| DATE: 2007-10-14 | HNS
MALE, October 14, 2007 (Haveeru News Service) -- Former Attoreny General Dr. Hassan Saeed has told Haveeru Daily and Haveeru Online that the President\'s Office \"sat on a report\" he and former Justice Minister Mohamed Jameel Ahmed submitted to President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom outlining 13 recommendations by which Islamic extremism can be tackled in Maldives.
The 13-point report was drafted by a scholarly committee set up by the President himself and the \"Action Plan\" was submitted to the President\'s Office about eight months ago, Saeed said.
The report recommended an in-depth study of the extent of extremism in society, changing the way the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, the highest Islamic authority in Maldives, function, strengthening the laws and regulations tackling extremism, making people aware of the benefits of adopting a moderate way of life, and employing the media to inform people on the importance of adopting a moderate path in Islam.
The report also recommends bringing changes to academic curriculums and setting up a council which can give fatwas or Islamic rulings on certain issues.
Moderate scholars are also encouraged to go to rural islands and raise awareness, and inculcate in students a love for the moderate path of Islam and embrace the true peaceful culture of Islam.
Saeed said that Islamic extremism is one of the greatest challenges facing Maldives where poverty is now strife; according to the World Bank, about 40 percent of the Maldivian people live on less than a dollar a day which is the World Bank\'s official poverty line while some 70 percent of the people live on less than two dollars a day despite the misleading per capita of over 2,000 dollars which some say is the result of the widening of the poor-rich divide.
Among the problems recently faced are people marrying out of courts, and setting up makeshift mosques to pray by breakaway religious groups claiming that government built mosques were built with \"tainted\" money and official imams were kafirs (unbelievers). Some groups also refuse to send their children to school due to the presence of expatriate teachers.
Including incidences of child marriage where under-18s and under-16s were sometimes found to get married, extremists have also been found to go overseas to study in extremist schools while taking part in militant activities.
\"We have also come across incidences where extremists have tried to import weapons,\" Saeed said.
\"Hence, we were forced to appeal to the President to counter these dangerous trends,\" he said in an exclusive interview with Haveeru last week.
Saeed said that extremism in North Ari atoll Himandhoo first surfaced three years ago, and that the North Ari atoll\'s Atoll Chief had appealed to the central government to take measures to deal with the situation.
\"But nobody would listen to him,\" Saeed said. \"If we had listened to him then, we would not have encountered the situation we were faced with recently.”
Several days back, Police and the Military clashed with a breakaway religious group in the island after police went there in search of suspects linked to the bombing of Sultan Park in Male which injured 12 foreign tourists.
Saeed said that Islamist-leaning Adaalath Party even sent a delegation to Himandhoo and had expressed desire to cooperate with the government to tackle extremism in the island.
The party met with Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs but their appeals \"fell on deaf years,\" Saeed.
Saeed said that the Council was a \"failed institution\" and that it needed to change its stand and start addressing contemporary issues facing society rather than just explaining the basic tenets of Islam and the faith\'s moral values.
He said that he did \"everything I can\" by appealing to the President to tackle the issue of extreme when he was in the Cabinet.
\"A minister can only go so far as coming up with an action plan and making sure that it reached the hands of the President. I did all that,\" Saeed said.
He said that the highest institution in the country will be the Cabinet but that he doesn\'t remember President Gayoom ever brining the issue to a Cabinet meeting despite his submission of the 13-point action plan.
Saeed said that legal action can be taken against extremists but that this will not tackle the roots of the problem.
The government was not available last week for a comment on Saeed\'s claims.
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