The Maldives government has officially dissolved controversy-ridden Maldivian Democracy Network (MDN).
According to sources, government officially ‘dismantled’ the local pro-democracy network following the publication of a report deemed ‘anti-Islamic.’
Earlier, MDN came under government and parliament scrutiny following their report which had lambasted the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Moreover, MDN fell hard under public languish over their report titled ‘Preliminary Assessment of Radicalization in Maldives.’
In the report, the network had visualized the Islamic prophet as a war-monger who spread hate-speech against other religions.
Furthermore, MDN had mocked the Islamic religion drawing parallels with scientific reasoning and calling prime Islamic doctrines ‘absurd.’
As such, the report caused MDN coming under Police scrutiny as well, who had initiated probe on the report.
Moreover, local Police had then presented their assessment to Ministry of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment.
According to Maldivian constitution, local associations and networks fall under the said ministry’s mandate.
Following the ministry’s decision to dissolve the network, MDN was given 45 days to settle any outstanding debt or transactions as per Associations Act.
Furthermore, the network had not presented any argument or document in defense during the period.
Although the report sparked nationwide outrage, MDN had later on publicly apologized for their controversial report.