They also forced them to turn over their passwords to their online group calling for tolerance, and filled the page with warnings about their “blasphemy.” The Qur’an says that “there is no compulsion in religion,” (2:256), but what constitutes “compulsion” is in the eye of the beholder. The institutionalized subjugation of the dhimma, with its regular humiliation and harassment, from which one can be freed for the simple price of converting to Islam, is not considered compulsion. Remember Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig, the journalists who were kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam — even though their conversions were obviously coerced, their captors made them say that they were converting freely, and the captors probably believed that themselves. After all, the journos could have chosen to be killed instead.
“Vigilante mobs abduct young men in push to identify online secular activists,” by Zaheena Rasheed, Minivan News, June 9, 2014 (thanks to Halal Pork Shop):
Vigilante mobs have abducted and interrogated several young men in Malé City in a push to identify online activists advocating secularism or professing atheism, Minivan News has learned.
Eyewitnesses told Minivan News the young men were taken to isolated locations in Malé City in separate incidents in recent days.
A vigilante mob interrogated them on the identities of administrators of Facebook groups advocating secularism and atheism in the Maldives.
Minivan News understands the abductions are also related to the hijacking of a Facebook group called ‘Colorless’ on Sunday.
The group has 4,865 members and was set up with in the wake of February 2012’s transfer of power with the aim of bringing a “divided nation to a common ground as a platform to advocate peace, love and harmonic co-existence.”
The group’s administrators were expelled on Sunday and new administrators have changed the group’s banner to a black flag with the Shahadha or the Islamic creed declaring the oneness of Allah and the acceptance of Mohamed as Allah’s prophet.
Meanwhile, the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) issued a statement condemning the abductions and said the hostages were threatened with death. The party has called on the government to take immediate action.
The Maldives Police Service said it is looking into whether these incidents have been reported. The President’s Office was not responding at the time of press.
Abductions
The vigilante mob – estimated at 40 men – accused the young men of homosexuality and atheism, eyewitnesses said. The mob consisted of religious extremists and prominent Malé City gang members, sources said.
Eyewitnesses said the young men were interrogated on their religious beliefs and asked to recite the Shahadha as a test of their belief in Islam. They were also tested on prayer verses and passages from the Quran.
The young men were threatened and forced to hand over the passwords to their Facebook accounts.
They were also asked to identify the administrators behind the ‘Secular Democratic Maldives Movement’ and ‘Maldivian Atheists’ on Facebook.
The ‘Secular Democratic Maldives Movement’ page was founded in December 2012 to advocate for a secular democracy in the Maldives. It has 2,463 followers.
The ‘Dhivehi Atheists/ Maldivian Atheists’ page has 575 followers and advocates for the rights of atheists in the Maldives. It was set up in June 2013.
All abductees were eventually released, sources said.
The MDP believes religious extremists were behind the abductions.
“The Maldivian Democratic Party has received information that some religious extremists have kidnapped young people claiming they had committed irreligious acts. The extremists blindfolded the young people, took them to remote locations against their will, threatened them with sharp weapons, threatened them with death, issued sentences in a vigilante trial and are now implementing these sentences,” the party’s statement said.
The kidnappers then told the hostages they would be killed if any news of the abduction were shared, the MDP said.
The party said it believed “these dangerous acts of terrorism” are against the Maldives constitution, laws and Islamic Sharia and committed by individuals for a certain gain.
Hijacked
Jennifer Latheef, a human rights activist and former administrator of ‘Colorless’, said the four administrators of the group had received several warnings from Facebook users over recent months to remove offensive comments posted by members allegedly mocking Islam.
However, the administrators opted to allow free speech and appealed to all members to be responsible and refrain from attacking and insulting the other’s religious beliefs.
Pictures identifying the group’s administrators were then posted and circulated online by a separate Facebook group called ‘Shariah4Maldives’.
The group alleged ‘Colorless’ administrators had allowed “the mocking of the Prophet Sallalaahu Alaihi Wassalam and outright lies about Islam on their group, and when we warned them about this issue, they refused to remove such posts mocking Islam.”
On Sunday, infiltrators expelled and removed Jennifer and the group’s original administrators without warning.
Jennifer, who currently lives abroad, said death threats have been issued against the group’s administrators.
“I am scared for Maldives. I am scared for the people who are there,” she said.
Analysts have raised concerns over the growing threat of extremism in the Maldives. A recent report by the US State Department expressed concern over radicalization of youth groups and said funds are being raised in the Maldives to support terrorism abroad.
Maldivians are alleged to have died in suicide attacks in Syria, and online jihadist groups last week insulted and taunted the Maldives Police Services after they said they were investigating the deaths.
Maldivian media have also said they feel threatened by religious extremists and gangs.
Salah says
“Muslims kidnap atheists”
They can kidnap some, they can’t kidnap them all.
Apostates from Islam are everywhere, they are growing in number and they are getting more and more vocal.
Nothing is hurting Islam more than the internet. The sword of Islam is getting shorter by the day!
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.ca/2014/01/egyptian-muslims-tear-up-quran.html
duh_swami says
It’s not possible to make an atheist believe what they don’t believe by forced conversion…They didn’t really mean it and only went along to get along.
But now that they have done the shahada tango, and danced with Allah, they are pretty much stuck with going through the motions, as long as they stay in an area where they are known.
john spielman says
this is just how Islam spreads and take control- by progressive intimidation backed by increasing violence just like their founder that demon possessed mass murderer thief liar misogynist and pedophile- Muhammed PBUH( perpetual banishment unto Hell)
jack sterling says
One of the benefit’s of climate change is that the Maldives will soon be underwater..
dumbledoresarmy says
But if so, all of the Maldivians, 99 percent Musim, most of them sharia-supporting and many jihad-minded, will *demand* to be taken in by others…and they will NOT want to go to Muslim-dominated lands, they will use it as an opportunity to enter *non-Muslim lands* and perform Hegira, the Muslim immigration-as-invasion that is described by ex-Muslim Sam Solomon in his book “Al Hijra – the Islamic Doctrine of Immigration”.
They will *refuse* to go to, say, Pakistan; they will *demand* that India, or western nations (like Australia, or America, or Europe* must take them all in.