Maldives: Quiet islands ravaged by fire of terrorism

Shaimaa Hefzy

The recent terrorist attacks in the Maldives highlights the presence of terrorist groups in the limited Asian region. In the first week of May, the Maldivian police declared that the explosion that hit former President Mohamed Nasheed and four others, including a British citizen, was considered a terrorist act.

The attack most likely targeted the former president, who was openly attacking extremist groups. Nasheed is the current speaker of the parliament, and he was the first democratically elected president from 2008 to 2012.

Tourism under grip of terrorism

The Maldives is famous for its luxury resorts, but it is subject to violent attacks from time to time. In 2007, an explosion at a park in the capital injured 12 foreign tourists.

In January 2021, the Maldivian authorities announced the arrest of eight people for plotting to attack a school, and they were making bombs on a boat at sea.

There are extremist groups on the islands, but ISIS is escalating its interest in the Maldives through the operations of lone wolves, as it seeks a new attempt to find a foothold through which to carry out more terrorist operations.

Egypt’s Dar Al-Iftaa showed in a recent report that despite the geographical size of the Maldives, it is fertile ground for terrorist groups due to the proliferation of elements that support al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba group.

With the escalation of violence in Syria beginning in 2013, between 50 and 100 people traveled to Syria and joined Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), then Al-Nusra Front, in addition to what is known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

Reports indicate that the Maldives is among four countries in South Asia where some individuals are likely to join ISIS. It is estimated that more than 200 people traveled from the Maldives to Syria and Iraq in 2015, and there are reports indicating an escalation of this number to 500 people, which is a large number considering the Maldivian community does not exceed 400,000 people.

ISIS’s propaganda has recently tended towards targeting other new areas, according to reports. Earlier this year, the organization’s platforms published a video in which three people spoke who indicated that they would work to target the tourism sector in the Maldives for the sake of weakening the government.

In 2019, ISIS launched a terrorist attack in which three tourists were killed. The organization also used to publish videos calling on citizens in the Maldives to join it, in addition to issuing warnings to the authorities there to release arrested supporters.

Criminal terrorists

Reports also indicate that the fighters who joined ISIS since its emergence come from criminal backgrounds. This is due to the fact that the terrorist organization’s propaganda convinces the people that the door of repentance is accepted if they participate in jihad.

The Maldivian authorities have managed to thwart a number of terrorist attacks since 2017 and revealed attempts by ISIS supporters to spread its ideas in 2019. The authorities arrested a person named Muhammad Ameen, who was responsible for recruiting young people and persuading them to join ISIS and travel to Syria and Iraq. It is believed that he occupied a prominent position in ISIS’s Khorasan Province.

In the same context, former President Nasheed held the view in September 2019 that the return of ISIS fighters could pose a threat to the Maldives, and he also warned of the existence of recruitment networks extending through most of the countries of Southeast Asia via his country.

The Dar Al-Iftaa report warned of the growing interest of ISIS and other terrorist organizations in this region, especially ISIS broadcasts media towards this region, largely in English, while other reports discuss the concentration of ISIS supporters on the internet and social media platforms.