Comment: State-sponsored fundamentalism and lack of freedom of speech to blame for violence, not protests

Dear Dr Hassan Saeed,

I would like to express the following comments in response to your letter in The Guardian today, ‘Violent protests in the Maldives’.

Rather than suggesting that the recent increase of violent behaviour in the Maldives is a direct result of MDP protests, it would seem more obviously related to the state-sponsored fundamentalism and lack of freedom of speech which has been endemic over the last few months.

This has engendered an increasingly intolerant attitude in Maldivian society, silencing scholars promoting a moderate, progressive version of Islam and spawning hate-mongering through threatening videos and websites etc.