Paradise is perched on the edge of hell

"Political chaos in the Maldives, security services across the region fear, could open the way for a resurgent Islamist movement."

Security experts have feared Maldives will become a paradise for jihadists instead of tourists. Its 1,200-plus islands are near-impossible to police, which means terrorists could use them as bases to target India's western seaboard and even Europe. The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : Paradise is perched on the edge of hell


The Lashkar-e-Taiba's charitable wing, along with British-based Islamists, funnelled hundreds of thousands of dollars into tsunami-hit communities — in return for their souls and proselytize to Islam.


Even in the face of threats, feminists and secular-democrats have mounted trenchant resistance to the religious right. Their struggle will determine the Maldives' fate.

Nigeria under siege

The series of bombings in Nigeria, for which the extreme Islamist group Boko Haram has claimed responsibility, reveal many interconnected problems.

There is widespread resentment in the northern region because of the country's unequal development; poverty and low educational levels mean hardliners there can spread hostility to the central government in Abuja. The Hindu : Opinion / Editorial : Nigeria under siege. The north stands to lose much more than the south by any separation, because Nigeria's greatest foreign earner, oil, lies in the southern states.

The overwhelming majority of Nigerians do not take religious differences to extremes; inter-faith marriages are common, and the public are angry about the same things, such as police brutality and official corruption.

President needs to find effective ways of leveraging these qualities of Nigerian society into an effective political weapon against Boko Haram's deadly violence.