanding to practice a particular religion simply doesn't work. It may be hard to swallow for many, to deviate from our label of being "100% Muslim", but its time to face the truth. I agree with Anonymous...we can still be a predominantly Muslim country, but allow other religions too...be secular.
ReplyDelete