mullafareed
Mulla Fareed under investigation
Ismail Rifau, Political Correspondent
Ismail Rifau, Political Correspondent
Male’, Maldives, 2nd February 2006 (www.olhuala.com) – The MDP’s religious head-honcho Mulla Fareed has claimed that he is one of the individuals charged by the attorney general in relation to his party’s failed assembly of January 24th. Fareed, who styles himself on the image and character of Afghanistan’s notorious Mulla Omar, was one of the speakers at the assembly at the artificial beach on Tuesday the 24th of last month.
He is reported to have called for the forceful and violent overthrow of the constitutional government, based on his view that President Gayoom does not uphold Islamic values. Fareed is an anomaly in the upper echelons of MDP’s power structure which are composed of very ‘liberal’ individuals for a Muslim country.
Fareed based his accusation on the fact that Maldivian women are able to seek employment. He is among a group which is leading the fight against an amendment to the constitution proposed by Gayoom in his June 9th 2004 reform agenda which calls for women to be made eligible to hold the office of president.
Mulla Fareed is the vice-chairman of one the Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) religious committees (Islamic). A hastily convened committee to appease extreme factions within the Party, who have formed a lose alliance with the ‘liberals’ to achieve a common goal. Analysts have noted that this committee was formulated well after the MDP’s congress held last December, and this move is seen by analysts as an effort to distance the MDP from allegations of evangelical activity, a serious concern for the extreme factions within the party.
This is an example of MDP’s two-faced policy. The policy of masking the real ‘values’ of the party from international and local audiences, achieved through mixed messaging depending on the target audience. While the international community is assured of the ‘democratic values’ of the MDP, party officials such as Mulla Fareed and B.A Naseem have openly called for the banning of women from the workplace. MDP members in the constitutional assembly fought with much vigour to ensure that female members of the Majilis wore the Burqa (head scarf) to Majilis sessions.
Further. Mulla Fareed who has been linked to various shady international extremist groups, convicted earlier on counts of terrorism arising from ‘plotting to kidnap government officials and transport them to uninhabited islands with intent of grievious bodily harm’ and ‘plotting to attack tourists on the streets of Male’ openly called for murder of certain government officials in speeches made during the MDP’s failed Black Friday violent demonstrations of August 12th and 13th 2004.
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