Malé, Maldives – Member of Parliament for Henveiru Central Constituency, Ali Azim has called to arrest Islamic scholar Dr. Mohamed Iyaz.
MP Azim tweeted earlier today in reply to Dr Iyaz calling to arrest him for the safety of the Maldivian society and the islamic world. MP Azim’s tweet comes after the news of Dr Iyaz’s suspension from MNU came to light earlier today.
MP Azim had also alleged that Dr Iyaz might call out to kill their daughters if he is kept free in the society.
According to Dr Iyaz, he was suspended from his job of assistant professor for a period of 14 days for the university to investigate his recent social media posts because it had negative impacts on the people.
Dr Iyaz had told that he hasn’t done anything against the law and that the suspension comes from the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) activists in MNU and that such a suspension would not silence him.
His suspension comes following his remarks on prayer gathering regulations set to control the spread of Covid-19 in the Greater Malé Area. While HPA consulted with islamic scholars regarding the suspension of prayer gatherings amidst rise of Covid-19 cases in Greater Malé Area, Dr Iyaz openly commented against it. He also was against physical distancing in mosques during prayers.
After the consultations with various scholars, Islamic Ministry informed on March 4, 2021 that the decision was taken to continue daily prayer with social distancing instead of closing down the mosques as several Islamic Scholars had advised that closing down the mosques would greatly sadden the citizens reasoning that, it is better to carry out daily prayers with social distancing until the Covid-19 situation gets better.
Dr Iyaz has come under criticism from various politicians whom with which he does not see eye to eye with and confronts them on various political and policy level debates on social media. Dr Iyaz had previously called MP Azim a puppet of Speaker of Parliament and Former President Mohamed Nasheed. Dr Iyaz had called MP Azim this after MP Azim defended Nasheed from Dr Iyaz’s remarks on Nasheed being an enemy of Islam.
