Mauritian Solidarity Front
Front Solidarité Mauricien |
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Leader | Cehl Fakeermeeah |
Founded | 30 April 1990 |
Ideology |
Conservatism, Sunni Islamism |
Political position | Right-wing |
National Assembly of Mauritius |
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Party flag | |
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Website | |
http://lefsm.ws/ | |
Mauritian Solidarity Front (in French Front Solidarité Mauricien), also known by its acronym FSM is a political party in Mauritius trying to represent the island nation's sizable Muslim minority. In the 2010 general elections in Mauritius, FSM's won one historical parliamentary seat through its leader Cehl Fakeemeeah.
Until 2004, the party was known as Hizbullah (Party of God) (no relation to the Lebanese party Hezbollah).
The fortunes of the party are closely related to its leader Cehl M. Fakeemeeah. In 1992, Cehl Fakeemeeah announced the formation of the Hizbullah.
Cehl Fakeemeeah known as Cehl Meeah, was born in Mauritius in 1958. He began to teach the Qur'an to groups of children in the local mosque when he was 15. At 21, he won a scholarship to Umm Ul Qura University in Makkah where he studied Islamic jurisprudence and returned to Mauritius in 1991.
Here he decided to enter the political arena, and his members suggested the name Hizbullah, which could best describe his convictions. He inaugurated a primary school and over 20 Islamic centers around the island where Arabic and Qur'anic studies are taught. He indulged in some social activities, such as helping the poor and the needy of Plaine-Verte, Vallée Pitot and others. He also initiated free drug-detoxification programs in response to increase in trafficking of street drugs in the Muslim areas. Because of his popularity he alongside another party member became counselors in the municipal elections of 1996.
He ran for the elections in 1992. He had a sizable percentage of the votes, but failed to be elected. In 1995 however, Hizbullah won one seat in the Parliament through Imam Beeharry, a preacher at the Noor-e-Islam mosque in Port Louis. However at the legislative elections of 11 September 2000, the party lost the seat. In the general elections of 2010, one seat was won through Cehl Fakeemeeah.
In December 2000, Hizbullah leader Cehl Fakeemeeah was arrested and accused of involvement in the murders of three Mauritian Militant Movement (MMM) members just before the island's 1996 parliamentary elections. The UK based Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) adopted his case declaring him a "Prisoner of Faith" and considering his arrest a direct result of his political opposition It also expressed concerns about his treatment in detention.