Christianity in the Maldives
Christians area religious minority in the Maldives .
Situation of Christians
The Sunni Islam , according to the force since 1997 Constitution of the country's sole state religion . There is no tolerance towards members of other religions. President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom , who ruled autocratically from 1978 to 2008 and a vehement representative of the supremacy of Islam in the Maldives, justified this with, among other things, the defense against Western influences in religion and culture and an otherwise threatened loss of the country's independence.
The public practice of the Christian religion is forbidden; Christian foreigners are only allowed to practice their religion in private. Christian mission is strictly prohibited. In 1998 all foreign Christians suspected of being missionaries were expelled from the country; 50 local Christians are said to have been imprisoned and some of them tortured . A Maldives representative in Colombo denied reports of the persecution of Christians. The Christian charity Open Doors ranks the Maldives in 13th place in 2018 in its World Persecution Index , which shows the extent of the persecution of Christians.
Denominations
The Roman Catholic Church has counted the Maldives as part of the Archdiocese of Colombo ( Sri Lanka ) since 1886 . According to the World Christian Encyclopedia , the Maldives has the Anglican Church of South India , the Mennonites (including the Evangelical Mennonite Church ) and the Seventh-day Adventists .
See also
Remarks
- ↑ Country profile of the Maldives at: opendoors.de, accessed on September 20, 2018
- ^ World Christian Encyclopedia (2nd edition), Volume 1, page 480
Web links
- The Independent : Stormclouds over the Indian Ocean: Behind the veil in the Maldives ( Memento from January 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- the daily newspaper : Change of power in the Maldives - The first democratic election , October 29, 2008