The government did not prohibit religiously conservative organization, Jamiyyathu Salaf from delivering a religious sermon, says Islamic Minister Ahmed Zahir.
A sermon was organized to be held on Friday night at Arabiyya School by the organization on the topic of 'Protecting religion'. However, the sermon could not be delivered as they could not obtain the necessary permits from the Ministry, revealed Jamiyyathul Salaf.
Speaking to AVAS regarding the matter, Islamic Minister Ahmed Zahir revealed that the Ministry had advised the organization that there is no restriction to hold a sermon if the necessary permits are obtained, upon learning of the scheduled sermon. However, the group had refused to acknowledge the necessity of the permits, and decided to go ahead with the sermon, despite the several requests made by the ministry. The sermon was later cancelled, said the Minister.
"We established a policy during February 2018 that all scholars need to adhere to. Under this policy, we have requested all sermons to be delivered after obtaining the necessary permits from the Ministry. However, Salaf organization stated that the freedom of speech and freedom of religion need to be laxed. We do not disagree, we are simply requesting them to obtain the same permits that were required by the previous governments", said Minister Zahir.
The Ministry has been conducting discussions with local scholars to identify ways in which the required processes may be completed smoothly. It is likely that only a text message can be considered as notification to issue permits to hold a sermon on the near future, however, until the changes are implemented, the current policies need to be followed, added Zahir.
The government did not intend to stop the sermon with any ill intentions, but only to follow regulations put in place for the effective monitoring of all such religious activities that are being conducted, said the Minister further.
However, President of Salaf organization, Abdulla Mohamed Ibrahim spoke to AVAS and revealed that the planned activity was not a religious sermon but a forum between religious scholars. The policies do not necessitate a special permit to be obtained to conduct such a forum, and all other relevant permits had already been obtained.
"They asked us to obtain a permit to hold a sermon- What we are organizing is not a sermon but a forum. Only scholars with special permits issued by the ministry to deliver sermons are allowed to participate in this forum. We have previously conducted five similar forums, we were not asked to take any permits. Therefore, we do not believe we are required to obey an unlawful order and obtain this unnecessary permit", said Abdulla.
Abdulla Mohamed assured that the forum would still be conducted, and that the arrangements will be shared at a later date.
Islamic Minister Ahmed Zahir - Photo: AVAS
