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Maumoon Abdul Gayoom - the father of Maldivian extremism

Editorial

Dhivehi Observer, 10 October 2007

The Himendhoo Mosque siege is sadly the latest of a growing problem in extremism in the Maldives, the culmination of events in the attempt to find the perpetrators of the terrorist attack in Sultan Park. While many Maldivians were deeply saddened and shocked by the incident, it did not come as a total surprise. Our society has been on this path for a long time now. It was just a matter of time before something like this would happen.

When Maumoon Abdul Gayoom came to power we were a unified, moderate Islamic nation with common Islamic values. It was not as if he was the one who brought Islam to the Maldives! Maldivians prayed, fasted, gave Zakat, went for Haj and in general followed a single unified moderate path of Islam that had its basics in the "Amma Foiy" we all studied as children and following that the Islam text book written by the revered scholar, the late Mohamed Jameel Didi. There were none who walked on a different path. We were a nation that shared its limited resources and wealth. We were a society that respected its elders and each other. We were a country where people could walk freely without fear of being knifed and slashed and raped. We were a land where each house had a garden for the children to play. We were a people who had a future to look forward to.

Yet as soon as the Dictator came into power, he had to change everything that was there before, including the moderate Islam that we followed. We were led to believe that the Islam that we were following was wrong and would lead us to hell. The revision of text books, the introduction of Arabic in schools (I doubt if anyone who studied Arabic in Grades 6 & 7 in the late 70s and early 80s would remember any of it), and also the creation of Arabic medium schools were all part of the package that deceived Maldivians into believing that this was the only path to heaven. Little did we realise that this was part of the Dictator’s grandoise package of "DIVIDE AND RULE" in order to stay in power for life. This separation and disintegration of our society is his modus operandi. All the while, he put up the façade of being a moderate man.

Today we see the fruits of his evil plan. Now we are separated and alienated groups of people. People who are atheists, people who still try to follow moderate Islam, and people who are extremists, not to mention the fact that there were Christian missionaries who converted some Maldivians into Christianity. Gayoom deliberately introduced these divisions into our society as part of his "divide and rule" plan. He let our youth be ruined with drugs. He failed to share the tourism wealth with the majority of our people while he and his cronies became multi-millionares. He failed to provide our children with a decent education. He let our people be so disillusioned that they would turn to extremism and violence.

Maumoon Abdul Gayoom is the architect of the Maldives that we see today - Disillusioned youth, gang violence, religious extremism, poverty and housing problems, lack of respect for elders, social disharmony and human rights abuse are the pillars of that Maldives. He was the one who sowed the seeds of discord that we see today.

This is the Maldives that Maumoon Abdul Gayoom created.

This is his "child out of wedlock".

He may pretend to the international community that he is the last remaining stalwart against Islamic extremism but he will not fool us.

Maumoon Abdul Gayoom is "THE FATHER OF MALDIVIAN EXTREMISM".

This post was written by: Franklin Manuel

Franklin Manuel is a professional blogger, web designer and front end web developer. Follow him on Twitter