The Somali “Taliban”…

Shocking article in the Daily Telegraph from a few days back about the real danger of a “Taliban” rising in Africa.  Some excerpts below:

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“…Marching over the sandy strip….are former members of Mogadishu’s notorious warlord militias, the drug-crazed freelance killers, robbers and rapists who have brought anarchy to the capital for the past 16 years.

Now, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a new religious movement which drove out the warlords two months ago, is “rehabilitating” them to defend the land that they so spectacularly destroyed.

…”Discipline is the first priority,” said Col Abukar, as 50 pairs of flip-flopped feet slapped past him in unsteady goosesteps. “These men worked for the warlords – some were alcoholics, others chewed or smoked drugs all day. But, now we have taught them the Islamic religion, they cry about their past sins and obey only the word of God. They do not even smoke cigarettes.”

…the ragtag army at the Hilwenye training camp outside Mogadishu does not look much of a fighting machine. Some are elderly, others in their teens, some have limps and several are minus hands or ears…

…But on their final marchpast over the parade ground, a chant goes up that has rung alarm bells, not just among Somalia’s neighbours, but across the globe. It is “Allah akhbar”…

…Thirteen years after the infamous “Black Hawk Down” incident, in which 18 American troops died at the hands of a Mogadishu mob, Somalia is once again the stuff of American nightmares – as a potential new home for fundamentalist Islam in Africa.

The ICU’s critics in London and Washington see the movement as little short of an African Taliban, an alliance of sharia court judges whom they accuse of wanting to turn Somalia into a theocratic state….

….the ICU has garnered unprecedented support for managing to do what none of its predecessors could achieve – pacifying the most lawless city in the world.
The courts first emerged as an informal source of law and order in the mid-1990s, gaining respect partly by their imposition of ruthless sharia punishments such as amputations, but also by their reputation for fairness.

…Other aspects of the new regime are less welcome. As traditionally secular Muslims, many Somalis have been worried at how the courts have tried to shut down cafés showing Bollywood films and football matches, stop radio stations playing love songs, and encourage women to wear veils.
…They also wonder what else goes on at training camps like Hilwenye, where several hours a day are devoted to Koranic studies. While the ICU says it is simply creating a new national defence force, others see a potential jihadi breeding ground.

…The ICU’s leader is Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, an elderly man with a red henna-dyed goatee, glasses and skull cap. While he makes no apology for his view that an Islamic state is the only way to discipline an unruly land like Somalia, he strongly denies extremism or links to al-Qaeda….”