| DATE: 2007-10-16 |HNS
MALE, October 16, 2007 (Haveeru News Service) -- State broadcaster Television Maldives has hit back at the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs after the Council last week alleged that TVM was unable to allocate any space for airing Islamic awareness programs last Ramadan.
In an interview with Haveeru Daily and Haveeru Online last week, the Council’s President Sheikh Mohamed Rasheed Ibrahim had said that \\\"we had tried to revive the program again but have been unable to do so far.\\\"
He was referring to the daily program called \\\"Hidhaayathuge Ali\\\" which TVM broadcast daily during previous Ramadan months but which was conspicuously absent from TVM\\\'s schedule last Ramadan. Rasheed was responding to questions why the Government has so far failed to tackle Islamic extremism in Maldives, and he had cited that one of the measures that the Government was undertaking was to spread awareness programs on the correct or moderate path of Islam through media.
TVM CEO Ali Khalid yesterday said that during last Ramadan, the Council had not submitted any Islamic-themed programs to be aired for the general populace.
\\\"It is not the Council that helps us to air Islamic awareness programs. It is the Rabita (a foreign NGO called World Muslim League) which helps us,\\\" Khalid said, referring to Rabita-supported program titled \\\"Roadha Aai Suvaalu\\\" which is basically a program where audiences can respond and win prizes by answering questions related to the Islamic faith, its history, traditions and culture.
Khalid went on to elaborate that when he approached the Council\\\'s Vice President Sheikh Ahmed Farooq Mohamed to ask for his assistance to the program, the latter had excused himself by saying that he didn\\\'t have time.
\\\"We sent our producers to meet him and his reply was that he had no time,\\\" Khalid said in damaging revelations.
\\\"As the program had been broadcast for 17 consecutive years, we felt that this time it cannot go ahead without the help of Farooq and his Council,\\\" Khalid said.
\\\"Roadha Aai Suvaalu\\\" (FAQ on Ramadan) and \\\"Hidhaayathuge Ali\\\" were popular programs among locals. The programs on Islam that TVM telecast the last fasting month were some Islamic-oriented spots, a 15-minute daily program called \\\"Roadhaige Hiyaalu\\\" (Fasting - An Introspective) supported by Maldives’ College of Islamic Studies, and telecasting of daily afternoon advisory sessions held at the Islamic Center in Male.
Khalid said that telecasting of the Islamic Center advisory meetings was carried out not on the request of the Council but under public pressure because viewers felt that there were two few programs on Islamic awareness during last Ramadan.
He said that it was the College which assisted TVM in shaping Islamic awareness programs during last Ramadan; he added that he was baffled by the Council\\\'s lack of interest in assisting TVM while TVM had never turned its back to any request by the Council.
Last week Rasheed said that the Council tried its best to have Islamic awareness programs on TVM during last Ramadan but that their efforts were \\\"not successful.\\\"
Khalid countered that TVM\\\'s request in writing to the Council to assist TVM in telecasting Islamic awareness programs last Ramadan haven\\\'t even been answered yet.
He went on to claim that two years back, TVM had requested the Council to assist it to telecast Islamic awareness programs on a daily basis.
\\\"Even then we did not get cooperation from the Council,\\\" Khalid alleged, adding that TVM instead had to resort to the help of state radio broadcaster Voice of Maldives to produce programs on Islamic awareness.
The issue of Islamic awareness and extremism is currently in the local spotlight following the September 29 bombing of the Sultan Park in Male which injured 12 foreign tourists, an attack seen as local Islamic extremists’ efforts to disrupt the tourism industry, the backbone of the Maldives\\\' economy which contributes to more than 30 percent of the Gross Domestic Product.
The extremist debate has now become heated after recently both Police and the Military were physically confronted by a breakaway extremist group in North Ari atoll Himandhoo island when police went down to the island in search of a suspect linked to the Sultan Park bombing.
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