Tag Archives: Country: Maldives

Religion Clause: Religious-political battles in the Maldives are intensifying.

News from The Associated Press: The Maldives’ military has arrested the chief justice of the country’s criminal court after he released an opposition leader who had been detained without a warrant for allegedly defaming the government.

Religion Clause: The protesters, claiming that the United Nations is spreading anti-Islamic activities in the Maldives, objected to Pillay’s speech before Parliament in which she said that the flogging of women found to have had sex outside marriage is “inhuman and degrading.”

Religion Clause: . . . the Islamic affairs ministry, shut down the blog of Ismail Khilath “Hilath” Rasheed because it contained anti-Islamic material.

Religion Clause: In the Maldives, the government has published new regulations (full text) under the 1994 Protection of Religious Unity Act in the country’s official gazette.

ChristianNewsWire: “Despite Communist North Korea topping the annual Open Doors World Watch List (WWL) for the ninth consecutive year, the most dangerous countries in which to practice Christianity are overwhelmingly Islamic ones.”

Minivan News: “The offer was criticised as a Christmas celebration by religious groups like the Adhaalath Party and the Islamic Foundation of the Maldives (IFM), which have both praised local police for yesterday stopping the promotion at the café.” Via Religion Clause.

Charisma Mag: “Authorities in the Maldives last week had to transport a Christian teacher from India off one of the Islamic nation’s islands after Muslim parents of her students threatened to expel her for ‘preaching Christianity.’”

The Christian Post: “After Saudi Arabia, the Maldives is the only nation that claims a 100-percent Muslim population. The more than 300,000 people in the Maldives, an Indian Ocean archipelago featuring 1,192 islets 435 miles southwest of Sri Lanka, are all Sunnis. This South Asian nation, however, has more than 70,000 expatriate workers representing several non-Islamic religions, including Christianity.”

Religion Clause Blog:  ”The Maldives Constitution, Sec. 9, limits citizenship to Muslims. Minivan News reported yesterday that 37-year old Mohamed Nazim shocked an audience during a question and answer period at a lecture Friday on “Misconceptions About Islam” delivered by a visiting Indian scholar . . . ”

ABC: “Libya and Thailand are among 14 countries elected as new members of the UN Human Rights Council in a vote that rights advocates have criticised as stripping the meaning from the body. Angola, Mauritania, Uganda, Maldives, Malaysia, Qatar, Moldova, Poland, Ecuador, Guatemala, Spain and Switzerland have also been elected by the General Assembly for three-year terms on the 47-nation council, which is based in Geneva.”

Minivan News: “The new regulations under the Religious Unity Act of 1994 drafted by the Islamic Ministry contain ‘ambiguities’ and provisions that could be in conflict with the government’s stated policies, said the President’s Press Secretary, Mohamed Zuhair. The President of the Human Rights Commission of Maldives, religious scholars, people from the entertainment industry and NGOs have expressed concern with the regulations, he said.”

Catholic Culture: “The list compiled by Open Doors was dominated by Islamic governments. Conspicuously absent from the ‘top 10′ list were China and Vietnam . . The top 10 persecutors on the Open Doors list were . . . ”