The Maldives, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, is a 100% Islamic republic. In fact, their constitution states you cannot be a citizen unless you are Muslim. So when word got out that Ismail Mohamed Didi, a 25 year-old air traffic controller living in the capital Malé, was an atheist, he knew he was in trouble.In emails sent to an international humanitarian organisation (and obtained by Minivan News), Saying he'd been threatened with violence, Ismail made desperate requests for assistance in gaining asylum in the UK.
He says he “foolishly admitted my stance on religion” to work colleagues, word of which had “spread like wildfire.”
“A lot of my close friends and girlfriend have been prohibited from seeing me by their parents. I have even received a couple of anonymous phone calls threatening violence if I do not repent and start practising Islam," he said.
“Maldivians are proud of their religious homogeneity and I am learning the hard way that there is no place for non-Muslim Maldivians in this society.”
“I cannot bring myself to pretend to be I am something I am not, as I am a staunch believer in human rights. I am afraid for my life here and know no one inside the country who can help me.”
Here's the full text (via Minivan News) of a June 25 letter to an unnamed humanitarian aid agency:
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: ismail mohamed <i.smilemohamed@gmail.com>
Date: 25 June 2010 09:30
Subject: a plea for help
From: ismail mohamed <i.smilemohamed@gmail.com>
Date: 25 June 2010 09:30
Subject: a plea for help
Dear sir,
I’m a 25 year-old Maldivian living in Male’. I have been working as an Air Traffic Controller at Male’ International Airport for almost 7 years now.
I started becoming disenchanted with Islam around 5 years ago and am now an atheist. During my transformation, and even now, I am quite the idealist, and when i was confronted about two years back by a couple of my colleagues about my aversion from the daily practices of Islam, i somewhat foolishly admitted my stance on religion.
I had asked them to keep it a secret from the rest of our workforce at ATC, although i now realize i should have known better. It did not take long for everybody at work to find out and since then, i have faced constant harassment in my work environment.
An atheist is not a common feature at all among Maldivians and the word has spread like wildfire since then. It has now come to the point where everyone I know, including my family, have become aware of my lack of belief.
In a society that has always been proud of their religious homogeneity, you can imagine what i am being put through. I have been subjected to numerous consultations with religious scholars and even my closest friends are not allowed to see me.
My company has already begun investigating a complaint regarding me, collecting testimony from fellow workers about my apostasy.
Just 3 days ago, i received two anonymous phone calls threatening violence if i do not start openly practicing Islam.
I am at my wit’s end now. I have been trying for sometime to secure employment abroad, but have not yet succeeded.
The only other alternative i can think of is to flee the country to seek asylum elsewhere. I have already written an e-mail to your organization, and am anxiously waiting for a reply. I found your e-mail address on facebook. I am in dire need of assistance and know of no one inside the country who can guide me.
I would have already left the country if i was sure i could meet the required burden of proof in an asylum claim. I would like to know if you would be able to help me in anyway should i travel to the U.K to seek asylum and what my chances are of making a successful claim.
Thank you for your consideration
Ismail Mohamed Didi
Mohamed Ibrahim, Managing Director of the Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL), confirmed that Ismail was the subject of an internal investigation last month regarding his professed apostasy (Minivan News).
Ismail Mohamed Didi was found hanged from the control tower of Male International Airport at 4:00 am on July 13, an apparent victim of suicide.
A coworker told Minivan News that the 25 year-old had returned from leave shortly before the day he died.
“It seemed like he came to work fully prepared to die,” he said. “Ismail normally took the 6:00am-8:00am shift, but on this day he requested the supervisor give him the 3:00am-5:00am shift.”
“During this time there are no air traffic movements and the tower can be staffed by one person, before operations begin at 5:30am. It seems he wanted the quiet time alone,” he said.
“His mother said she called him in the morning at 5:30am to tell him to pray, but there was no answer. They found his cigarette lighter on the balcony.”
Related stories of the atheist experience in the Maldives:
Photo Credit:
1) Ismail Mohamed Didi (source: Minivan News)
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Comments
What an awful, tragic story. Heartbreaking.
What makes it worse is that he has no hope. He would not allow himself any hope at all.
Sounds awfully contrived to me. An intelligent (?), educated (?) person who suddenly is surprised to find that he has grown up in and been living in an exclusively Islamic society for 25 years.
How awful! An I think it is hard to be an atheist in the US. We need good controllers, and should have offered help. BTW, perhaps we should all agree not to spend money visiting the Maldives.
he lost hope.. doesn mean he has t giv up on his life,for all i knowhe cud hav survived if he knew how t deal wit his problems.sad for his parents cos dis guy jus made dem d enemies.
is he for real.?he cud hav used his brains t move else whr in d world.helo..lotsa countries in dis freakin world.jus very stupid givin up his life,very stupid. not tragic or sad.jus stupid.there is nothing more important than d person's own life.its a gud thing he is single,or he wud hav been such a wonderful exampl for them.
What makes it worse is delusional people like Hurlbut bemoaning his hypothetical soul (which, according to Hurlbut, would be burning in hell anyway, since he had been a Muslim) rather than his actual life.
As for the Maldives, let 'em drown.
Truly a tragic tale.
It is yet another story of how powerful religion is and how religion is all to often used to control and manipulate people.
these kinda people could crash an airplane
“A colleague of Ismail’s told Minivan News on condition of anonymity that his colleagues had learned he was an atheist “more than a year ago”, and while they did NOT CARE whether or not he believed in God, “some became irritated at the way he openly INSULTED God.””
The source insisted that Ismail was never mistreated by his colleagues about his religious position, “although they were sometimes irritated by the way he addressed God. He was treated as a normal controller and suffered no discrimination,” the source said, explaining that the air traffic controllers were a close-knit bunch who “lived and played together. Everybody was crying and misses him.”
(Courtesy of Minivan News)
Why was this part of the Minivan News article not included. Thank god that this idiot was NEVER attacked by his peers!!!
"The source insisted that Ismail was never mistreated by his colleagues about his religious position, “although they were sometimes irritated by the way he addressed God. He was treated as a normal controller and suffered no discrimination,” the source said, explaining that the air traffic controllers were a close-knit bunch who “lived and played together. Everybody was crying and misses him.”"
the article posted here is missing a lot...talk about responsible journalism. i can't link to the original article but it is on 'minivannews-dot-com'
he was not bullied but people took offense to the way he spoke about religion and god...just like an athiest would distance themselves from a religious fanatic who criticised their belief, they too did not like his company because of the way he spoke... very few maldivians would resort to violence in cases like this but there would be people like that in most of the
@Maldivian & Cedric: I don't like copying someone else's article word for word and there's a couple of other things that I also didn't mention that you don't either:
'the source said, explaining that the air traffic controllers were a close-knit bunch who “lived and played together. Everybody was crying and misses him.”'
Yet they betrayed his confidence to others and ratted him out to management. Management investigated his apostasy (why was it any of their business what he believed?) and said that they took no action against him... yet they turned the matter over to the Ministry of Islamic Affairs (whose mandate includes prosecuting those who express religious opinions "contrary to Islamic codes of conduct." Need the web reference? Ask me).
So yeah, I left out examples of how absolutely no one was pressuring the guy; not the Islamic Affairs Ministry, not his employer, not his family, and not the colleagues who spoke only on condition of anonymity. (continued)
(continued) ...and not the colleagues who spoke only on condition of anonymity.
I guess I just assumed that all of you would understand that he was under absolutely NO pressure or persecution at all and only hung himself because he thought it might make a nice change of pace.
Well excuuuuse me.
i have known him as a friend, n i have never come across any situation where he was threatned, he chosed to isolate himself from peers and work mates, so please dont point fingers at any one of them.he lived a normal life as another human being. if he was this troubled why didnt he move to another country where he could live they way he wanted. did he really have to wait for a reply from anyone.? no one was holding on to him. no one would have bothered. as parents and friends of the same society everyone would have tried to talk some sense into him. it was him who was going through uncontrollable emotions of his own. so guys n gals.. no matter what religion you are from , please dont point fingers at anyone.no one should kill oneself. life is not easy for anyone. that is why it is called life.
@hugh kramer..
please excuse urself. i think u r in d same shoe as d loser hu killed himself.if u cant take it.. y don u hang urself.. excuuuuse me.
If he was sane when he comitted suicide,,,, may ALLAH forbid the hell fire, he is to go into.
There's nothing in this world that you've to commit suicide.
losers ! ! ! lol
i dont know wht you guys think. i live and work in maldives and talk to airtraffic controllers there everday. i can tell you they are the most talented guys i have ever seen. do you know what makes and air traffc controllers a speacial breed, one of a kind? its their toleranace in taking the stress involved. they are a quick witted bunch of peopel who are trained to make split second desicions. adapt to sudden changes in traffic patterns... etc. its like that they play a 3d video game and its a game that u cannot afford to loose. each and everyday u have to win. no mistakes. and abt this particular controller.... i have heard abt him... i can tell u he was never bullied or harrassed. i know them very well... he just cud not take the stress. and he had an agenda.... an ateist agenda.... to seek asylum and travel out to live his free life.....guys he just lost it.... end of story... thats wht happens when u dont believe of the creator.......
What happened to Ismail shows the barbaric values of the Maldivian society who are crazed by their religion and who are happy to inflict suferring on anyone who does not believe thier insane ravings. shame on you maldivians!
what a stupid people. what a stupid society!! im ashamed to have been born there.
he deserve it. he should be killed. someone who don't believe in the creator. he will face all the threats in the other world. he thought that this is the end of the life.
this cudnt b true..n nobody knows if he believes islam or not...n even if he is, this wouldnt b the first person not to beleive islam as it is in maldives....i would advise not to write false assumptions here...eventhough maldives is named as a 100% muslim country, they rather do a full survey or somthin to see how many ppl atleast regularly go to mosques evryday...i wouldnt say tht this was his reason for suicide...for hes a person with more of free thinkin....thanx
@Maldivian, isnt it shameful you use the word "maldivian" as your nick. There are many atheists in Maldives who are living as any other Citizen and they are not harassed or bullied by anyone unless they attack someone. If you go to a Christian community and attack their believes or comment on their religion they would do the same. @Hugh Kramer, it is the business of the "management" because he signed a Job Agreement which states all employees should be Muslims. I am surprised "management" did not fire him. he was never ill treated at work and he recently requested to transfer to another airport for one year and it was approved. When you write this kind of articles it would be better if you do some kind of research on it. This is irresponsible unethical journalism.
When no choice is apparent the only option is death.
I can understand in a very small way his personal anguish, living in small town "Christians Rule" America.
Parents despise you, people begin talking, your car is keyed and eventually you are fired and forced to move simply because no one will now hire you.
On the other hand, coming to my realization at 22 that Christianity was simply a crutch for the weak minded is what really made things that much more difficult.
@ Bruce - contrived?, or simply aware now.
Great article!
And to all those mental rejects who believe that Muslim, Christians ONLY attack when attacked...WAKE THE F UP - the only people that knew I was Atheist were my close friends and parents...NO ONE ELSE...I NEVER "preached" it I simply didnt attend the one horse bullshit church...trust me Christians and Muslims alike do not take kindly to anyone that separates in ANY way.
Justin said, "he deserve it. he should be killed. someone who don't believe in the creator. he will face all the threats in the other world. he thought that this is the end of the life. "
This is the problem with this world, people like you!
There sure are a lot of ignorant people. His life sounded like a living hell, he was under constant pressure from everyone he knew to act and think against what was natural to himself and to re-adopt their beliefs which, honestly, in my view, are backward-thinking and misogynistic. Some of you people, who live in a free society, act like his attempt to live a free life was some kind of indulgent hedonism or part of an "atheist agenda", whatever that means. You are the same as his "friends" in that case.
It's always sad when someone dies as a result of religion.
A lot of "enlightening" comments today...
Dhivesseh, you support his employer, who employ Muslims only, and you claim to know he was never bullied or harrassed? Can you say "Cognitive dissonance"?
sounds like he was murdered....but i'm sure there will never be a proper investigation.
Excuse me author i would like to say that this article is not proper due to the lack of information provided. This article is making others believe sumthing thats nt true!!! u have omitted alot of information and i wud like to say that no maldivian has ever threatened him! I would request you to please amend ur article so that people won't be misguided... ^_^
so very tragic
Hugh you questioned my word Nikkie, in my Japanese Internment series, and I thought it was a typo, or the Japanese stock exchange which it is, but apparently it is a bona fide word for young Japanese men. Here is a memorial: Nikkei Memorial Internment Centre
he killed himself bcoz his parents failed to programme his brain with the right software and so the poor loving innocent fella freed himself from all the pain by killing himself he actually thought he will b free from all these stone age barbarians and fly and so did he.....i wonder wot software was installed on his parents brains by their parents and so on it goes....the root problem of all these are a bunch of greedy folks dominating and manipulating the mass societies to act against each other based on belief religion so forth and create wars havoc and chaos so that they can benefit from it.....poor fella who committed suicide is just a bloke in between like other many who did and will do the same....its always been the age of aquarius but just bcoz aquarians r not quick witted instead slow in their decisions and they dont try so hard to impress the mass media and dont like being controlled by the control freaks of this world they are the center of attention for the stone age barbarian bullies...and there goes the bullying which gives them so much of happiness and satisfaction and a bloke somewhere get killed tortured or commit suicide...i will tell u guys something okay...real life only begins when u pause for a moment and start thinking logically and think on your own and keep on learning like u know nothing at all so that we will rethink before typing a negative comment on forums like this targeting to a fellow human being who just lost his life...guys i think this should...i am tired of typing so much...plz visit maldives and take care of us...we r all not spoiled...there are still few nice blokes here expecting u to come and share your culture view opinion ...etc :)
heyy loveloelove are you an angel from above? Sure you sound like one ;) sure we will visit you and would definitely like to meet more blokes like you heheheh
"Islamic Republic" really? I would call it a Saudi influenced Wahabi republic, not an "Islamic Republic". Extremism is not Islamic, so those who profess such extreme beliefs are technically hypocrites (Munafiqs). www.unionoffaiths.com
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