Any anti-burka laws and guidelines will automatically become unconstitutional: Shaheem
Posted By HilathAt today’s press conference by the Islamic Ministry, the Adaalath Party’s Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed said that no government authorities “under the Maldivian flag” can make any laws and guidelines which aim to prevent a Maldivian woman who wants to wear the burka from wearing it.
This was in response to a question by reporter Gabey Latheef who said that one fine day while he was enjoying the sun and sights on Bodu Thakurufaanu Magu, he carried out a girl-spotting exercise and his “survey” showed him that “75 percent of women now wear the burka and special credit therefore goes to Adalaath.”
“I am raising this question because the 75 percent women are concerned that they will not get certain jobs if this (anti-burka) legislation is enacted,” Gabey said on the TVM Live press conference.
Shaheem replied that the government cannot enact a legislation that will force any woman to wear the burka, and likewise, the government also cannot enact any legislation that prevents any woman who desires out of choice to wear the burka from wearing it.
There is a subtle difference between an outright anti-burka legislation and a code of dress adopted by a government agency which excludes the burka. Exclusion doesn’t mean being outright anti-burka. It just means that burka is not preferable to that agency’s particular work environment.
Shaheem also said that the burka is an integral principle of Islam but I beg to differ.
In this case, I will have to take the side of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom who openly said that the burka is not mandatory.
Indeed, there is no mention in the Quran that women should specifically cover their hair with a burka or with anything else. There is no mention of the word ‘hair’ at all.
As I earlier wrote in another blog post, the translators and interpreters of the Quran put their own “interpretation” by cunningly introducing brackets [ ] and within these brackets is written their own personal desire for the burka. Check any Quran translation you have at home. These brackets are there all over, to dupe us ordinary people into thinking that we need “priests” or “qualified professional educated Islamic scholars” to interpret the Quran for us.
The Quran was specifically sent in ordinary layman language to specifically avoid what happened in earlier history when these so-called “scholars” started “interpreting” and distorting holy scriptures. The Bible is a good example of such a horrible distortion of information. There is mention in the Bible of the Prophet Lot having sex with his own two daughters after they got him drunk, and this (because it is heterosexual sex after all?) the Bible supposes to be better than the thousands or millions of homosexuals who God fried with brimstone! If this isn’t Biblical irony of the highest kind…
Of course, the Adaalath will then resort to the age-old claim that we have to accept Hadith and the Sunnah. Which version? Hadith was collected several decades after the death of the Prophet and you can’t expect right-thinking people to believe that all the Hadith are 100 percent true.
And if Adaalath still persists that we can’t question the truth of the Hadith collected by specifically Bukhari and Muslim, we are right to point out that Bukhari and Muslim may be responsible, well-meaning people with good intentions, but after all they were not angels sent by God. They were human and therefore fallible, and therefore, any Hadith that even they collected cannot be treated as 100 percent correct.
The Quran is the only authentic source of information for Muslims as God intended to protect it till the Judgment Day without any human being able to distort even a word of it. So we’ll stick to it, thank you.
i know im no expert when it comes to islam… but how on earth will we know the ways to fulfill the second pillar of islam (salat/prayer/namaadhu) if we disregard prophet mohameds (pbuh) hadith?
and such a WEAK knowledge you have on hadith hilath! i urge you to do more research please!
brother, heaven is not a place you can get in easily.
Do we really want ppl dictating (via laws) how we should live? Arnt we all free men and women who have the right to life, liberty and property? Shouldn’t we all be free to do whatever we want with our life, our bodies and our properties as long as it does not infringe on the rights of others? Is it not a shame that we spend so much time and energy imposing our own ways onto others, never thinking that one day we might be on the receiving end of the same aggression?
Why can’t we accept the fact that people are different and have different values and priorities and associate with fellow men/women in different ways. So much time is wasted in these arguments yet we forget to give our time to people in the society who are really in need.
brother zia’s comments did make some sense but brother agnostica’s made much sense ..therfore the trophy will go to brother agnos… unless zia can counter within the next 24 hours agnosticas points.
One of the unhappiest spectacles to be seen on our streets today is the image of a woman swathed in shapeless black from head to toe, peering out at the world through a tiny slit. The burka is not just an instrument of oppression of women and claustral repression on their liberty and their beauty, not just a token egregious male cruelty and tragically cowed female submission.
Quoted from Richard Dawkins’ THE GOD DELUSION.
Thank you Hilath. I appreciate your work. Good luck
Mao
Dear Agnostica,
When I said boundaries it includes Quran and when we cannot find it in the Quran we refer to Hadith and if it’s not there then we refer to the Scholars to make a ruling. That is the Manhaj (or methodology) in Islam.
If god wanted everyone to go to heaven without any effort on their part
god could have easily made the system whereby an Angel would come and teach every baby about religion and a guardian angel would look after every human so he commits no mistake. Such a system would be very easy.
But God’s system is through revelation and prophets. So , who don’t want to follow the age old system of guidance through Prophets /books then god has warned the transgressors to prepare for the Hell fire. So ,if anyone of you should be able to hold your hand in a candle flame for say 2 mins then perhaps you may continue to transgress. But if you cant better start finding out the true path as the fire in Hell is several 100 degrees hotter than what we have on earth.
A very good english site is :www.islamtoday.com.
You can really educate yourself here.
There is a broader agenda here. It is to take down the foundations of Islam by sowing seeds of doubt . It is done on the quran,Hadith by enemies of Islam.
The objective is to reduce the role of Quran to the Bible. If one has taken a casual glance at a bible you will notice Mathew said .. Luke said .. Where in the world is the Injeel sent to Isa alaihi salaam.
Christians today are debating homosexuality . It has gone that far and it’s that confused.
If we will leave everything to the common man to debate and decide where will we find ourselves in the near future? We will be no better than masses predating the arrival of Islam.
for those who deny hadith, you beleive in Quran but deny Hadith. you also say ‘whatever the Quran does not lay out in layman terms, it is up to the individual’s interpretation’. Allah had promissed that it is his duty to protect this religion from been corrupt like the way of the Christianity. what i doubt is, whatever the Quran does not lay out in layman terms, if it is up to the individual’s interpretation then how is this religion protected. For such a book to be protected, that means to protect its intrepretation and meaning. Not only to protect the title of the book or the physical content of the book only!
And also i wonder why had Allah says in the Quran ‘ ask the people of knowldge’ and else where He says that it is understood only for those who are deeply rooted in knowledge. This itself shows that Quranic interpratation is not a task of ordinary people.
Following Sunnah (Hadith) does not mean worshiping Muhammad (Peace and Blessing of Allah be upon him). Cos in several places in the Quran it say ‘obey Allah and His Messenger’ so the following Sunnnah cannot be called as shirk, but rather they are those who are the true followers of Allah and His Messenger.
The Holy prophet S.A.W said Christianity divided into 72 sects.
He further said muslims will divide into 73 sects. All these muslim sects will be in fire except ONE. So his companions were extremely worried and asked him which is the ONE sect . So, he said the sect that follows him -Ahluh Sunna.You become a SUNNI muslim if you are a follower of his ways. The other sects are Shia …
Knowing something certainly and IBLEES.
We cannot say all the people who disobey are doing so because they don’t know any better.
Iblees knew .He was an Angel after all. But PRIDE prevented him from
obeying gods command. He said I am made from fire and Adam Alaihi Salaam was made from Clay . So I am superior to him Why should I prostrate to him.
Brothers and sisters this is what Pride can do.
The other lesson we can learn from this is to incur Gods Wrath(PUNISHMENT) you don’t have to transgress continuously for Years. It can be just one incident ! So, there are some who knowingly transgress and they say we will ask for forgiveness later when we are older etc etc . How do they know if god’s given them so much time?
How come the most perverted people on earth are the Muslims? Let me tell you, it is purely because we are suppressed.. It is human nature, a basic instinct to do that, what we are not supposed to. We are driven by curiosity.. We desire the taste of the forbidden fruit.
Extremism should be washed out immediately!!! This is the 21st century for crying out loud! Mao Hussein I agree with you.. Richard dawkins works are truely original..
RECAT.
To involve oneself in any perverted action you will have to leave the fold of Islam as Islam prohibits all perverse acts.
So , how come “the most perverted people on earth are the Muslims”
You mean non practicing muslims, or someone with a muslim name or their parents are muslim.
To qualify as a muslim you must adhere and follow its rulings.
Something I dont like is seeing small 5 year old girls made to wear the buruga these days (calm down traditionalists, i dont like small girls made to wear skimpy clothes either) I think making them wear the buruga is sexualising them, because when you make a small girl wear a buruga you are saying she’s a sexual being and she has something that men shouldnt see. Its the same as wearing skimpy clothes, because that again its sexualising. But now you see on the streets small girls wearing buruga to go to quran classes and I find it quite unsettling.
@fali
Exactly.
I don’t understand the concept of small kids having the burqa forced upon them.
But i guess, according the new born islamists, there are no kids in this world.. only sex kittens.
@RECAT
What about all those quran teachers or mudhims who abuse children? They all read the quran daily. They don’t miss a prayer. They are practicing muslims.
I work as a resort executive for over 25 years. I and many other Maldivian like me live in the midst of tourists who wear beach costumes (bra and pants). The idea of feasting on their bare flesh as Mullahs define, never crossed my mind let alone rape them!! Probably a long beard is linked with increased sex drive which makes one loose control by sighting a girl in bikini.
The concept of Burka is just preposterous!
exactly penny, so who are these genuine muslims really? I will say this once again, extremism should just be banned! Fali I whole heartedly agree with you.. I believe these children should have enough space and freedom to grow both emotionally and physically, confining them to such low standards is just unethical!! When I was in school in 6th grade, we were barely twelve and a friend of mine was forced to wear the burka when her mother married a long bearded extremist.. The girl refused to obey and they held her down and shaved her head.. SO please enlighten me is this what our religion, the so called muslim religion has evolved into? Oh and RECAT these people did not sexually abuse children as such but confining them against their will and being inhumane is the exact same for me.. Perhaps you disagree?
Cat: They shaved her head to force her to wear the burka? Wonder what kind of mentally sick people they are…
This happened about 9 years ago. Sad as it is it’s true.. I still am trying to figure out their uncivilized mentality.
It’s one of the tragedies and ironies of intelligence and consciousness I think. Which sometimes makes me think that it is nature’s mistake that we became self-aware and conscious because, what’s the purpose if we cannot come to terms with reality and cannot sit back and relax in the face of the fact that absolute answers about this existence isn’t forthcoming at this moment in time…
People are free to believe in anything they want but they don’t have a right to impose their beliefs on others. They should realise that while the belief of their choice makes sense to them, for the other person something else will make sense. So there are no absolute truths. Just human perceptions.
If people cannot live with this fact, what’s the point of their being self-aware, conscious and intelligent? They might as well be a lizard we see in the garden, whose only care seems to eat, drink and do whatever biological functions they have to by nature from their animal instincts, without thinking or pondering about why and how they exist and whether there is a purpose or meaning to their lives.
PS: On another note, who are we to say that lizards are not intelligent, dho. They might be intelligent enough to realise the futility of fighting with each other and just let things be. Maybe that’s why they spend so much time just relaxing on branches without seeming to do anything “meaningful” or “purposeful” with their lives. If we humans could train ourselves in this art of doing nothing, at least I think we will be able to let our fellow human beings live in peace. As Agent Smith says in “The Matrix”, “Human beings are a disease, a virus on this planet…” I can’t find any solid cases to counter Smith’s argument in the face of these extremists.
“The Quran is the only authentic source of information for Muslims as God intended to protect it till the Judgment Day without any human being able to distort even a word of it. So we’ll stick to it, thank you.”
hey hilath, while u want to stick to this argument or belief don’t u think its a a bit odd and funny. Why does one want to believe what was taught in school is to the correct views and system. In school we are told that allah said quran will be protected till the judgement day. But when we look at where in Quran or Hadith did Allah mention that. When we see it, there is a verse in quran, which says something like Allah will protect the zikr. Which actually means that allah will protect the revealed religion which includes both quran and the sunnah (the way and sayings of the prophet).
If you think logically, there is no point to protect the text of a book. But rather its the system of life prescribed in the book which needs protection. In several verses Allah asks to follow the prophet and also in others have mentioned that the prophet does not talk about religion or way of life out of his own ideas or desires. All are revealed.
Well this actually is a pretty straight forward thing. In order to protect the religion, the quran and the sunnah (way and sayings of prophet) will be protected. There is no doubt about it.
ok as for the burqa thing, well previos president or whoever who wants to modify the religion or twist according to his desires may say burqa is not mandatory. but its a fact its is obligatory.
Hey Hillath, by the way check the two verses in Quran (you say you want to stick to it) about the hijab or covering or dresscode for muslims women while going out. It says cover the whole body. I wonder if you take quran alone, women have to cover the whole body.
this is a long topic… there are two topic which i feel is never ending.. one is religion and the other is politics.. imagine when both adds.. hehehe
ok bye… will call ya