“Woodstock of the mind” coming to the Maldives

Some comments under the article “Woodstock of the mind” coming to the Maldives on the Minivan News website on 23 Aug 2010.  ----------- Shaz on Tue, 24th Aug 2010 10:37 PM “I was referring in my interview to a tiny minority who preach violent jihad, who incite hatred and violence against ‘infidels’, apostates, Jews and homosexuals; who in their speeches and on their websites speak passionately against free thought, pluralism, democracy, unveiled women; who will tolerate no other interpretation of Islam but their own and have vilified Sufism and other strands of Islam as apostasy; who have murdered, among others, fellow Muslims by the thousands...

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Posted in: Gossip

Maldives... the sunny side of life?

BY BOHOCO | SUNDAY, 18 APRIL 2010 | via Bo. Ho. Co.A deft slogan no doubt for a website promoting tourism to the Maldives, but not everyone will have the priviledge to see the sunny side of it, especially those seven locals who got arrested in December of 2009 for suspected homosexuality activity. In Maldives homosexuality is a crime and apparently the sun doesn't shine favourably on everyone.   The following is taken from the ILGA report of 2009 regarding countries where being gay is a crime persecuted by law: 'The Penal Code of Maldives does not regulate sexual conduct. It is instead regulated by uncodified Muslim...

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Posted in: Politics / Religion

Prospects of Religious Freedom Appear Grim in Islamic Maldives

via Compass Direct News Two years after political reforms, freedom of faith nowhere in sight. MALÉ, Maldives, August 10 (CDN) — Visitors to this Islamic island nation get a sense of religious restrictions even before they arrive. The arrival-departure cards given to arriving airline passengers carry a list of items prohibited under Maldivian laws – including “materials contrary to Islam.” After Saudi Arabia, the Maldives is the only nation that claims a 100-percent Muslim population. The more than 300,000 people in the Maldives, an Indian Ocean archipelago featuring 1,192 islets 435 miles southwest of Sri Lanka, are all Sunnis. This South...

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Posted in: Politics / Religion,Society