Maldivian politics has become xenophobic and receptive to many shades of religious extremism. The decision against GMR is part of a larger political strategy that pits orthodoxy against India.
Afrasheem Ali returned home after a television appearance on Maldives Television Monday night, October 1. An Islamic scholar and a member of Maldives Parliament (the People's Majlis), Ali had for sometime been on the radar of religious extremists in Maldives for his moderate views.
He defended the right of the faithful to listen to music or to shave their beards. The previous month, on September 10, when he appeared on a televised 'scholar's dialogue' with Islamic minister Sheikh Shaheem Ali Saeed, the minister remarked that Ali's positions contradicted those of the majority of Maldivian religious scholars.
Ali had been attacked in the past for his views and received death threats from ultra radical Maldivian outfits. On October 1, he repeatedly asked for an opportunity to be a guest on the "Islamic Life" show on Television Maldives.
09/12/12 Sruthijith KK/Economic Times
