I called upon the government to withdraw charges against religious scholars: Minister

Islamic Minster has said that the previous administration had raised certain charges against religious scholars, and has called upon the government to withdraw these charges.

Speaking on a program in VTV last night, Minister of Islamic Affairs Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed said that the charges taken upon religious scholars were mainly that of preaching without permits.

He said that it a great slight upon them if such charges are taken against the scholars who have the proper university education and those charges cannot be raised according to the current constitution.

“Charges were raised against some scholars earlier. Sheikh Fareed for example. He has a charge against him for preaching without a permit. I have spoken to Sheikh Fareed regarding this matter. In my capacity as the Islamic Minister, I call upon the relevant authorities to withdraw all such charges. These charges were raised in a very hurtful manner. Such charges cannot be taken up against those scholars who have the capability to preach, and have had formal university education, especially in light of the current constitution,” said Shaheem.

He said that this is a time when religious preaching has been widely unrestricted, and that the scholar must be allowed, to the best of his ability, to invite others to the religion as long as the scholar do not utter words contrary to Islam.

“As long as the person does not say something that contradicts the religion, he shall be able to invite others to the religion as best to his ability. If the person starts to give fatwas, tries to tell what is allowed and what is not, if he acts against the fundamentals of Sharia, there are steps that can be taken under the Religious Unity Act. What I do not believe is that a person can be prosecuted for giving religious advice in its essence, for asking a person to go to prayer, or telling him to give the zakat,” said Shaheem.

He also said that religious misunderstandings must be solved through communications with that particular scholar, and that these issues cannot be solved by putting them in jail.