In 2013, scholar Felix Wilfred of Oxford University estimated that the number of Christians in Maldives as 1,400 or 0.4% of the country's population.
[3] In the late 1990s, the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs warned people that they would face arrest if they listened to radio programmes broadcast in the Dhivehi language by the Far East Broadcasting Association, based in the Seychelles.
[6] President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom stated that the Maldives would be deprived of independence if it is not entirely Muslim.
The Maldivian High Commission in Colombo stated in 1998, that reports of persecution are inaccurate and wrong.
In 1558 the Portuguese established a small garrison with a Viador (Viyazoru), or overseer of a factory (trading post) in the Maldives, which they administered from their main colony in Goa.