Blogger Who Criticized Government, Radical Islam Killed In Maldives

WBUR: Yameen Rasheed, a 29-year-old blogger and activist in the Maldives, was stabbed to death on Sunday. Rasheed was a prominent satirist and commentator who took aim at radical Islam in the Maldives, and was a frequent critic of the government. Last year he reported receiving death threats. » | Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Maldives Woman Sentenced to Death by Stoning Wins Reprieve

The Supreme Court in the Maldives, where the case was
annulled on Sunday night

THE TELEGRAPH: Unusually harsh sentence for mother of five convicted by local judge on remote island of Gemanafushi in the Maldives overturned by country's top court

The Maldives' highest court has overturned an unprecedented sentence of death by stoning for a woman convicted of adultery, a crime in the Muslim island nation, media reports said on Monday.

The woman, identified by local media as a mother of five, was convicted by a local judge on a remote island in the Maldives, a popular tourist destination that has seen a rise in Islamic extremism.

The Haveeru news site said the woman had confessed to the crime after giving birth on the remote equatorial islet of Gemanafushi, about 250 miles south of the capital Male.

The Supreme Court annulled the case on Sunday night, ruling that the judge had failed to consider the legal as well as Islamic procedures of the nation of 340,000 Sunni Muslims, the Maldives Independent website said.

The Maldives, a popular Indian Ocean honeymoon destination, observes elements of Islamic Sharia law as well as English common law.

Sex outside marriage is against the law in the Maldives, although the ban does not apply to tourists visiting the upmarket holiday destination. » | AFP | Monday, October 19, 2015

In Tourist Idyll of Maldives, Radical Islam Lures Some towards Very Different Paradise

Mohamed Nasheed, former President of the Maldives

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: This island chain in the Indian Ocean has, per capita, supplied more jihadists to Iraq and Syria than any country outside the Middle East

For the million tourists who fly in each year to the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Maldives, the holiday “paradise” of idyllic white sand beaches quickly embraces them.

Speedboats or seaplanes ferry them to luxury resorts on otherwise uninhabited coral atolls, by-passing the rest of the country where local people live in an increasingly conservative Islamic society.

In this tourist-free Maldives, amid the narrow teeming streets of the capital Male and on islands dotted with fishing villages, the siren call of radical Islamist clerics is luring some locals towards a very different paradise.

More than 200 island jihadists are now believed to fighting in Iraq and Syria, and at least seven have died for the cause, their “martyrdoms” hailed on social media aimed specifically at Maldivians.

For a nation that only has a population of about 350,000, the numbers are strikingly high.They also reflect a reality at jarring odds with the country's picture postcard reputation as a honeymoon and holiday idyll.

“It’s quite probable that in per capita terms, the Maldives has more jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq than any other country outside the region,” said a Western security analyst. » | Philip Sherwell, Male, the Maldives | Sunday, September 13, 2015

Paradise Jihadis: Maldives Sees Surge in Young Muslims Leaving for Syria

Kuda Bandos in the Maldives.

THE GUARDIAN: In a country better known for tourism than militancy, radical preaching and social problems are prompting a rise in Islamism

They left in small groups, through the narrow lanes of the city, on to the ferry across the glassy blue sea and then, past the tourists waiting for connections to luxury resorts, to the airport. Their ultimate destination: Syria, and the “caliphate” of Islamic State.

The Maldives is better known for luxury tourism than Islamic militancy. But in recent weeks there has been a surge in departures of young men for Syria, raising fears of a growing threat both to the million-plus tourists who visit its 1,200 atolls each year and to countries such as the UK that do not require visas from citizens of the island.

“There are serious concerns,” said one western diplomat in the region. “The risk is either of an attack locally or someone coming to Europe or even going on to the US.”

Four people have been stopped by authorities. But between 50 and 100 from the country of 300,000 have joined “the jihad”. Analysts say the emergence of al-Qaida affiliate al-Nusra Front and Isis in Syria has catalysed an existing problem, giving it new dimensions and urgency. » | Jason Burke in Malé | Thursday, February 26, 2015

Maldives : la charia au paradies

Les Maldives : une république islamique parmi les plus strictes de la planète !

Lire le reportage ici | Un reportage de Nicolas Betrand er David Da Meda

Message To Muslims In Maldives || Anjem Choudary || Shariah4Maldives

Deposed Maldives President Says Coup Has Fueled Radical Islam

THE WASHINGTON POST: NEW DELHI — Saying he was saddened and shocked by the speed with which his friends in Washington had abandoned him, the former president of Maldives warned Thursday that radical Islam has gained ground across the sprawling Indian Ocean archipelago since he was deposed in February.

Mohamed Nasheed won the presidency in Maldives’s first multiparty elections in 2008, after a lifetime advocating democracy and human rights and several long stints in jail.

Less than three years later, he was forced to resign by an angry mob of police officers and soldiers, in what he says was a coup engineered by his autocratic predecessor.

“We have to have an election,” he said in an interview while visiting the Indian capital, New Delhi. “In the absence of that, Islamic radicals are gaining strength in the Maldives.”

The chain of 2,000 islands is best known for its plush resorts, its scuba diving and its reputation as an upmarket honeymoon destination. But away from the tourist atolls, adherence to Islam is compulsory, alcohol is banned, and the conservative Saudi Arabian strand of Islam known as Wahhabism has been expanding its reach for decades. Read on and comment » | Simon Denyer | Thursday, April 19, 2012

New Dark Age Alert! Female Circumcision Fear as Fundamentalists Roll Back Women's Rights

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: Maldives women face more repression under a rising tide of religious fundamentalism, reports Ben Doherty from Male.

When the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, visited the Maldives late last year, she urged that the practice of flogging women for having sex outside marriage - while very rarely punishing men for the same - should be abolished.

"This practice constitutes one of the most inhumane and degrading forms of violence against women," she told local reporters then.

The response was as fierce as it was unexpected. The next day protesters rallied outside the UN building, carrying placards that read "Ban UN" and "Islam is not a toy" and threatened to "Flog Pillay". A website later promised to "slaughter anyone against Islam".

Similar protests have followed, and a growing religious divide between moderate and fundamentalist Muslims - constitutionally, all Maldivians are obliged to follow Islam - has led many to question the direction of religion in the Maldives and, in particular, the place of women in Maldivian society.

In an interview with the Herald, the Maldivian President, Mohamed Nasheed, conceded an emergent religious fundamentalism had changed the way women were viewed, and treated, in his country. » | Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Maldives President Orders All Spas to Be Reopened

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The president of the Maldives has ordered the country's upscale resorts to reopen their spas pending a Supreme Court decision on whether they violate Islam – just days after they were shut under pressure from protesters.

The court decision could be critical to the tourism-dependent island nation's economic future.

"The government has decided we will open all spas and give all the services to tourists which we have been giving before," said President Mohammed Nasheed.

"The tour operators were very worried" about the closure, he said.

Last week, authorities ordered all spas to close following a protest in the capital on Dec 23 in which thousands of people called for a halt to "anti-Islamic" activities including spas.

The protesters also demanded that authorities halt the sale of alcohol on islands inhabited by local people, stop plans to allow direct flights from Israel, and demolish statues given by other countries to commemorate a South Asian summit in November which they saw as idols. Read on and comment » | Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Maldives Orders Ban of All Spas after Islamist Prostitution Claim
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The Maldives government has ordered all spas in resorts to be closed after protests by an Islamist party which claimed they were being used as a front for prostitution.

The tourism ministry told all resort hotels across the islands to shut their spas and health centres with immediate effect.

"An Islamic party has been agitating against spas hoping to embarrass the government," a senior government figure told the AFP news agency.

Last week the opposition Adhaalath party, a conservative religious movement, staged a protest in the capital Male against such spas, arguing that they were being used as brothels. The party's website features an article criticising "lustful music".

Tourism is crucial for the economy of the Maldives, and the Maldives Association of Tourism Industry said the ban would harm the economy.

Popular with honeymooning couples and celebrities, luxury rooms in resorts on the islands can cost up to $12,000 (£7,748) a day. » | Barney Henderson | Friday, December 30, 2011

Maldives 'Trashing' an Island
In a bid to battle a growing waste problem, The Maldives has been dumping almost all of its rubbish on a single one of its some 1,200 islands.

Thilafushi island has turned into a dump, and environmental activists say the bad practices adopted there are causing contaminants to seep into the country's once pristine sea water, and then into the food chain.

Al Jazeera's Steve Chao reports from Thilafushi Island, The Maldives.

Questions Over Maldives Protests
Anti-government protests were held place for the seventh day in a row in the Maldives capital of Male.

The people are demonstrating because of soaring prices and claim the president is mishandling the economy.

But the democratically-elected president is calling it an attempt to reinstate a dictatorship in this tropical paradise.

Al Jazeera's Steve Chao reports.

Aux Maldives, des décorations de Noël déclenchent une vague de protestations
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Un restaurant de l’archipel des Maldives qui avait accroché des décorations de Noël a provoqué des manifestations d’hostilité parmi la population de cet archipel où l’islam est la seule religion officielle, a indiqué jeudi la police.

Les guirlandes incriminées ont été retirées et le restaurant a présenté ses excuses. Le Jade Bistro, situé dans la capitale Malé, était orné de boules et de guirlandes de Noël pour mettre en avant «des dîners de fêtes». Il avait également proposé un menu spécial Noël - sandwiches à la dinde et bûche - mais selon les autorités locales, ce sont les décorations qui ont provoqué la colère de la population.

Aux Maldives, une destination touristique de l’océan indien prisée des Occidentaux, les autres croyances en dehors de l’islam sont interdites aux citoyens et les étrangers ne doivent pas les exhiber en public. >>> ATS/AFP | Jeudi 30 Décembre 2010

Unwitting Western Couple Mocked as 'Infidel' and 'Swine' by 'Minister' During Foreign Language Wedding Ceremony at Luxury Maldives Resort
MAIL ONLINE: A luxury resort in the Maldives has sparked outrage after a video appeared on You Tube showing members of staff abusing and mocking their guests using a language they were unable to understand.

Employees at the Vilu Reef Beach and Spa resort can be seen calling an English-speaking couple ‘infidel’ and ‘swine’ and calling their guests' marriage illegal in their native Dhivehi tongue throughout the 15-minute wedding ceremony.

According to the Maldives news service Minivan News, the video which was uploaded to You Tube ‘as a joke’, shows an employee named Hussein Didi conducting a service as a 'celebrant' - a person who is empowered to perform a religious ceremony.

The document he uses, of which there is a brief close-up in the video, has absolutely no relation to marriage laws in the Maldives.

Words that are legible on the document refer to ‘staff employment’, suggesting that it is a document relating to employment regulations.

Asking the couple and other ‘officials’ to raise their hands as is customary for Muslim prayers, the ‘celebrant’ begins his marriage vows.

‘Fornication has been legalised according to Article six, 1.11 of the Penal Code,' he chants in a tone favoured by religious scholars. ‘That is, frequent fornication by homosexuals. Most fornication is by males,’ he continues.

‘You are swine. The children that you bear from this marriage will all be bastard swine,’ he says to his guests.

‘Your marriage is not a valid one. You are not the kind of people who can have a valid marriage. One of you is an infidel. The other, too, is an infidel – and we have reason to believe – an atheist, who does not even believe in an infidel religion.’

The hapless couple remain oblivious as the ‘celebrant’, surrounded by 10 to 15 employees, calls for the marriage to be enshrined in Islamic law, followed by further personal insults against the couple.

None of the employees attempts to stop the 'ceremony' and several take photographs.

Various types of insults about the woman and the man, their clothing and demeanour, are spoken throughout in the form of a running commentary in a sports video. Read on and comment >>> Daily Mail Reporter | Thursday, October 28, 2010

Fake Wedding at Maldives Resort Vilu Reef

• Do you know who the hapless couple so cruelly treated in the video are? Contact the Mail Online newsdesk on 020 7938 6011 or email websiteeditorial@dailymail.co.uk

TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: Maldives: couple suisse traité de «porc» en renouvelant ses voeux de marriage: DUPERIE | Les autorités des Maldives ont exprimé leur "choc" et leur "dégoût" après la publication sur internet d'une vidéo montrant un couple suisse en train de se faire insulter à son insu dans un hôtel de luxe. >>> AFP | Jeudi 28 Octobre 2010

150 Women Face Adultery Flogging on Maldives
THE INDEPENDENT: Almost 150 women living in the Maldives face a public flogging for indulging in extra-marital sex after being convicted by the Muslim country's conservative courts. Around 50 men also face the punishment.

Earlier this month, an 18-year-old woman fainted after she was flogged 100 times having been found guilty of having sex with two different men. The woman, who was pregnant at the time of sentencing, had her punishment deferred until after the birth of her child and the court said the teenager's pregnancy was proof of her guilt. In contrast, the accused men were acquitted, with one of them escaping punishment simply because he denied the charge. >>> Andrew Buncombe, Asia Correspondent | Wednesday, July 22, 2009