Former President Nasheed's video receives harsh criticism

A video showing former President Mohamed Nasheed making certain remarks relating to Islam has become a target of harsh criticism in the Maldives.

Local sentiments were spurred following statements by the former President in a question and answer session during his lecture titled “The Maldives: Will democracy prevail,” on 16th April 2013 in Copenhagen, Denmark, where his critics have said that he had made demeaning remarks towards Islam.

A video of the session being circulated in social media networks show a member of the audience ask the former president whether he could try to explain the struggle between progressive and reactionary thinking in Islam.

Former President Nasheed answered that the radical Islamic thinking is not Islam, but rather Hejaz or Saudi thinking. He said that it is their idea to impose the radical culture upon all Islamic societies, and that the spread of this radical ideology is very rapid.

“This is not Islam necessarily, but more Hejaz or Saudi thinking. Their culture. It is their idea to impose that culture upon all Islamic societies. I’m afraid that the spread of that thinking is very very rapid,” the former President Nasheed said.

He said that the increase in momentum of the ideologies is due to the liberal Muslim's inability to provide an “alternative narrative” to counter the radical Islamic viewpoint.

“Partly because we haven’t stood up and given an alternative narrative. Other more liberal Muslims haven’t come out with a proper narrative that can counter the radical Islamic viewpoint,” He said.

Former President Nasheed continued to elaborate and said that, “what the radicals are doing, they have an answer for everything, anything. You can ring up in the middle of the night and say “Sheikh. I’m not able to sleep.” And then the Sheikh would give you a Hadith, and a revelation on what the Prophet did, and what God has prescribed on sleeping in the middle of the night. Then you go back to sleep. We don’t have a help line. We don’t have an alternative narrative.”

The public reactions on social media networks remarked that Nasheed had implied that an alternative should be sought for the Prophet’s Hadiths and God’s revelations in the Holy Quran.

The comments harshly criticized Nasheed for saying that the Saudi culture and ideologies are radical Islam, and said that the religion of Islam first originated in Saudi Arabia.

The comments also contained a number of remarks defending the former President Nasheed’s statements.