Somalia's Mullahs Should Join Sheikh Sharif’s Government

Somalia’s most dreaded, radical Islamist group is spreading fear with malevolent and depredatory acts. Al-Shabaab, meaning “youth” in Arabic, evolved as a result of the civil war in Somalia especially during the brief Ethiopian occupation of Somalia. Hiding under the banner of religion, the group has caused the people of Somalia untold suffering. Al-Shabaab’s deracination will only be possible through the combined efforts of foreign powers who wish to see the decimation of terrorists regardless of their locality, military and ideological might or influence in the areas they control. Al-Shabaab cadres have plainly thrown their support behind the precepts of Al-Qaida and prudently idolize its leaders having abnegated the Somali Shafi’e school of thought for the extreme Saudi Wahabi ideology.

The current spates of assassinations in Mogadishu are calculated measures by Al-Shabaab to obliterate political leaders, scholars, community elders, and advocates of social justice. With the help of brainwashed, lawless marauding youth, Al-Shabaab’s batch of brigands and intrigant leaders have categorically opposed the current transitional government despite being offered an olive branch symbolizing reconciliation, forgiveness, and solidarity. Instead, the faction has embarked on tactical operations that prevent the spanking new and fragile government from carrying out its duties and responsibilities contained in the constitutional charter.

The military uniform of Al-Shabaab is a replication of the type worn by the Taliban of Afghanistan. Al-Shabaab’s mode of military operation is identical to that of Al-Qaida and the Taliban. Without giving peace a chance, the faction has vacuously, viciously, and senselessly shackled the war-wary Somali people such that fear reigns in every periphery it commands. Their ultimate intention is to plunge Somalia in to a form of hagiocracy in which leadership will be accumulated in the hands of saints.

While they indiscriminately demolish graveyards and deny the citizen the right to leisure and social activities, they are busy amassing wealth from the same wretched citizen they hold bondage.

Mockingly, anyone who differs with Al-Shabaab’s ideology is branded kaffir, heathen, or disbeliever. Whether exaggerated or taken out of context, the harrowing incidents of extrajudicial killings, beheadings, stoning to death, severing of limbs, and public floggings said to have been committed by Al-Shabaab, remain practicable foundations for several Muslim nations of today. Somalis are sick and tired of stercoraceous politics.

For over 15 years warlords wrecked havoc on Somalia’s population until 2006 when they were defeated by the Islamic Courts Union; then the Ethiopians came and inflicted more harm on the city of Mogadishu and its population. Now, let me ask you: does Somalia need a form of gynecocracy? This is in reference to a rule dominated by women because Somali men failed miserably to stabilize the nation. No, wonder any fool can grab a gun for the sake of power and dominion. There is no need for the leaders of Al-Shabaab to prolong the Somali war. The best these leaders can do is to join the current administration headed by Sheikh Sharif.

A Black Imam for the Grand Mosque

Islam prohibits racial segregation and superiority of one race over another; it calls for human equality and justice. An Arab is not superior to a Persian nor is a Persian superior to an Arab. Likewise, the white race is not superior to the black race; all humans sprang from the seeds of Adam. Despite the good teachings of the Qur'an and the authentic Hadith, many Muslim nations have been adamant at giving racial equality the chance to flourish. Whether in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, UAE, Syria, or Bahrain- almost everywhere in the Middle East-people of color continue to suffer tremendous racial discrimination and other forms of human injustices. Despite the existence of such demeaning and dehumanizing practices for a long time, Muslim/Arab leaders vested with authority have been adamant in one way or the other. Even places of worship like mosques have not been exempt from racial segregation/discrimination. For a long time, it has been impossible (and continues to be so to this day) for a black Imam to lead a congregation of Arab worshipers in prayer.

Finally, a distinguished, black Islamic scholar has found his dream come true. Sheik Adil Kalbani has been appointed the Grand Imam of the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia. He is young, articulate, educated, and well-versed in the Qur'an and Hadith.

Perhaps, other Arab nations will follow suit and give racial equality a chance to thrive. Don't the Arabs see the wind of change that has swept the U.S.? Allah has given talent to all humans regardless of race, creed, color, or national origin.

The Fat, the Dying and the Helpless of Somalia

The political,social ,and economic situation in Somalia is deteriorating day after day. Everything else is in short supply except cellphones, bullets and guns. Despite the abundance of untapped natural resources, there is hardly a town or village that has clean running water; poor sanitation is the cause of various contagious diseases; there is shortage of medicine in the remaining few ramshackle hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies; schools and Madrasah's are in deplorable states if not nonexistent in many towns and villages; women, children, and the elderly are dying in great numbers because of shortage of food, clean water, and shelter.

At present, the population of Somalia may be divided into three categories: the fat, the dying, and the helpless. The fat are a group of men who represent the mass in manipulating the nation's executive, legislative, and judicial sectors of the otiose Transitional National Government hereafter referred to as the TNG. They are hale and healthy; they fly executive jets, hold dual citizenship, dine on French gourmet, wear three-piece suits and are well-paid. They reside in posh hotels in Dubai, Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Djibouti, USA, UK, and other European countries. Their wives and children enjoy safe haven outside of Somalia and survive on foreign taxpayer money. When they arrive Mogadishu, they are accorded total protection by the African Union peace keeping troops who are armed with armored-personnel carriers, rocket-propelled grenades, bazookas, and other assortment of weapons, heavy and light. These fat men who number 550 are the so-called democratically selected (not elected by popular vote) parliamentarians of Somalia. They have big, fat bellies; some are clean-shaven with secular thoughts and western leanings, others are bearded Mullahs driven by religious fervor and fundamentalist ideologies. They hardly intermingle with the rest of society for fear they may contract deadly viruses or get killed unsuspectingly.

Inside Somalia, fragmentation along clan and religious lines have created a breed of bare-footed, scantily-dressed youthful fundamentalists dressed up like the Taliban of Afghanistan who brandish swords of divine annihilation. Some have been indoctrinated into Saudi Wahhabi ideology, others are ardent followers of Usama bin Laden's Al-Qaida. There is the Al-Shabab, the Al-Islah, the Islamic Courts Union, the forces of Ras Kiyamboni, and a cornucopia of hyphenated movements and religious sects. They wage war against each other like hyenas fighting over decaying carcass. They are led by semi-literate Mullahs eying the highest seat of the land-the Presidency. Almost all wish for the creation of a caliphate encompassing the entire Horn of Africa and even beyond. They feel they can bring down empires, command the seas, impose their brand of religious fanaticism, and afflict resounding blitzkrieg to any nation that opposes their style of governance.

The dying are those at the brink of death within Somalia borders. They are either victims of gunshots or bed-ridden by devastating diseases or lack basic care and live in the open if not in dilapidated shelters. Of the dying, some are guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity because, at one time they were the warlords' gun-totting, marauding hooligans who caused Somalia's initial collapse. Others are innocent civilians caught in the quagmire. They remain entangled in a never-ending senseless cross-fire whose end remain unpredictable.

The helpless are the women, children, and the elderly whose living conditions are no better than the dying. They are either refugees cramped into refugee camps in neighboring countries or are internally displaced persons living in decrepit conditions without sufficient food, medicine, water, shelter, and other amenities. Women remain the most vulnerable because of their exposure to the vagaries of war. Social stigma, rape, and other forms of abuse deprive them of their human dignity. Female genital mutilation, an ancient surgical procedure that involves the removal of either the labia minora or the labia majora or both, and clitoridectomy, remain a menace to their mental faculties as many suffer symptoms of stress-related illnesses, depression, psychotic disorders, urinary tract infections, pregnancy complications or death.

Somalia's helpless children are either orphans whose parents perished in the war or simply died as a result of natural causes. There are those who were abandoned by their parents intentionally or accidentally. The number of children without basic education run into the millions. In order to survive, adolescents have taken guns to the battle fields or are wrecking havoc in the towns and villages by setting up illegal road blocks. Some are wading through the coastlines as pirates holding hostage foreign merchant ships plying Somalia waters and demanding ransom. Somalia's elderly are the most neglected and the most susceptible to disease, hunger, and deliberate aggressions.

The suffering in Somalia can only come to a halt when the men with the big, fat bellies renounce their aggressions and model a form of government befitting the people of Somalia.

Somalia needs U.S. intervetion

The current deplorable situation in Somalia calls for the urgent involvement of the United States, her friends, and allies. The cycle of violence in Somalia has aggravated so much that the entire Horn of Africa is in danger of experiencing profound proliferation of small arms trafficking, destruction of the ecosystems, piracy, and collective dumping of noxious wastes along the coastline and on land. Terrorism which is a global concern has found a foothold in the Horn of Africa unabated. The emergence of hard-line extremist groups in central and south Somalia has further put a cap on the quest for peace and stability. Somalia is undergoing tremendous humanitarian disaster of a wide scale and an environmental degradation beyond ecological imagination and comprehension.

The waters off the coasts of Somalia have been depleted of fish because of overfishing by foreign fishing trawlers dragging massive internationally prohibited fishing nets. The coasts of Somalia remain impassable and restricted to maritime trade due to threat from uncompromising pirates whose source of income is dependent upon the hijacking of sea-going vessels traversing the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. Reports of dead fish washing ashore is theorized to have been caused by the dumping of hazardous wastes by people working in cahoots with international crime syndicates.

Despite the Kenya Government refuting Somali refugees claims of extortion and deportation at the border, the rate of human suffering as reported by Human Rights Watch is startling. Refugees fleeing the civil war in Somalia have reported torture at the hands of Kenya's corrupt and undisciplined border security. The refusal by the Kenya Government to document Somali refugees in camps has hampered the efforts of humanitarian relief agencies leading to many undocumented refugees succumb to starvation, disease, and death.

The current global financial meltdown has had adverse effects on the entire Horn of Africa region. Prolonged drought has equally affected livestock and humans with the most vulnerable being women, children, and the elderly. Livestock, the mainstay of the economy has tragically diminished due to the wide-ranging environmental degradations caused in part by humans and natural phenomena. Charcoal burning in Somalia's southern provinces has culminated in the destruction of large swathes of agricultural lands most notably in the fertile Juba valley.

Thus, it is time the U.S., her friends, and allies stepped in to reverse these negative human miscalculations. The U.S. should play a leading role by ensuring Somalia gets a stable government before the entire region falls in to irreparable instability that could drag on for many decades to come. It is a moral obligation for nations to assist each other in times of peace and war.

Beehive of activity along Somalia's coastal waters

The world's most sophisticated navies have gathered around the Indian Ocean because of what they refer to as the "threat of piracy". Thus, the coastal waters of Somalia have become home for naval warships of all makes: cruisers, destroyers, battleships, auxiliary ships, submarines, aircraft carriers...and etc. Besides terrorism, piracy has become the most worrisome trend for the world maritime trade. Since all pirate activities in this part of Africa revolve around an area close to the Red Sea where most of the oil originating in the oilfields of the Middle East and destined for the rest of the world pass through, world economic powers have been left with no other alternative but intervene. There are the Chinese, Americans, Japanese, Germans, Norwegians, Malaysians, Indians, Turkish, you name it. All these navies have gathered to fight poorly-equipped Somalian teenagers hijacking ships. For the pirates, any successful encounter leads to instant wealth, new wives, new businesses, and new luxury cars . So, what will be the endgame of all this beehive of activities?