Comoros regime tightens screw on un-Islamic trends

[Hyades]

Comoros regime tightens screw on un-Islamic trends

Published Date: July 08, 2008
MORONI: The Comoros has in recent weeks launched a crackdown on "loose morals", prompting concern among women and intellectuals that the tiny Indian Ocean archipelago was poised to become a Sharia state. In the name of the preservation of "the Comoran identity", Minister for Islamic Affairs Mmadi Ali has spearheaded a drive to impose curbs on immodest clothing among women, the sale of alcohol and teenage parties.
Wearing any clothing item which reveals intimate parts of the body or the sight of which can offend dignity is prohibited," said a ministerial decree issued in May. The authorities have banned large festive gatherings such as birthday parties or end-of-year school bashes, arguing that they led to depraved behaviour among the country's youth. "We are Comorans first and foremost. As such, we have values to defend... The way girls and women dress should respect the customs of our nation and of Islam," the de
cree explained.
Ninety-eight percent of the 700,000 inhabitants in the Comoros' three islands are Muslims. The archipelago was Islamised in the 12th century and was once a "federal Islamic republic", but has since been known to practice a tolerant form of Islam. Ahmed Abdallah Sambi's 2006 election as president was the first peaceful transfer of power in the coup-prone federation's history, but it also raised fears that the archipelago would initiate a shift towards a stricter Islamic society.
Known locally as "ayatollah", the turban-wearing Sambi studied Islam in Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Iran and often leads Friday prayers. "I believe in an Islamic regime," Sambi said after his election, adding however that the union's economic situation - it is considered one of the world's poorest countries - did not allow the immediate creation of an Islamic state.
The government measures have sparked concern among the Comoran intelligentsia that the islands may be sliding towards a form of religious conservatism found in the countries where Sambi received his religious education. "Comoran women don't need ministerial decrees to dress decently," said one journalist, speaking on condition of anonymity. He said that the dress code promoted by the government was just as foreign to Comoran culture as the alleged depravity of Western lifestyle that is prompting authoritie
s' indignation.
The government official in charge of social affairs, Sitti Said Hassane, insisted that the issue "is a matter of education within the family structure". Ismail Ibouroi, a teacher and philosopher, meanwhile, charged that the government's crackdown was infringing on citizens' rights and would only harm the country's image. "It's a violation of individual rights. Clothing is something personal. The minister who took these decisions is scoring an own-goal: he risks projecting a false image of the country abroa
d," Ibouroi said.
Aboubacar Said Salim, another writer, said that such edicts were not welcome and that new rules "should have come through a debate in parliament". Sambi's close ties to Iran have also worried the custodians of the island's Sunni orthodoxy, with top cleric Sheikh Soidiki Mbapandza recently voicing concern over what he said was the growing penetration of Shiite Islam.
Iranian religious charities such as the Khomeiny foundation have expanded in the Comoros recently and now run networks offering medical services, food and clothes to the most destitute on the archipelago. Sambi has repeatedly been accused of being a Shiite Muslim, an allegation he has always denied. Yet under his guidance and that of Mmadi Ali, a member of the conservative National front for Justice party, more measures inspired by the Islamist regime in Iran are being pushed forward. During a recent meeti
ng of top security officials of the Union of the Comoros, the creation of a vice squad was discussed. - AFP
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