George Bearup, in The Australian, 30 August 2016, where the title is “Maldives: Islamist terror could sink Indian Ocean paradise” …. but note Editorial Caution at End
“Welcome to the Maldives,” says the country’s tourism website, “where the sands are as white as the smiles of the locals, where fish swim happily in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean, where the weather is a dream, and the deep rays of the sun wait to engulf you in their arms.” It is also engulfed in something more sinister; the Maldives is teetering on the edge of a coup, with a cabal of exiled opposition leaders meeting in Sri Lanka over the weekend, attempting to work out a way to topple President Abdulla Yameen. The President’s office issued a statement saying the strongman was aware of the coup plans and condemned them as being “a clear breach of international norms”.
Beyond the white sand, the first executions since 1953 are to be carried out in the Maldives to prove the country’s “Islamic credentials”. It is a place where a couple of hundred jihadists were raised and are now fighting for an Islamic caliphate in Syria; and where a 15-year-old girl who’d been raped was found guilty of fornication and sentenced to 100 lashes. Continue reading
