The situation of Muslims around the world currently is dire, and is made worse by external influences, says President Abdulla Yameen.

The Maldivian president expressed these sentiments on Sunday while speaking at an event held at his office to receive an award of recognition for his work in promoting moderate values in his country.

“The predicament we face is largely incited and further aggravated by external influences looking to exert ideological and political influence in the vacuum left behind” the president said in his address.

In this regard, Yameen said that all Muslims have a ‘common threat’ to unite against. The president is referring to extremist ideologies that have ‘tarnished the name of Islam’.

“[To counter] those that draw a bold line between Muslims and non-Muslims, created an Us and Others, a Right and Wrong; a vengeful justification to wreak havoc in the name of religion” he said.

Yameen also said that misinterpretations of the religion have spread radical thought and violent extremism, which in turn has led to the ‘wrongful association of Islam with terrorism’.

The Maldives only established its National Counter Terrorism Center in 2016, and the Prevention of Terrorism Act was also ratified as late as that year.

A number of locals individuals and groups have been recorded fighting foreign battles, and some have been caught en route and deported back to the Maldives.

Maldivian nationals have also been recorded fighting alongside militants of the Al-Nusra Front, an organization fighting against the Syrian government, which has ties to the Islamic State and Al-Qaeeda.