October 14, 2007:
Last
September 29th, a small bomb went off in the Maldive islands, a tiny Indian
Ocean nation of 1,192 small islands, and 330,000 Sunni Moslems. Islamic
terrorists were suspected, although there has been little Islamic radicalism in
the Maldives, which lie about a thousand kilometers south of India.
Only 200 of the islands are
inhabited. The place is a major tourist attraction, and long noted for its
hospitality. About half a million tourists come each year, and the only victims
of the bomb were a dozen wounded tourists (two Britons, two Japanese and eight
Chinese). The bomb went off in a popular park. The government was quick to go
looking for who was behind the bombing. They soon found the culprits, a radical
(heretical to many) Islamic group on one of the smaller islands. When a force
of a hundred police arrives, they found 70 masked men defending the radical
mosque. Many of these men were wearing red helmets, and all were armed with
primitive weapons (clubs, spears, or just bricks). After several hours of
negotiation, things turned violent. When it was over, 34 policemen, and most of
the defenders, were injured, and the masked men were taken into custody. Most
of the 600 inhabitants of the island were happy to see the Islamic radicals
dispersed. Ten were arrested, but five were soon released. Its believed the
actual bombers were hiding out in the radical mosque, and may still be at large.
The Islamic radicals had been
feuding with government demands that they worship in a government approved (and
paid for) mosque. The government had been keeping an eye on this radical group,
but had not suspected that there would be a bombing, or any other kind of
violence. The bombing will do a lot of damage, at least in the short term, to
the local economy. The Maldives enjoy one of the highest living standards in
the region, and most Mardivians will feel the fallout from this terrorist act.
The Maldives have, for
centuries, been ruled by a few wealthy families. This rule has often been
arbitrary and unfair. This has caused violent unrest periodically. Although the
country is technically run using Sharia (Islamic) law, the place is pretty
easygoing. This has upset a minority of the inhabitants, who complain that all
those foreign tourists are corrupting Islam. About a third of the population,
living in the capital, enjoy most of the benefits of tourism. Until the
bombing, most of these protests were vocal, not physical.