President of Jamiyyath Salaf, Sheikh Abdulla bin Mohamed Ibrahim, has said that the institutes need to work together and make many plans need to be made in order to stop extremism in the country.

Talking to One Online, he said that long-term plans are required to resolve the issue of extremist views.

Speaking further on preventative measures against extremism, Sheikh Abdulla said that training educational staff to teach the current syllabus is very important. He said that the teachers who are teaching subjects aside from Islam and Dhivehi need to be those who believes in Islam and have the awareness of, and understands the Maldivian culture rooted in the Islamic faith.

He said that one of the challenges combating extremism is that religious experts versed in education and other fields not being given the opportunity by the government.

The President of Salaf said that extremism has existed in every time period in varying degrees and its cause has been different for every country. And so, the cause of extremist views in the Maldives need to be eradicated.

Sheikh Abdulla said that the laws in the country to protect the Islamic faith are not being implemented. And the lack of action on the cases of blasphemy reported to the police serves as evidence to that fact.

The assassination attempt on the Speaker of the Parliament, former President Mohamed Nasheed with a bomb on 6 May 2021 drew attention to the extremism in the Maldives.

Highlighting the danger of extremism, former Minister of Islamic Affairs, Mohamed Shaheen Ali Saeed said that he is ready to work with the government against extremism in the country.

Religious scholars in the country has raised concerns saying that the current laws against extremism needs to be implemented to address the issue of extremism and no new laws are required.