Teen’s heroism v Islamic assassin saves president

Miami Herald finds inspiration in Teen Boy Scout’s heroism against Islamic jihad assassin, helping save the life of Maldives president.

Matthew Rosenberg for the Miami Herald noted the heroism of a teen Boy Scout against an Islamic jihad assassin as inspiration against the backdrop of increasing dread for travelers to the tropical paradise, the Maldives south of India.

Rosenberg said Mohammed Jaisham Ibrahim, 15, spoke to the Associated Press in an interview how he followed the Boy Scout motto to “be prepared” - and he was when the president of the Maldives was suddenly threatened by a knife-wielding attacker.

The lanky teenager smiles as he says it, "The Scouts saying is 'Be prepared'," Ibrahim said Thursday. "I was prepared."

Officials have so far played down the Islamic extremism angle in the attack, only saying Tuesday's attempted assassination of President Maumoon Gayoom may have been politically motivated.

Police arrested the alleged assailant and on Wednesday picked up four suspected accomplices.

Ibrahim said he had no doubt the alleged attacker was a militant or inspired by an extremist vision of the world, a view seconded by people who know the suspect.

"He had a long beard; he shouted 'God is Great' when he took out his knife. He kept shouting it," Ibrahim said from the hospital in Male where he is recovering from wounds to his left hand sustained in the attack…

"Then I saw him take out the knife. It was wrapped in a flag, a Maldives flag. He took it, he unwrapped it, and started to move for my president. I tried to grab it," Ibrahim said.

The knife sliced open his hand - "blood was shooting out!" - but Ibrahim said he was never scared.

"This is what I wanted to do when I became a policeman," he said of his lifelong ambition. "I now know that I can do it if I have to act again. I won't be afraid."

The Islamic extremism angle of the story reveals one consequence of the ongoing jihad, it may very well be an objective of perpetrating the jihad attacks - to disrupt economies and the freedom of people to travel and exchange cultural contacts on a positive level.

That the attacker may have been an Islamic extremist is only adding to the tale of the 15-year-old's bravery, even as it threatens the Maldives' reputation as a peaceful tropical paradise for well-heeled foreigners.

With word spreading that the alleged attacker, 20-year-old Mohamed Murshid, may have been an Islamic extremist, the attack also has threatened the Maldives' reputation.

In September, a bomb blamed on Islamic militants exploded in a park in Male, wounding 12 tourists.

A week later, police and soldiers raided an island that was a reputed insurgent stronghold, sparking a battle with masked men armed with clubs and fishing spears that wounded more than 30 security officers…

Reports on Murshid include his piety, his listening to Islamic CDs and showing more interest in “extreme elements in Islam” - watching videos and Internet sites featuring an Islamist interpretation of happenings in Iraq and Afghanistan, for instance.

That led Murshid down “a violent, antisocial path.”

Islam was brought to the Maldives in the 12th century by Arab traders, and a traditionally moderate brand of the religion has dominated here ever since.

Alcohol can't be purchased outside the resorts, but many women walk the streets of Male in form-fitting T-shirts and pants.

Tourism has helped make the Maldives, home to about 350,000 people, the most prosperous country in South Asia, with a per capita annual income of $2,700.

But in the last decade or so, as the Internet has brought the world to these remote islands, extreme elements schooled in Pakistan or the Middle East have made inroads…

"Each time people in Europe and America read about fundamentalism some of them say, why go to Maldives?" said Abdullah Rasheed, a 28-year-old who works at a travel agency.

It appears Muslims the world over are being led, or coerced, down that violent, antisocial path - and economies and freedoms the world over are under constant suppression by the Imams of Islamic fundamentalist extremism.

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