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.
"The Scouts saying is 'Be prepared'," Mohammed Jaisham Ibrahim told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday. "I was prepared."
The lanky teenager smiles as he says it — he's clearly been practicing the line in the two days since the attack turned him into a big deal in this small country of nearly 1,200 islands that stretch south from India.
Officials have so far played down the Islamic extremism angle in the attack, saying Tuesday's attempted assassination of President Maumoon Gayoom may have been politically motivated but offering no other details.
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.
Wearing his khaki Maldives scout uniform with a blue kerchief, Ibrahim and the 20 other members of his Boy Scout troop were among scores of people who turned out Tuesday to greet Gayoom when he arrived on Hoarafushi, a remote island that is home to about 2,800 people.
Ibrahim said the attacker was behind him, jostling to get closer to the president.
"He pushed me, and I pushed him back," said Ibrahim, sprawled out on a bed in a small hospital room crowded with his six brothers and sisters, his parents, a few cousins and a handful of well-wishers.
"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 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 $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.
Source: Time.com
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