Maldives: Parliament takes on revised penal code
— Minivan News: “Existing laws and regulations, principles of Islamic sharia and norms and values acceptable to Maldivians were taken as the basis for drafting the law, he said.”
— “Suood said difficulties arose when there were conflicts between the three. ‘Some Islamic sharia punishments are not enforced in the Maldives. For example, there is no amputation for thieves or death for apostates.'”
— “Another difficulty were disagreements among fiqh scholars in interpreting the Qur’an and the hadiths, he continued, and the traditional values and practices in the country were considered in such cases.”
— “Several MPs said Islamic sharia should take precedence in specifying offences and punishments and spoke in favour of introducing the death penalty.”
— Wikipedia notes that: “The Maldives have, in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), undertaken to write the world’s first Muslim criminal code”
— Wikipedia notes that: “Meanwhile, Islam remains the only official religion of The Maldives with popular support of the people of the Republic. The open practice of all other religions is forbidden and such actions are liable to prosecution under the law of the country.”