Maldives Arrests, Deports Indian Teacher for Owning Bible

Police in the island nation of Maldives held a teacher from India for 15 days before deporting him for having a Bible in his house, Compass Direct News reports. Shijo Kokkattu, 30, was arrested in late September after police found a Bible and a rosary in his house during a raid. The country's Ministry of Islamic Affairs had recently passed a new act outlawing the promotion, propagation and expression of anything representing a religion other than Islam; Kokkattu, charged with preaching his Christian faith, was taken to another island for interrogation and kept in custody for more than two weeks before being banished from the country, the punishment for foreigners found proselytizing.