Hargeysa police arrest Abdillahi Makawi

Hargeysa, December 09, 2006 (SL. Times) – According to Somaliland’s Police Commissioner Col. Mohamed Saqadi Dubad, Sheikh Abdillahi Makawi was arrested when a crowd of residents of Xero Awr area of Kodbur District, Hargeysa, surrounded Al-Furqan Mosque after the Juma Prayer.

The people were angered by the Sheikh’s Juma prayer speech in which he talked about fund raising efforts by himself and other Hargeisa sheikhs for people affected by floods in southern Somalia.

Eyewitnesses told the Somaliland Times, that the Sheikh was quoted as saying we are fed up with people who oppose our attempts to help the Muslim people of south Somalia and who say they had fought us in the past. As Abdillahi Makawi was speaking, someone stood up and shouted, then another sheikh took the microphone, commotion ensued, and Juma prayer was performed with great difficulty. After the Juma prayer, the mosque was surrounded by people who had prayed in the mosque and were upset with Sheikh Abdillahi Makawi. As a result, Abdillahi Makawi could not leave the mosque for three hours (until Asr prayer) in fear of his own safety, until Hargeysa’s police arrived and rescued him then arrested him for security reasons.

Sheikh Makawi and some other religious personalities and Sultans had unveiled on Monday an initiative to help people who were affected by floods in south Somalia. But that initiative has faced a lot of opposition, and many people are saying charity starts at home and Somalilanders should first help the needy in Somaliland, such as the victims of last week’s rains in Zeila.

Source: Somaliland Times