Paul Goldsmith
22 June 2009
(Page 2 of 2)
It is also important to acknowledge the seriousness of the Pashtunwali cultural code, and the principle of nanawateh, which mandates protection of those (even enemies) who petition the tribe for sanctuary.
Faced with the ultimatum, expel Al Qaeda or suffer the consequences, the Taliban Loya Jirga replied that although they could not forcibly make them leave, they had invited their guests to exit of their own accord.
In contrast to the civil war and violence ravaging Mogadishu during the mid-1990s, an Ogaden Somali warlord allied with the Al Ittihad movement established a semblance of stability in the environs adjacent to the Kenya border by imposing a severe religious order. Hassan Turki and his Ikhwan (the brotherhood) banned cigarettes and miraa (khat), and made bearing firearms subject to his approval.
Based in the historic settlement of Bur Gao, in 1996 the Sheikh invited agents of Al Qaeda to set up a training camp six kilometres from the Kenya border in Ras Kamboni. Reports of alien combatants operating in the open and even training on the beach filtered across the border with Lamu.
The Ras Kamboni training camp continued to operate despite the international attention focused on the region by the 1998 US embassy bombings; the "light-skinned" foreigners went underground, moving in with local residents.
As was the case in Afghanistan, the jihadis were unpopular and disliked by their local hosts, and their presence a magnet for American military intervention.
They relocated to Mogadishu following the defeat of Al Ittihad in Kismayu, apparently leaving Somalia before the events of 9-11 further raised the stakes.
Now they are back. The linkages, including the financial network sustaining the insurgents on their impoverished terrain, have always been active.
Hassan Al Turki went on to start the original Al Shabaab militia.
The New York Times recently described the combination of the Islamist movement in Somalia and the influx of foreign jihadis as "reminiscent of the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan in the late 1990s."
The implication is that the insurgents want to turn Somalia into a safe haven replacing the Pashtun homeland straddling Afghanistan and Pakistan. There are indeed similarities, but the time and settings are different.
The tide has turned since the 2006 accord brokered by the pro-Taliban Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam that in effect secured Pakistan's North Waziristan as a safe haven for Islamist militants.
Pervez Musharraf is gone and the Taliban are on the run. President Obama has just instituted new rules of engagement prioritising the safety of the civilian population in Afghanistan.
Migrating to Somalia in these circumstances appears to be an act of desperation; financing jihad in Somalia is at best a dubious investment.
Somali nationalism is a resilient phenomenon; if Islam is one common denominator, antipathy for outside intervention in their internal affairs is another.
It's a rough neighbourhood. Islamist law and order relies on a heavy hand.
There is a difference between governing and beating men in public for wearing kikois and destroying saints' tombs. During the recent Shabaab-Hizbul Islam offensive in Mogadishu, two of their factions were fighting each other in Luuq.
True, the government of Ahmed Sheikh Sharif may not be the final solution, even though many former Islamic Union Courts members have joined its ranks.
Somali culture, to the best of my knowledge, does not emphasise the Pashtunwali principle of nanawateh. The jihadi tourists and refugees speaking Asian tongues would soon find themselves surplus to requirements even if the rejectionists take their place.
The latter prospect may be the penultimate act in the nation's long slog to domestic equilibrium. In an article posted on the Internet (Hiraan Online, Tuesday, June 9), The Best for Somalia: Islamists Take Over!, Hassan Zaylai offers the following perspective:
The sooner the Islamists take over, the faster and easier will be their undoing and complete eradication of their narrow ideology from Somalia!
Their ascendancy to power plus the end of illegitimate governments, of unholy and unwilling coalitions of misfits and pushers of clan politics, will produce the best incentives for total liquidation of armed Islamism in Somalia.
Years ago a friend from Hamarwein told me, "These guys can fight for years -- then again, they can come together and sort themselves out in one sitting." This too, may yet come to pass.
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These bare-faced lies have no basis for truth. Where's your evidence for such wild accusations? Not even your usual fabricated evidence?
Your nonstop meddling in the internal affairs of Somali's is one of the MAIN reasons why unecessary war is raging in Somalia.
Stay away from Somali internal affairs. This is not about terrorism for Somalis don't engage on world terror. It's a war for freedom and against intervention, clear and simple.
So keep your "war on terror" cover-up tasctics to yourselv.
i believe this story is true and is a large plan of establishing islamic states which should be halted because everyone has a right to choose and no one can choose for them no is meddling in the internal affairs on somalia because the last time i checked there was nothing to meddle in somalia offers not interest to anyone is a barren land with nothing but bombed out building you dont even have a govt for crying out lound what kind of internal affairs are you talking about
Another "Foriegn" minister looking for "Foriegn" troops to invade his country so as to keep mr "Foriegn" Minister safe while he finishes looting his country and getting the stash back into US/UK/FR.
Have'nt we had enough of these lying "Foriegn" ministers? They come on the back of "Foriegn" troops loot as much as they can and US/UK/FR media gives them a blind eye.
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