President Rayale’s Policy Against Influence Of Islamic Courts
| Front Page |
By Rashid Nur, Washington DC, USA
The growing activism by the conservative groups of the religious community in Somaliland presents a serious challenge to the young democratic system, which has not built its deep roots in Somaliland yet. The challenge comes from the conservative religious community who calls on the people to follow the Islamic Sharia Law in forming government instead; this is a message, which the Somaliland people can easily identify with and may positively respond. Switching from democratic system to theocracy will dramatically change most of the characteristics of Somaliland including its sovereignty.
Theocracy form of government would mean there will be religious authority from the religious community who will oversee all the aspects of the state and who will have the ultimate veto power in all state matters. That much is clear, beyond that it will likely be trial and error and the religious leaders will be making rules and regulations as they see fit according to their interpretation of the wholly Quran. This model of government will rely on the religious leaders who will have the ultimate decision making.
Democracy in Somaliland today; the people elect their President, Parliament, and their local leaders. These elected leaders make the laws of the land and will use their knowledge in Somaliland traditions and Islamic Sharia Law as a basis for drafting these laws. The executive branch will be trusted with to protect and implement these laws. This model of government relies on the popular support of the people who has the ultimate decision making through their power to elect leaders through the ballot box.
What, one may ask, is President Rayale’s policy against the influence of the Islamic Courts in Somaliland? The actions of the Rayale’s administrations portray the lack of coherent policy to curb the influence of the Islamic Courts in Somaliland. In October 2006 the president said his administration will follow the Islamic Sharia Law; this is extremely confusing statement and what the President wanted to communicate is not clear, is the president saying he’ll establish theocracy in Somaliland?, which means establishing the religious leaders who will have the ultimate authority, and will have an authority and veto power over the Somaliland constitution. The President’s statement obviously meant to appease the conservative religious groups and indicated flexibility to consider their message – as dangerously as that may sound. The conservative religious groups have been repeatedly calling on the President to follow the Islamic Sharia Law and this statement strengthened their determination to bring significant changes in the Somaliland political system. Unfortunately it also sent the wrong message to the people.
On the last week of November, there was a meeting in Buroa, which more than 200 persons who represented the religious community from the same clan participated; the meeting was chaired by Sultan Osman Sultan Ali Madar. The meeting called on the President to implement Islamic Sharia Law in Somaliland, the meeting announced the formation of committee of 71 members who were tasked to implement Islamic Sharia Law in some parts of the Togdheer region. The Rayale administration responded quickly in putting Sultan Osman and other leaders of the meeting in Jail. The response from political parties, traditional leaders, and civil society mostly called on the President to release Sultan Osman from jail. There was not much support for President’s actions. However, his actions indicated the President was protecting the constitution and democratic system in Somaliland.
The President met at his office with a delegation of the leaders of the religious community from Burco, during the first week of December; this is different Burco group (not Sultan Osman group) from the Sultan who is in Jail. The spokesman of the delegation Sh. Ibrahim Hassan Ali issued a press release after the meeting; the statement “called on the people to support introduction of Islamic Sharia Law in Somaliland”, the statement also mentioned the two points the delegation proposed to the president (1) The President shall introduce Islamic Sharia Law in the country, as he said in October speech. The President shall appoint Islamic Scholars who will be the authority and entrusted to draft the Islamic Sharia Law regulations in the country (2) Somaliland shall announce that it is against war in Somalia, which will likely affect the whole region if not stopped. The statement went further and stated their understanding of the president’s response. According to this statement, the President (1) informed them that he spoke with the international community (UK, IGAD nations etc) that Somalia does not need more arms and foreign forces, but it rather needs Somalis to think about how to solve this problem (2) the President also informed the delegation that he’ll nominate Islamic Scholars in 2007, and will follow the constitution, which requires that the President nominates half of them, while the other half will be nominated by the House of Guurti. The Parliament needs to finish a legislation that will regulate how the work of the Islamic Scholars committee will be conducted (3) the President called on the religious community to organize themselves at the regional levels, then the religious community and the government shall have discussions about the best way to introduce Islamic Sharia Law.
Just today there are reports that there was an agreement between the government (represented by Cabinet Ministers and Members of the Parliament) and Sultan Osman Sultan Ali and his group. According to these reports the agreement calls on the government to (1) release Sultan Osman Sultan Ali without any conditions (2) that Habar Yonis subclan will follow and respect the law of the land (3) As the constitution states and the president mentioned in his speech, Somaliland shall introduce Islamic Sharia law as soon as possible (4) that no one can claim to speak on behalf of the Habar Yonis clan, unless it is supported by all parties.
These are some of the actions and statements from the President Rayale’s administration. It does not show clear policy to curb the growing influence of the conservative religious groups in Somaliland; who would like to see theocracy in Somaliland, and also believe that Democracy is not good idea for Somaliland. On the contrary these actions and statement have the appearance to appease the religious people, some of which are clearly the main constituency that supported Rayale in the 2003 President elections. My conclusion is that the Rayale government has no policy to curb growing Islamic activism in Somaliland, and the recent statements and actions from the government show lack of appreciation for the obstacles facing further progress of democracy in Somaliland.
We can expect setbacks in any more progress in Somaliland democracy as long as Rayale administration lacks coherent policy to curb the growth of influence by the conservative religious groups. The first test of democracy and the role of conservative religious community in the democratic process will come in the 2007 local government elections.
Rashid Nur
Home | Contact us | Links | Archives