Issue 252

"Peace and Islam" was the rallying cry of the Somali Islamists three months ago. Now these same people are capturing more land, invading towns, and slaughtering wounded combatants in their hospital beds. What happened?

When the Islamists routed the notorious warlords who kept the country hostage for over 15 years, Somalis all over the world saw Islamists as saviors. Even skeptics like me who don't like wrapping political agendas in religious rhetoric joined the chorus of adulation. If they acted as they talked, I said, they could be the first Islamists to win the Nobel peace. In an attempt to understand their motives, I was one of the first journalists to interview the Islamists' leading spin-doctor, Sheikh Sherif Sheikh Ahmed.

"Land is not our priority. Our priority is the people's peace, dignity and that they could live in liberty, that they could decide their own fate.... Our priority is not land; the people are important to us," is what he told me when I asked him whether they planned to reach the whole country and control the nation.

Five months later, the Islamists captured yet more land, invaded villages, towns, and farmlands, and even killed wounded combatants while they lay in hospitals. Tens of thousands of people who fled their onslaught have crossed the border to Kenya.

Initial euphoria over the degree of peace that the Islamists brought has been replaced by horror. The Mullah's greed for power and land, along with the draconian rules the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) terrorize people.

When I asked Sheikh Sherif months ago whether the Islamists would impose strict clothing regulations on women, he responded: "People are Muslims...no one forces them now to do anything. It is a personal obligation and the person has to adhere to it by his own."

Since then Sheikh Sherif has been eclipsed by the hard-line, former colonel-turned cleric, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys. Under him, the Islamists then shocked the Somali people by imposing strict dress guidelines on women, banning music, long hair, concerts, the cinema and home videos, singing in weddings and even women going to the beach.

The Islamists initial reconciliatory moves and agreement to strike a peace deal with the internationally recognized but beleaguered Transitional Federal Government (TFG) turned out to be time buying tactics. With America suspecting them of harboring terrorists and with members of their leadership on America's international wanted list, the UIC had to prove to the world that it wanted peace.

Dressed like Arabs, speaking fluent Arabic and touting Islam as their battle cry, the Islamists didn't find it difficult to win support from the Arab world. Egypt and Sudan came to their side during the first round of peace talks with the TFG in Khartoum. Soon their emissaries appeared in Arab capitals. Naturally the TFG asked that the talks be shifted to Nairobi, rejecting Khartoum as neutral venue.

The Islamists again manipulated Arab sentiment, calling the faithful for a jihad against an Ethiopian invasion and accusing Somalia's government of inviting Ethiopian forces. Sheikh Sherif himself was photographed wearing military fatigues and brandishing an AK-47. So much for being a promoter of peace and Islam. The UIC, however, denies that they received similar external support from Eritrea. They moved their martyr-seeking militias towards the TFG bastions. Kismayo, the second largest and most vigorous port in the South of Somalia fell after a bitter battle. The government base of Baidoa is also besieged.

Contrary to their promise of peace and Islam, the Mullahs are pushing Somalia to a more devastating war in which erstwhile neighboring enemies will settle scores by proxy. Somalia will be the casualty.

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