Role of Maldives Government Over Religion Debated After Extremist Bombing

A full-blown church-state controversy seems to have broken out in the Maldives according to a report by Minivan News yesterday. After a bombing in Male last month which injured 12 tourists, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom has called for a ban on preaching by foreign clerics and for the criminalizing words or actions likely to encourage extremism. Grayoom has also written the government-appointed Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs [background], instructing it to impose a ban on the full-face veil. However the conservative Adhaalath Party has called on supporters to ignore the President's directive and the Supreme Council says it has not decided how to respond to it. More broadly, Supreme Council chief Sheikh Rasheed is supporting a bill to make the Council independent of the President. The Adhaalath Party argues that the government, instead of enacting criminal sanctions, should rely on Islamic scholars to reform religious dissidents.