Islam in Maldives

Sunni Islam is the state religion of Maldives, and adherence to it is legally required for citizens by a revision of the constitution in 2008: Article 9, Section D states that a non-Muslim may not become a citizen of the Maldives.

The islands converted from Buddhism in the 12th century. According to Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta, the person responsible for this conversion was a Sunni Berber-Muslim visitor named Abu al Barakat sailing from Morocco. An entirely different account says that the Maldives were converted to Islam after miracles were performed by a Tabrizi named Maulana Shaikh Yusuf Shams-ud-din according to the Tarikh, the official history of the Maldives and it contradicts the claims by Ibn Battuta.

In the late 1990s Wahhabism challenged more tradition moderate practices. After the 2004 tsunami, Saudi funded preachers gained influence. Within a short period of a decade fundamentalist practices dominated the culture. The Guardian estimates that 50-100 fighters have joined ISIS and al Qaeda from the Maldives. The Financial Times puts the number at 200. Radicalization often happens in jail where the "only thing to read is the Qur’an or religious literature. There are also lots of older militants and young guys look up to them."

Islam overtly impacts Maldivian law. The traditional Islamic law code of shariah, known in Dhivehi as sariatu, forms the Maldives' basic code of law, as interpreted to conform to local Maldivian conditions by the president, the attorney general, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Majlis. 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; Malé has more than thirty. Most mosques are whitewashed buildings constructed of coral stone with corrugated iron or thatched roofs. In Malé, 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 Malé. In mid-1991 Maldives had a total of 725 mosques and 266 women's mosques.

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