Maldives listed among the 11 states with no religious freedom and special envoys will be sent

A group of Christian missionaries, Open Doors has listed Maldives among 11 countries which lack religious freedom.

To address some of the alleged abuses of religious freedom, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) of Christian Missionary Open Doors introduced H.R. 440, a House bill which would create the post of "Special Envoy." According to the bill, its main focus is to have the special envoy promote religious heterodoxy of minorities in countries of the Near East and South Central Asia.

The Near East Countries include Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen and also the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The South Central Asia countries include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. All of these countries are on the World Watch List’s top 50 except Israel, Lebanon, Nepal and Kazakhstan.
"Open Doors USA supports this bill for a special envoy because these are mostly the same countries in which some of the worst persecution against Christians exists," says Open Doors USA Advocacy Director Lindsay Vessey. "This effort to draw more attention to the lack of religious freedom and to empower the special envoy to take action to improve the situation of persecuted minorities is a much-needed and timely initiative by Congressman Wolf. I applaud his tireless leadership in the promotion of international religious freedom.
A religious scholar told Miadhu Daily that this is not something new. He said that the missionaries would try to expedite the whole process with the promise of turning the tables.

He said that “those people” who visit Maldives are not given any consideration so therefore if this is the case then we will be facing a lot of challenges in protecting religious unity.

“Fear is being spread causing strife between the people. Though a few have gone against their God-given intellect, the majority of the Maldives remain as one under the banner of Islam,” he said.