Imran: Counter-extremism efforts is not an attack on Islam

Home Minister Sheikh Imran Abdulla said on Monday that counter-extremism efforts were not attacks on the religion of Islam.

Imran made the remark on Monday, during the Viyavathi Raajje Councilors Conference held at Crossroads Maldives.

He said that discourse regarding religious extremism was necessary because of its relevancy not just to Maldives, but beyond its borders. He said that religious extremism posed a security threat to the entire international community.

 “Because keeping this a secret and not talking about this poses a threat to the security of Maldives, the Maldivian people, and the global community as a whole. What we are talking about today isn’t an attack on Islam. Neither is this an attack on the people who work to defend Islam. We are talking against killing people without just case, and the people who commit such acts as killing people,” said Imran.

He warned that the Maldivian government would tolerate anyone harming another or damaging the property of another.

He pressed on the need for the community to work together to protect itself from damage incurred in the wake of such violence.

Imran had recently responded to comments by a Maldivian citizen, believed to be a member of Jabhat al-Nusra (Al-Qaeda in Levant) in an interview to US-born journalist Bilal Abdul Kareem from Syria. The interview was released on Bilal's YouTube channel, On the Ground News TV, on Thursday, December 12.

Imran warned that the Maldivian government would not overlook any act by any Maldivian citizens which threatened the national security of Maldives, regardless of which corner of the world such an act originated from, and would not hesitate to take any action necessary in order to protect Maldives from the threat of terrorism.