"Not All Islamists Are Terrorists?"

 Amnesty International accused Ethiopian soldiers on Wednesday of killing 21 people, including an imam and several Islamic scholars, at a Somali mosque and said seven of the victims had their throats slit.

The rights group said the soldiers had also captured dozens of children during the raid on the Al Hidaaya mosque in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, earlier this week during operations against Islamist insurgents.

Ethiopia has thousands of soldiers in neighboring Somalia to bolster a Western-backed government against rebels fighting an Iraq-style insurgency in the Horn of Africa nation.

The Ethiopian and Somali governments have not responded publicly to accusations of atrocities at the mosque. But they have frequently denied abusing human rights in the fight against groups they call al-Qaida-backed terrorists.

    A common tactic of urban Islamic terrorists is attempting to fight behind the shield of a mosque. The brutal attack upon unarmed Muslim men, women and children in a mosque in Somalia by Ethiopian soldiers certainly does not fit that scenario. Who are these Somalian Muslims being attacked by Ethiopian forces and what part does the Bush Administration play in the tragic affairs of this nation?

After the collapse of the Somali government in 1991, a system of sharia-based Islamic courts became the main judicial system, funded through fees paid by litigants. Over time the courts began to offer other services such as education and health care. The courts also acted as local police forces, being paid by local businesses to reduce crime. The Islamic courts took on the responsibility for halting robberies and drug-dealing, as well as stopping the showing of what it claims to be pornographic films in local movie houses. Somalia is almost entirely Muslim, and these institutions initially had wide public support. The early years of the courts include such outfits as Sheikh Ali Dheere's, established in north Mogadishu in 1994 and the Beled Weyene court initiated in 1996. They soon saw the sense in working together through a joint committee to promote security. This move was initiated by four of the courts - Ifka Halan, Circolo, Warshadda and Hararyaale - who formed a committee to co-ordinate their affairs, to exchange criminals from different clans and to integrate security forces. In 1999 the group began to assert its authority. Supporters of the Islamic courts and other institutions united to form the ICU, an armed militia. In April of that year they took control of the main market in Mogadishu and, in July, captured the road from Mogadishu to Afgoi. Their system of government, controlled by judges, is known as a krytocracy.

As the courts began to assert themselves as the dispensers of justice they came into conflict with the secular warlords who controlled most of the city. In reaction to the growing power of the ICU, a group of Mogadishu warlords formed the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT). This was a major change, as these warlords had been fighting each other for many years. By the beginning of 2006, these two groups had clashed repeatedly, and in May 2006 it escalated into street fighting in the capital, claiming the lives of more than 300 people. On 5 June 2006, the ICU claimed that they were in control of Mogadishu.

Meanwhile, in the United States the Bush administration neither confirmed nor denied support for either side. However, it was reported that American officials had anonymously confirmed that the U.S. government was funding the ARPCT, due to concerns that the ICU is linked to al-Qaeda and is sheltering three al-Qaeda leaders involved in past terror attacks, including the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

On 6 June 2006 the ICU further claimed it was in control of all the lands up to 100 kilometers (62 miles) inland from Mogadishu. The warlords were reported to have either been captured or to have fled the city, abandoning most of their weapons, with the majority fleeing to Jowhar, which was taken by the ICU militia on 14 June.[19] This brought ICU in control of much of the weaponry in the country, which made a resurgence by the warlords difficult without outside support. The ICU also controlled significant territory outside the capital, including the important town of Balad. In mid-August, ICU militiamen swept into the port town of Hobyo, 500 kilometers north of Mogadishu, meeting no opposition. The ICU organized a clean-up campaign for the streets of Mogadishu on 20 July. This was the first time litter and rubbish had been collected in the entire city since it collapsed into chaos over a decade earlier.

On July 15, 2006, the Islamic Courts reopened Mogadishu international airport, which had been closed since the withdrawal of the international forces in 1995. The first airplane chartered by the Arab League flew from the airport for the first time in 11 years picking up Islamic Courts delegates to the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.

On August 15, 2006, the ICU captured Haradhere, some 500km northeast of Mogadishu, which had become a safe haven for pirates, who had forced shipping firms and international organisations to pay large ransoms for the release of vessels and crews.

On August 25, 2006 the Islamic Courts reopened historic Mogadishu seaport, which was formerly one of the busiest in East Africa but had been shut down for 10 years.

On October 5, 2006 the Islamic Courts declared the formation of the supreme Islamic Sharia court of Banadir province, ending all tribal Islamic Courts in the capital.

On December 8, 2006, the Islamic Courts Union claimed to have been involved in heavy fighting with Somali transitional government forces, backed by Ethiopian troops. On December 21, heavy fighting erupted between ICU forces and Ethiopian-backed forces. The battles happened initially in two areas - the military base of Daynuunay and the military base of Iidale.

The ICU made calls for jihad against Ethiopia, which were met by international mujahideen volunteers arriving in Somalia.

The ICU lost a considerable amount of territory after defeats at the December 20 - 26 battles of Baidoa, Bay region, Bandiradley, in Mudug, and Beledweyne, Hiran region, retreating to the capital, Mogadishu.

On December 27, 2006, after a brief skirmish earlier in the day at the Battle of Jowhar, the leaders of the ICU, including Sheiks Hassan Dahir Aweys, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Abdirahman Janaqow resigned in a capitulation recognizing the new state of affairs in Somalia. They issued the following decisions:

1. It is national duty to protect the sovereignty and the integrity of Somalia and its people.
2. The ICU allows that Somalis should have the option to determine their future and would be ready for taking over the responsibility.
3. The Islamic Courts Union agreed not to allow anyone to create violence in Mogadishu and anybody that is found guilty would be brought before the law and would be taken for the suitable punishment according to the Islamic Sharia.
4. The ICU fighters are responsible for establishing the security and stability in the Somalian capital Mogadishu.
5. Lastly, the ICU is calling on all the Islamic fighters in Somalia, where ever they may be, to maintain security and stability in their localities and get ready in the police stations and other security installations

In January 2007, as the ICU retreated, its leaders vowed to wage guerrilla war. They were pursued to Ras Kamboni, where they were militarily engaged by Ethiopian and Somali TFG forces. Kenyan and US forces enforced a border patrol and naval blockade, followed by US airstrikes against suspected Al Qaeda members embedded within the ICU militias

ICU Chairman Sharif Sheikh Ahmed is seen as a moderate and repeatedly declared the objective of the ICU was the restoration of order after 15 years of violence. However, of the eleven courts composing the Union, two had reputations as radical. One was led by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who is on the U.S. list of terrorism suspects as the former head of the al-Itihaad al-Islamiya (AIAI) group. Western diplomats are also concerned by a second leader, Adan Hashi Ayro, who was trained in Afghanistan and whose militia has been implicated in the deaths of five foreign aid workers and a BBC producer. Suspects from the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings are believed to be hiding in Somalia, and to be aided by the ICU [1][2]. There were also been reports of foreign mujahideen fighting alongside the ICU. In response, the U.S. provided funding for the secular warlord alliance due to these fears

    As I see it, Somalia's Islamic Courts Union (ICU) is a moderate Islamist group which had a very positive impact in war torn, clannish Somalia until forced into jihad by the Bush Administration backed secular Somalian warlords and occupying Ethiopian troops. Obviously some al-queda operatives have attached themselves to the ICU but this doesn't qualify the ICU as a terrorist group. In my opinion, the moderate ICU are legitimate insurgents fighting against Ethiopian occupation and the lawless rule of the Somalian warlords. The Bush Administration and the next Presidential Administration must understand that not all Islamist groups are terrorist. Ethiopia needs to withdraw it's troops from Somalia and let the ICU administer the socio-political affairs of the Somalians that desire their progressive administration. In Somalia, America is once again guilty of supporting the wrong group, to the detriment and suffering of the nation interfered with.

Somalia's Problems Made Worse by Bush Administration

What CNN is not saying is that the US has assisted in destabilizing the situation in Somalia under the pretense of making it better. There has been at least 4 US military attacks in Somalia. There is the financial and military backing of Ethiopia's presence in Somalia. There is the support of a transitional Somali government that had and has no chance of standing because the overall majority of the people do not support it.

This ill advised American military action, some call "Black Hawk Back Up", has been a central part of creating the worse humanitarian situation on the continent of Africa.

The Somali people have a responsibility to find a way to forgive, remove the foreign meddlers and instigators, whether they be American and European or Arabs who extend their squabbles within Somalia.

This is far worse than the Darfur region of Sudan.

tags: somalia  africa  bush  ethiopia  icu  war on terror  warpeace  power  islamists  

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit