By Philip Sherwell and Ben Leapman in the Telegraph:
Fears have been growing in the Maldives that Islamic radicals would bring violence to the Muslim island state.There were concerns that yesterday's bombers had deliberately targeted foreign tourists – as Islamic terrorists did on the holiday island of Bali in 2002.
Despite its reputation as an Indian Ocean paradise, the former British protectorate is no stranger to unrest, riots and attempted coups. But this is the first time that it has been bombed.
"The Maldives has become an increasingly radicalised society in recent years and there was a sense of foreboding that something like this could happen," said a British media consultant who advises the government of the autocratic president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.
"This has been threatening to rear its head. Islamic groups have complained that tourists have imported Western values and undermined traditional Islamic culture."
Another Western adviser to the government said: "I would immediately suspect this has been done by enemies of the state. The government has been concerned that radical Islam is infiltrating the country.
"The government has taken a hard line against radical Islam."
President Gayoom is Asia's longest-serving leader and has been in charge of the Maldives since 1978. Educated in Islamic jurisprudence in Egypt, he has run the country as a one-party state with a legal system based on Sharia law.
Was this a slip of the tongue? The implication here is that "radical Islam" -- which the government is resisting -- and Sharia -- which the government is based on -- are somehow at opposite ends of the spectrum. Both statements are, of course, wrong. "Radicalism," i.e., violence, and Sharia are both entirely within the mainstream of Islam. Et tu, Telegraph?
Amnesty International has reported allegations of arbitrary detention, unfair trials, and torture and rape in custody.The main opposition, the Maldivian Democratic Party, was founded by Sri Lanka-based exiles and is led by Mohamed Nasheed, an author who was educated at Liverpool University and has spent more than a year in solitary confinement.
Tourism has brought greater affluence to the teeming city of Male, home to one-third of the country's population, but there is little mixing between foreign visitors and locals.
Drug abuse is a growing problem, prompting calls from another opposition group, the Islamic Democratic Party, for the execution of drug smugglers.
Best keep the pot at home, friends.
We have had a poster here on JW who used to post from the Maldives and who kept telling us how bad it was there, remember?
What moniker did he use again?
Greg,
...if I may supplement your thread, here's some extra info that may help.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mv.html
Soon we will only have a short list of places that haven't been affected by islamic terrorists.
Good to see them speak their minds *honestly*.. Global warming can be a *Blessing* indeed :-)
NO Maldive "refugees" in the West when they get flooded!
Let 'em try that Sh*t in China.. the World's greatest POLLUTER.
Anywhere in the world at any time the following statement will be a truism that generally explains the irrational violence:
It's the islam, stupid!
"We have had a poster here on JW who used to post from the Maldives and who kept telling us how bad it was there, remember?"
-- from a posting above
Maldives? A terrorist attack in the balmy Maldives? Visitors to The Duranty Times and The Bandar Beacon will very likely have never before read or heard a word bout the persecution of non-Muslims, the destruction of non-Muslim sites, the punishment of those leaving Islam, in the Maldives, and certainly know nothing about the local Muslim ruler, Gayoom. At least some visitors to this site will remember they have read about the Maldives before.
Here, for example:
#1. The destruction of holy places of other religions by Muslims must be told to the wider world.
Wherever muslims have gone, they have done that.
In Maldives, the Buddhist and Hindhu temples were made into mosques. Since the temples were aligned to the sun, turning to Mecca was a sideways thing in these converted mosques.
Now in recent times Arab/Muslim educated dictator and friend of Arafat,Saddamand Gaddafi and admirer and devotee of Syed Kutb Dictator/President Mullah Gayoom has destroyed the final remains of these temples and built mosques aligned to Mecca with money from the arab kings.
[Posted by: The Pig Loving Maldivian at August 27, 2006 2:39 PM]
#2. "[Maldivian] Government Orders Dismantling of Tsunami Project," from Minivan News, with thanks to MH:
The [Maldivian] government ordered an indoor marketplace in Haa Dhaal, Kulhudhuffushi to be dismantled last week because the building was donated by “people in opposition to the government” and “Christians.”
The $70,000 marketplace was built by Tracy Structures, a UK construction company, and facilitated by Maldives Aid, a UK-based tsunami charity.
The building, part of Maldives Aid’s tsunami relief work, is designed to allow locals to buy and sell fish and other produce. It was finished in March and was due to be handed over to the island community in an opening ceremony this month.
The largest post-tsunami construction project in the atoll looks in jeopardy, though, after the Minister for Fisheries, Abdullah Kamaluddeen, ordered the Kulhudhuffushi Island Chief to destroy the building for political reasons.
“AK visited the island a few weeks ago. He told the Island Chief ‘this building has to come down.’ When the Island Chief asked why, AK said ‘this was built by people opposed to the government… they cause trouble… and the building is not good for this purpose,’” Maldives Aid coordinator Mariyam Seena told Minivan News.
The Kulhudhuffushi Island Chief, Moosa Ali, added that central government sees the steel building as a ploy to “spread evil principles in Maldives.”
Maldives Aid is the sister organization of UK-based Friends of Maldives (FOM), a pressure group that campaigns against human rights abuses in Maldives.
Although the two organizations are officially separate, the government has bent over backwards to make Maldives Aid’s work difficult - impounding tsunami aid, obstructing projects and refusing the NGO registration.
They continually accuse the trustee of the charity, David Hardingham, of ‘Christian Missionary’ work but blacklisted him from the country last year on suspicion of ‘Islamic terrorism.’
Speaking from the island, locals accused the government of playing petty politics with their lives.
“If the government can’t stand Christian money, they should give back all the aid the European Union gives them,” a local man told Minivan Radio.
[Posted by Robert at April 19, 2006]
#3. In the 100% Muslim state of Republic of Maldives, apostasy will carry the death penalty. The Constitution requires all citizens to be Muslims of the Sunni sect. Although there is no law that states that apostasy carries the death penalty, the Constitution also says that all laws of the country must be in adherence to the Koran. You see the taqiyya?
The international community has to address the issue.
Maldivian Christians are living in secrecy. If they were to be found out, they are thrown in jail and tortured by the brutal police of President Abdul Gayoom, the Egyptian Islamic preacher President and Top Imam of the country until they recant. When the brutal police murdered Ivan Naseem in custody, the unofficial reason for the public to ignore his death was that he tore up a Koran
Because the population is only 300,000 and there is bigger stuff happening elsewhere, we are always ignored. Thus this mullah president can do whatever he wants.
The Christian peoples of Europe who come and enjoy the beautiful resorts hotels of the Maldives either do not know or care that their co-religionists are living in secrecy and fear in the fishing village where they go to buy their souvenirs.
Yes. You can add the Republic of Maldives to the list of nations that carry the death penalty for leaving Islam.
[Posted by: The Pig Loving Maldivian at April 4, 2006 3:14 AM]
Hugh,
well,,looks like we can strike the Maldives off our "must see" list.
BTW has anyone else noticed that any tavel shows on tv don't ever show you the muslim "infiltration"?
I had no idea that the Maldives was a sharia based muslim country. I was all set to go next year for a vacation.
Guess its back to Fiji instead. Just wont mention the martial law to the wife..
payingattention.
indeed the maldives are a sharia based lunatic asylum-if you go there on holiday they will confiscate your crucifix if you are wearing one and also remove your bible.
what a s**t storm would erupt if we confiscated all these muslims korans on arrival to our civilised country.
WHEN ARE WE GOING TO WAKE UP TO THE DANGER THESE BARKING MAD MUSLIMS PRESENT?
by the way if you want a holiday in that part of the world i recommend sri lanka-i've been there on several occasions with no problems-although nowadays these crazies are everywhere.
i implore all people to boycott the maldives.
Are any of the useful idiots at the University of Pennsylania taking notes?
Travel to a Muslim country?
They spit on my beliefs.
No dough for them.
Not till a synagogue goes up in Mecca.
Gramfan,
Don't watch too many tv travel shows but I have noticed that Conde Nast publications...traveller and gourmet for instance...have had numerous articles on the middle east and in many cases show the men only societies without comment.
Also, when they do a story of European cities, there is never any mention of the unrest that is going on in them and certainly never show anyone but European-heritage people in the stories.
I miss Maldivian Pig Lover. Good news, however, is that with global warming, those islands will be flooded, and Maldives Muslims can go the way of the dodo