Scout talks of saving Maldives president

“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 brave talk is being lapped up in Male, a cramped but laid-back city of modest, pastel-colored apartment blocks — think Robinson Crusoe meets South Florida.

“Every person in the world knows about our Boy Scout,” gushed Rilwan Tholal, a 36-year-old shop owner. “We are all talking about him.”

But 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.

And then there was Tuesday’s attack. Murshid was nabbed by police at the scene, the knife in his hand. He repeatedly shouted “God is Great” as he was hauled away.

His mother said her son had long been pious and often listened to Islamic CDs, according to Thursday’s edition of the Haveeru newspaper.

Another person who knew Murshid — a former teacher who asked not to be further identified for fear of attracting attention — told the AP he had in recent years become more interested in the more extreme elements of Islam and frequently watched videos made by militants in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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 US$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. They’ve preached about the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and played on the divisions among Maldivians, many of whom eke our relatively modest livings in the cramped towns and villages.

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

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