The Somali resistance forces of Al-Shabab have taken control of large sections of the country. This group, along with Hizbul Islam, seek to overthrow the US-backed Transitional Federal Government huddled in Mogadishu.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
17:20 Mecca time, 14:20 GMT
Somali Islamists: A potential ally?
By Dr Afyare Abdi Elmi
Islamists should play a role in the governance of Somali society, author says
There are some huge misunderstandings within the international community about the role that Islam and Somalia's Islamists should play in the governance of Somali society and the de-radicalisation efforts.
I believe that the presence of a large number of Islamists is not bad in itself. To the contrary, this provides a great opportunity as most of Somalia's Islamists are neither extremists nor international jihadists and they should be seen as the best ally in defeating piracy and extremism.
Islam has deep roots in Somalia. Most Somalis believe that the message of Islam was spread to Somalia peacefully before it even reached Medina, Islam's first capital city.
Moreover, Somali clans took part in the religious wars that raged throughout history between Muslims and Christians in the Horn of Africa.
Islamic identity and Somali identity cannot be separated.
Indeed, the guerrilla war fought against British imperialism from 1899 to 1920 was led by a nationalist, Sayid Mohamed Abdulle Hassan, known in the West as the Mad Mullah. He combined nationalist imagery with Islamic devotion.
Political Islam
That said, political Islam in today's Somalia - or what it is often called Sahwa Islamiya (Islamic awakening) - is relatively new and poorly understood by the international community.
The phenomenon of political Islam is as divided as the country's clan structure and there are competing narratives on how it began, although most believe that Somali students who went to the Middle East to pursue their education came back with the message of Islamic awakening and started propagating it in the 1960s.
As in other parts of the Muslim world, the two main orientations of Sunni political Islam - the Salafi and Ikhwan schools - are present in Somalia. To complicate this further, each orientation has several competing groups within it.
Several movements that have ties to the Salafi school of thought have emerged and dissolved.
The most well-known movement was al-Ittihad al-Islami (AIAI) which was established in 1982. The al-Itisam movement, Hizbul-Islam, al-Shabab and Salafiya Jadida (new Salafis) are the four main Salafi groups and they are largely off-shoots of AIAI.
Those from the Ikhwan school - connected historically to the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood and with a more political orientation that the Salafis - are also divided. Al-Islah is the largest Ikhwani orientated organisation, although it has splintered into two groups, often referred to as the New Blood and the Old Guard. There is also Tajamu al-Islami and Wuhda.
At the heart of the disintegration of these schools into several groups was the question of the method of affecting and achieving power. The political ambitions of individual leaders and clan politics - although Islamists in general and al-Shabab in particular have limited the impact of tribalism - in Somalia also contributed to the problem.
Similarities and differences
Somalia's Islamic movements have many similarities. Chief among them is the fact that they all call for the creation of an Islamic state. They believe that Islam is a comprehensive way of life that forms both a religion and a state.
Moreover, depending on the conditions, they all believe that da'wa (preaching) is the best way to spread Islam.
However, they also have their differences. The most telling are in their understanding of the compatibility between Islam and the West and how they want to achieve an Islamic state.
Some of these groups oppose violence completely. Al-Islah is the leader in this regard, although Salafiya Jadida also rejects the use of force in Somalia, arguing that jihad is not relevant within a Muslim society.
At the other extreme is al-Shabab which is basically an international jihadist movement. This group believes that, historically, Muslims have been humiliated by their enemies whenever they have abandoned jihad and, therefore, that if Muslims are to be respected, jihad must be ongoing.
While Hizbul Islam as an organisation does not currently have a clear policy on the use of violence, its actions suggest that it sides with al-Shabab on this question and both groups believe in violence as a way to attain power.
Between these two extremes are the groups who say that the strategy employed depends on the prevailing conditions. While da'wa and peaceful political activism are preferable, they do not rule out the use of force if, for instance, it is aimed at clan-based warlords or Ethiopian occupiers.
Members of Tajamu al-Islami, the New Blood faction of al-Islah, and some members of al-Itisam movement openly reject the use of force in achieving power although they led the resistance groups that fought against the Ethiopian occupation.
Somalia's Islamist groups also differ over other important questions, such as whether or not to have a nationalist agenda, pragmatism and tolerance.
The extent of their differences became clear when al-Shabab reportedly killed several Islamist leaders in a suicide bombing.
The Islamist message
Where are the Somali secularists, one might ask, and why did the Islamist groups succeed?
In general, as Mohamed Ayoob's recent book, The Many Faces of Political Islam, revealed, the answer to these questions has two dimensions.
Islamists succeeded because of factors that are "inherent to Islam" and others that are "external to Islam".
Based on Ayoob's account, those that are inherent to Islam are the simplicity of the message and the positive perception of Islamic history.
Many Muslims, according to Ayoob, are familiar with Islamic terminology and vocabulary, meaning that Islamists have a message that can easily resonate with large numbers of Muslims.
Moreover, Islam led world civilisation for many years and, unlike other colonised nations, Muslims are seeking to re-claim their previous dominant position.
Those factors that are external to Islam but which helped Islamists to succeed include the failure of secularist leaders during the post-colonial era and Western support for secular Muslim dictators and Israel.
As Ayoob explains, the success of Somalia's Islamists can be attributed to these factors.
Secularists falling short
One can safely argue that, for now, Somalia does not have credible secularist groups that can compete with Islamists.
When the country collapsed in 1991 many Islamists who lived in the Middle East went back and established schools and service centres. They filled the vacuum in almost all sectors, including business and intellectual life.
Parallel to this is the fact that many of Somalia's Western-educated class left the country for Europe and North America.
One now rarely sees schools that are owned or operated by secularists in Somalia.
This provided Islamic institutions with the opportunity to become the sole group working for the betterment of society and, worse still, meant that warlords came to be seen as the sole representatives of secularism and the sole alternative to the Islamist groups.
A Somali agenda
The war between the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and Somali warlords was directly linked to the 'war on terror'.
After Washington's policy of supporting the warlords - believing that they had a secular agenda - failed, the US supported an Ethiopian occupation of the country.
But there are three key points that the international community must now understand about Somalia's Islamist groups.
The first is that they are not homogenous.
The second is that Islamic values play a central role in how this Muslim society is run.
And the third is that the overwhelming majority of Somalia's Islamist movements have a Somali agenda - they want a peaceful and prosperous homeland.
Thus in order to build a functioning state, they should be considered an ally.
Dr Afyare Abdi Elmi teaches international politics at the Qatar University's International Affairs Department and the author of the forthcoming book, Understanding the Conflagration of Somalia: Identity, Islam and Peacebuilding by Pluto Press.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.
Source: Al Jazeera
Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
Somalia: Confrontations Between TFG Soldiers Kills 1, Injuries Another
8 January 2010
Mogadishu — A confrontation between the Transitional Federal Government troops broke out at Shangani district in Mogadishu, killing a soldier, injuring another one in the area, witnesses and officials told Shabelle radio on Friday.
Locals said that the died soldier was member of the marines of the transitional government and his murder came as some of the military forces in the district shot him and killed adding that they also took his rifle from the spot.
More marine troops had reached at the scene where the killing action happened which caused both sides to exchange heavy weapons for a while during the clash, killing one wounding another.
Abdifatah Sabriye Hassan known as (Anjeh), the chief of the troops of Shangani district told Shabelle radio that bitter confrontation between the military and sea forces had happened in the district today asserting that it created concerning to the people in the district as the fighting continued.
He expressed sorrowful about the conflicts between the government soldiers that often happens in the areas under the control of the government soldiers in Mogadishu.
SOMALIA: Concern over deteriorating food security in Somaliland
Killed by the drought - agropastoralists can no longer depend on their animals for meat and milk
ALLAYBADAY, 8 January 2010 (IRIN) - Low agricultural production, caused by poor rainfall last year in Somalia's self-declared republic of Somaliland, has put at least half of its three million people at risk of food insecurity, agricultural officials warn.
"We are very worried that the situation could get worse because last year the crop production in the western regions of Somaliland - particularly Awdal, Gabiley and Hargeisa - decreased so much compared to 2008," Abdulkadir Jibril Tukale, director-general of the Ministry of Agriculture, said.
For example, Tukale said, Gabiley was the only region expected to record over 90 percent crop production, "which will provide some stocks for only the Hargeisa region, but Togdher and Awdal regions will depend upon food aid and loans".
Mohamed Muse Awale, chairman of the National Environment Research and Disaster Preparedness Agency (NERAD), noted that in November 2009, government and NGOs estimated that the livelihood crisis caused by rain failure had affected at least 40 percent of the population; that figure, he said, had since risen to 50-60 percent.
District officials in Allaybaday, in the Midwestern Gabiley region, have expressed concern about the livelihood crisis following the recent rain failure in the Deyr and Gu seasons.
Hassan Abdi Ali, the mayor, said some 12,000 families in the district had been affected, many of them losing livestock.
"We are very worried about the livelihoods of these people because they have not received any support, other than about 120 families to whom we distributed some food items."
Livestock dying
Hassan Abdi Abdillahi, an agro-pastoralist from Taysa area, north of Allaybaday, told IRIN: "I ploughed about five acres [2ha] that used to get me about 50 sacks [50kg] of maize and sorghum but this year my harvest produced only 15 sacks, which is very difficult to survive on in the forthcoming months with my family of 10 children."
Abdillahi said agro-pastoralists previously used their livestock for meat and sold the milk, "but now we do not have animals; for this reason I am afraid that we will not survive until next season without support.
"Most of my animals, particularly cattle and sheep, died," he said. "I had about 100 sheep; only 15 of them are now alive, the rest died due to the drought that was made worse by at least eight months of no rain at all."
Ayan Ali Abdi, chairman of the Environmental Resource Development Organization - a civil society group working in midwest Somaliland - said: "Following an assessment by our organization, we know that people do not have the basic needs such as water and food as they did not receive any rain in the last two seasons.
"As a result, many people lack food and the affected agro-pastoralists may not have the means to cultivate their farms for the next season. Many need to be supported to restock their livestock."
According to reports by the Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) of the Food and Agriculture Organization, covering July-December 2009, at least 386,000 people in Somaliland were facing an acute food and livelihood crisis while about 54,000 were falling into a humanitarian emergency.
FSNAU said the food security situation had deteriorated in almost all pastoral and agro-pastoral livelihoods in the northwest of Somaliland.
Report can be found online at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87673
AU renews Somali peace force mandate
Posted: 1/9/2010 9:50:00 AM
Shabelle: SOMALIA
ADDIS ABABA (Sh. M. Network) — The African Union on Friday extended the mandate of its Somalia peacekeeping mission by six months and called for more support for the country's embattled transitional government.
"During our discussions, there was unanimous support for the renewal of the African force in Somalia," the AU's Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra told a press conference.
The force, whose first batch of troops from Uganda arrived in early 2007, has been the regular target of attacks by Islamist insurgents which have killed dozens of soldiers.
The mission is nearly 3,000 short of its intended target strength of 8,000 troops, with Uganda and Burundi the only countries to so far provide manpower.
"The international community needs to put more means and resources at the disposal of the TFG," Lamamra added, referring to Somalia's transitional federal government, also a target of the extremist militia.
AU commission chief Jean Ping said Djibouti was planning to send 450 soldiers and Burundi was to dispatch an additional batallion of 800 men.
Uganda is also to send another batallion by March with the support of the United States, he added.
Source: AFP
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