President requests ruling on non-Muslim worship

President Mohamed Nasheed said yesterday he would seek advice from religious scholars on Islam’s position on allowing non-Muslims to worship in an Islamic community.

In his radio weekly address, the president said the constitution was "very clear" that laws contrary to Islam could not be made or enacted.

"It has become very important for me to find out what Islamic sharia says about not allowing foreigners who want to worship other religions in the Maldives," he said.

"When this bill comes from the People's Majlis for the president to ratify, the question before me will be what is the ruling in Islamic sharia on people of other religions living in an Islamic community to worship?"

The president said he needed an answer to the question before ratifying the bill. "When I know, it will be easier for me to make a decision on ratify the bill before it becomes law," he said.

Last week, a bill proposed by independent MP Ibrahim Muttalib Fares-Maathoda on outlawing places of worship for non-Muslims was sent to committee for further review with unanimous consent of all MPs who participated in the vote.

At the sitting, Muttalib said he learned that inquiries had been made with the government on establishing places of worship for expatriates and there was no law to forbid it.

“The other thing we have to think about today is that the government is considering establishing wedding tourism in the country and this will indirectly set up churches in the country,” he said.

While the bill states that foreigners or expatriates will be allowed to worship in the privacy of their homes, involving Maldivians or encouraging them to participate will be an offence.

The bill specifies a jail term of three to five years or a fine of between Rf36,000 (US$2,800) and Rf60,000 (US$4,669) for those in violation of the law.

Several MPs called for longer jail terms and higher fines, while others said foreigners in violation of the law should be deported.

But, some MPs argued the law was unnecessary as the constitution states that Islam shall be the basis of all laws and non-Muslims cannot be citizens.

Most MPs said laws were needed to seal off all avenues to freedom of religion being established in the Maldives.

Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed, state minister for Islamic affairs, told Minivan News today the president's office had not officially asked for the ministry’s advice.

"But the matter has been sent to the Fiqh academy and they will issue a decree on it," he said. Shaheem said he believed laws should be made to protect Islam and strengthen Maldivians' faith.

"Right now, Muslims aren't getting their rights," he said. "For example, there's no way for students to pray at schools, you can't get some jobs if you wear the burqa and there are some jobs where you can't grow beards."

He added the ministry had drafted regulations under the Religious Unity Act of 1994 together with the police and sent it to the president's office.

The regulations will be published in the government gazette next week, he continued, and would provide a legal framework to protect Islam.

Speaking to Minivan News today, Abdullah bin Mohamed Ibrahim, president of religious NGO Salaf Jamiyya, said he believed the bill was necessary to safeguard Islam.

"What the president said doesn't match what was in the bill," he said. "The bill is about making it illegal to build places of worship for non-Muslims. It doesn't make it illegal for foreigners to pray in their rooms or houses."

Abdullah said the association had information that Christian missionaries were trying to infiltrate the country and proselytize in the Maldives.

"I believe the bill is essential because the constitution does not forbid building places of worship," he said.

Minivan News

Where there's no mutual Respect & Love, there's Segregation

Sunday, August 16, 2009
British Minister walks out of wedding where men and women were segregated

Video:
http://www.averroespress.com/AverroesPress/Main/Entries/2009/8/16_British_Minister_walks_out_of_Wedding_where_men_and_women_are_segregated.html

A British Minister walked out of a Muslim wedding in the UK when he was told he would not be able to sit with his wife, as men and women were segregated at the ceremony.

Increasingly, this bizarre practise of gender apartheid at weddings is being enforced on Western Muslims by the Mosque establishment that takes its cues from Saudi Arabia, Iran or the Muslim Brotherhood.

I got married in Pakistan 35 years ago and even then, in that Islamic country, men and women were not segregated. Now, this backward Saudi custom has been imported in the UK, Canada and other Western countries. Some Muslim weddings have become joyless occasions where the atmosphere is more suitable for a funerals, not fun.

Good for this British MP. I wish all politicians put there foot down and boycott all attempts to relegate women to second class humans and depict them as sexual objects in the name of religion and multiculturalism.

Cheers,

Tarek Fatah

Source: http://www.averroespress.com/AverroesPress/Main/Entries/2009/8/16_British_Minister_walks_out_of_Wedding_where_men_and_women_are_segregated.html

Ex-wife 'admits starting' Kuwait wedding party blaze that killed 43

James Hider, Middle East Correspondent

A fire in a wedding party tent that killed 43 women and children in Kuwait was started deliberately by the ex-wife of the bridegroom, a Kuwaiti newspaper said today.

Al-Qabbas said that the 23-year-old former wife had admitted pouring petrol on the cotton tent and setting it on fire, furious at what she called her “bad treatment” by her former partner before their divorce. There was no official confirmation of the alleged confession.

Firefighters said that the blaze took less than three minutes to rip through the marquee, in which as many as 180 women and children were celebrating the wedding party. Many of those who died were killed in the stampede for the sole exit.

The men at the party celebrated in a separate tent, in line with the tradition of the conservative state.
The blaze in Jahra, 50 miles west of Kuwait City, was the worst civil disaster in the emirate’s history. The inferno was so intense that many of the charred bodies would have to be DNA tested for identification, officials said.

At least 90 people were injured in the blaze, and the number of deaths rose overnight to 43.

Local media said that some of the victims were related to people who had died in a similar tent blaze last year.

“It was a horrific scene with bodies and many shoes stuck to the ground at the only exit — they must have trampled over one another,” said Brigadier General Jassem al-Mansouri, the head of the fire department, after Saturday night’s tragedy.

"Most of the bodies were charred, many could not be immediately recognised.

Forensic officials are working to identify the bodies."

Source: Times Online

Scores die in Kuwait wedding fire

At least 41 people, all women and children, have died after a fire broke out in a tent being used at a wedding in Kuwait City.

More than 70 other people were injured in the blaze late on Saturday night in Jahra, west of the Kuwaiti capital.

Brigadier-General Jassem al-Mansouri, the fire department chief, said 58 of the injured were still in hospital on Sunday, and seven were in a serious condition with severe burns.

"It was a horrific scene with bodies and many shoes stuck to the ground at the only exit. They must have trampled over one another," al-Mansouri said.

The authorities were running DNA tests to identify the 35 women and six children killed in the fire, which left many victims unrecognisable.

Relatives and onlookers had crowded the area around the blazing tent, which had been engulfed in less than two minutes.

No emergeny exit

Saad al-Anezi, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Kuwait, said the fire was the country's biggest disaster in 40 years.

"The tent, in an enclosed surrounding, did not have any emergency exit and it was made from a very flammable material - cotton," he said.

Fire officials told Al Jazeera that the tent, which could have housed up to 180 people, had probably not been constructed to correct safety standards.

The authorities were investigating the cause of the blaze and al-Mansouri said it could have been faulty electrical wiring, a problem with the equipment used to keep the wedding food buffet warm or the coals used for burning incense.

Kuwait banned the use of wedding tents on Sunday.

Wedding celebrations in Kuwait are held separately for men and women, with children attending the women's party.

Source: Al Jazeera (English)

Blast injures 50 at wedding for nephew of Fatah leader

A bomb Tuesday injured relatives of Mohammed Dahlan,
the Palestinian Authority's national security adviser.

GAZA CITY (CNN)

A large explosion late Tuesday at a wedding party for relatives of a Fatah leader injured at least 50 people in Gaza, Palestinian medical sources said.

Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan, the uncle of the groom, did not attend the wedding, according to witnesses. The cause of the explosion, which occurred at 11:10 p.m. in Khan Younis, was not known. Dahlan is the Palestinian Authority's national security adviser.

Details of Tuesday's explosion were not immediately clear. Dahlan's associates in recent years have been targeted by Hamas as tensions between the militant group and rival Fatah -- the Palestine Liberation Organization's largest faction -- escalated.

In January 2007, Hamas gunmen tried to kill Dahlan's bodyguard. Dahlan was not present at the time of the attack. In that month alone, Fatah and Hamas militants abducted more than 50 members of their rival groups -- most of them in the West Bank town of Nablus -- according to Palestinian security sources.

Dahlan's nephew was kidnapped the next month amid a fragile cease-fire between supporters of Hamas and Fatah.

In late December 2006, Hamas accused Dahlan of orchestrating an assassination attempt on its leader Ismail Haniya. Haniya's son was injured in the attack.

Dahlan has described himself to CNN in the past as being involved in directing Fatah's military response to Hamas' military "provocation."

Dahlan is particularly disliked by Hamas because during his leadership of the Preventive Security Forces in the 1990s, Hamas members were apprehended and tortured. After a series of suicide bombings in Israel in 1996, Dahlan took a major part in the Palestinian Authority's effort to crack down on Hamas.

Source: CNN