Religious scholar questions motive behind Indian grant for mosque restoration

Religious scholar Sheikh Ahmed Sameer has questioned India's motive behind financing the restoration of the Friday Mosque in Male City.

Harsh criticism was directed at the government when it was announced that India was funding the restoration of historical sites that show the Buddhist heritage of the Maldives. Following the criticism, Heritage Minister Yumna Maumoon said the most significant project undertaken under India funding is the restoration of the Friday Mosque.

The conservation and restoration of the Friday Mosque is undertaken with the technical and financial assistance of the Indian government. India will provide a grant of USD 1.5 million or MVR 23 million for the project. The project was undertaken by the Government of India when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Male in June 2019.

Questioning India's motive in granting such a large sum for the restoration of a mosque, popular scholar Ahmed Sameer highlighted the history behind India's demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya, India.

The Babri Mosque was built in 1528-29 on the orders of the Mughal emperor Babur or Zahir-Uddin Muhammad. Four hundred years later, in 1992, the mosque was attacked and demolished by a Hindu nationalist mob that believed the site to be the birthplace of a Hindu deity. Although they claimed a pre-existing temple was destroyed to build the mosque on the site, they failed to provide any historical evidence proving the claim. On 9 November 2019, the Indian Supreme Court ordered the land to be handed over to a trust to build the Hindu temple.
Speaking on the matter, Sheikh Sameer said doubts regarding the existence of a temple were created at the time by the British Rule in India to create conflict between Muslims and Hindus.

'The Babri Mosque is older than the Friday Mosque standing in Male' by hundreds of years. Although the Male' Friday Mosque was first built in 1153 by Dharumavantha Rasgefaanu, the mosque, as it is now, was built in 1657 or 1658 by Al-Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar the First. What is the point of conservation and restoration of the Friday Mosque in the Maldives when they [India] destroy even older mosques in their own country?', Sameer questioned.