| DATE: 2007-10-11 | PRINT | BOOKMARK
Some of the severe religious practices adopted by the breakaway religious group in North Ari atoll Himandhoo have nothing to do with true religion and are the result of religious extremism, Adhaalath Party (AP) has said.
Speaking at news conference held at the Adhaalath Party’s offices, President Sheikh Hussain Rasheed said that forming separate congregations to pray, illegal marriages and keeping children from getting an education were not endorsed by religion. He said that they believed it such practices because they didn’t really know their religion or because they had taken it to extremes.
The President of the AP’s Religious Scholar’s Council Dr. Abdul Baaree Abdul Majeed said that the actions of both the security forces, who were there to locate wanted suspects in the Sultan Park bombing case and others wanted for other criminal offences, and the breakaway religious group in Himandhoo, who said that they were only trying to protect their makeshift mosque, were not the most appropriate under the circumstances. He said that the problem could have been solved without turning it into a military operation.
“If the military is used against them it might cause serious civil disturbances throughout the country,” he said. “The best option is to talk to them and change their way of thinking and their stand on some of their practices.”
He said that locking them up in jail would not solve anything and the best thing to do was to teach them what religion really said about some of their strict beliefs.
“The religious group in Himandhoo who had made a separate mosque to hold prayers and had adopted their own beliefs about religion aren’t educated about religion,” AP spokesperson Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed said. “They are confused about the real beauty of the Islamic beliefs and way.”
He also faulted the Government for giving opportunity for such extremism to grow in the society due to lack of adequate resources to inform the public about religion.
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