Minister of Islamic Affairs Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed has taken to social media to seek public opinion on the possibility of delivering sermons in English at a mosque in Malé. Currently, sermons are exclusively delivered in Dhivehi.
In a post to Facebook, the minister said that Maldives is a country with a lot of foreign workers and that there are a large number of Muslim workers in the greater Malé area.
“This is because the role of sermons in the language they speak is important in complementing the way of life, morality and religiosity of workers,” he said.
Saeed said he had not yet decided to change the current practice, but that his post was to gauge public opinion.
According to most recent census figures, there are over 97,000 foreigners living in the Maldives — 32,470 live in the greater Malé area.