RELIGION IN THE MALDIVES
Islam is the official state religion of the Maldives. Nearly all Maldivians are Sunni Muslims of the Shafi school. Non-Muslims are not allowed to settle in the Maldives or marry Maldivians. Every inhabited island has a mosque headed by a katibu (imam, secretary) who is paid by the government. Women have a reputation for being more pious than men. They are known for praying five times and regularly reading the Koran while men are known more attending Friday prayers and donating money to charity. [Source: Clarence Maloney and Nils Finn Munch-Petersen, “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 3: South Asia,” edited by Paul Paul Hockings, 1992]
Maldivians were originally Buddhists. They converted to Sunni Islam in the mid-12th century. The homogeneity of religion in the Maldives has been preserved in part because both land ownership and citizenship are restricted to Sunni Muslims. Non-Muslim foreigners working in or visiting the country are allowed to practice their religions, but must do so privately. There are no non-Muslim places of worship. [Source: “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations”, Thomson Gale, 2007]
Proselytizing or recruiting new members from other faiths is prohibited by law for all non-Muslim faiths. The president must be a Sunni Muslim. He is also the supreme authority of the tenets of Islam. The government's Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs regulates matters pertaining to religion.
Religious Practice and Tolerance in the Maldives
Isaac Henry Victor wrote in the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”: Religious freedom is greatly restricted in Maldives, where the nation's constitution requires that the president and cabinet ministers be Sunni Muslims. Shariah (Islamic law) is observed and does not permit the public practicing or propagation of any other religious faith. Some reports indicated that two-dozen foreigners were expelled in 1998 on suspicion of spreading the Christian faith. Expatriate residents, however, are permitted to practice their religion in their private lives. Generally the government prohibits the importing of icons and religious statues, but it does not forbid the bringing in of religious books, such as Bibles, for personal use. In 1998, however, the government tried unsuccessfully to get the Seychelles to stop radio broadcasts of Christian programs in the Dhivehi language. [Source: Isaac Henry Victor, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”, Thomson Gale, 2006]
“The government of Maldives does not permit the influence of Islamic fundamentalism, believing that standard Sunni Islam is one of the distinctive characteristics of the country, giving it religious harmony and a national identity. A Muslim converting to another faith is considered in violation of Islamic law, resulting in the loss of the rights to citizenship.
The only distinct religious minority, Shia Muslims, is found in Malé among the trading community of Indians, who settled there in the 1800s. There are no statistics regarding their numbers. A small number of Sri Lankans, with their Buddhist, Christian, and Hindu religions, have come to Maldives to work in the tourist resorts, because Maldivians, as devout Muslims, refuse to work in facilities serving alcoholic beverages.
“The government does not aggressively propagate Islam among the expatriate non-Muslim workers in Maldives. The government does, however, expend a great deal of energy promoting the spirit and culture of Islam, largely to counteract certain Christian groups who try to proselytize among Maldivian Muslims.
Islam in the Maldives
Traditional Islam is strong but at the same time the Maldivians are known for practicing a relaxed form of Islamic. Islamic mysticism and Sufism is frowned upon but beliefs in jinns (spirits) are strong and astrologers are often consulted.
With the exception of Shia members of the Indian trading community, Maldivians are Sunni Muslims. Adherence to Islam, the state religion since the twelfth century, is required for citizenship. Strict adherence to Islamic precepts and close community relationships are credited with helping to keep the crime rare low. [Source: “Countries of the World and Their Leaders” Yearbook 2006, Thomson Gale]
The importance of Islam in Maldives is evident in the lack of a secular legal system. Instead, the traditional Islamic law code of sharia, known in Dhivehi as sariatu, forms the basic law code of Maldives as interpreted to conform to local Maldivian conditions by the president, the attorney general, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Majlis. [Source: Helen Chapin Metz, Library of Congress, 1994]
On one hand you will find many devout Muslims who pray five times a day at the nation’s many mosques. But on the other hand you will also find festivals with give way to fun-loving, talented men and women singing and dancing. The widespread belief in jinns, or evil spirits, has resulted in a blending of Islam with traditional island beliefs into a magico-religious system known as fandita. [Source: Oceana Maldives Holidays visitmaldives.info]
Daily life is regulated and defined according to Islamic beliefs and customs. The main events and festivals of Maldivian life follow the Muslim Calendar.From infancy children are taught the Arabic alphabet. Religious education is provided both at home and at school. Islam is part of the school curriculum and is taught concurrently with other subjects. [Source: “Countries and Their Cultures”, The Gale Group Inc., 2001]
Arrival if Islam in the Maldives
Maldivians consider the introduction of Islam in the 12 th century as the cornerstone of their country's history. Islam remains the state religion today. According to tradition Islam was introduced to the Maldives in A.D. 1153 by a visitor to the Maldives named Abu al Barakat (Abdul Barakaath Yoosuf Al Barbary). He was an Arab saint who claimed he had the power to drive away powerful jinni (evil spirits) by reading the Koran. The last Buddhist king of Maldives, Dhovemi, was convinced of his powers, the story goes, and converted to Islam and encouraged his subjects to do the same. Some say (or 1193)
The interest of Middle Eastern peoples in Maldives resulted from its strategic location and its abundant supply of cowrie shells, a form of currency that was widely used throughout Asia and parts of the East African coast since ancient times. Middle Eastern seafarers had just begun to take over the Indian Ocean trade routes in the tenth century A.D. and found Maldives to be an important link in those routes. The importance of the Arabs as traders in the Indian Ocean by the twelfth century A.D. may partly explain why the last Buddhist king of Maldives converted to Islam in the year 1153. [Source: Helen Chapin Metz, Library of Congress, 1994*]
Abu al Barakat was a Sunni Muslim visitor to the Maldives. His venerated tomb now stands on the grounds of Hukuru Mosque, or miski, in the capital of Male. Built in 1656, this is the oldest mosque in Maldives. Arab interest in Maldives also was reflected in the residence there in the 1340s of the well-known North African traveler Ibn Battutah.*
Stories, Legends and Theories About the Introduction of Islam to the Maldives
There are many folk stories and legends associated with the conversion of the Maldives to Islam. One such story states that the Maldivians were haunted by a sea demon named Rannamaari. To appease this sea demon the islanders were forced to present a virgin girl every month. According to legend Abu al Barakat, who was visiting the Maldives during this period, rescued the Maldives from this sea demon and convinced the king to adopt Islam. [Source: Maldives Marketing & Public Relations Corporation visitmaldives.com ]
Abu al Barakat (Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari, also known as Aw Barkhadle) is said to have been a Moroccan but more likely he was a Somali Muslim. According to the story told to Ibn Battutah, a mosque was built with the inscription: 'The Sultan Ahmad Shanurazah accepted Islam at the hand of Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari.' There is still some debate as to whether Abu al Barakat was from West Africa (Morocco) or East Africa (Somalia). Ibn Battuta is credited with advocating the East Africa narritive, perhaps because he was a Moroccan, but even when Ibn Battuta visited the islands, the governor of the island at that time was Abd Aziz Al Mogadishawi, a Somali.
According to scholars, Abu al Barakat was Yusuf bin Ahmad al-Kawneyn, a well-known Somali scholar and founder of the Walashma dynasty of the Horn of Africa. After his conversion of the population of Dogor (now known as Aw Barkhadle), a town in Somalia, he spread Islam in the Maldives. Ibn Battuta states the Maldivian king was converted by Abu al-Barakat Yusuf al-Barbari (Blessed Father of Somalia). Others have it he may have been from the Persian town of Tabriz.The first reference to an Iranian origin dates to an 18th-century Persian text.
The conversion process was not entirely peaceful. A document called the Dhanbidhu Lomafanu provides information about the violent suppression of Buddhism in the southern Haddhunmathi Atoll, which had been a major Buddhist center. It describes monks being taken to Male and beheaded and the destruction and disfigurement of numerous stupas and statues.
Struggle and Effort to Keep Islam Alive in the Maldives
Isaac Henry Victor wrote in the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”: “Islamization of Maldives was not accomplished without resistance. After his conversion in 1153, King Sri Tribuvana Aditiya became Sultan ibn Abdulla and constructed the first mosque in Maldives, leading to a rebellion of Buddhist monks, which was brutally suppressed. This was followed by the building of mosques at the sites of desecrated Buddhist monasteries and the forced conversion of many Buddhists to Islam. [Source: Isaac Henry Victor, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”, Thomson Gale, 2006]
“A struggle ensued to keep the European powers and their religion — Christianity, both in its Roman Catholic and the varied Protestant forms — out of Maldives. Tarikh, an often-quoted chronicle in Arabic, describes some of the bloody battles fought in Maldives to keep the infidel Christians at bay. A local Muslim leader, Muhammed Thakurufaan, helped free the islands from the Portuguese in the 1570s. In the latter part of the sixteenth century Sheikh Najeeb Habashee worked to strengthen Islam in the islands and contributed much to the religious and intellectual development of the Maldivian people.
Sunni Islam, along with its traditional institutions, was firmly established after the islands were placed under British protection in 1887. The entire present group of islands became the independent Republic of Maldives in 1965. Thereafter, the process of Islamization was very rapid, and the Maldivian government took full responsibility for this movement.
“Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, elected in 1978, was president throughout the 1980s and '90s. Islamic fundamentalists who wanted to impose a stricter traditional way of life in the 1990s opposed Gayoom. Despite this opposition — and three coup attempts in 1980, 1983, and 1988 — Gayoom continued to promote a more moderate form of Sunni Islam into the twenty-first century. Gayoom is a religious author whose works interpret the Koran and its message for the Maldivians. He is the editor of Dheenuge Magu (Path of Religion), published weekly in Dhivehi language. With a circulation of 7,500, this journal promotes an official Maldivian form of Sunni Islam. Muhammad Luthfie, H.A. Maniku, A.S. Hassan, M. Waheed, and others are considered significant authors in Maldives. They write mainly in Dhivehi and work primarily on reconstructing the history of Maldives, weaving together the life and the religion of the islands.
Mosques in the Maldives
On the inhabited islands, the miski, or mosque, forms the central place where Islam is practiced. Because Friday is the most important day for Muslims to attend mosque, shops and offices in towns and villages close around 11 a.m., and the sermon begins by 12:30 p.m. Most inhabited islands have several mosques; Male has more than thirty. Most mosques are whitewashed buildings constructed of coral stone with corrugated iron or thatched roofs. [Source: Helen Chapin Metz, Library of Congress, 1994 *]
In Male, the Islamic Center and the Grand Friday Mosque, built in 1984 with funding from the Persian Gulf states, Pakistan, Brunei, and Malaysia, are imposing elegant structures. The gold-colored dome of this mosque is the first structure sighted when approaching Male. In mid-1991 Maldives had a total of 724 mosques and 266 women's mosques. Prayer sessions are held five times daily. Mudimu, the mosque caretakers, make the call, but tape recordings rather than the human voice are often used. Most shops and offices close for fifteen minutes after each call. *
According to the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”: “After King Sri Tribuvana Aditiya built the first mosque in the twelfth century, others followed quickly. As of 1991 there were 724 mosques for men and 266 mosques for women throughout the country. In Malé, the capital of Maldives, the Islamic Center and the Grand Friday Mosque were built in 1984, with major funding from outside Maldives. The gold-colored dome of this mosque is the first building sighted when approaching the capital. [Source: Isaac Henry Victor, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”, Thomson Gale, 2006]
The Golden Grand Friday mosque is the main mosque in Malé The are couple dozen or so other mosques are scattered around capital. In Malé, a graveyard holds the tomb of Abu Al Barakat, a North African Arab who brought the Koran to the Maldives in the twelfth century. He later became the first sultan. Also located in this graveyard are tombstones of all the former sultans. [Source: “Countries and Their Cultures”, The Gale Group Inc., 2001]
Katibu and the Practice of Islam in Maldives
Muslim observations in Maldives are more or less the same as those of Muslim in other places. The ritual prayer, salat, is conducted five times daily. Most shops and some offices in the islands close for about 10–15 minutes after the prayer call. [Source: Isaac Henry Victor, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”, Thomson Gale, 2006]
Clarence Maloney and Nils Finn Munch-Petersen wrote in the “Encyclopedia of World Cultures”: “ The ethos of Islam appears to be very strong, but some feel it tends to consist only of perfunctory fasting and prayers. Islamic mysticism and Sufi ideas are officially disapproved of as leading to emotionalism rather than to Sunni legal observance. [Source: Clarence Maloney and Nils Finn Munch-Petersen, “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 3: South Asia,” edited by Paul Paul Hockings, 1992]
Every inhabited island has a mosque headed by a katibu (imam, secretary) who is paid by the government. Katibu preach at Friday prayers, settle disputes and report aberrant behavior to authorities. They have have assistants that help them take care of mosques, call the faithful to prayer and officiate over burials. According to “Countries and Their Cultures”: “The political, judicial, and religious systems in Maldives are so closely intertwined that the political leaders and judges are also the country's religious leaders. The president is considered the primary religious leader, and judges, known as gazis, are responsible for interpreting Islamic law in the courts. [Source: “Countries and Their Cultures”, The Gale Group Inc., 2001]
Issues Among Muslims in the Maldives
According to the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”: “The government's promotion of tourism, despite effects on the country's Islamic culture and the fisheries industry, has been much criticized. Critics, including Muslim leaders, have argued that tourism has led to a religious and cultural deterioration, as well as an increase in drug-related crimes, fights and murders among foreigners living in Maldives, child sexual abuse, pornography; and other social ills. [Source: Isaac Henry Victor, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”, Thomson Gale, 2006]
“In Maldives Islam and politics are closely related. The nation's president must be a Sunni Muslim. Furthermore, the government considers the protection and promotion of Sunni Islam as one of its primary tasks; Islam, it believes, provides the glue that holds the islands together as one harmonious nation.
“Although Sunni Islam generally restricts arts such as music, traditional Maldivian music and dancing are permitted on the islands, particularly during festivals. The Maldivian courts apply a mixture of Shariah (Islamic law) and civil law. The government sanctions floggings and banishment to remote islands, which is very controversial, particularly for women, although it has been practiced in Maldives for centuries.
Conservative Islam in the Maldives
The Maldives does not allow freedom of worship and Sunni Islam is the state religion. In 2008, a constitutional amendment denied non-Muslims the right to be Maldivian citizens. Alcohol beverages and pork products available only at the airport and resorts employing only foreign workers. "Idols" from other religions are also not allowed into the country. [Source: asianews.it, May 23, 2014]
Mary Boland wrote in the Irish Times: “The island paradise’s faltering experiment with democracy has given way to increasingly repressive measures that have curtailed the lives of Maldivians and facilitated the rise of Islamic extremism. “The official line is that tourists — and their polluting, infidel views — should be kept away from the Maldivian people for the sake of the people’s Islamic faith. [Source: Mary Boland, Irish Times, August 16, 2014]
But there is another side to it,” says Azra Naseem, a Maldivian who is visiting fellow at the International Institute of Conflict Resolution and Reconstruction at Dublin City University, where she is researching the Islamic radicalisation of her country. The truth, she says, is that the Maldives has been transformed from a moderate Islamic nation into an increasingly fundamentalist regime led by opportunists who have gained politically by allowing religious radicals to dictate state affairs. The changing of an entire population’s religious beliefs and practices within the space of a decade — in ways that roll back almost all progressive ideas that it has embraced over centuries — is extremely serious,” says Naseem.
““Salafi and Wahhabi ideologies have become not just dominant but almost the only religious ideology in town. Counter-narratives are non-existent,” he says. “An increasing number of parents are opting to home- school children rather than ‘spoil’ them with education. Little girls are being made to wear headscarves, sexualising them as early as five or six. But to foreign observers it’s not serious because people aren’t killing each other — yet. Perhaps now that Maldivians have been found fighting in Syria with some of the most violent Islamists there may be more attention paid to the desperate situation in the country.”
“A relatively relaxed version of the religion was practised under Gayoom until 2004, when an influx of preachers, funded mainly by Saudi Arabia, arrived after the tsunami. It had caused widespread damage and killed some 100 people. “It was a turning point in the radicalisation process,” says Naseem. “Local Islamists were very clever in their use of the tragedy to convince Maldivians that the tsunami was punishment from Allah for not practising the ‘right’ Islam — which is the ‘purist’ Islam that Salafis and other fundamentalists want all Muslims to turn to.” The result is a society transformed beyond recognition, says Velezinee: “A decade ago, women wearing the veil were a minority and women wearing the full black hijab were hardly seen. Today the Arab-style full veil is common.”
“Maldivian women in their 20s and early 30s recall how they could stroll around Malé as teenagers wearing strappy tops and shorts. “Now you just couldn’t do it,” says one. “You’d be shouted at and chased.” Opponents of the new ideology criticise the government on social media sites but dare not do so openly because their comments risk being construed as unIslamic, thus unconstitutional and liable to severe punishment. Under the constitution Maldivians must be Muslim to be citizens, and Sunni Muslim to run for political office. Religion, a taboo subject, is avoided even by journalists.”
Superstitions, Jinns (Spirits) and the Blending of Religions in the Maldives
Despite the prevalence of Islam, traditional beliefs and Hindu, Buddhist and local deities continues to exist in the form of jinnis who are dealt with using Islamic strategies. The outside world is unknown and feared. There is a particular fear of strange lights in the ocean. Black magic is known but us against the law. Beliefs in the evil eye and Hindu ideas of pollution also exist. Some islands have astrologers. Maldivians believe that color blue has healing properties. The blue sea is everywhere there.
The isolation of Maldives from the historical centers of Islam in the Middle East and Asia has allowed some pre-Islamic beliefs and attitudes to survive. Western anthropologist Maloney during his 1970s fieldwork in Maldives reports being told by a Muslim cleric that for most Maldivians Islam is "largely a matter of observing ablutions, fasting, and reciting incomprehensible Arabic prayer formulas." [Source: Helen Chapin Metz, Library of Congress, 1994 *]
There is a widespread belief in jinns, or evil spirits. For protection against such evils, people often resort to various charms and spells. The extent of these beliefs has led some observers to identify a magico-religious system parallel to Islam known as fandita, which provides a more personal way for the islanders to deal with either actual or perceived problems in their lives. *
Fandita
The widespread belief in jinns, or evil spirits, has resulted in a blending of Islam with traditional island beliefs into a magico-religious system known as fandita. Fandita is used to chase away jinn and dangerous lights, increase fertility, catch fish, heal diseases, facilitate divination, catch spirits or solve problems in life. When a new boat is launched it is blessed with Koranic prayers and fandta rituals, Fandita is also performed for certain agricultural stages. The growing of taro and millet is acknowledged with fandita. Fandita practitioners were once licensed by the state. They seldom go into trances which is regarded as unIslamic.
Isaac Henry Victor wrote in “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”:In Maldives sacredness is not limited to the mosque and the recitation of the Koran. Fandita, a magico-religious system that coexists with Islam in the minds of ordinary people, provides an alternative way of dealing with their problems. This system, a mixture of folk medicine, charms, and black magic, as well as Koranic verses, gets its momentum from a widespread belief in jinni, or evil spirits. The Koran is seen as supporting this popular belief in jinni. [Source: Isaac Henry Victor, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”, Thomson Gale, 2006]
Clarence Maloney and Nils Finn Munch-Petersen wrote in the “Encyclopedia of World Cultures”: “ Fandita is used to chase away jinnis and make a person give up his or her spouse, cast out a spirit, or solve any problem in life. Fandita has many elements similar to village religion in south India and Sri Lanka. Pre-Muslim concepts of the evil eye and pollution have been absorbed into Islamic values. Menstrual pollution is strongly observed.” [Source: Clarence Maloney and Nils Finn Munch-Petersen, “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 3: South Asia,” edited by Paul Paul Hockings, 1992]
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Republic of Maldives Department of Information, the government site (maldivesinfo.gov.mv), Ministry of Tourism Maldives (tourism.gov.mv), Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC, visitmaldives.com), The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Wikipedia and various books, websites and other publications.
Last updated February 2022