Contemporary Maldives, Maldivian Social Media, Writing Hani Amir Contemporary Maldives, Maldivian Social Media, Writing Hani Amir

Maldives Twitter wakes up to a fever dream where everyone is Ali Rameez

At 12AM on Friday the 23rd of November 2018, a whole bunch of Maldivian twitter users changed their profile pictures to the one above. It shows a young Ali Rameez leaning back, relaxing his head against his arm. The incident is referred to by some as #NationalAyyaDay.

IMG_7973.JPG

At 12AM on Friday the 23rd of November 2018, a whole bunch of Maldivian twitter users changed their profile pictures to the one above. It shows a young Ali Rameez leaning back, relaxing his head against his arm. The incident is referred to by some as #NationalAyyaDay.

IMG_7991.JPG

Mass confusion spread as everyone’s notifications looked the same.

notification 1_LI (2).jpg

To make things worse, many users changed their names to song lyrics by the one time Maldivian king of pop. There was once a time when you could not walk two feet in the Maldives without hearing one of his songs on the TV or radio. I’d post more screenshots of the incident, but most people have already changed their pictures and names back. Guess the world can only take so much Ayya.

Ali Rameez Timeline Photos - kill apostates.png

Of course I say one time because Ali Rameez is currently a violent extremist “sheikh” who constantly spreads hate and fear speech against Maldivian minorities such as non-Muslims and LGBTI+ people. While being a massive sexist of course. On top of this, he also regularly promotes such lovely things as child marriage.

In the above screenshot, the Dhivehi text reads “Islam dheenun beyru vejje meehaa; gathul kuraasheve’”, which roughly translates to “Slaughter those who leave Islam”.

The first comment below it reads “It is best if such children move to a country where they can get the freedoms that they want. No space for atheist in this country”.

It doesn’t take a genius to see how this encourages vigilante violence against non-Muslims. I suppose it is also worth pointing out again for the thousandth time that the Maldives is one of the few countries in the world whose constitution bans freedom of conscience.

Ali Rameez promotes these views on his official twitter account and his facebook page, where he also pimps out his extremist buddies from religious NGOs like Jammaiyathul Salaf.

A tale of two Ayyas. 32 x 32 pixel grid. Something I created in Pixaki in honor of the day.

A tale of two Ayyas. 32 x 32 pixel grid. Something I created in Pixaki in honor of the day.

With all this in mind, it shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that Ali Rameez hates his pop star past. He did famously dump all of his CD’s into the ocean after all.

So while people took the opportunity to mock / celebrate him by sharing his music and reminiscing about the days when he wasn't a psychopath, others took the opportunity to gaslight Maldivian minorities by claiming that the good sheikh was being bullied.

This kind of gaslighting is typical from “liberal” Maldivians who fall head over heels to defend extremists yet never utter a single word in support of Maldivian minorities whose very existence is criminalized. As such I am sure these people are not ignorant of Ali Rameez’s extremism. Instead I think they are sympathetic. I think extremists like that say what these people are afraid of saying. What they really think.

You will never get any of these people to admit whether they support something as basic as freedom of conscience. However they will rarely admit they don’t support it either. Instead, they will prop up the extremists who have the courage to actually express such darkness. This is why I respect honest extremists who will say to my face that they want to kill me. I have no respect at all to closet conservatives like this who pretend to sit on a fence while they crap on minorities below. It is not an equal conversation when one side has their existence criminalized.

Can you believe the audacity of such a statement from people who do not think their fellow Maldivians deserve constitutional recognition?

Comments like this one are referring to an incident in the past when a woman on twitter made extremely homophobic remarks. For once a lot of people on Maldivian twitter called out this woman for her blatantly bigoted remarks. Not this crowd of closet conservatives though. Much like this incident, back then they sided with the bigot being roasted. How could you bully such an innocent person they all decried.

This past event, and the common occurrence of conservatives and extremists to claim to be victims of “bullying”, is what has led to the creation of the local meme of “bleeing”.

This type of gaslighting would be funny if it wasn’t the norm. Gaslighting, for those unfamiliar, is when an oppressor makes a person doubt their own memories and self. It is a common tactic used by abusive people against their partners.

Wikipedia defines it as “a form of psychological manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a targeted group, making them question their own memory, perception, and sanity. “

They states that the signs of gaslighting are:

  1. Withholding information from victim;

  2. Countering information to fit the abuser's perspective;

  3. Discounting information;

  4. Verbal abuse, usually in the form of jokes;

  5. Blocking and diverting the victim's attention from outside sources;

  6. Trivializing the victim's worth; and,

  7. Undermining victim by gradually weakening them and their thought process.

Observe this clear example from a tweet calling the original one out.

Look at the response above. Ali Rameez is well known for blaming rape victims and his support for child marriage. Yet the original tweet dismisses this as having a “different understanding”.

The day led to some clashes within the more progressive parts (relative to the Taliban) of Maldivian twitter as well, with some people thinking that the incident downplayed Ali Rameez’s extremism.

Some responses from the twitter cult leader responsible for this madness:

Now that we’ve dealt with the drama and my existential bitterness, here are some of the funnier tweets from the day:

Ali Rameez towards the end of his music career was in a band called “Freeze Band”. Once he gave up music, he capitalized on this by creating “Freeze Brand” - a company that sells dried fish and other products. Gotta admit that some of their stuff is pretty delicious though.

The cat is screaming out lyrics to one of Ali Rameez’s hit songs “Finifenmalakey” (like a rose).

Ali Rameez had a particularly saucy hit video where he sensuously marinates a chicken with a beautiful woman. Probably one of the sources of his paranoia about his past sins.

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Maldives Twitter VS Francesca Borri
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Nothing brings Maldivians together like a good roast 🔥.

Maldives Twitter wakes up to a fever dream where everyone is Ali Rameez
Maldives Twitter wakes up to a fever dream where everyone is Ali Rameez

At 12AM on Friday the 23rd of November 2018, a whole bunch of Maldivian twitter users changed their profile pictures to the one above. It shows a young Ali Rameez leaning back, relaxing his head against his arm. The incident is referred to by some as #NationalAyyaDay.

#MenAreTrash hashtag sparks widespread debate and outrage on Maldivian twitter
#MenAreTrash hashtag sparks widespread debate and outrage on Maldivian twitter

The polarising hashtag caused an uproar and week long drama across the Maldivian twitterverse and tweeps debated the controversial topic. Are men trash? Are men trash, but is the wording wrong? Have people who say men are trash actually not met enough men who are not trash? Are women responsible for the men in their life being trash? Can they simply just filter them out? All this and more below. This is of course just a taste. I also did not include some of the nastier stuff from obvious troll accounts.

Maldives twitter last week #6
Maldives twitter last week #6

Here are some interesting things Maldivians talked about on twitter last week. 

Maldives twitter last week #5
Maldives twitter last week #5

Here are some interesting things Maldivians talked about on twitter last week. 

Maldives twitter last week #4
Maldives twitter last week #4

Here are some interesting things Maldivians talked about on twitter last week. 

Maldives twitter last week #3
Maldives twitter last week #3

Here are some interesting things Maldivians talked about on twitter last week. 

Maldives twitter last week #2
Maldives twitter last week #2

Here are some interesting things Maldivians talked about on twitter last week. 

Maldives twitter last week #1
Maldives twitter last week #1

Here are some interesting things Maldivians talked about on twitter last week. 

A collection of Yameen Rasheed's writings on Maldives, Secularism, Standing up for Maldivian Minorities, and Fighting Religious Radicalism #WeAreYaamyn #FindMoyameehaa
A collection of Yameen Rasheed's writings on Maldives, Secularism, Standing up for Maldivian Minorities, and Fighting Religious Radicalism #WeAreYaamyn #FindMoyameehaa

I initially began this post as an interactive timeline of Yameen Rasheed's best tweets, but it soon became too inaccessible due to the sheer amount of relevant posts that he was putting out. 

So instead, here is a collection of some of his best writings. He deals with topics that very few people in the Maldives have the courage to openly write about. More importantly, the fact that he talked about these issues is being erased from the conversation about his murder.

Furthermore, the dangers and threats that he faced were not a characteristic unique to the current administration. He faced these same threats under Mohamed Nasheed's government as well, who is arguably the best and worst president that the Maldives has ever had. Nasheed promised freedom, but ended up granting those liberties only to religious extremists; and in the process condemned those who opposed those extremists to their fate. In an open letter to Nasheed written in March 2009, Yameen says that he was under investigation by the Maldives Police Service, and accused the president of failing to protect the rights of secular liberal minded Muslims like himself. 

He was not your average journalist, blogger, or rights activist. He was of the rare breed that promoted secularism and actively acknowledged the existence of minorities within the Maldives such as LGBTQI people and apostates. There is absolutely no way that the work he was doing was comparable to the output of people who to this day deny the existence of such minorities. 

He was a staunch opposer of the Maldivian constitution, which he called intolerant, for it's lack of the basic right of freedom of conscience. There is absolutely no way that he is comparable to the people who, even in their articles about his death, have failed to mention this extremely important fact of life in the Maldives. 

Challenging religious radicalism was not some one off thing for Yameen. It was his bread and butter. His mashuni and roshi. To say Yameen didn't write a lot about religion is like saying Stephen King doesn't write a lot of horror. Post after post on his blog deals with these issues directly. Yameen was also the founder of the Facebook group "Ban The Adhaalath" - arguably one of the first ever online groups formed to directly tackle religious extremism within the Maldives. 

How can there be a genuine democracy in the Maldives, how can there be genuine freedom, if the right to think differently is illegal?

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​ Mohamed Nazim’s 2010 confession - a turning point for Maldivian minorities

That battle had been won. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s 30 year rule had come to a close. Maldivians had finally arrived in the “anneh dhivehiraajje” (other Maldives) that was promised by Mohamed Nasheed and the Maldivian Democratic Party. A different Maldives. One with liberty and justice, where people would be free to express themselves, to be themselves.

It was in this intoxicating atmosphere of promised progress that Mohamed Nazim boldly asked Zakir Naik what the punishment for apostasy in Islam was. He said the question was important to him as he himself was an atheist. What was the penalty for him, he asked, standing in the middle of a crowd buzzing with shock and rage. One can only imagine the fear, clearly visible through his body language, that he must have felt at that moment. Naik, perhaps not wanting the bad press of a murder happening at one of his events, deflected the question and said that it would be up to the Maldivian government to decide. And decide they would.

That battle had been won. Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s 30 year rule had come to a close. Maldivians had finally arrived in the “anneh dhivehiraajje” (other Maldives) that was promised by Mohamed Nasheed and the Maldivian Democratic Party. A different Maldives. One with liberty and justice, where people would be free to express themselves, to be themselves.

It was in this intoxicating atmosphere of promised progress that Mohamed Nazim boldly asked Zakir Naik what the punishment for apostasy in Islam was. He said the question was important to him as he himself was an atheist. What was the penalty for him, he asked, standing in the middle of a crowd buzzing with shock and rage. One can only imagine the fear, clearly visible through his body language, that he must have felt at that moment. Naik, perhaps not wanting the bad press of a murder happening at one of his events, deflected the question and said that it would be up to the Maldivian government to decide. And decide they would.

Mohamed Nazim would have likely not left the stadium alive if not for a police escort that promptly swooped him out of the stadium and into police custody. This, of course, was for his own safety. Amidst an outpouring of national rage and hatred, the likes of which the Maldives had never seen before, Nazim was counselled on the error of his ways by religious scholars. Which was also obviously for his own safety as well. We wouldn’t want him to go to hell after all. Before long, Nazim had repented, and publicly apologised for his lapse in judgement. His question and confession was on the 28th of May 2010, his repentance was on the 1st of June. He hadn't even lasted a week. The elephant thoroughly shot and buried, the nation rejoiced. Was this final act sincere, or was it also out of fearing for his own safety? We may never know exactly what was going through Mohamed Nazim’s mind at that point, but for Maldivian minorities the message was clear. Keep quiet or die.

During his jailing there was no outcry from local politicians, NGOs, or activists calling on the Maldivian government to respect the UDHR and the right to freedom of conscience. The right to think for oneself, the right to choose your own belief is a universal human right that is respected everywhere in the world (at least on paper) except for a handful of countries - the Maldives sharing the most similarities with Saudi Arabia; where citizens are legally obligated to be Muslim in order to be citizens. Maumoon had hammered in the myth that the Maldives was a 100% Islamic nation. What happened to Mohamed Nazim proved that this statistic would be enforced, no matter the cost.

Where was the promise of freedom? Where was the promise of liberty? Within underground discussion groups, both online and in the real world, the vibe had changed from hopeful to a sense of looming dread. Was it alright to speak our minds? Were we free to believe what we want? Were we truly living in the “other” Maldives, or was this just business as usual?

If Mohamed Nazim’s treatment was the turning point, the events that would transpire in just a little over a years time was the dagger in the back.

On 10th December 2011 a small group of protesters gathered at artificial beach to have a silent gathering in the name of tolerance. In uncertain times they tested the waters, and found it to be full of sharks feasting on the blood of hypocrites.

They were attacked in broad daylight. Hilath Rasheed would have his skull fractured. Photographs of the attackers were taken and their names were known. Reports were made to the police. Yet, under Mohamed Nasheed’s “other” Maldives, the police decided to investigate the protestors instead. Soon politicians were calling for the incident to be investigated, not because of the gross violation of the rights of the protestors, but because the protestors posed some threat to the nebulous concept of Islam.

The dagger was thrust deep, and there in our backs it has stayed. The message was clear. Stay quiet or die. No one would help us. No one would protect us. No one would even acknowledge us. This is why first hand accounts from Maldivian minorities are so rare. This is why you will most likely never hear from a Maldivian minority who does not use a pseudonym or alias. The danger is too great. Not only from the extremists who would carry out the deed, but also from the broader population who would enable them.

We know first hand that even if Abdulla Yameen’s dictatorship were to fall, nothing would change for us. Those that tell us to work with them for the greater good would abandon us the moment their own factions gain power. History would repeat itself and the other Maldives would be nothing more than another mirage.

So, for our own safety, we stay quiet. Thousands of Maldivian ex-Muslims, atheists, buddhists, christians, LGBTQIA+ people, and countless others, suffering in silence because we cannot even trust our own family members, let alone the police, to keep us safe. Thousands of Maldivians whose stories you have never heard. Someday you will hear from us all, and history will not remember kindly those who told us to stay silent.

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​ Mohamed Nazim’s 2010 confession - a turning point for Maldivian minorities
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Maldives twitter last week #1
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A collection of Yameen Rasheed's writings on Maldives, Secularism, Standing up for Maldivian Minorities, and Fighting Religious Radicalism #WeAreYaamyn #FindMoyameehaa
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Maldivians freak out over harmless gesture from Maldivian Idol contestant

The recent launch of the Maldivian version of the hit "Idol" format by TVM is one of the most significant events in Maldivian TV history. The show is by no means perfect, but it is one of the first times that Maldivians from all over the country have had a platform to show their talents. It is inspiring to see the joy on the faces of contestants who make the cut. Part of its purpose also seems to be to give the impression that the Maldives is a lot more progressive than it actually is. Probably a move by the Yameen administration to improve it's image abroad. Whatever the case, the show is commendable for sticking to it's progressive values. Predictably the backlash from the conservative crowd has already begun, with many calling to boycott the show for being "laadheenee" or irrelgious and "against Islam". 

The recent launch of the Maldivian version of the hit "Idol" format by TVM is one of the most significant events in Maldivian TV history. The show is by no means perfect, but it is one of the first times that Maldivians from all over the country have had a platform to show their talents. It is inspiring to see the joy on the faces of contestants who make the cut. Part of its purpose also seems to be to give the impression that the Maldives is a lot more progressive than it actually is. Probably a move by the Yameen administration to improve it's image abroad. Whatever the case, the show is commendable for sticking to it's progressive values. Predictably the backlash from the conservative crowd has already begun, with many calling to boycott the show for being "laadheenee" or irrelgious and "against Islam". 

The latest of this hysteria involves a screenshot of one of the contestants from the first episode caught in the blasphemous act of putting his hands together as a gesture of thanks towards one of the judges. 

How could the heathen! 

Conservative rag Vaguthu, which was formerly known as MV Youth before multiple scandals involving their "journalists" stalking individuals forced them to "rebrand", was quick to run an article to add fuel to the flames. 

First of all this guys writing is terrible. Each paragraph, while not technically wrong, is just one long convoluted sentence without a comma in sight. Translating this is going to be annoying.

Translation: 

The national TV  (broadcaster?) which is is PSM, whose channel is TVM, which is currently airing "Maldivian Idol"... 

Ok screw this guys writing. All you need to know is how he described the gesture as "how the idol worshipers greet one another". 

It then goes into the "opinions" of people who have apparently commented on the photo while it was being circulated on "social media". The first of these upstanding citizens says that  the fact that the show was not aired live begs the question of why such "images that the Dhivehi community would not approve of" were not edited out in the final product. Clearly a conspiracy is afoot! 

The second person simply says "this is a very laadheenee image". How insightful!

The third directs his ire towards the government and says that this is "[something] laadheenee done by the dheenee (religious) government". 

A fourth asks whether people think about what they are doing when they support such blasphemy that is "against the religion". He then says something kind of incoherent about music and singing being sinful before calling on people to be fearful of god. 

Our amazing journalist ends the article by saying that even people that watch the show regularly have criticized the image. 

Of course the comments section was in full agreement, with most people bemoaning the sheer blasphemy of the act. Below are the five comments with the most "likes". They show great insight into the clash between the progressive ideals of the show vs the conservatism that is still very much a part of day to day Maldivian life. 


 

Gainee:

So it's okay when Unoosha hugs unmarried men (hiley firihenun, literally: free men)? 

Vestu: 

Woe (halaaku, literally: break, destruction) to Unoosha!

Gah'barey: 

Maldivian idol... Dhivehi statue (budhu, literally: idol, statue, figure)
Next they'll construct a Maldivian temple. 
Show like this will be held by sinful faajirun (I don't know what this last word means, probably something like malicious blasphemous bastard). 

Maldivian Idiot: 

What idiot are you holding(/airing/organizing - it is difficult to properly translate this first sentence)? Just a bunch of people who don't know what to do! If you have to go to Male' for a Quran competition the parents will say that they have no money and no place to stay. When it comes to participating in this, they suddenly have the money to make their kids to whatever they want. These Dhivehin want to leave their religion for the pleasures and merriment of this world. Anni said to have fun without fear. The people who said that statement was bad are now doing the same thing. Because he'll get asked about democracy when he's in the grave, right now Anni is busy in Europe ripening/developing democracy. What a kingdom this is. Idiots. 

Maree: 

There's nothing good about this idol of which you speak. Just loss and destruction. 

Aal: 

I call on the Islamic Ministry to ban such vile things. 

It will be interesting to see how the producers react to this growing negativity as the show progresses. The scale of the show means that this might be one of the first times where the silent and often hypocritical moderates are forced into confronting the ideals of their conservative counterparts. 

The whole show can be watched via YouTube. It's worth watching for the great mini-documentaries on contestants alone.  This format might be overdone in other places around the world, but for the Maldives it is a first. Anything that will help the country and it's people rise out of the sludge of conservatism and close mindedness is worthy of praise. I highly recommend it.  

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Fear of the Dark

               All the while the rushing would intensify as if heading towards some grim crescendo. As this feeling grew and I drowned in feelings of utter helplessness, so did a growing panic that something... bad.... was about to happen. This jinni, this being, was going to take my life - or worse - take my sanity and run screaming with it all the way to hell.

A draft of Chapter 01 of "Apostates in Paradise"

               “He’s a Christian…” he whispered gesturing towards a boy several rows of desks in front of us.

                “What do you mean he’s a Christian?” I asked.

                “Well, I went swimming the other day right, and I saw he was wearing a pendant on his necklace”

                “A pendant…?”

                “Yeah, it was shaped like a cross. He said it was just a knife, but I’m sure it was meant to be a cross. Only those Christian crosses look like that”

                “Huh…”

               The bell for interval rang and the conversation ended. I was 11.

               A year later two planes flew into the World Trade Centre complex, killing 2852 people.

               There were kids in class celebrating, 12 year olds joyously celebrating the death of the “infidel Americans” and the tyrant “West”.  All of them were avid consumers of media produced by these “infidels”; Hollywood & Bollywood movies, South Park, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Tom & Jerry, Friends, Michael Jackson, Nirvana, Megadeth, Metallica, Slip Knot, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Eminem, terrible pop music like Aqua, video games, the World Wrestling Federation, Harry Potter, The Famous Five, Goosebumps, all manner of cartoons and everything else imaginable. Most media back then was either pirated or from satellite TV; with healthy doses of government propaganda being provided by the only TV channel, TVM or Television Maldives.

               “They deserved it” they said. “They had it coming, kafir scum”. I asked them why, I remember getting angry and saying that they were people too but mostly I remember feeling confused, lost and sorrowful. I was quite naïve about hatred back then.

***

               I'm peddling a bicycle through a winding unpaved road. The complete darkness alternated with pools of focused light created by the street lamps. The tires make a soft sashaying sound against the coral rich sand as I make my way back towards the bungalow. Each time I dipped into the darkness I felt a dread grow deep within me, which was replaced my relief the moment I escaped those inky clutches and rode back under the lights. All the while under my breath I would recite the shahaadhai'. And so it went, in a most bipolar fashion until I made it back to the safe embrace of fluorescent lights, television and familiar company.

               All of these things seemed to repel the illusive jinni - whose mysterious evils were the source of my fears. I was never truly afraid of the dark as a child until I was informed about their existence. What was just an absence of light quickly became a source of paranoid hallucinations and imaginations gone wild.

               Looking back on it, I cannot quite place my finger on exactly why I was afraid of them. Was it because I feared I would be possessed? Was it because of the stories of evil jinni who hated Allah and fought for Shaithan? I am not quite sure.

               But what I do remember is I did not used to be afraid of the dark until I learned that within the darkness was where the beings of smokeless fire dwelled. I do not remember the exact moment. It was some friend of the family or perhaps some work associate of my parents. We were heading towards the beach, or perhaps we were coming back, but out of nowhere was the warning – “don't go in the dark, jinni live there!”

               At first I laughed it off. I did not believe they existed at that point. My parents were not the type to talk about such things just to scare their children. If they didn’t want me to do something, they just told me not to do it. For example they were not the kind of people to teach their kids to be afraid of the ocean, but they would still let us know to be careful in case there were sharks about. If there was some danger they told me about the danger. So I asked my mother and to my surprise she confirmed their existence with a grave face.

               These fears manifested themselves through several nightmares which I have had. I do not often have nightmares, most of the terror I experience in the nocturnal realm transforms to excitement, to some adventure, so I remember these blood chilling experiences well.

               They all involved sleep paralysis, and the utterly terrifying sensation of being awake but being completely helpless to move on your own accord. I would hear a great rushing noise, almost as if I was within a roaring typhoon. A great whirling grey energy, flecked with black and silver streaks, would surround me and manifest itself near my head at the foot of the bed. I would see all this through my peripheral vision as I strained to move my head; which like the rest of my body felt bolted onto the bed by invisible steel girders that felt as if they had as much weight as celestial objects. There are few things in life as terrifying as your own body disobeying your orders.  

               All the while the rushing would intensify as if heading towards some grim crescendo. As this feeling grew and I drowned in feelings of utter helplessness, so did a growing panic that something... bad.... was about to happen. This jinni, this being, was going to take my life - or worse - take my sanity and run screaming with it all the way to hell.

               As soon as it began, it would stop. I would spring up, bathed in cold sweat and panting as if I had just swam a great distance. I would look wildly around the room to see were my tormentor had concealed themselves.

               Over and over again I would say the shahaada. Laa-ilaaha-illallah, Muhammadhu-rasoolullah, Laa-ilaaha-illallah, Muhammadhu-rasoolullah, Laa-ilaaha-illallah, Muhammadhu-rasoolullah. Through gritted teeth I would recite those verses over and over again until I managed to calm myself down.

               I never doubted that it was jinni who were responsible. Who else could it be? Jinni were always blamed for such things. All the monsters and beings of Maldivian folklore had been transformed into a tale involving some kind of jinni. They were why we stayed away from certain kinds of trees when it was dark. They were why we stayed away from the dark - period. Surely only extremely dangerous creatures would be worthy of such avoidance?

               And so the night light stayed on.

***

               Fast forward to grade 9 of high school in 2004 and the “war on terror” was on in full swing.  All the rage in computing class was watching footage from the war and sharing pornography.

                “This is the best one yet”, said some classmates who were huddled around a computer. I got up and walked over to have a look.

               The grainy, pixelated footage showed someone who appeared to be from the US army, kneeling in a dimly lit room, facing the camera with eyes covered and hands bound. Behind him is the black flag of the Mujahedeen.  A man walks in, carrying a rusty blade and wearing a balaclava, who proceeds to rough his prisoner up while yelling and gesturing at the camera.

               “Here we go…” one of my classmates said.

               As if on cue the masked man suddenly grabs his captive from behind and begins to saw and hack away at his neck. Blood bursts out covering himself, the floor and his executioner’s hands. He kicks his legs and flays about hopelessly, all while blood gushes and spurts out of his mouth as he desperately tries to breathe.

               The soldier’s agony is drawn out for what seemed like an hour while the man, whose eagerness was only surpassed by his clumsiness with a knife, continued to gleefully cut away at the mutilated flesh until his head was finally severed. He grips it by the scalp and triumphantly shows it to the camera, blood still oozing from its ragged base.

               It was the most horrifying act of violence I have ever seen. My mind was spinning, I felt nauseous. The soldier’s dead eyes kept flickering in my consciousness like a strobe. I saw some friends have the same reaction; others were already joking about it and making faces.

               “They deserve that shit, those fucking Americans” one of them sneered.

               “Damn infidels and Jews” said another.

               I died a little that day. Some part of me is now gone and lost forever. I used to be squeamish but after that, the goriest horror movies do little to affect me. How could the imaginary ever be as terrifying?

               Gone too was my fear of the dark. What protection could a nightlight offer from the waking horror of a world filled with the realities of man?

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A POLICY OF DESTRUCTION - From 'The Maldive Islanders' by Xavier Romero-Frias

This is the final chapter of Xavier Romero-Frias' "The Maldive Islanders".   With the direction the Maldives appears to be heading in, it is perhaps even more relevant now than when it was first written. If you wanted to know why so little is done to preserve Maldivian culture and heritage, this is why. 

This is the final chapter of Xavier Romero-Frias' "The Maldive Islanders".   With the direction the Maldives appears to be heading in, it is perhaps even more relevant now than when it was first written. If you wanted to know why so little is done to preserve Maldivian culture and heritage, this is why. 

A POLICY OF DESTRUCTION

The relentless effort to promote Arabic cultural values within the Maldive island society is allegedly made with very good intentions. Its supporters claim to hold the monopoly of moral and spiritual values, and steadfastly affirm that their aim is to create a more virtuous society. However, local resistance against the arbitrary imposition of an alien desert culture on this equatorial oceanic nation has never been officially defined or at least assessed and has rather been stubbornly ignored. Hence, as the saying goes “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” and, humans the world over being who they are, as soon as a new law to promote virtue is enforced, a new trick to circumvent that very law pops up. 

The result is that the country has become a virtual police state, but certainly the society is not becoming any more virtuous. Lacking perspective of their cultural identity, average island people are simply helpless to fight back the cultural forgery imposed on them. The state religion has been Islam for the past eight centuries and, in the eyes of the islanders, Islam is synonymous with a formidable machine of power and authority which cannot be contested. Thus, Maldivians have to put up with the role of remaining passive onlookers when freshly arrived Arabic teachers or ‘holy men’ harshly criticize their own island traditions with impunity. 

It is a secretly acknowledged fact, though, that within the island population there are many who feel that they are traveling on a boat which is going in the opposite course they wish to go, but they feel helpless to do anything about it. This conflict is, if anything, compounded by the intense propagation of hard-line Islamic ideologies, including the construction of mosques and Arabic religious schools137 throughout the country since 1978. 

The Arab religious schools, fruit of the petrodollar wealth, were first opened in the capital Male' in 1983 and they set a pattern of cultural and political indoctrination for schools all across the Maldive Islands.138 Boys or girls attending those schools have problems having pride in their own culture because they have been pitched against the basic Maldive cultural values ever since their first classes. One unavoidable side-effect of Islamic education is that students end up admiring the Arab culture and despising their own traditions. Children who are unaware of causing any harm are made willing accomplices in the dismantlement of their own cultural heritage. 

With the media in the hands of an Islamizing government and the spread of Arabic madrasahs throughout the country, the pace and depth of Arab influence is growing fast. During the 1970’s, except for a few modern schools in MaleØ, most Divehi children were taught Quraìnic reading in the small traditional ‘maktabs.’ However, this situation changed in the 1980’s, when two heavily funded Arabic schools ‘Mawhad Dirasì at-ul-Islamiyya’ and ‘Madrasat-ul-Arabiyya-al-Islamiyya’ opened in MaleØ. These schools, teaching undiluted Islam, were instrumental in introducing the Arab veil among girls and in the crystallization of Arabic mores within the Maldive society.

Even the phonetic sounds of the Divehi language are changing. Local letters are abandoned and disappear. The indigenous sound ‘p’ has been replaced by the Arabic letter ‘f’ during the last couple of centuries; and the autochthonous retroflex ‘nö’ (nöaviyani) has been slowly vanishing to the point of having been deleted from the local written alphabet by Muhammad AmÄín in mid-20th century.  

In contrast to this carelessness towards their own phonetics, young Maldivian students are very particular in their efforts to reproduce with fidelity Arabic phonetic sounds,139 alien to their own language, in order to win Quraìn-reading contests promoted by their government. This trend is to blame for the growing tendency towards the abandonment of retroflex sounds not existing in Arab phonetics. Those retroflex sounds ‘lø’ (Löaviyani), ‘dö’ (Döaviyani) and ‘tø’ (Taö viyani) and ‘nö’ (Nöaviyani) made by flapping the tongue against the palate are a characteristic feature of the Indic languages. However, they were the bane of some highly fastidious, Arabophillic local learned men who sought to replace the local Divehi Akuru with the Arabic script in the past. 

After many unsuccessful attempts, the ‘Taìna’ alphabet now in use was devised as a compromise. This three-century-old although some present-day documents propagated by the government claim that it is older in order to fit it into their particular vision of history140 artificial alphabet is based mostly on the Arabic numerals and diacritical signs and, more importantly, is written from right to left like Arabic. The abandonment of the Divehi Akuru141 and the introduction of the Taìna form of writing was a decisive step towards a greater Arabization of Divehi culture. The new form of writing could easily accommodate words and even whole sentences in Arabic within texts in the local language. Therefore, in practice, the Taìna alphabet became a wedge for the further introduction of a foreign Semitic tongue into the written form of Divehi. 

During the past five or six centuries, Maldive identity has steadily lost its color and vitality. Local dances, songs, festivals and ceremonies that were deemed un-Islamic have been weeded out and repressed with almost sadistic ruthlessness. Hence, most autochthonous ancestral cultural expressions have degenerated or have disappeared. Kite-flying and mutual water-splashing (fenô kuliø ), are among the popular festivals that were forbidden by the Maldive government during the latter half of the twentieth century . 

Since the early 1980’s, during a government drive to promote Islam in the Atolls called ‘DÄínuge Heìlunterikanô’, Islamic preachers sailed from island to island, to scold the islanders with fiery speeches. Acting with the same zeal characteristic of the former Sayyids, these enforcers of religious ideology saw sin and depravation in the normal sexual dimorphism of dress and behavior and in the open expression of youthful joy by means of dances and songs, which are a vital part of any healthy society.

Devoid of popular entertainment, except for modern sports, island atmosphere has become extremely dull.142 Despite the introduction of consumerism and the relative economic buoyancy of the last two decades of the 20th century, things have not changed very much since C. Maloney reported in the mid-1970’s that:  

This particular island appeared (...) as an enervating place, with almost no games, no music or scheduled events, except prayers, and few surprises (...). Only the changing of seasons, (the Muslim month of) Ramzaìn and the two Iïd (Muslim festivals) broke the passage of time. The KatÄíbu (government official) ruled in a tyrannical way (...). There is no crack in the shell of orthodoxy, at least in appearance. The majority of citizens of the Maldives pass their time on such islands as this, (...) scarcely touched at all by the civilisational vibrancy of the outer world.143

Since 1979 Arab preachers have been periodically invited to the Maldive Islands by the government and given VIP treatment. Conferences where those ‘holy men’ are the star figures are organized in the evenings during their stay. Government officials and schoolchildren from the capital are forced to go to listen to their religious speeches. These aggressive sermons in Arabic are not only broadcast live in the national radio, but their recordings are routinely aired during the following months. 

However, an Egyptian friend of mine who knew well that type of person, Mahmoud Salama, told me that no one in Egypt would pay so much respect to those cheap preachers. According to him, they were totally unimaginative types, from a mediocre background who were basking in the exaggerated attention they were receiving. “These are backward characters. What good can the Maldivians learn from them?” another Egyptian friend, AmÄín ‘Pako’, one day commented. And yet, during the last twenty years, these Egyptian preachers have been let loose in the Maldives to indoctrinate the local people under special orders from the President’s office. 

These brash preachers seize with glee their unearned high status in the Islands. Often they use to grow quite passionate and eloquent in their speeches about the torments of hell, probably provoked by the un-Islamic appearance of the crowds who are gathered in to listen to them. For the fact is that Maldives got most of its Islamic facade mosques with minarets, Moorish arches and veiled women only from the year 1981 onwards, when the petrodollars began pouring abundantly into the country. And there are many locals who have not adopted the Arab look. 

Initially these Egyptian propagandists were not liked by Maldivians at all. They appeared rude and gross to them, terribly lacking in manners. The calm, monotonous voice of the Divehi translator contrasted sharply with the impassionate, hysterical screams and violent gesticulation of the Arab religious preacher. To make them more palatable, in later years, the indoctrinators were coached by government officials regarding how to behave in front of the Maldive public and they learned how to talk in a more culturally sensitive cool and regular tone. And yet, the crude content of their sermons remained the same. 144  

Throughout Divehi history, Arabs were still viewed as foreigners by the average Maldivian. However, the last quarter of the twentieth century has seen a new phenomenon appear in the Island society’s horizon: The ‘Arab wannabe.’ These are Maldivians who leave the islands in their childhood and are sent to Arab countries or to Pakistan to receive Islamic training. Eventually, when they return to their country as adults, they behave exactly like the Arab Sayyids of old. These uprooted Arab impersonators put much effort into weeding out the last remnants of true Maldive national identity. Since the end of the 1970’s, many very high government posts in the Maldives are held by such ‘Arab wannabes’ and their number is increasing. 

In the outer Atolls, the average attitude of these young, but religious-wise highly trained people is, at best, arrogant and insensitive. They are usually contemptuous towards the ‘aløuverinô’, or old religious males of the island, whose time-tested combination of folkwisdom and religion, is too unislamic for their taste. At the same time, their position as young persons and religious learned men simultaneously is still highly incongruous. Within the ancestral island society, there was a role for old religious men, but none for inexperienced youngsters happening to be well-versed in Arabic and religion. 

Traditionally, one was supposed to acquire knowledge along with wisdom with age. Hence, young aløuverinô, or young learned men, simply didn’t exist. The result is that these brazen young ‘Arab wannabes’, full of Islamic zeal, put much effort into discrediting their elders, slandering them for not being orthodox enough. In this manner they have led people not to pay attention to the old local aløuverinô and have ended up destroying the traditional hierarchical system, in which old people had to be respected. This is paving the way for a break-up of the moral fabric of Divehi society. 

It is a well-known fact that presently in Maldives, there is a secret hostility to excessive arabization, but it is leading nowhere. This ‘resistance’, if it even may be called so, is not only unorganized, but its goals are not defined and it has no visible leadership.145 Moreover, there seems to be nowhere else to go in the other direction, for the ancestral Divehi culture is effectively lost. 

  • 137 Decades before the murderous spree led by religious hard-liners in Algeria, and long before the opening of those schools in the Maldives, Algerian writers like Rachid Mimouni had already questioned the wisdom of mass-religious indoctrination. “What do they want? A country of muezzins? Or a country of pious unemployed people (chomeurs)?” 
  • 138 Paraphrasing Vivekananda, in those schools the first thing a Maldivian child is taught is that his father is a fool because he can’t understand the Quraìn as he doesn’t know Arabic, the second that his grandfather was a lunatic because he held on to many folk beliefs that were unislamic, the third that his mother is shameless because she doesn’t cover her hair, the fourth that his grandmother was a whore because her form of dress revealed too much of her body, the fifth that all the old Maldivian books and stories are lies, and the sixth that Divehi courtesy is rude because Maldive Islanders don’t go around saying all the time ‘Assalaìm alaykum’ as polite Arabs do (the traditional Divehi way being to ask: “Where are you going?”), etc. Vivekananda, a well-known Indian reformist, denounced British education in the schools of the Raj for giving Indians a false perspective of their own culture.
  • 139 Letters: thaì, hâaì, khaì, dhaìl, Ïaìd, Íadì , Ìaì, Ña,ì Âyn, gôayn`and qaìf. These are foreign Semitic sounds that don’t come naturally to the Divehi people and are, thus, very difficult to pronounce for them. Even so, since they are positive that Arabic is the language of heaven, much effort is invested among Maldivians since childhood in order to achieve the correct pronunciation. 
  • 140 The claim that the Taìna script was devised in the 16th century is, however, not supported by historical documents. The oldest writing specimens in that alphabet, interspersed with Arabic, are from the 18th century. These are the Iïdu Miskit Dorosöi inscriptions, dated AH 1170 (AD 1757). 
  • 141 The traditional Maldivian writing whose most ancient manuscripts (in the form called ‘Eveìla’ by H.C.P. Bell) go as far back as the 7th century AD. The last manuscripts written in Divehi Akuru are from mid-19th century. 
  • 142 According to most islanders, the only excitement is to be found in secret illicit relationships.
  • 143 C. Maloney, ‘People of the Maldive Islands.’
  •  144 For example, this is how Maldivian women were coaxed to cover their hair: “Every single hair of a woman not covered by the veil will become a poisonous snake in hell.” From a speech by an Arab guest preacher in Divehi Raìjjege Adöu (Radio Maldives) translated from the Arabic into Divehi and broadcast during the month of Ramzanì in 1990.
  • 145 Commenting on the power of the government and the power of Islam in turn-of-the-millennium Algeria, Mohammed Arkoun, director of the Institute of Arab-Islamic Studies at Paris-III University, writes: The nationalist vision insists on the continuity in time of the Arab-Islamic culture and, consequently, of the state. Thus, the social spirit dominating today is directly connected with the official thesis that refuses to make the indispensable room to the scientific analysis of facts and problems. Intellectuals who, like Mustafa Lacheraf, invest their efforts into the separation between the functions of the official ideology, which pretends to mobilize national construction, and the critical knowledge of the ingredients that have fashioned real Algerian society, are extremely rare. M. Arkoun, ‘Une SpiritualiteØ qui deØpasse la Religion d’EÚtat’ (GEO n 114).
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