Maldives’ jihadist currents are a bigger threat than India

The men, journalist Michael Van Es recorded , "grew their beards and hair, took to wearing loose robes and pyjamas, and crowned their heads with Arab-style head-cloths". "Women were wrapped up in black robes. Goats were imported, and fishermen gave up their vocation to become shepherds." Invisible to the gaze of President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's grim autocracy in Malé, Fareed inspired the island's residents to build a state modelled on the Prophet Muhammad's proto-state in Medina, like the Taliban's Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan. From the beach the colour of molten silver, crowned by coconut palms that reached the sky, the…