Maldives: Surrender to Conformity

"To be one's self, and unafraid whether right or wrong, is more admirable than the easy cowardice of surrender to conformity." - Irving Wallace

There is no room for diversity in the Maldives. As a foreigner your choice is simple; conform or leave. In a country that claims a 100% Muslim and requires you to be a Muslim to be a citizen, there really is no choice at all for those who are born there. Here is a clip from an article in the Examiner in 2010. "A 37-year old Maldivian citizen named Mohamed Nazim stood up during the Q & A period of a religious lecture given by Islamic scholar Dr Zakir Naik, and announced that he did not believe in any religion. The audience of 11,000 Muslims reacted violently with many calling for his death and some physically attacking him. The police intervened though and Nazeem was led away to the second block of nearby police building Iskandharu Koshi. There a crowd gathered outside and demanded the police give him to them for beheading. Instead he was whisked away to an undisclosed location, still under arrest. His apostasy was both a state and religious crime. Mohamed Nazeem has been receiving "Islamic counseling" while in police custody and has, according to the Maldives news source 'Haveeru Online', recanted his atheism and returned to Islam. At a June 1 press conference sponsored by the Maldives Ministry for Islamic Affairs, Nazeem recited the Shahada (the Islamic testimony of faith: "There is no God but God, and Muhammad is His prophet") in front of journalists and made a public apology for his sins. Deputy Minister for Islamic Affairs Sheikh Mohamed Farooq said that Nazim reverted to Islam “on freewill.” “He was in police custody. [But] the only thing we did was, we sent two scholars and counselled him. We tried clarifying the misconceptions he had about Islam…[After] two days of counseling, he said that the misconceptions he had have been clarified and that he wanted to become a Muslim,” he said. The announcement was made in the media on Nazim’s request, Farooq added." Despite these claims of free will, it should be taken into consideration that the Islamic Foundation of the Maldives declared that if he did not repent he should be sentenced to death. There is a great chance that their statement influenced his decision, as well as the mob of people who were calling for his head.

In a different story from BBC News in 2010, we see the story end tragically for another young man. "Ismail Mohamed Didi, 25, had admitted being an atheist and had sought political asylum abroad. He was found on Tuesday hanging at his workplace - the air traffic control tower at the international airport in the capital, Male. He asked a foreign charity to help him seek asylum in Britain because, he said, "there is no place for non-Muslim Maldivians in this society". He said his colleagues had spread word of his apostasy and that his closest friends would no longer meet him. He was afraid for his life and knew no-one in the country who could help him. His employer at the airport had launched an investigation into his lack of belief and referred him to the Ministry of Islamic Affairs." Despite the severity of the consequences of living in Maldives, we know that God is stronger than any earthly power and He has a heart for all people. Let us pray this month for a crack to open in this society, and that God's Spirit would flow into this nation and bring about change for those who dare to question the norm.
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Maldives

Basic Info: Maldives is a group of atolls in the Indian Ocean, south-southwest of India, about 1.7 times the size of Washington, DC. The 500 mile long string of 1,190 coral islands are grouped into 26 atolls (200 inhabited islands, plus 80 islands with tourist resorts). The archipelago has a strategic location astride and along major sea lanes in the Indian Ocean. The country is known for its white sandy beaches and is a famous tourist attraction. Its only natural resource is fish, and the country was dependent on its fishing industry until it switched to high end tourism. The population is only 394,451 (July 2012 est.) people, and tourists usually out number the local population by 2 to 1. About 40% of the population is urban, and while Dhivehi is the official language (a dialect of Sinhala, script derived from Arabic) English is spoken by most government officials. The US does not have an embassy in Maldives. The US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Ambassador Patricia A. Butenis, is accredited to Maldives and makes periodic visits.

Government: Maldives was ruled by a sultanate from the 12th century until it became a British protectorate in 1887. Three years after gaining its independence, the country became a republic in 1968. For 30 years, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom held political control. He was elected to 6 successive terms by single-party referendums. After riots in 2003, he promised to enact democratic reforms, such as a more representative political system and more political freedoms. Change was slow to be seen, but political parties were finally legalized in 2005, and a new constitution was ratified by the president in 2008. The first ever multi-candidate, multi-party presidential elections were held in 2008 and Gayoom lost to Mohamed Nasheed, a political activist that was jailed several years earlier. Some of the challenges for Nasheed’s presidency were strengthening democracy and combating poverty and drug abuse. When Nasheed fired a top judge, several weeks of protests forced him to resign the presidency and Vice President Mohammed Waheed Hassan Maniku came to power. The country has an Islamic religious legal system with English common law influences, primarily in commercial matters. Maldives plays a significant role on the UN Human Rights Council in international climate change discussions because of the island’s low elevation and rising sea levels. The Maldives also encourages regional cooperation between India and Pakistan.

Economy: Maldives is dependent on tourism. Over 90% of government tax revenue comes from import duties and tourism-related taxes. The fishing industry has declined in recent years. Agriculture and manufacturing have dropped off as well because of the limited availability of cultivable land and the shortage of domestic labor. Most staple foods must be imported. The country saw declining revenue with a drop in tourism in 2005 after the Indian Ocean tsunami, and in 2009 after the global financial crisis. Falling tourist arrivals and fish exports, combined with high government spending on social needs, subsidies, and civil servant salaries contributed to a budget crisis. This crisis was eased in 2009 with a $79.3 million IMF standby agreement. However, after the first two disbursements, the IMF withheld subsequent disbursements due to concerns over Maldives' growing budget deficit. Maldives has had chronic budget deficits in recent years and the government's plans to cut expenditures have not happened. A new Goods and Services Tax on Tourism (GST) was introduced in January 2011 and a new Business Profit Tax is to be introduced during 2012. These taxes are expected to increase government revenue by about 25%. The government has privatized the main airport and is partially privatizing the energy sector. Tourism will remain the driving force of the economy. The Government of the Maldives has aggressively promoted building new island resorts. Due to increasing tourist arrivals, GDP growth climbed to 8% in 2010 and around 6% in 2011. Diversifying the economy beyond tourism and fishing, reforming public finance, and increasing employment opportunities are major challenges facing the government. Over the longer term Maldivian authorities worry about the impact of erosion and possible global warming on their low-lying country because 80% of the area is 1 meter or less above sea level. Despite the high end tourism, about 16% (2008) of the population is below the poverty line. The government exclusively controlled the radio and TV stations until recently. There are 2 state-owned TV channels and 2 privately-owned TV stations. The government owns Voice of Maldives and operates both an entertainment and a music-based radio station, and there are 5 privately-owned radio stations (2009). The Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF), with its small size and with little serviceable equipment, is inadequate to prevent external aggression and is primarily tasked to reinforce the Maldives Police Service (MPS) and ensure security in the exclusive economic zone (2008).

Religion: Sunni Muslim (official) 100% Islam? Islam is the only recognized religion, and the open practice of all other religions is forbidden. The country's 2008 Constitution is decidedly anti-Christian and states that a "non-Muslim may not become a citizen of the Maldives." Sunni Islam is strongly promoted for national unity and preservation of the government’s power, but a more fundamentalist brand of Islam has rapidly grown in size and influence in recent years. Almost all adherents of other religions are foreigners. Expatriates following other religions can practice their faith only individually and within their respective homes. In 1998, all known Christian foreigners were expelled from the country, and all known Maldivian Christians were arrested and released only after intense international pressure. Maldivians who become Christians abroad have been known to disappear when they return home, never to be heard from again. The country claims to be a 100% Muslim, but really Christians make up less than one-half of 1 percent of the population. In September 2011, police arrested and held Shijo Kokkattu, a 30-year-old teacher from India, for more than two weeks before deporting him for keeping a Bible in his home, according to a foreign source in the capital city. Shijo was arrested in a raid after prompting from his colleagues who found Christian materials on a school computer he had used and reported it to authorities. Last month, the Ministry of Islamic Affairs published new regulations to control propagation of non-Islamic religions in the country. Any violation is punishable by imprisonment of between two and five years, banishment or house arrest. Foreigners who are found proselytizing are to be deported.

Information compiled from CIAWorldFactBook “Maldives”, VOMC “Maldives” www.persecution.net
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