On 5 November 2019 the Maldivian government dissolved the Maldivian Democracy Network (MDN), an NGO with a focus on human rights and promoting democracy in the Maldives, following a joint 'investigation' by the police and the Islamic Ministry into a four-year-old report of the MDN which was deemed 'anti-Islamic'.
The forced dissolution of MDN has in fact emphasised the very dangers that the report, A Preliminary Assessment of Radicalisation in the Maldives – which I co-authored with three others – points to. The report warns that ultra-conservative religious ideologies funded by foreign sources were radically changing traditional religious beliefs to the detriment of progressive societal ideals the democratic constitution stands for.
The report examined four different methods through which this radicalisation was taking place in society: (1) online pronouncements and discussions by leading religious figures and religious NGOs; (2) the syllabi of textbooks used for religious instruction in primary and secondary schools; (3) offline religious activities conducted by religious NGOs and the Ministry of Islamic Affairs; and (4) official religious sermons. The first part of the report to be published in 2015 was the section on school textbooks. The decision to publish it was made after it was shared with relevant official authorities. The publication of other parts of the report was, however, withheld by the MDN for reasons of ensuring the personal safety of the writers until early 2019, with the MDN believing the change to a more democratic government would create the space for debate on the contents of the report and also provide them the necessary security. But in fact, what occurred was exactly the opposite.
On 14 October 2019 a group of 25 men gathered under the banner of 'I'lmuverin ge gulhun' which roughly translates as "Association of the Most Learned" claiming there was a clear existential danger to Islam in the country. The threat arose, they said, from the MDN report which they alleged mocked Islam and the Prophet Mohammad and attempted to replace Islam in the Maldives with secularism. "MDN is guilty by Sharia and by law", the cleric and former minister Sheikh Ilyas Hussain said, demanding a ban on MDN.