Founder of Maldivian Democracy Network Shahindha Ismail as well as Azra Naseem has claimed that they cannot travel back to the Maldives to cooperate in an investigation into a report publicized by the NGO due to several security reasons.

Maldives Police Service had previously summoned the two over a report published by the NGO which mocked Islam and the Prophet.

Police confirmed that Shahindha and Azra had informed that they will not be able to come back to the Maldives due to the lack of a safe environment for them. Police summoned the two to be present before them within 14 days late last month.

The 'Preliminary Assessment of Radicalisation in the Maldives' was issued in 2015 and claimed that the islam books used to teach in secondary grades encourage extremist opinions. It also included several points which were against the Quran and the Hadith. A social media campaign has since kicked off against MDN calling on the authorities to ban them, following which all activities of the NGO were put on suspension.

An assessment of the report by Police found that the report did indeed mock the religion, shortly after which they had informed the Youth Ministry of the detailed findings of their report.

While 115 councils have called upon the authorities to take action against the NGO, several scholars and citizens have also been expressing their opinion against the NGO and their ideologies.