Three Things That The World Can Do In Somalia To Avoid A Taliban-like Regime

Dr. Mohamed Diriye Abdillahi, Hargeysa, Somaliland

Recent news coming out of Somalia is indeed disturbing. A group of Wahhabi inspired clerics have taken control of most of the southern Somalia, thanks to decades of Wahhabi influence streaming from Saudi Arabia, through generous grants and assistance to Somalis willing to abandon their ancestral and tolerant brand of Shafi’i Sunni Islam.   

Already, like their counterparts in Afghanistan, the Somali Talibans have forbidden all forms of secular entertainment such as stalls showing innocuous videos and games such as soccer, Somalis favorite sport. According to the latest reports, they have also closed photo studios in Mogadishu. Simply put, their objective is to gradually arrive at the basic tenets of Wahhabism and create a nation devoid of democratic norms where women have few rights, if any.   

It should be remembered, contrary to their vision of severely limited women’s rights, Somali women had always enjoyed considerable rights within Somali society, including the right to work, the right to marry the man of their choice, the right to vote, the right to travel without being accompanied by muhrims (muhrims are, according to Wahhabi theology, close blood relatives that must accompany a woman to everywhere outside the home unless she is not escorted by her husband), as well as the right to compose poetry and speak in their own name during village consultations---they were also unveiled and male Somali poets have devoted a large repertoire of romantic poems to Somali female beauty and physique. We only have to remember that the greatest romantic poet, Elmi Bodhari, died for the want of his lady-love, after having devoted his life to composing poems about his romantic affliction; imagine if he had lived in a Taliban-ruled Somalia---he would have been shot having composed romantic poetry. In short, what the Somali Talibans want is to eradicate Somali cultural norms in their entirely and replace them with what they conceive as Muslim culture, which is nothing but a brand of Bedouin Arab culture, from the Najd region of Saudi Arabia, home of the founder of Wahhabism, now universalized as Muslim culture by Saudi Wahhabis, according to Khalid Abou El Fadal, a prominent Muslim scholar of our time.  

Such being the precursors of the more dismal things that would come out of Somalia were the Wahhabi inspired clerics allowed to form a government, the question is what both enlightened Somalis and the outside world can do in order to avert eventuality of a disastrous Taliban style rule in Somalia, which is already reeling from 16 years of anarchy.  

First, Somalis every where, in particular learned Somalis, should, instead of watching from the sidelines, speak out their opposition to a movement that is trying to change their centuries old brand of Islam, Shafi’i Sunni Islam, which is different from Hanbali Sunni Islam, a literalist brand of Islam which serves as the basis for Wahhabism.   

Additionally, Somalis should remember that their forebears had already established a firm separation of state and mosque long before a similar concept came to be practiced in Europe. That concept is known as the division of wadaad iyo waranle (priest and spearman). The priest was paramount in the spiritual domain and enjoyed sanctity and safe conduit even in war while the spearman was paramount in the secular domain. It is upon that division of the secular and the spiritual in Somali culture that some Somalis are betting would shoo away the Somali Wahhabis; but that amounts to an already lost wager since the Wahhabis have guns and money to coerce; they also have the motivation of the outrageously self-righteous, having been brainwashed to think of the native African Cushitic culture of Somalis as pagan concepts whose eradication would entitle them to hasanaat (blessings) in the eyes of God. Therefore, Somalis should make no mistake that what the Somalis Wahhabis want is to usurp both the spiritual as well as the secular sphere, in the utmost dictatorial fashion, in the mistaken belief that they are heeding high powers than mere human thoughts. Thus, we Somalis need to engage the Wahhabis in the public forum. Right now, they have the field to themselves and they are speaking to the like people in the manner of unquestionable oracles. We also need to support traditional institutions of rule such as clan elders and as well as traditional ulema (men of religion), the two groups the Somalis Taliban are trying to replace.  

As for the outside world, in particular the United States, there are three things that can be done.  

Number one: clearly state, in the most unequivocal way, that no recognition or assistance would be given to a Taliban style government in Somalia. This would wake up any moderates in the Somali Wahhabi movement to face the realities on the ground.  

Number two: stop supporting the so-called the dead-on-arrival Transitional Federal Government. It is fraudulent set-up that has neither a national character nor a federal charter. In many ways, it is a misnomer to call it a national federal government. First, it was formed out of warlords, war criminals and more than 80 bogus representatives from Somaliland, which broke away from Somalia in 1991, and has since instituted democratic institutions such that today it is more democratic and more peaceful than most African states. What is being called in the press the Federal Transitional Government of Somalia is actually a ragtag group with no popular mandate, headed Col. Abdillahi Yusuf, a reptilian-eyed colonel accused of many murders including that of Sultan Hure, a British national of Somali origin. Additionally, it does not even have a federal charter despite its title. In theory, a federal charter would consist of federal institutions agreed between Somalia proper and Somaliland, the two parts that formed the Somali Republic, under a dubious union, in 1960. Now such agreement was ever reached with Somaliland, formerly British Somaliland; moreover, Somaliland has unequivocally stated that it will not be coopted into another disastrous union with Somalia (formerly Italian Somalia). Secondly, help convene a new Somalia reconciliation conference; but this time, a conference of Guurti (traditional chiefs and elders), instead of a conference in which the main participants are warlords and war criminals; in fact, it was a series of guurti conferences that led to the establishment of peace and democracy in Somaliland, right after the fall of the Siyad Barre dictatorship.  

Number three: give diplomatic recognition to Somaliland. This would have two benefits: First, recognition would reward Somaliland’s people for their efforts at building a democracy in a part of the world where despotism has been the norm. It will also help to avert another costly war with a Somalia regime. The very war that in the end lead to the collapse of Somalia’s last government, that of dictator Siyad Barre, started in Somaliland in 1982. A repeat of such a war is not beneficial to any country in the Horn of Africa. Secondly, once Somaliland is recognized as an independent county, that very act would rid Somalia of half of its future problems, in the form of attempts to recuperate not only Somaliland but other Somali-speaking territories such as the Kenyan Somali-speaking territory, the Ethiopian Somali-speaking area and parts of Djibouti, in a violent way, as part of the Greater Somalia project, which is precisely what the Somali Talibans of Mogadishu have promised they will embark upon; at the same time, the recognition of Somaliland would spur the people of Somalia proper to act more like the people of Somaliland and usher in the democratic institutions that would bring in democratic governance, peace and progress.  

Dr. Mohamed Diriye Abdillahi

Author of among others, Culture and Customs of Somalia, Greenwood Press, 2001. Dr. Diriye Abdillahi is now based in Hargeysa, capital of Somaliland.

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