‘Jealousy’ over Maldives 100 percent Muslim status: president

There are those who are “jealous” of the Maldives’ for being a 100 percent Muslim country, the president said Wednesday in an address to mark the anniversary of the country’s embrace of Islam.

President Abdulla Yameen said that staying steadfast in the path of Islam was a “religious and national duty” for all Maldivians and that they should be “aware of efforts to weaken the Islamic faith from inside and outside (the country).”

“We must not give any room in this land to such views,” Yameen said, adding that the economic, social and political progress of the country depended on how much Maldivians adhered to Islam.

The Maldives embraced Islam 891 years, with the anniversary taking place on the second day of the fourth month of the Islamic calendar.