Ministry of Islamic Affairs has submitted recommendations to the proposed bill on acts of hatred.
The government had proposed an amendment bill to the Penal Code of the Maldives, to specify certain acts of hatred as criminal offences. As such, the bill states acts such as calling a Muslim an apostate / infidel and promoting violence against an individual over a perceived lack of religious faith are criminal offences.
Following the submission of the bill, the Parliament of the Maldives sought recommendations to the bill from the Islamic ministry. The recommendations of the ministry were shared on June 22.
The Islamic ministry submitted three main recommendations to the bill. The first recommendation was to ensure people’s lives and property could not be threatened in the name of Islam. The second recommendation was to amend the clauses of the bill which would obstruct the preaching of Islam. The third and final recommendation was to include acts of hatred against Islam, which includes expressing and spreading anti-Islamic views, in the bill as criminal offences.
The bill was submitted to the parliament on behalf of the government by Parliamentarian Hisaan Hussain. The bill aims to prevent lives from being threatened due to being labelled as an infidel or an apostate. However, many religious scholars have expressed concern that the bill would provide unlimited freedom for people to express anti-Islamic views and disrupt the religious harmony of the country.