I am glad that we didn’t vote this delusional man into power.

What the hell is wrong with these people?

Today Mr. Nazim, the ex-apostate, reverted to Islam after publicly apologising for his actions. I hope that he did so with sincerity and after truly finding peace in the religion he was once born into. Although some may speculate that a sane person would succumb to fear when he or she is such a hot target of hatred – i.e. the death threats and public call for his execution.

In my opinion Nazim, following his renouncing of Islam, was the loneliest Dhivehi citizen despite all the attention he was attracting. No other prisoner of conscience, former or present, Anni or anyone, would have had to go through the hellish mental agony of being so completely and utterly ostracized.

And all he did was shock everyone out of the “100% Muslim” illusion. It was a rude awakening for many – as if a secret code of ethics was broken that night – a code that creates the facade of piety over the duality of the average Muslim’s life. The sinning self and the pious exterior, so to speak.

I shall leave this dilemma to the “experts” such as Dr. Naik to explicate.

When I read that Dr. Naik was shocked that a Muslim renounced Islam at his lecture – apparently the first time this happened in his entire career – I knew it was only natural that he react that way.

Did Dr. Naik express disdain that a mob of fellow raging Muslim tried to attack (and possibly murder) Nazim after his announcement?

Not at all.

Sadly, today’s Muslims are expected to rage. They are expected to murder in the name of Islam. Dr. Naik does not expect anything less.

This has become true for us Dhivehin as well. A quick glance over on Facebook walls and comments on blog posts revealed there were calls to execute Nazim or revoke his citizenship. While everyone is entitled to their opinion, I was alarmed that my fellow compatriots could be so cocky and could think so terribly of another over a matter of faith and demand such harsh punishments.

Surely, we are better than this.

Now that Nazim has reverted and embraced Islam, we can all go back to living the “100% Muslim” illusion once again. In his statement given to media he publicly apologised for his actions that caused “agony for the Maldivian people”. I think it is only fair to say that we now owe him an apology for reacting the way we did.

On the one hand you cannot pull your head out of this one easily.

With Mr. Nazim you have one tough case of prisoner of conscience – one that will surely give you nightmares and the aforementioned tightening of the scrotum.

The world is watching intently, Mr. Anni. Oh how you must worry now.

You will be a lucky man if Mr. Nazim “repents” but if he doesn’t you have got a hell of a sticky situation. For the first time in history, the only democratically elected president, once a prisoner of conscience himself, may be forced to revoke the citizenship of a born Maldivian citizen for a thought crime. Surely, that is going to really brighten up your CV, Mr. Anni.

Your impatient and highly pretentious public will demand swift justice for, god forbid, someone has spoken their mind about religion. He must be stopped immediately before he completely destroys our country by invoking the wrath of God!

One solution I suggest is to pay off Mr. Nazim to leave the country and settle elsewhere temporarily. This way you can count on the short memories of your beloved citizens to forget and move on. And they will.

In no time they will be back at it doing the usual: sexually abusing their daughters, knifing each other, brewing moonshine, selling and using drugs, printing counterfeit money, making pleasure trips to neighbouring countries, engaging in fraud and corruption, money-laundering, terrorism, wife-beating, raping and gang-raping and praying in between those acts.

In fact, come to think of it, Mr. Nazim might be in for a better deal just for being honest. You can proclaim that at least you shipped out a prisoner of conscience for the two arriving from Gitmo.

Oh yes, the world is watching the mess you are in, Mr. Anni. It is about to find out the charade you are running here. The facade of “democracy” and freedoms you so proudly flaunt  is about to crumble and fall to reveal the intolerant beast within: the one that has been terrorizing your compatriots in a far worse state of repression than before.

The one that you have been hiding from the world.

The one that is going to bring “honor and prestige” to the country.

The archangel Gabriel commanded Muhammed, the prophet of Islam in Quran 96:1. But the Prophet was unlettered and could not possibly read.

Despite that the Quran calls upon Muslims to learn and to seek knowledge. And once upon a time, in a glorious era known as the Islamic Golden Age several centuries ago, Muslims of all schools of thought did exactly that and helped advance knowledge for humanity.

Consider the following historical figures, both polymaths (experts in many fields):

Ibn Sina (or Avicenna)

This man was a physician, philosopher, astronomer, Islamic scholar and theologian, a paleontologist, poet, physicist, psychologist and scientist. He wrote several books, important among them the Canon of Medicine – which was used as text at universities. He is considered the father of modern medicine, the father of the concept of momentum and the father of geology. He introduced the concept of inertia which formed the basis of Newton’s theories of motion.

Abu Rayhan Biruni

A physicist, anthropologist, comparative sociologist, astronomer, chemist, encyclopedist, historian, traveler, geologist, mathematician, pharmacist, psychologist, philosopher, theologian, scholar and teacher.

A leading exponent of the experimental scientific method, he also developed comparative sociology and experimentation in psychology. And he was the first to conduct experiments related to astronomical phenomena. He is considered as one of the greatest scientists of all history by some.

There are many more from this era when the Muslim world was flourishing with the power of knowledge. Their influence on modern science is undeniable and their work has had the greatest influence on human advancement known to this day. In fact, how many people can boast having a crater on the moon named after them? The above two eminent Islamic intellectuals certainly can.

The Muslim World Today

In comparison the Islamic world today leaves much to be desired in the department of intellectuals, great thinkers and scientists.

How many prominent Muslim scientists and individuals of exemplary intellectual caliber can we name? Not one actually. So to find out I looked at a publication called the 500 Most Influential Muslims (2009).

The top 50 positions of the list is taken up by kings, tyrants, corrupt dictators, religious scholars and mullahs. No surprises there as the Muslim world as it is today is ripe for the reaping by greedy men in costumes. Sadly, the number of Muslim scientists listed is a pathetic 14. And among them is listed the famous anti-evolutionist (and now incarcerated criminal) Harun Yahya (curiously he is listed under this pet-name and not his real name: Adnan Oktar).

In fact, aside from his Excellency Dr. Abdul Kalam of India, Yahya is probably the only prominent person on the list – and the scientific community would have a hard time considering the latter as one of them (or naming a crater on the moon after him).

One gets the feeling that the authors of this publication tried really hard to compile 500 influential Muslims because apart from the kings and dictators in flashy regalia (whose influence is solely their dominion over their minions) it is a list of people who run NGOs and religious organisations. The inclusion of the name of one Osama bin Laden just goes to show how bleak the turnout was.

Given the state of the Muslims world what can we expect?

A recent Pew Forum report on the size of the global Muslim population says that there are 1.57 billion Muslims living in the world today. That is, 1 in every 4 people in the world is a Muslim. It is a staggeringly large number.

According to the report, the highest concentrations of Muslims are to be found in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Indonesia. Combined they make up 43.6% of the global total. Combined with the numbers from Sub-Saharan Africa, this translates into over 50% of Muslims worldwide living in poverty stricken, uneducated and backward regions in the world. Pakistan and Bangladesh both claim dismal literacy rates that are below 50%. And in India, where literacy rates hover around the 60 percent mark, the plight of the Muslim population has been a cause for concern ever since the country partitioned in the early 50s.

In all the 56 Islamic states around the world not one has a university in the top 100 universities in the world. Compare this to the past when Islamic institutions ruled the world. For the 1.5 billion Muslims today, that is a miserable statistic.

Yes, indeed, Muslims maybe numerous and numbers maybe increasing but so is the expansion of the void of knowledge and the poverty-stricken Muslim ghetto state. These facts are certainly nothing to sing about.

The Need for Better Role-Models

The most famous personalities of the Muslim world today are the so-called Islamic scholars: sheikhs, mullahs and other showmen and televangelists. They propagate a narrow world-view that is devoid of any knowledge about the world or the sciences. They do not advocate or call upon Muslims to go and gain knowledge, to do research, to advance the Islamic Ummah (if not humanity) in every possible way. They completely ignore the Quranic injunctions to seek knowledge.

They never mention the Islamic greats as Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd or Biruni and only mention the Islamic Golden age when challenged to explain the despicable state of Muslims today as if the glories of centuries past can sustain a billion out of destitution.

It won’t.

They propagate a concept of the victimized Muslim world; a view that is utterly detrimental to the progress of Muslims.

Religious sermons and edicts have become the norm in the Islamic world so much so that sheikhs and mullahs have gained almost prophetic status among Muslims. Unquestioned and unchallenged they seek to allude to the movement that could be attributed to the downfall of the Golden Age: the strict return to the teachings of Quran and hadith as the only source of knowledge. Scholars such as ibn Al Wahab – associated with Wahabism – advocated this view. This is what we are witnessing today in Maldives as well.

Muslims need better role-models to look up to and aspire to and emulate. Although Prophet Muhammed is considered to be the best role-model for Muslims there is no denying that he was unlettered. In today’s world being illiterate is a failure because how many Muslims can claim to receive messages directly from God? The Prophet was and is beyond compare.

Instead, Muslims need modern Ibn Sinas and Birunis. Not bin Ladens and sheikh Shaheems and sheikh Fareeds. Who are these people compared to the greatness of the historic Islamic scientists and philosophers?

The Maldives government must look into the possibilities of inspiring Dhivehin to achieve higher; bring in Muslims scientists, sociologists, philosophers and entrepreneurs. The government must put an immediate stop to the popularization of single-minded religious absolutism spread by organisations such as Adhaalathu and the Salaf.

And Muslims in general must realize that no one is coming to help them unless they help themselves. They must get out of the victim-mentality because it is Muslims themselves, despite their great numbers, who have put this curse over their world.

Muslims of the world need to have a good long look in the mirror then examine the profiles of people like Ibn Sina, al-Khwārizmī, Ibn Rushd,  and Biruni. Surely, it must make every Muslim, man or woman, hang their head in shame today.

References:

• Ibn Sina, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avicenna
• Biruni, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Rayhan_Biruni
• The 500 Most Influential Muslims [PDF]
• Mapping the Global Muslims Population, Pew Forum
• India literacy rate
• Top 8,000 universities in the world

That is, until, war and terror are brought to my patch of the world. Then, I cannot guarantee the safety of my children. They will go to bed with uncertainty and fear. And I will be left hopeless and weak.

That’s what I realized when I watched the Wikileaks video of United States Army mindlessly engage in the indiscriminate murder of people in Iraq. I have always watched the news fed to me by the MSM – sanitized, censored and orchestrated – just right to be digestible for people like me who are far removed from the destruction plaguing various parts of the world, so that we can carry on with our quiet lives without worry.

I watched the video in horror, my stomach sickening with every passing minute. Humanity must give itself a big pat on the back for being the number one animal on the planet. We maybe intelligent, but the raw animal is right there waiting to rear its ugly head to shame humanity once and for all.

That’s why we have rapists, child murderers, terrorists and armies.

The trigger-happy nature of the army of animals from the United States in the video shocked me. How eager were they to shoot, kill and destroy! I cannot imagine the kind of bloodshed and the murder of innocent civilians these wars must have caused – for this video is but one incident. It is one thing to hear about “collateral damage” and another thing to actually see it happen.

And you will see it purposefully made to happen:

As intelligent humans must seriously ask ourselves: how can there ever be peace?