Rehab for Extremists?

The Ministry of Islamic Affairs has renewed its proposal for an ‘extremist rehabilitation centre’ to curb fundamentalism in the country.

That’s all good and well, but my primary concern is this: how does the Ministry define extremism? What are the guidelines used to determine who is an extremist and who is not?

Himandhoo, explained State Minister of Islamic Affairs Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed, was “a very beautiful example” of the Ministry’s successful rehabilitation programme.

Curious he should say that when it was just last month that the Himandhoo School decided to forgo singing the school song during assembly saying “it would be more useful to give a speech by school heads and recite the meaning of Quran”.

“The former government fought with [the extremists] and put them in jail,” Shaheem said. “Now we don’t fight. We deliver the right information [about Islam] through dialogue. We have a lot of programmes on television, radio, the Hukru Khuthuba (Friday sermon), and we send scholars to the islands.”

That’s precisely what worries me. Right information according to whom? These are the very people who declared the Madhana programme haram and the Bodu Maaloodh an innovation. The very people who are curiously silent while extremists refuse to use contraceptives or vaccinate their children. The very people who would rather protest day and night over liquor regulations than make a greater stand against children being forced to become sex toys for men twice their age!

“We have suggested that the government establish a centre for special studies as a rehabilitation centre to fight [fundamentalists] ideologically,” Shaheem said. “This is an ideological problem, and we can solve this problem by having scholars give them the right information on Islam.”

The Ministry was especially concerned about several groups praying separately at mosques in Male’, Shaheem said, explaining that some had been delivering their own fatwas (religious edicts). However radicalisation in the country was in overall decline, he noted.

Spokesman for the President’s Office Mohamed Zuhair agreed with Shaheem that the growth of radical groups had declined across the globe, “a trend I believe has affected the Maldives through better inclusion in society, increased security and a lack of persecution.”

It is indeed an ideological problem and the question they should be asking is, why was extremism able to reach our shores and spread like wild fire in a matter of mere months? Why was it able to thrive in Himandhoo more than anywhere else? But it seems the Ministry isn’t too interested in figuring out why young Dhivehin are happily crossing over to the cult-like universe of the Wahhabi mindset. Instead, they seem to be more concerned about not having control over the sermons and fatwas issued. And frankly, both Shaheem and Zuhair must have their eyes firmly shut if they truly think that radicalisation is in the decline!