The ruling Progressive Party of Maldives has called on former Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed to repent over a tweet about Germany legalising same-sex marriage, accusing the UN special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief of promoting anti-Islamic practices.
Shaheed’s retweet of a news story titled “Germany makes same-sex marriage legal” was unacceptable from a Muslim, the PPM said in a statement Sunday night.
“Dr Shaheed’s action shows that he supports spreading among Maldivians the evil deeds that were also promoted as so clean and pure by the [Maldivian Democratic Party] government that he belonged to and that he fully participated in those efforts,” the ruling party claimed.
The PPM also alleged “unceasing efforts” by a few Maldivians to encourage practices and norms that are contrary to the tenets of Islam.
The statement condemned Shaheed in the harshest terms, accused him of wishing to please foreign parties, and urged him to seek forgiveness from the Maldivian people.
The party also called on the public to raise their voices against Shaheed’s “irreligious” activities.
Religion was a divisive campaign issue during past elections with the PPM and its former allies accusing the MDP of pursuing a secularist agenda that posed an existential threat to the country’s 100 percent Muslim status.
Shaheed, who served as foreign minister under former Presidents Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and Mohamed Nasheed, dismissed the PPM’s statement.
“It is a pack of lies and they have no basis to issue a statement against me,” he told the Maldives Independent.
Shaheed’s retweet of the Twitter Moments story, which included commentary from users, was reported by pro-government outlet Vaguthu as a declaration of support for gay marriage.
The Vaguthu article prompted Sheikh Ali Zaid, a religious scholar and preacher, to call for the killing of Muslims who favour same-sex marriage.
“Anyone who supports and allows same-sex relations is not a Muslim. If they don’t repent, their heads will have to be removed [from their bodies] as a non-believer. [This has to be] implemented by the ruler,” he wrote on Facebook.
The sheikh also described Shaheed as “one of the most evil people from Maldives”.
Dr Ahmed Shaheed is living in the twenty first century and Sheikh Ali Zaid is living in a seventh century time warp like many religious Muslims. Who declared Ali Zaid a ‘religious scholar’? Every second Muslim these days seems to be a self appointed ‘religious scholar’ droning on endlessly on the tenets of Islam.
BTW, gay sex may be ‘contrary to the tenets of islam’ but is rampant in ALL Muslim countries where there is segregation of the sexes. An unpalatable truth that Muslims will never accept. The men in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Niger, Chad and Mali…… just cannot keep their hands off the pretty boys it seems. The little boys in the madrasas with some fat old man in charge are particularly vulnerable to unrequited nocturnal visits. The dormitories in the atolls should all be fitted with CCTV cameras.
Sheikh Ali Zaid should start a fund raising campaign for the cameras and save Maldives from western perversions.
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