Sheikh under fire over claim of island with non-fasting majority

Sheikh Ali Zaid has come under fire for claiming that 70 percent of people on an unnamed southern island do not fast during Ramadan.

Delivering a sermon Saturday afternoon at a mosque in Malé, Zaid said he was told during a visit to the island that the majority of people have been eating during daytime at Ramadan for years.

The claim was widely circulated after it was reported by Miadhu and was met with scepticism on social media.

The local population of the Maldives is ostensibly 100 percent Sunni Muslim. Fasting from dawn to dusk during Ramadan is one of the five pillars of the Islamic faith and eating before sunset is a criminal offence in the country.