By Dalmar Kahin

Ridiculous! You would think. Welcome to Al-Shabaab’s world. Imagine strolling along the road with your mother, sisters, and wife. And as if you have violated some kind of a pedestrian rule (not a traffic law) Al-Shabaab zealots pull you to the side. And then just as police officers inspect vehicles, the Al-Shabaab zealots scrutinize your beloved family female members. Worse yet, just as the law enforcement officers focus on the licenses plates, Al-Shabaab inspects your mother, sisters, and wife’s breasts. To add insult to injury, the ignorant Western Media not only reports the barbaric events but also states that Al-Shabaab is enforcing Islamic Sharia Law. What an insult! What a disinformation!

Somali women have been suffering in the hands of rapists, gangs, and warlords for two decades. Today, many of the criminals who have in the past brutally raped Somali girls as young as seven-years old have miraculously found a “religion” that exonerates them from their crimes and permits them to humiliate Somali women. No! No! This religion is not Islam. It is a new cult introduced by Al-Shabaab.

Just like David Koresh’s cult of Waco, Texas, U.S.A have commanded diehard zealots in the name of upholding “Christian” values and managed to massacre innocent people, similarly Al-Shabaab in the name of protecting “Islam” has its zealots and continues to slaughter the Somali people and humiliate Somali women.

But the indignation caused by Al-Shabaab respects no bounds. Al-Shabaab now stops Somali women and girls on the streets and forces them to shake their boobs. And if the breasts don’t bounce, these women receive public whipping. How dare their breasts defy gravity? Worse yet, Al-Shabaab forces them to remove their bras because according to the Al-Shabaab cult bras are against the Islamic dress code.

That is, any woman whose breasts look firm or defy the laws gravity must be stopped and forced to shake her boobs just like a Western stripper does. Ooh lord have mercy on the Somali people!
http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE59F0CC20091016
Al-Shabaab’s war against not Ethiopia but Somali women’s breasts reminds me a humours story about bras in Mogadishu. A nomadic man once visited his older brother in Mogadishu. The older brother then took his nomadic brother to the busiest shopping center in Mogadishu. As they were strolling along, the newcomer spotted a pair of bras. He was intrigued by their shape. After inspecting them, the nomadic man asked his brother: “Areey waxaan maxaa waaye…or what are these, pointing his finger at the bras?” The brother, the city resident: “Areey rujubeeto waaye…or they are bras”. The bewildered nomadic man asks: “Areey rujubeeto xay tartaa…what is the purpose of bras?” The city resident: “Areey walax raaracay roojisaa…they hold in place something that hangs.”

Now, the story of the brothers and the bras may be funny and innocent, but Al-Shabaab’s conduct is offensive and un-Islamic. The two brothers because of their enormous respect towards women, they could not even say the word: breast. Yet today, Al-Shabaab removes bras from women and forces them to shake their breasts in the middle of the road. Baffling!

Also, through the eyes of Al-Shabaab, the Somali women’s traditional headdress that they have been wearing for hundreds of years all of a sudden is perceived as un-Islamic dress. Again, women as old as 65 years have been flogged in public and humiliated by Al-Shabaab. Some of them have been hospitalised. What is their crime? These women refused to replace their Somali and African traditional headdress with an imported dress code. http://tinyurl.com/yzhh6a3Truly, Al-Shabaab remains offensive and destructive.

Equally offensive and ignorant, the Western Media reinforces Al-Shabaab cult’s evil ideologies by stating, “Al-Shabaab seeks to impose a strict form of Sharia Islamic law throughout Somalia.” That is, some Western captive audiences, as gullible as ever, are convinced Al-Shabaab is just practicing Islam, nothing more, nothing less. It is just Sharia!

These Media reports are pure lies, the most shameful disinformation—a condoned Islamophobia and racism. What Al-Shabaab does is not according to Sharia and has nothing to do with Islam. As I have stated in on of my articles, despite the obnoxious shrills from the Western nations that Al-Shabaab is a threat to them, in fact Al-Shabaab is a blessing in disguise for the West but a curse upon the Somali people.

For one thing, to continue the Western imperial expansion in East Africa, an enemy is needed—Al-Shabaab. For another, to continue the relentless insults and racists attitudes towards Islam and Muslims a barbaric group that claims to be Muslim yet undertakes the most un-Islamic acts would be a double bones; Al-Shabaab—the latest toy for the Western Intelligence agencies—fits the description perfectly. See some of my articles: http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/116511
http://somalilandpress.com/9087/is-irish-independent-news-outlet-spreading-islam-phobia-and-racism/

Just as the Nazis relentlessly spread disinformation about Judaism and Jews in the 30s and 40s, today the Western Media tireless insults Islam and Muslims—“the enemy within”. The Nazis too labeled the Jews as terrorists and as the enemy within. History repeats itself with odd twists, doesn’t it?

To sum up, Al-Shabaab’s latest un-Islamic and barbaric acts towards Somali women have proved one thing: the Somali people must form a united front against this new enemy bent to destroy Islam and Somali culture.

Al-Shabaab is like a pest and we must eradicate it by any means necessary.

The brave and hardworking Somali women—the breadwinners of our society—should not be imposed on foreign ideologies disguised as Islam.

As for the ignorant Western Media, don’t reinvent the wheel. That is, the Media should refrain from repeating the same regurgitated racist Nazi propaganda and hurling it at Islam and Muslims. Before spitting out nonsensical reports about Islam—the Media should speak to Muslim scholars and get the facts.

dalmar_k@yahoo.com

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