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Maldives RELIGION
With the exception of Shia members of the Indian
trading
community, Maldivians are Sunni Muslims; adherence to
Islam, the
state religion since the twelfth century, is required for
citizenship. The importance of Islam in Maldives is
further
evident in the lack of a secular legal system. Instead,
the
traditional Islamic law code of sharia, known in Dhivehi
as
sariatu, forms the basic law code of Maldives 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; Male has more than thirty. Most mosques
are
whitewashed buildings constructed of coral stone with
corrugated
iron or thatched roofs. In Male, 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 Male. In mid-1991
Maldives had
a total of 724 mosques and 266 women's mosques.
Prayer sessions are held five times daily.
Mudimu, the
mosque caretakers, make the call, but tape recordings
rather than
the human voice are often used. Most shops and offices
close for
fifteen minutes after each call. During the ninth Muslim
month of
Ramadan, Muslims fast during the daylight hours.
Therefore, cafés
and restaurants are closed during the day, and working
hours are
limited. The exact occurrence of Ramadan varies each year
because
it depends on the lunar cycle. Ramadan begins with the new
moon
and ends with the sighting of the next new moon.
The isolation of Maldives from the historical centers
of
Islam in the Middle East and Asia has allowed some
pre-Islamic
beliefs and attitudes to survive. Western anthropologist
Maloney
during his 1970s fieldwork in Maldives reports being told
by a
Muslim cleric that for most Maldivians Islam is "largely a
matter
of observing ablutions, fasting, and reciting
incomprehensible
Arabic prayer formulas." There is a widespread belief in
jinns,
or evil spirits. For protection against such evils, people
often
resort to various charms and spells. The extent of these
beliefs
has led some observers to identify a magico-religious
system
parallel to Islam known as fandita, which provides
a more
personal way for the islanders to deal with either actual
or
perceived problems in their lives.
Data as of August 1994
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