Ahmed Maajid

Friday, 17 September, 2011 One of the many misconceptions about Islam is that Islam, in its scheme for human worldly life, affords the male sex a superior position over the female sex. Those who have advocated this understanding have taken two verses of the Noble Qur’an to support their position. However, on close examination it becomes clear that neither of these two verses may be rightly interpreted or construed to sanction a position of superiority for men over that of women. Here I give you the verses, with their meanings and commentary by Allamah al-Marhum Muhammad Asad, the scholar-intellect par excellence of Islam. The First Verse and Its Commentary "And the divorced women shall undergo, without remarrying,214 a waiting-period of three monthly courses: for it is not lawful for them to conceal what God may have created in their wombs,215 if they believe in God and the Last Day. And during this period their husbands are fully entitled to take them back, if they desire reconci

Friday the 23rd of this December was a very special day in the history of this country. On that day, tens of thousands of Maldivians took to the streets and squares in almost all the 200 inhabited islands of the country to give the Maldivian Government and the whole world a simple message: the Maldivians love Islam; they do not want any other way of life than Islam; they do not, in their sovereign and independent nation, welcome those who mock and bash Islam and try to replace it with false ideologies; and they do not accept the Maldivian Government’s continued mockery of and attacks on Islam with the support of their Islam-hating friends. The base of this mass protest was Malé, the capital of the country. Dutifully abiding by the laws that prohibit protests in a way that would cause disturbances and disruptions to everyday life in Malé, the protesters gathered in the large open area at the eastern shore of the island, which is as far as one can get from the daily life of the public in

Tuesday, December 13, 2011 When my dear brother Ahmed Abdullah Saeed wrote that all the revealed faiths (or the Abrahamic Religions) have prescribed death penalty for apostasy in his article published at Haveeru Daily, someone commented by saying that only Islam has prescribed death penalty for apostasy. While I respectfully disagree with my brother Ahmed Abdullah Saeed when he says that Islam has prescribed death penalty for apostasy, it is surprising that there still are people in this country who say that the other Abrahamic Faiths do not impose death penalty for apostasy. The Old Testament of the Bible expressly commands apostates to be killed, and that the New Testament upholds the law. The person is not just to be killed, but is to be STONED to death. Deuteronomy, Chapter 13, verses 6-10 (The King James Version) reads as follows: 6 If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which [is] as thine own soul, entice thee

Tuesday, 13 December, 2011 Ahmed Abdullah Saeed, a good friend of mine, has written an article about freedom of religion being a human right, at Haveeru Daily (http://www.haveeru.com.mv/dhivehi/report/114108). Many readers have commented on the article, and I was surprised to see that someone had accused him of being intellectually dishonest. While I do not myself agree with Ahmed's proposition that Islam prescribes the death penalty for apostates, I was puzzled that someone found reasons to accuse him of intellectual dishonesty. Why? Was it just because he had spoken in defence of Islam? More than likely, for in today's world, the fashion or trend is to hate Islam, to lie about it, to mock it, to not live it, and to seem as far from it as is possible. Anyway, let us keep that aside and talk about intellectual honesty and the freedom of religion! If God exists, and if He created the universe and mankind, then all "intellectually honest" thought processes would lead us