Legal framework on freedom of religion and actual application
Maldives is known as an international tourist destination. Yet few of the nearly 1.5 million sightseers who visit the Maldives each year have any contact with the reality of life in a country in which Sunni Islam is the official religion and in which only Sunni Muslims can be citizens. According to Article 2 of the 2008 constitution, the Maldives is “a sovereign, independent and democratic Republic based on the principles of Islam.” Article 10 (a) of the constitution stipulates that “the religion of the state of the Maldives is Islam.” Noting that Islam is central to the country’s legal structure, Article 10 (b) adds, “No law contrary to any tenet of Islam shall be enacted in the Maldives.”
Under Article 9 (d), “a non-Muslim may not become a citizen of the Maldives,” which is why the Maldives claims to have a 100 percent Muslim population. Nevertheless, these official statistics ignore the presence of up to 95,000 immigrants, or 25 percent of the total population, mainly from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines, many of whom are non-Muslims.
The Maldivian constitution contains no protections for religious freedom. However, Article 27 protects the right to freedom of thought and the freedom to communicate one’s opinions and to express oneself, but “in a manner that is not contrary to any tenet of Islam.” Article 19, dealing with restrictions on freedom, provides that, “A citizen is free to engage in any conduct or activity that is not expressly prohibited by Islamic Shari‘a or by law.” Paragraphs (f) and (g) of Article 67 prescribe that it is the responsibility of Maldivian citizens “to promote democratic values and practices in a manner that is not inconsistent with any tenet of Islam” and “to preserve and protect the State religion of Islam, culture, language and heritage of the country.” Pursuant to Article 100 (a, 1), the president and vice-president may be removed from office by a resolution of Parliament (People's Majlis) in case of “direct violation of a tenet of Islam.”
In accordance with article 70 (c), Parliament “shall not pass any law that contravenes any tenet of Islam.” Article 142 requires that judges take account of Shari‘a in order to settle issues not covered in the constitution or the judicial system.
Article 274 (a) of the constitution defines the “tenet of Islam” as follows: “The Holy Qur’an and those principles of Shari‘a whose provenance is not in dispute from among those found in the Sunna of the Noble Prophet, and those principles derived from these two foundations.” The term “Islamic Shari‘a” is defined as: “the Holy Qur’an and the ways preferred by the learned people within the community and followers of the Sunna in relation to criminal, civil, personal and other matters found in the Sunna.”
In addition to the restrictions within the constitution, the Protection of Religious Unity Act 1994 regulates the practice and preaching of Islam and limits the practice and expression of religions other than Sunni Islam.
Article 2 requires government authorisation for Islamic sermons, conferences, and publications. In accordance with Article 4, these sermons, conferences or doctrines must not contradict Sunni orthodoxy as interpreted by the government. Article 4 also prohibits preaching by other religions. According to Article 6, “it is forbidden to propagate a faith other than Islam or to make any effort to convert anyone to a religion other than Islam. It is also illegal to display in public symbols or slogans belonging to a religion other than Islam, or to generate interest in them.” According to Article 7, it is also illegal to “carry or exhibit in public books about other religions (apart from Islam), books and texts that promote and propagate other religions, as well as the translation into Dhivehi, [the official Maldivian language] of those books and texts related to other religions.”
Under Article 9, it is unlawful for non-Muslim residents or visitors to publicly express their faith in any way. In addition, according to Article 10, “It is unlawful to possess, distribute or propagate programs, writings, works of art and advertising about religions other than Islam.” The penalty for any violation of these legal provisions, pursuant to Article 12, is between two and five years of imprisonment for Maldivians, and foreigners who transgress or infringe them “must be handed over to the Ministry of Immigration and Emigration for expulsion from the Maldives.”
The law concerning defamation criminalises any speech, remark, writing or action that is considered defamatory towards “all proponents of Islam.” Potential offenders are punishable by fines ranging from 50,000 Maldivian rufiyaas (US$3,200) to two million rufiyaas (US$130,000), and sentences of three to six months imprisonment. Publications, including those online, found guilty of harbouring “defamatory” comments may have their licences revoked.
The Maldives claims that foreigners residing in the country can practise their religion privately, but many Christian expatriates have been either arrested or deported for participating in private worship services.
All visitors to the Maldives are required to sign an immigration form stating that they do not carry pornographic material, idols, alcohol, pork, or “material against Islam”. Consequently, the official import of Bibles and Christian literature is forbidden.
With the absolute government prohibition of non-Muslim religious expression in any form (alongside an absolute level of government control of Muslim expression), there is no church or place of Christian worship in the country. The few Maldivian Christians have nowhere to meet and do their best to keep their faith private. Officially, there are no Maldivian Christians, only Christian expatriates.
Incidents and developments
The present government remains under the leadership of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih. Significant legislation was passed on 17 December 2020 known as the Transitional Justice Act, which aims to provide reparations for victims of past abuses by state officials and institutions. These could be in the form of monetary compensation, rehabilitation, resolution and restitution.
Despite this positive reform, and the pledge of the Solih government to curb terrorism, the period under review witnessed a significant number of incidents.
The Maldives continues to be a notorious recruiting ground for terrorists. A study by The Soufan Group found high levels of Islamic State (IS) recruitment among Maldivians as far back as April 2016. Graffiti on walls in different atolls called on people to join IS. The country’s police commissioner revealed in December 2019 that “almost 500 Maldivians had travelled, or attempted to travel, to Syria or Iraq” during the peak years of the Islamic State’s power and expansion between 2014 and 2018. Per capita, this makes the Maldives one of the world’s principal sources of Islamist foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs).
Evidence abounds that Islamic radicalism continues to grow, especially with the Solih government’s inconsistent response to the problem. Particularly problematic for religious freedom and the country’s transition to democracy is the influence of conservative Islamic organisations, including the Adhaalath Party. In September 2019, the US Government claimed that a Maldivian, Mohamad Ameen, was a “key leader for ISIS in Syria, Afghanistan, and the Maldives,” and that he was active as recently as April 2019 in recruiting jihadis in the Maldivian capital of Malé. As of 3 October 2021, the Supreme Court overturned the High Court’s decision that dismissed charges against Ameen, who is unable to leave the country and is under house arrest from 6 pm to 6 am.
On 7 May 2021, there was an assassination attempt on the current Speaker of Parliament, Mohamed Nasheed which was described as “an attack on Maldives’ democracy and economy.” More recently, on 22 August 2022, Maldivian minister Ali Solih was stabbed by a man reciting Quranic verses, who aimed for his neck, but missed and grazed his left arm instead.
On 21 November 2021, a religious freedom activist, Mohamed Rusthum Mujuthaba, was arrested on charges that he criticized Islam and was in possession of obscene material. On 10 August 2022, he pled guilty to the charges and was sentenced to four months in prison but was released as he had previously been jailed for six months.
On 8 February 2022, Clique College was under investigation when a song with Christian lyrics was played during a children’s sports festival. The College claimed the song was auto-played from a playlist and denied responsibility for the “mistake.”
On 24 May 2022, a man forcefully entered Jamaluddin primary school shouting “Allah Akbar.” He attempted to attack the principal apparently because he believed that the school’s curriculum was derogatory towards Islam. There has been criticism against the educational curriculum of the Maldives, stating that “religiously conservative actors have successfully turned the school curriculum into a religious and political issue, with those critiquing it often labelled heretics.” Such was the case with the Maldivian Democracy Network (MDN), which was de-registered in November 2019, after it published a report on extremism.
On 21 June 2022, an International Yoga Day celebration was interrupted in the capital city, Male, when religious fundamentalists entered the stadium where the event was being held with flags and placards condemning the practice of yoga. Shouting “God is Great” in Arabic, they were shortly arrested by Maldives police.
On 1 July 2022, a man wearing a shirt with an IS logo was arrested at the King Salman mosque after publicly disturbing Friday prayers.
Along with other consequences highly damaging to the country’s social stability and religious freedom, unchecked Islamic radicalism is putting pressure on women to wear hijabs, leading to social harassment of those women who choose not to do so. For the Maldives, this is a new trend. As late as a decade ago, very few women wore headscarves.
Prospects for freedom of religion
Human rights are not a high priority of the current Maldivian government, which is more concerned about fostering relations with India and China, and trying to extricate the country from the Chinese “debt-trap diplomacy” created by the previous administration.
Because of rising Islamic radicalism, combined with the apathy of the current government, the outlook for religious freedom in the Maldives is negative, exemplified by the incidents during the period under review. The country lacks constitutional protections, implements laws in an inconsistent manner, faces a powerful current of Islamist extremism at the social level, and is ruled by political leaders unwilling to curb jihadism and pursue meaningful political and religious reform.
Maldives