with its sandy white beaches and palm
trees Maldives is one of the most
popular tourist destinations on the
planet but behind this picturesque
landscape lurks a darker reality these
are licensed shakes by the government so
if we try to stop that that could be a
problem and I don't think the government
checks on what is preached and when they
speak about and this is a big problem
for us the Maldives is an Islamic
Republic where Sharia is the law of the
land within the Maldives administration
the security forces there are people in
strategic positions who are salafists
who were radical people we are the
highest per capita of any country that
has gone to war in Syria in the capital
Mali where buildings battle for space in
a city divided by street gangs the
future appears bleak for many young
Maldivians for foreigners Sigma this is
a paradise but we don't get the white
sandy beaches or the any of that like
what we get is a concrete jungle there
are so many problems political problems
and people problems radicalization in
our society let's go to a different
level where people would not hesitate to
kill
[Music]
this is Maldives a small Republic of
1200 islands that stretches across 800
kilometers in the Indian Ocean its sandy
beaches in turquoise waters attract
nearly a million and a half tourists
each year but interaction between
tourists and locals is limited most of
the hotels favored by visitors are on
private islands cut off from regular
Moldavians the local population is
concentrated on 200 islands that most
tourists never see
[Music]
Vito is one of them the two kilometer
long island has a population of 4,000
people here there are no women in
bikinis and the sale and consumption of
alcohol is strictly prohibited in
Maldives Sharia is the law of the land
in this Islamic Republic the
Constitution states that every citizen
must belong to the religion of the state
life revolves around prayer and fishing
[Music]
Ali Hashim was born in Dido and has been
mayor of the island since 2017 today is
Children's Day and this school has
organized a celebration to mark the
event it's a happy occasion
but Ali is concerned about some of the
more negative changes in his community
over the years all these girls were in
the whales and that happened quite
recently and now you can see almost
everyone even from grade 1 to grade 10
everybody's wearing the way I think it's
basically on the side of more extremist
and we're dealing Naga
it's not a good sign anyway
traditionally and and culturally it's a
peaceful place we take our safety
security and peace stability for granted
and nobody really pays any attention for
that but we shouldn't be like that
forever I think the world has changed
this country has changed this island has
also changed it hides a secret that
residents are wary of revealing
[Music]
we've got five young guys going to Syria
and all these places the thing we try to
understand is that what have motivated
them to go among those five young men
from d2 was Abdullah nasya in early 2015
he left to join jihadist groups in Syria
Abdullah
Nasir was working for the Port Authority
of Maldives and was barely twenty three
years old when he left his country he
died in battle we managed to track down
his parents his family and other
families we contacted refused to answer
any further questions here no one wants
to talk about religion and even less
about radicalization
we sail away from d-do on the pretext of
a fishing trip to talk to some young
residents of the island who knew
Abdullah Nasir
actually one of my friend went to Syria
without you he was a normal person and
all of sudden he went and nobody knew
why he went he just went in and he gave
us I think he called his parent and told
them they were leaving they were
heartbroken and said till we have
problem of extremism extremes people
here that is a big problem here some
chains come in give us in sales pick the
persons right questions and the inverse
them and send them to Syria extremism
isn't limited to just one Island it is
affected the entire archipelago the
current government says that 61
Maldivians
have traveled to Syria but according to
Mohamed Nasheed the former president of
the Maldives who held office from 2008
to 2012 the figure is much higher we are
the highest per capita of any country
that has gone to war in Syria our
figures are around 300 but I think
intelligence agencies around the world
has a figure of about 1000
those who make the journey to Syria
always leave from the capital Mali
radicalized networks operating from the
city handled the logistics for these
departures inside these cramped
buildings more parents are mourning for
their children who left for Syria we are
here to meet one of them reef at armored
didi
this is the first time that a relative
of a Maldivian jihadist has agreed to
talk to an international channel
refat believes her son Monceau was
radicalized in jail after being arrested
for a fight
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patron one a few months after he was
released from prison Mon she left the
country with his wife
he was 28 years old he told his
relatives that he had a medical
appointment in Sri Lanka after that
there was no news from him for several
days then me Polly hug was Kim Yuna
Demerara Dominions Rafa hua tera Blanca
mabul nunca ma amazi Dothraki Flatow
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economist Oh fucker Ibaka domingue hafta
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the fuck with him but Pimenta media
promised kimagure na harmony dia da
great if I wanna do a variable vlog and
then before the photographer wagon
master kundo
it was a lot of room then if you were on
the river mom Maya working the color TV
i mama Bahama module called up then
o'clock bus can give me a tumbler a
meter hey Doug would wanna get then suna
taught them guru hana Ganga varieties
and then you're not training the team
must overtraining a Kannada Oaxaca
Boonen Java semi-naked on Terra battle
Oaxaca bonad my banana then regular sama
revoke Erica volume on Maya Maya
determine a guru rocket mmm yeah come on
I'm nervous
[Music]
Theater Avenue Vemma Nia I didn't could
we come back committee that if you work
a negative me but no positive over on
gamma me he took over me
Metallica decoding a telephone among a
comma he led a comma a Meehan and a Hvar
OD heady Baraka referred walk was my
friend okra
[Music]
cherish Thurid is the author of the book
a ticket to Syria a story about the ISIS
in Maldives this book was inspired by
real events and is based on the
experiences of a multi vien family that
left for Syria according to him the
religious landscape of the country
shifted slowly towards Wahhabism the
strict Islamic doctrine born in Saudi
Arabia after the devastating tsunami in
2004 which killed more than 230,000
people and also affected the Maldives
under the guise of helping people a
number of Saudi sponsored NGOs suddenly
started sprouting in Maldives it is very
easy to isolate people who are basically
living marginally above the poverty line
and then to tell them that this
unfortunate set of events that has come
upon you is because you have strayed
away from the path of true Islam and
over the last decade and a half this
slow brainwashing and infusion of Salafi
Wahabi ISM that is what leads to and
radicalization of a entire country older
viens are particularly popular among
jihadi recruiters in Iraq and Syria
according to this author
Paul deviance were preferred as good
soldiers because a an Islander is a very
strong robust person beat if they are
part of a gang then they are already
well and they are used to bloodshed and
see more importantly because of Saudi
influence in Maldives they are they are
considered to be stronger more rigid and
more Islamic recruits from India were
not given weapons to fight in Syria
because India teaches softer version of
Islam Moldovans were Mary immediately
warriors and given weapons and to keep
the pipeline's of incoming recruits to
the jihadist ranks open the Islamic
state publishes a variety of propaganda
magazines including one in de very the
language of the Maldives they also have
subsets magazine which is only formal
deviance fighting in Isis this magazines
are very glossy very readable very
attractive they go a long way in helping
recruitment and to promote the message
of the Caliphate I would say that 90% of
the Maldive is either went to Isis or to
jabhat al-nusra
[Music]
the jihadist group jabhat al-nusra later
renamed Hyatt Torreya al sham appeared
in Syria in 2012 their communication
strategies are just as formidable as
that of the Islamic state this
propaganda video shows the training of
Maldivian fighters
[Music]
and this is the YouTube channel of
belle-isle Abdul Karim an American
citizen who claims he is a journalist
since the beginning of the war in Syria
he has reported from inside terrorist
controlled territory conducting dozens
of interviews with militants from
extremist groups
I am Bilal Abdul Karim for on-the-ground
news and we're outside of the studio
here today and we are in the middle of
itlet's city which has become pretty
much the deep the de facto capital of
the rebel fighters here in Syria this
controversial activist gained access to
Maldivian fighters on the ground in
Syria by devoting a whole series of
reports about them in this video he
shows the day-to-day lives in Syria with
details like what they cook indeed this
is my first trial he also explores the
reasons that compelled these multi viens
to travel to Syria
compared to Maldives the situation in
Syria is a lot worse and here there is
an ongoing transgression i there's a
like ongoing operation against the
muslims the impact of these reports and
propaganda videos was felt on the other
side of the planet on the remotest of
Maldivian islands
here the young generation well-connected
and active on social media is often
bored teenagers spend most of their time
out on the streets and if they do find a
job it's usually at a resort in the
fishing industry or in the government
there are few options and many feel they
do not have a future some end up
becoming addicted to heroin or other
illegal drugs making them an easy target
for jihadi recruiters this 24 year old
Maldivian is a former drug addict he has
agreed to speak to us on condition of
anonymity there's like nothing much we
can do over here for recreational like
we can go play football but then
basically about it and Martha is such a
small and congested place I lived my
life of drugs and alcohol since I was a
teenager at one point I was approached
by people who started giving me advice
on certain little things that I
apparently that I do wrong while I pray
this and that and and then soon some of
them came and asked me to join that
circle they know we have broken and we
are trying to find a way to get out of
something like that's been kind of
destroying our lives they actually taken
that and using it to brainwash us they
started telling us about the crisis and
everything that was going on in no
Muslim countries all over the world and
about how we as Muslims had to be
responsible and go join the jihad
and the thing is like they are very
convincing because they actually show
these verses from the Quran out of
context which suggests that you have to
do this this these these things I had
close friends who had gone to Syria and
who died over there
six or seven of my friend twenty or
twenty-five people that I know of
most of them joined ASIS I was almost
ready by March April if I didn't have
the friends that I had I think I would
have taken the journey to Syria to go to
jihad to die for the call for foreigners
signal this is a paradise but for us the
ones who live here especially the ones
who live in Mali we don't get the white
sandy beaches or the any of that like
what we get is a concrete jungle where
there are so many problems that
political problems and people problems
extremist ideologies have spread like
wildfire across the archipelago in 2014
Islamists brandished their black flags
in the streets how could the Maldivian
government have allowed Isis supporters
to parade in the streets of its capital
how did a country that was once known
for practicing a moderate form of Islam
where women once contested in beauty
pageants in saris without the veil
become a nest for Salafist and Wahhabist
ideologies we asked Mohamed Nasheed the
media savvy former president of the
Maldives
this progressive former journalist
wanted his citizens including the
Islamists to have freedom of speech
you cannot suppress an idea our first
policy was mind you many people
disagreed with me to register salim so i
wanted to register set up i want to
liberate i want to tell i meant what we
said was okay you say your thing we will
say everything it was a move that
backfired as the same Islamists then
turned on him for being too secular
within the mold it's administration
let's say within the security forces
there are people in strategic positions
who are Salafists who are radical people
who have a very radical view of society
of Islam so they say in customs in
immigration they had embedded themselves
they recruit in the Maldives and they
still have a recruitment Network going
on even while they are losing it in
Syria our people are still going and
they have also radicalized the gangs and
they're using the gangs as their
religious beliefs
as lawmakers have built unexpected ties
with Marley's street gangs whose ranks
are full of young men in search of
redemption for extremists these gangs
provide rich recruitment grounds we
observed an increasing phenomena of
people who belong to gangs and who had
served prison sentences if you can
target say five people of a particular
gang you already have a core unit there
which has some sort of a loose
discipline they have a cohesiveness and
and they have familiarity and a sense of
interdependence on each other so if you
can target a small core unit like this
you've got a somewhat semi-military
functioning unit already in place there
all that is needs to be done is to shift
them from Maldives to a place like Syria
because these are people who are
physical physical in nature they are
used to carrying out assaults
[Music]
the capital male is one of the most
densely populated cities in the world
two hundred thousand people live on less
than six square kilometers where
buildings battle for space in a city
divided by gangs there are about thirty
such groups and everyone in the city
knows who controls which Street in their
controlled areas gangs splatter their
names on the walls like this one of the
Missoni one of the most feared gangs
many of them even pose of sports clubs
this is Smith
he joined one of the gangs of the
teenager Masada kakouton where could
hinder United Way of club had egg and no
nibiru guru sports club Chiaki the me as
to me am ia good game go to Muharram II
hung a number on coke club jamia Tammy
Kingery
come Miss Parker palette anibus Molly
again become a car go to communist
militant Oh Jake thought he must do ad
harm about the signal it a profitable
company fled Eden gang
via Waga techie about this food O
Muhammad walk with mia cowan run net10
Korea come a virus Omaha Donnie will
mighty burgundy Mika me agate area
whatever Allah has to them as from for
hungers verb or a gigantic or Evie
what a guinea for hermit in Galilee
by km DP am i hungry Miguel Tahoma Amiga
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builder Ptolemaic a member tant que esto
para boredom over cooling a barracuda
Manhattan Ibiza Maaloula cumulative ever
me inevitabie hama syria for know of a
tag daily hunger ama get their income
for nawafil target me coliform amar amar
eme who dat say a hundred walk with me
Omar Africa's Nenana kamoko I'm a mirage
a mirage inna a ban hamma elvis
caminetti a mammarra me who miraculously
padartha a hammer there a bower who
can't at this crescendo of violence
reached its peak when dissident voices
who denounced religious extremism in the
country began to be eliminated i shat
Shaheen witnessed this downward spiral
firsthand and lost two of her close
friends Achmed real one and yameen
Rashid
they were killed for being too outspoken
ahmed real one was a news reporter the
last time he was seen he was on a ferry
going home it was August the 8th 2014 he
was buying a ticket on his way but we
could see him from the CCTV that he was
there at the terminal he got on the
ferry and then he was on the phone he
was chatting with some people apparently
and then he walked home
since then no one has heard from Achmed
real one I cannot believe it happened
you know where I was hoping that will
heal you know eventually we turn up and
you know we'll all have a laugh but then
it became months and then years three
years later another voice was silenced
Yamin Rashid was too well known for his
fearless criticism of religious
extremism he described himself as a
disobedient writer on his Twitter
account and used his blog the daily
panic to express his views in a
satirical style he was a symbol that
young people that you could have freedom
of expression if you think something is
wrong you should be able to speak your
mind well he kept telling us that don't
feel trapped
you know just question things freely
just go out there and seek knowledge and
don't feel like you you are being I
don't know like a prisoner in this
country one of the most prominent
bloggers in the country pro-democracy
activist geometers sheath was stabbed to
death in a brutal attack early morning
on the 23rd of April
I checked the news and on the heading it
says there's a picture of him and he
says he's been killed and at that moment
I kept thinking okay it has finally
happened the thing that we were dreading
you know that might happen one day it
has finally happened him according to
the police he was killed by a group of
radicalized young men who believed he
was guilty of insulting Islam we haven't
really achieved that freedom to speak
our mind it's not there we're working on
it but I don't think we have gone to
that level where we are comfortable
talking of a mind and you know these
things because there is still a rebuttal
in what you say
in the Maldives people who are accused
of being too secular are continuously
Harris
[Music]
the latest target is Ibrahim Ismail
popularly known as Ypres he is an iconic
figure in Maldivian society a lawmaker
and the head of a private college in
Mali
recently he questioned a religious
scholar on Twitter about an extract from
the Koran
since then his life has been under
threat we never used to have this kind
of tweets when I was younger we never
even locked the door of the house when
you went to sleep we just closed the
door that was it nobody would ever come
his head but now this is how we are for
me expressing religious views is risky
in the more lives as a braw discovered
recently when he challenged extremes
where it's Islamist groups and it has
resulted in threats death threats for me
attacks on in my place of work which is
actually an academic Institute urging
students not to go there because it's a
blasphemous Institute or because I
questioned the scholar on something he
has said now that is the level of
intolerance that we have now come to
unfortunately even as there is an
increase in hateful rhetoric abra says
that things are made much worse by the
police's lack of awareness of existing
laws that was taken into the police for
questioning regarding this tweet that I
and when they summoned me I told him do
you know there is a regulation on how
preaching should be done and not done I
know it because I wrote it nearly seven
seven to eight years later the police
are not even aware of the existence of
that room so I had to forward from my
mail a copy of the regulation to please
and that regulation describes in full
how to contain extremists if that
regulation was implemented well there
wouldn't be space for anyone spreading
hate as fellow advocates Ebro fills the
loss of Achmed real one and yameen
Rashid keenly as young people who would
carry on the work after sort of we left
the same went into retirement or
whatever but unfortunately it was not to
be I think with his death I realized
that the radicalization in our society
has gone to a different level
Eber is not the only one being
threatened in January 2019 a hit list
with names of bloggers and human rights
activists began circulating on a
messaging app an anonymously run group
called for the death penalty for
suspected apostates as in other
countries
the Internet has emerged as a major
platform for spreading extremist
ideologies Maldives has no lack of
popular sheiks on social media Adam
Shamim is one of them me engage me
America not a Europe engage a tenth
anarchy didn't manage a militant photo
booth in need tonton it and energy by
mcgraw-hill only decora tenten neva Mimi
siku ringgit Anton Amin young defensive
our gunman amedy Magento Varney
a vessel a gamma key is logic or even
ago ten o clock Rivini
sorry manraja argument if attack
Oh
[Music]
in this report released by the US State
Department Shamim is identified as
someone who is clearly involved in the
recruitment of fighters a very prominent
Maldives Maldivian cleric called Shaykh
Adam Shah mean this man was deported
from India because he won on him he was
on a persona non-grata
list due to his recruitment activities
but this man still holds office in in in
Maldives is respected in Maldives
in Mali we went to the office of the NGO
Salif with whom Shamim is thought to be
affiliated
[Music]
nobody's here right now hmm
when can we come back well can you at
least try to call him to ask you this
quarter condemned
okay we never heard from him despite
reaching out several times however we
did get this message a few weeks later
from the head of the NGO
[Music]
Adam sharmeen is a licensed preacher of
Islam in the Maldives a license issued
by the state according to the Ministry
of Islamic Affairs he is one of two
hundred and twenty-nine clerics who have
the authorization to preach anywhere in
the archipelago that includes didn't
tonight this village is getting ready to
welcome another Maldivian cleric Sheikh
Muhammad Ibrahim we can't do anything
here and the problem is that these are
licensed sheiks
by the government so if we try to stop
that that was the problem and I don't
think the government checks on what this
preach and when they speak about and
this is a big problem for us and
regarding this share which we have
tonight we have searches background he's
got some extremists we use and however
he's registered and he's licensed by the
government to preach in public the very
worried about this this is the way in
which the sheiks infiltrate into the
community especially in island
communities almost the entire island
turns out to hear him speak for over
three hours
he enthralls them with his
interpretation of paradise
how do authorities monitor what these
men preach is the government doing
enough to evaluate and tackle the threat
of radicalization in 2016 the government
set up the National Counterterrorism
Center the man in charge of the
organisation agreed to speak to us
shakes are being given permission from
the Ministry of Islamic Affairs based on
their merit based on their qualification
and yes of their conduct we've heard
some people saying that
a share with commissioned by the state
called Adam Shamim is suspected to be
one of the recruiter of Isis I wouldn't
comment positively on that because he we
haven't had enough evidence I even I
have heard about about him a couple of
times but we we don't we didn't have any
sufficient evidence to conduct even an
investigation on him sources tell us
that as early as 2011 the authorities
had raised the terror threat level too
high this information is from a
confidential report given to us by a
former member of the Maldivian
intelligence services we haven't heard
we haven't had across any intelligence
or information about an attack
in in the Maldives or to a resort there
is no national security level threat
that colleges in the Maldives the
British authorities for example have
issued a travel advisory for their
citizens warning them against possible
terrorist attacks tourists holidaying in
luxury resorts on these remote islands
can become what experts call soft
targets for terrorism
none of the hotels that we contacted
responded to our request for an
interview about their security protocol
so we decided to find out for ourselves
by posing as tourists part of the 1.5
million visitors who flock to the
Maldives each year we headed to one of
the 130 resorts on the islands this
resort can house up to 300 tourists at a
time in private bungalows or in water
villas the perfect getaway
we asked the manager if the resort has
security arrangements in place in the
event of a terrorist attack here 70% of
the economy is dependent on tourism any
attack could be fatal for the country
and the authorities know that it is not
just the people who live for Syria that
they need to be worried about we have
the National Defense Forces on four
geographic areas and they always keep in
touch with the results the information
and the the collaboration with the
tourist resource is very important
foreign fighter returnees is a huge
problem lot of countries are facing
right and we are not an exception we
have record of one single person who
have come from from Syria and with his
wife they traveled and that case is
still going on in the in the police
investigation the person right now is
free can it be that in all these years
only one person has come back to the
Maldives from Syria boom our nasiha was
Home Affairs Minister from 2014 to 2016
and admits that more than one person has
returned and in fact three people were
prosecuted during his tenure because
nobody go to Turkey you know and then
they cross the border not no passport do
you know nothing like this so it's quite
difficult to prove prove that so we
checked with the Turkish authorities and
they confirmed that the number is much
bigger
they have deported 25 Maldivian citizens
suspected of having links to conflict
zones and a hundred and thirty-four
Maldivians are currently on the Turkish
blacklist this security challenge was
inherited by the new government elected
to power in September 2018
[Music]
the new president Ibrahim solely has
promised a strengthened democracy in the
Maldives one of his first moves was to
bring the symbol of democracy former
president Mohamed Nasheed
who had been living in exile back into
the country
[Music]
it's a day of celebration but our
questions about extremist threats are
not welcome to day there are no black
flags on the streets instead bright
yellow flags the color is a Maldivian
Democratic Party are everywhere
government turned a blind eye to
extremism or even encouraged it now
again we have a chance to tackle
religious extremism in the country the
new president did not respond to several
requests for an interview about his
plans to combat the extremist threat in
his country the change of government I
think there will be policies for them to
be occupied all the time through
education sports recreation and an
gainful employment we need to keep
focused on those things so they can have
better life in this silent but the
shakes will still come and they will
come and preach because they are
licensed to do that I don't think it
could be changed in any near future but
we have to counter that through
different policies we have to counter
their ideologies what they preach in
here
shortly after this interview Ali Hashim
was forced to resign he came under fire
from extremists for daring to defend a
liberal activist on Twitter the new
president has said that he will not
tolerate religious unrest in the country
but it's safe to say that the battle
against extremism is far from over
[Music]