Maldives young men joining the ranks of the Islamic State
The class IX Islamic studies textbook tells students “performing jihad against people that obstruct the religion” is an obligation. It promises that “Islam ruling over the world is very near”. Promising a caliphate, the textbook says “this is something that the Jews and Christians do not want. It is why they collaborate against Islam even now”.
Late last year, Fathullah Jamil decided he’d had enough — of
days that began before dawn, calling believers to prayer at the mosque;
evenings spent negotiating a taxi through the sweltering streets; and nights
spent in an airless one-room home. The children had moved to West Asia, and had
been calling their parents to join them. Jamil sold the taxi, and caught a
flight to Thiruvananthapuram to pick up his ailing Indian-born wife, Shah Bano.
Had intelligence officials in Kerala not intervened, the
elderly couple would by now have been spending their retirement in the Islamic
State, home to their three half-Indian, Thiruvananthapuram-educated
sons, along with their wives and children. The Maldives advertises its stunning island resorts as an
earthly paradise, but intelligence services are increasingly
concerned at the number of its citizens who areseeking the afterlife
marketed by Islamists.
Indian and Western services estimate up to
200 Maldives citizens, out of a tiny population of 359,000, may now be in Iraq
and Syria — the highest by far, in population-adjusted terms, of any country in
the world. The Maldives government says it can confirm 57 people have
made the journey, while the Islamic State and its al-Qaeda affiliated rival,
al-Nusra, have released at least seven obituaries for Maldivians killed in
combat.
Death threats, attacks: Inside the Maldives, too, secular writers and
activists are facing a growing tide of death threats, sometimes backed up by
lethal attacks. Former jihadist-turned-secular writer Ahmed
Rilwan, who disappeared last year, is thought to have been murdered by
Islamist-linked street gangs. Hilath Rasheed, another writer and
democratic rights activists, lives in exile in Sri Lanka after his throat was
slashed in a near-fatal attack.
“There’s a growing culture of violence against dissidents
from the religious right-wing and the perpetrators are enjoying complete
impunity,” said writer Yameen Rasheed. Male’s powerful street gangs — in turn, linked to heroin
cartels and protection rackets — are providing soldiers for the new Islamist
army. Photographs obtained by TheIndian Express show Rasheed’s alleged
attacker, former gang member Ismail Rahim, travelling to Syria as part of a
group organised by leading Islamist ideologue Adam Shameem. Like dozens of
other former gang members, Rahim embraced neo-fundamentalist Islam in prison,
seeing jihad as atonement for his past sins.
Pakistan link: Evidence also exists that Maldives’ jihadist networks are
tied in with groups in Pakistan. Azlif Rauf, named as a suspect in the writer Rilwan’s
disappearance, fled to Pakistan last year, where he is thought to be hiding out
with contacts in the Tehreek-e-Taliban.
Through the city, as well as in some of the smaller islands,
graffiti calling on young people to join the jihad in Syria is widespread —
as are online Twitter handles and websites promoting the cause. “This is the fastest-growing but least-understood security threat
to the whole region. It’sjust a matter of time before these people bring
the killing home,” said former Maldivespolice intelligence chief
Mohamed ‘MC’ Hameed. For tourism-dependent Maldives, the prospect of attacks on Western tourists
staying at isolated resorts scattered across the country’s more than 2,600
islands is a growing concern.
India’s worry: Indian intelligence sources say they are also concerned
at the prospect that Maldives could become a staging post for attacks
against India. In 2008, Maldives national Ali Assham — alleged to have been
involved with the Lashkar-e-Taiba network attacked the Indian Institute
of Science in Bangalore — was deported from Sri Lanka to
Maldives. Despite Indian demands, he was never prosecuted, and now
lives in Male. Assham did not respond to repeated phone calls seeking comment.
Part of the problem, Hameed said, is the state’s lack of
capacity to successfully investigate and prosecute jihadists. Ali Jaleel, who
in 2008 became the first Maldives citizen to conduct a suicide bombing, was
briefly jailed two years earlier — only to emerge within weeks. Former President Mohamed Nasheed, similarly, pardoned the
alleged perpetrators of a 2009 bombing in Male — some of whom are now believed
to be fighting in Syria.
Textbook jihad: The state’s own textbooks, human rights activists
in Maldives say, also contribute to the problem. The class IX Islamic
studies textbook tells students “performing jihad againstpeople that
obstruct the religion” is an obligation. It promises that “Islam ruling over
the world is very near”. Promising a caliphate, the textbook says
“this is something that the Jews and Christians do not want. It is why they
collaborate against Islam even now”.
From Fathullah Jameel’s telling of his children’s story, it
is unclear precisely what led his children to the Islamic State. Educated as a
cleric at the neo-fundamentalist Jamia Salafia in Pakistan’s Faisalabad — home also
to the Lashkar’s Assham — Jameel chose a secular education for his
children after they finished primary school in Male. The children
moved to India with their mother, living and studying near
Thiruvananthapuram.
“I know it is impossible to make a living from a mosque
Imam’s wages in Male, and I wanted my children to have a better life,”
said Jameel. That’s not quite how it worked out, though: only the middle son,
Aatifu Jameel, found a white-collar job, at immigration security. The
oldest, Samihu Jameel, worked with a fishing crew. The youngest, Aataru Jameel,
remained unemployed — part of the 25 per cent of Maldivians who do not have a job,
even though the country employs over 100,000 migrant workers.
Syria calling: In 2013, Samihu Jameel left for Syria - among the first
Maldivians to head there. Police officials familiar with the case
say he was drawn to the jihad online, and then made contact with an
Islamist charity that made arrangements. “Frankly, I don’t know. He said he was going to study in Cairo with a religious
charity. Then, he disappeared,” said Jameel. Last summer, Samihu’s wife, Nooha, along with the two
brothers and their wives, Najuma and Izawa, also travelled to the Islamic
State. They aren’t the only ones: couple Mohammad Zakman Adam Ismail and Marim
Sanah are reported to have migrated to the Islamic State late last year.
In another recent case, Maldives government sources
said, a young family who travelled to Syria lost their child to pneumonia in
February. Jameel speculates their decision may have, at least in part,
been pragmatic. “It’s hard for young people in Male. After they
married, the three boys had to take turns sharing the bedroom.”
