Why minorities tend to make more noise

Via Hilath.com | October 8th, 2011

It’s common sense that when you are a minority (like a Maldivian Christian, Wahhabi, atheist, gay, lesbian, etc) your sense of survival will be more heightened especially if the majority of the people are seen as trying to force you to bend to their will by making it a must in the Maldives’ Constitution that all Maldivian Citizens be strictly Sunni Muslims and cannot belong to either other Muslim denominations like Sufism and Shiittism and other religions like Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc.

So Mr. Ibrahim Mohamed could be forgiven for writing this opinion column in Minivan News titled Anwar al-Awalaki’s killing is unjustified, in that Wahhabis have their hopes dashed now because unlike their expectations during the most harsh latter years of Gayoom’s rule, the majority of Maldivians — despite the fear-mongering by Wahhabi extremists like the Salaf of the 2004 tsunami being a “God’s wrath” on Maldives — are still maintaining their moderate stand. 

In fact recently there have been a wave of young Maldivians shaving off their beards while their female counterparts took off their burkas. Wahhabis, especially the intolerant and extremist among them, are now realizing that moderate Muslim Maldivians would only tolerate Wahhabi nonsense as long as such nonsense is not forcibly imposed upon the majority moderate Muslim Maldivians who believe in things like technology, vaccination and empowerment of women.

Hence, Mr. Ibrahim’s attempts at trying to project that the majority of Maldivians support Anwar al-Awlaki is misleading because I personally have yet to come across a rational Maldivian who thinks Mr. Anwar is a hero. 

As I said before on this blog, Maldives needs to have a think tank or a brave enough NGO to conduct polls and surveys because otherwise we would have religious zealots like Mr. Ibrahim making false statements on behalf of the majority of Maldivians when the majority of Maldivians do not endorse the extremist ideology he is promoting. In fact, the whole article, in a nutshell, seems to be Mr. Ibrahim’s covert attempt to project that a majority of Maldivians support Mr. Anwar’s extremist ideology. In various phrases, Mr. Ibrahim tries to project Extremism as the true Islam, which is most unfortunate and tragic, and perhaps would lead to anger among true Muslim Maldivians who wouldn’t want Islam’s name associated with a violence-preaching Hypocrite like Mr. Anwar.

Mr. Ibrahim’s article, and the many commentators that regularly post feedback on Minivan News and Haveeru Online, demonstrate that Maldivians are very much polarized now not just in politics but in religion as well. For instance, on one hand you would have extremist-leaning commentators like Mr. Ibrahim who promotes an ideology in which all non-Wahhabis do not have a right to live, while on the other extreme, radical atheists would equally say harsh things about Islam, just short of calling to kill anyone. 

If Maldivians immediately do not find a way to leave extremism of all sorts behind, and find a way to exist in harmony together, there would be no peace of mind for anyone in this society. We may think that we can continue to be radically opposed to each other, comfortable in the belief that we can afford to do so because this is such a small society where everyone is related to blood and therefore no one can afford to become violent towards another because he will suffer in return from a violent act, but why hide behind this kind of social “deterrence”? Why are we afraid to embrace diversity? Why do we need everyone to have the same belief or religion in order to be friends? Or do Maldivians have a disorder which prevents them from having humanity and acting kind towards other human beings who may happen to believe in a different religion? We need to find answers – and soon!

I’m not here to debate whether it was ethical to kill Mr. Anwar because we would then have to go back hundreds of years of history but I think we can safely assume that the current conflicts in Palestine, Afghanistan, etc are the result of Muslims themselves failing to act responsibly, and worse because moderate Muslims remained silent when a lot of their poverty-stricken brothers began to turn to not only Wahhabism but its most extremist form, the Taliban ideology promoted by al-Qaeda. 

It is also tragic that Mr. Ibrahim claims there is no evidence that Mr. Anwar was a terrorist, because whether the videos were removed from YouTube, we have already seen him engage in what an average moderate Muslim Maldivian will recognize as hate speech and incitement to violence and hatred. Therefore I find it unacceptable that Mr. Ibrahim should paint Mr. Anwar as some kind of Islamic hero because true Muslims would regard Mr. Anwar as a Hypocrite with a blood lust who have to take responsibility for the deaths of many innocent Muslims and non-Muslims. 

I’m sure most Maldivians are intelligent and ethical and need no patronizing from anyone — and would certainly want to dissociate themselves from Mr. Anwar because terror-supporters like Mr. Anwar have been sadly successful in painting Islam in a bad light, the result being that Muslims all over the world are now targeted for hatred because Mr. Anwar’s misguided actions have led many non-Muslims to believe that Islam is a violent religion.

So while I have nothing personal against Mr. Ibrahim, as a fellow Muslim but Sufi brother, I can only pray that he gets sense from his current misguided-ness and try to see the fact that it is this democracy which is even helping a minority Wahhabi like him with extremist views to survive here.

Mr. Ibrahim should understand that other minorities, like non-Muslim Maldivians, like the minority Wahhabis as well, also have a right to survive in this land. Therefore I would greatly appreciate if he also join hands with other minorities and help to strengthen this democracy by supporting freedom of religion which is a right given by the Quran to every human being. 

I can understand why Mr. Ibrahim and other minority Wahhabis may acquire extremist views, because as I said at the beginning of this blogpost, minorities will feel more pressure to survive in a community like Maldives especially when the majority thinks that democracy is suppressing minorities instead of protecting individual rights of every citizen. 

But Wahhabis should also realize that they should control their anger over their grievances which is resulting in them turning to violence — and try not to hijack the government and impose its will on the rest of other Maldivians because only when they themselves adopt a moderate and tolerant attitude will the majority of moderate Muslim Maldivians and other minority Maldivians will let go of their fear of Wahhabis and leave them alone to live in peace as they like. 

As I’ve always said, if Wahhabis prevented themselves from going to extremism and stopped calling for the deaths of non-Muslims, then I am sure minority Wahhabis will have nothing to fear in Maldives and that other non-minorities like radical atheists would also become quiet, and that the reason why minorities like atheists have become as radical as the Wahhabis is because extremist Wahhabis are calling for their deaths. It’s like a hate cycle kept in loop because one party — the Wahhabis — do not want non-Muslims to exist on earth. Now, come on…

That’s why this then makes the majority moderate Muslim Maldivians strange bedfellows of Maldivian minorities because the common enemy seems the extremist version of Wahhabism which will not tolerate the other two groups. That’s why the majority of Maldivians who are moderate Muslims would rather support minorities like non-Muslim Maldivians instead of Wahhabi extremists because everyone knows that if the extremists among Wahhabis come to power, then it will be death for both non-Muslim Maldivians and the majority moderate Muslim Maldivians who so much love simple pleasures of life like the Internet and cable TV.

It is also tragic that Mr. Ibrahim in his article tried to project Jihad as a war that has to be initiated by Muslims against Jews and Christians even if they don’t provoke Muslims. I tend to agree with Ibra who told off Sheikh Fareed, that just because Allah recounted the history of Jews and Christians in the Quran, it does not necessarily mean that Allah is directly commanding modern-day Muslims to take the law into their own hands and carry out a non-discriminate extermination campaign of the People of the Book.

As I said earlier, we need a think tank or a brave enough NGO who can undertake to conduct regular polls and surveys about contentious issues that arise. For example, currently the government for political purposes always cite Maldives as a 100 percent Islamic country although every rational human being knows that any human society can never be 100 percent in anything because no humans can ever think alike or believe in the same thing, or even when believing in the same thing, believe from the same angle… 

It’s tragic that power-hungry people seek homogeneity and conformity in ideology and practice, having an inexplicable fear and insecurity in allowing for diversity, in allowing for people to grow up intellectually and develop as responsible adults for diversity to act as a catalyst to main harmony in society. Rather, the groups of people who have vested interests in the nation’s power and wealth, aim to keep Maldivians firmly under their psychological control by creating fear that if Maldivians deviated to other sects or religions there will be violence.

Which, when you think about it, is treating the average Maldivian as stupid, and kind of saying that the average Maldivian, rather than listen to the peaceful message of the Quran, would rather for no reason go and kill his neighbor just because the neighbor had left Islam. Is the average Maldivian really violent? Aren’t you personally insulted when what the “100-percent” supporters actually mean is that the average Maldivian, including yourself, is stupid and violent, and will go off on a killing spree, hunting down all neighbors who don’t believe in Islam? Come on. 

Real Muslim Maldivians haven’t forgotten the Quran’s message that “there’s no compulsion in religion” and therefore we are not going to kill another Maldivian just because he leaves Islam. It is for Allah to judge, not us weak humans. The only conclusion I can come to, therefore, is that if any Maldivian is against freedom of religion, then it is only because he has a dark desire to have psychological control over other people.

Posted in: Politics / Religion,Society