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According to a report in The Independent, Maldives is slowly changing from a liberal Islamic state to a more conservative nation where fundamentalist preachers are persuading locals to adopt a more radical form of Islam and hate Christianity. As seen in a Taliban ruled Afghanistan, Islamic preachers are asking women to cover themselves with the burqa, shun music, and stop listening to radio stations that carry Christian preaching.
The Maldives Government also believes that the real threat to stability comes from Christianity and not from a lack of democracy. Several new grand mosques are being built and sponsored by donors in Kuwait , Libya , and Iran . Preachers are also asking women to send their children to Madrasas (Islamic seminaries) and not to modern schools invariably run by Christian missionaries.
Opposition parties are accusing the Government of repression and denying democracy while encouraging Islamic preachers to tell rural women whose husbands mostly work in resorts and hotels that their husbands are “surrounded by loose women and alcohol.” By frightening them about their husbands, they are counseling them to abide by strict Islamic strictures to preserve their marriage.
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A majority of Maldives are Sunni Muslims and very poor subsisting mostly on rice and fish. Islam came to Maldives in the 12th Century through Arabian pirates who forcefully converted a largely Indian Hindu population. Since 1978 when President Abdul Maumoon Gayoom assumed power, there has been more mixing of religion and government.
The Government is increasingly viewing Christian missionaries of trying to undermine the cohesive Maldivian society. While alcohol is allowed to vacationers but locals are barbarously punished if caught consuming it. Several islands are isolated from mainstream and individual preachers have been essentially running their own rabid version in those areas. About 93% of the population remains illiterate and as seen in India , the Christian missionaries are adept of converting such population. Similarly, the illiteracy also makes them enslaved to preachers’ diktats (whichever religion) and unable to make up their own minds. A paranoid Government tore down a USD 75,000 indoor market built by Maldives Aid, a UK based Christian charity. Similarly, school teachers from Sri Lanka and India are periodically expelled for trying to convert Maldivian citizens to Christianity.
While the mixing of Government and religion is not right for any nation, the dangers of social instability created by those who want to convert and those who want to keep them back is harmful to the population at large. In the Indian temple town of Thirupathi , several activities of Christian missionaries were clamped down after they were found to be abrasively and aggressively engaged in converting the poor using money as leverage. Such practices only divide societies. Religion is matter of personal choices not a body or soul counting contest
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