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Maldives Rehabs Extremists With 'True Spirit Of Islam'
MALE, Maldives (RNS) Despite its small population (about 400,000 residents) and small size (about twice as large as Washington, D.C.), this overwhelmingly Muslim nation is claiming success in rehabilitating hard-core Islamic terrorists.
The string of more than 1,100 islands off India's southern tip is now offering to export its success to nations seeking to combat extremism.
Skeptics, meanwhile, say the program is built on Saudi Arabia's strict Wahhabi version of Islam, which some critics say actually foments extremism; 15 of the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 attackers were Saudi citizens.
The rehabilitation effort is sponsored by the country's Ministry of Islamic Affairs. Minister Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari says there's hope in the Quran for Muslims who have "gone astray."
Starting with Iran's 1979 Islamist revolution and worsening after the 9/11 attacks, extremist Islam fanned out across the Islamic world, eventually reaching the tiny island nation, said Bari, a graduate of Saudi Arabia's Islamic University of al-Madinah.
Bari said extremism took root in the Maldives under former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled for 30 years until the country's first multiparty elections in 2008.
Maldives Rehabs Extremists With 'True Spirit Of Islam'
MALE, Maldives (RNS) Despite its small population (about 400,000 residents) and small size (about twice as large as Washington, D.C.), this overwhelmingly Muslim nation is claiming success in rehabilitating hard-core Islamic terrorists.
The string of more than 1,100 islands off India's southern tip is now offering to export its success to nations seeking to combat extremism.
Skeptics, meanwhile, say the program is built on Saudi Arabia's strict Wahhabi version of Islam, which some critics say actually foments extremism; 15 of the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 attackers were Saudi citizens.
The rehabilitation effort is sponsored by the country's Ministry of Islamic Affairs. Minister Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari says there's hope in the Quran for Muslims who have "gone astray."
Starting with Iran's 1979 Islamist revolution and worsening after the 9/11 attacks, extremist Islam fanned out across the Islamic world, eventually reaching the tiny island nation, said Bari, a graduate of Saudi Arabia's Islamic University of al-Madinah.
Bari said extremism took root in the Maldives under former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled for 30 years until the country's first multiparty elections in 2008.
Maldives Rehabs Extremists With 'True Spirit Of Islam'
