The Proverbial "It" Is On

20 September 2011 (Hilath.com) -- To everyone who has "missed" me: Here's some good news. I've found some brave Maldivians this week. And today I have got confirmation through my own intelligence network (and a few good friends) that the so-called local NGOs removed a section on freedom of religion and other minority rights when they forwarded a report to UN last year which was sponsored by the UN. I mean the NGOs "ate" all the money and their excuse for removal was cowardliness: They commented among themselves that if the report got out, the "public pressure would be too high to deal with." Such cowards! So my argument is then why set up NGOs if they are "unable at this time due to public pressure" to face the real problem in Maldives: lack of freedom of thought (religion). I mean if they set up an NGO like that they should fight for all rights and not just some rights. Otherwise they can stay at home. Now that this story came to light, there is no way these NGOs can shy away from the responsibility of not having at least made a public statement in support of late Ismail Mohamed Didi who committed suicide after openly proclaiming on his Facebook wall that he was an atheist and a gay. I at least condemned it publicly on this blog so I don't have a guilty conscience but Aiman and all the others who really had a chance to have stopped this didn't. So I believe that they have some responsibility over this though they may not have Ismail's blood directly on their hands. I and another reporter from Maldives was this year taken to an overseas closed-doors meeting by an international democracy NGO. At the time I didn't know why we were fully sponsored for the meeting but even at the time it struck me as odd when the officials there told us that "some report" compiled by Maldives NGOs "did not contain anything about minority rights although we have read from Minivan News that there's threats by extremists against 'unbelievers' and 'gays'." Only today I came to know the real story... So I and this other Maldivian journalist, over the course of 4 days, prepared the report on freedom of religion and minority rights (including LGBT rights) in Maldives and when we gave it to those officials, they were very happy about it and didn't even change a single word of it and said they will forward it to the UN Human Rights Council later this year. So fuck all the so-called Maldivian NGOs. I know that revealing all these things will make me enemies of even my "pacifist" liberal friends but right now, when people like Ismail are killing themselves and others like me are under death threats, all I can say is I am fed up of fake liberals and/or cowardly liberals like Aiman because the existence of NGOs like Transparency Maldives is doing nothing to help the cause of minority rights. They may claim their only mandate is transparency in "governance" but what good is a governance that passes "religious unity regulations" and makes all Maldivian citizens fall at the mercy of the Maldivian Taliban? In fact today a Haveeru journalist told me that some anonymous extremists have been calling up Haveeru and threatening to put everyone in Haveeru in jail for as little a thing as publishing the news that Unoosha is going to Bollywood. Their excuse? "Now that the Religious Unity Regulation has been gazetted, Haveeru can be prosecuted because Haveeru 'promotes' music which is 'sinful' and published a 'nude' photograph of Unoosha - just because she didn't wear the burka!" Here's the link to that story about Unoosha: http://haveeru.com.mv/?page=details&id=117068 So actually the situation in Maldives has suddenly become serious because this week the government started implementing this "religious unity regulation"... Whatever reasons the current democratic government gives, this puts not just media people but every Maldivian citizen at the mercy of the Maldivian Taliban -- or anyone with a personal vendetta to destroy the life of an "opponent", in the name of religion -- whatever President Nasheed's spokespeople say about the regulation being "to tone down extremism" In fact, I have pasted below some English language links which would shock any human being who believes in freedom of thought (including religion) and free expression (including journalism and art) for human development and progress. The last link is to an article on Rainbow Maldives blog after I started receiving death threats recently when, a few weeks before the government announced it will implement this regulation, I wrote against it. And tragically, because anyone can now prosecute and put me in jail for all the contents I previously published on this blog I had no choice but to stop blogging because I am afraid that if anyone now thought of prosecuting me, they at least shouldn't have access to this blog's archives. I feel so depressed but I guess there's nothing I can do about it now -- unless there is immense international pressure on Maldives to stop appealing to the international community that it's a "special case" and therefore Maldives can continue violating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other UN conventions on civil rights and political rights by denying freedom of religion to all Maldivian citizens. I am really frustrated that due to Nasheed's democratic background in toppling a dictator, his government being the current "poster boy" of democracy for the world, the international community is now blind to these double standards of the Maldives government and therefore the MDP government is getting away with its hypocrisy on human rights and democracy. Basically I am baffled why the United Nations is putting such a hypocritical country like the Maldives on the UN Human Rights Council because I think that Maldives calling for democracy in the Middle East while at the same time suppressing freedom of religion in its own backyard is a joke. I mean doesn't Maldives needs to clean its own house before it can call on other nations to adopt democratic governance? As I said, Aiman and them if they are unable to take their responsibilities, then they should stay at home and have a job like a seytu at a kanmathee store. And isn't it fraud that these NGOs are "eating" the money from foreign donations by sending them "fake" halfhearted reports? Everyone at these NGOs should be prosecuted for fraud! Anyway, I now believe that talking is enough! Enough information exchange and networking has taken place (like on Facebook groups like Holhuashi of Reason and Ban the Adhaalath) and it's time to take it out on the streets. So here's the great news: Basically now there are three fearless groups with me. We three groups will register three NGOs before Dec 10. One group will be Rainbow Maldives fighting for gender and sexual equality. The other group will become the "political" wing and will try to create tolerance for freedom of religion through advocacy and information spreading and dialogue. The third group, my personal group, will also register an NGO but it will serve as the "military" wing. I and a few other Maldivian gangsters will register this NGO and though we condemn violence, our NGO will be necessary because initially there will be psychotics trying to attack the other two NGOs as well so my personal NGO will provide them security and protection IN SELF-DEFENSE ONLY... And if the hypocritical MDP government prevents us from registering these NGOs, we will register them elsewhere and operate from there. I mean ironically we have learned a good lesson from MDP itself because it also initially had to base itself in Sri Lanka and fight for democracy. So maybe if the hypocritical MDP government prevents us from registering these three NGOs in Maldives, we will fight from overseas and pressure this government to introduce secularism because it now seems that this MDP government is actually led by the nose by Adhaalath and its affiliated extremist NGOs. Poor Anni, eh... So as I said, right now I can't care about anything any more. If Aiman and the NGOs become my enemies, so be it. I've handed over Hilath.com domain and server space to a group of friends who I hope will soon relaunch this website which will act as COMPLEMENTARY to the three NGOs that we are going to set up -- in that they will try to spread information in Dhivehi and English to create tolerance and hammer into Maldivians' heads that secularism is a pillar of Islam -- so that religious and sectoral violence can be avoided at all costs in a small society like Maldives. The gangsters in my personal NGO will be needed at this time only to act as an initial psychological threat against anyone who thinks of attacking us. So think twice before any one of you thinks of attacking us because in any court of law, one can always act in self-defense and we will be acting only in self-defense against psychotic extremists who think of attacking us. So I guess ironically there's a noble cause for Maldivian gangsters as well after all -- sort of like our own local "nuclear deterrence" (gang violence) against any extremist who thinks of attacking us with the same "nuclear deterrence" (gang violence). We fervently hope though that this would never happen but if you look at all the psychotic idiots who comment to Haveeru and Minivan News, we feel that initially we will be met with violence... Tragic I know but can't be helped: when President Nasheed sat down on Republic Square, all our family members and friends thought he will be shot down by Gayoom's Star Force... So I guess we also have to be at least prepared in case such a violent scenario came to pass but as a Sufi Muslim I pray for peace and hope that no violence and bloodshed will ever occur in Maldives during its current inevitable path to secularism. There's no need for violence because why can't we, like 1400 years ago, live in peace with everyone following the religion of their choice, dho... "Lakum Deenukum Waliya Deen" (Unto you your religion and unto me mine) and "There's no compulsion in religion"... two verses of the holy Quran which even Maldives Constitution can never challenge and if it endorses only Sunni Islam, then our Constitution is anti-Islamic and therefore unless Maldives Constitution is amended to usher in secularism, every true Muslim has a duty and jihad to amend this Constitution to give freedom of religion to every Maldivian citizen. Peace. -- http://minivannews.com/society/comment-maldivian-government-endorses-deobandi-islam-the-religion-of-the-taliban-25773 -- http://minivannews.com/politics/contentious-religious-unity-regulations-polarise-religious-factions-25077 -- http://minivannews.com/society/new-religious-unity-regulations-crack-down-on-extremist-preaching-in-maldives-25734 -- http://minivannews.com/society/comment-the-right-to-remain-silent-25692 -- http://rainbowmaldives.blogspot.com/2011/09/hilath-recieves-yet-another-death.html

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