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By Alisha Ryu
Nairobi, Kenya, November 7, 2009 – Somalia's al-Qaida-linked al-Shabaab
militants are tightening their grip on areas of the country they already
control, imposing new rules and punishing people they say are violating
their radical brand of Islamic law. Some observers believe until a more
powerful group emerges to bring law and order to the country, ordinary
Somalis are not likely to challenge al-Shabaab's violence-driven agenda.
In recent months, al-Shabaab militants have carried out violent acts
they describe as "just punishments" for Somalis who violated Sharia -
Islamic law.
Alleged spies and Christians have been publicly executed. Thieves have
had their legs and hands amputated. And women accused of adultery have
been flogged and stoned. Al-Shabaab militants have also reportedly
forced citizens, including children, to watch the gruesome punishments
being meted out.
Somalia observer Paula Roque at South Africa's Institute for Security
Studies says there is little doubt that in some places, al-Shabaab has
restored law and order that Somalis have been have been missing since
the fall of the last functioning government in Somalia in 1991.
But Roque says al-Shabaab is trying to bring order through violence and
the threat of violence, which is not what Somalis want.
"There are elements that are extremists, who want to install a caliphate
in Somalia," she said. "So, to that extent, they have an objective and
they have a way of achieving it, which is through the use of violence
and exterminating those that stand in the way of their objective.
Certainly, the public executions are intimidation tactics. This is a
movement that is led by military men, not theologians, clerics," she
said.
The militant group is listed as a terrorist organization by the United
States and Australia for having ties to al-Qaida.
Al-Shabaab's links with al-Qaida began in the early part of this decade,
with the group's founder, Aden Hashi Ayro, who was trained by al-Qaida
in Afghanistan. His death in a U.S. missile strike in May 2008 failed to
stop al-Shabaab from stepping up recruiting efforts and vastly expanding
its territory in Somalia. The group achieved this largely by portraying
itself as a nationalist-Islamist group fighting to preserve Somalia's
sovereignty against threats by Ethiopia and the West.
After the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from Somalia and the election
of an Islamist leader as president of Somalia's transitional federal
government earlier this year, al-Shabaab formed alliances with various
clans and Islamist groups opposed to the government to maintain the
group's grip on power.
The militants have invited hundreds of foreign fighters to Somalia to
help them battle African Union peacekeeping troops propping up the weak
government in Mogadishu.
At the same time, al-Shabaab suppressed public dissent through the
imposition of its ultra-conservative brand of Sharia.
Somali analyst Afyare Elmi says most ordinary Somalis no longer view
al-Shabaab as a benign nationalist Islamist force nor do they accept the
group's radical politico-religious stance.
But he says the West should not assume the Somali people also reject
Sharia. He says there is overwhelming support for having Sharia as the
cornerstone for laws governing the country. Elmi says the problem for
Somalis is not Sharia, but the harsh, alien concepts that have been
introduced by al-Shabaab as Sharia.
"What is the difference here is that al-Shabaab, at this stage, has a
different kind of interpretation," he said. "The brand [of Islam] that
al-Shabaab is trying to impose on Somalis will not be adopted by the
majority of Somalis. You can convince 100 young men to join your
organization. But to get popular acceptance of your ideas is a
completely different thing," he said.
Last week, al-Shabaab militants reportedly rounded up more than 130
people in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, for violating Sharia.
Witnesses say dozens of militants, armed with whips, walked through
al-Shabaab-controlled areas, beating and arresting women not wearing
garments that covered their bodies from head-to-toe. They publicly
flogged women who had neglected to cover their feet with socks. Earlier
this month in north Mogadishu, al-Shabaab whipped women for wearing
bras, claiming that it was un-Islamic to wear undergarments that
deceived men.
And it is not just women who have to adhere to stricter rules. Scores of
men have been arrested and beaten for indulging in their addiction to a
mildly narcotic plant called khat. In some cities under al-Shabaab
control, barbers have been threatened with death for shaving or trimming
beards.
But Elmi says as unpopular as al-Shabaab's brand of Sharia may be,
disapproval alone is not likely to ignite a mass uprising.
"I do not think they will just one day wake up and say, 'We are opposing
al-Shabaab and want to kick them out of the country.' No, that will not
happen. Political and organizational capacity is always needed. So, a
lot will depend on how the government succeeds in recruiting and
defeating its adversaries," he said.
Roque at the Institute for Security Studies agrees that most Somalis are
sitting on the fence, waiting to see which side - al-Shabaab or the
U.N.-backed government - can offer them a better future.
"There is very little national commitment to anything, unfortunately.
Social structures, structures that are needed for the healthy
functioning of any society, have collapsed," she explained. "So, when
you have populations that are on the brink of a humanitarian crisis, who
are constantly displaced, it is very problematic to address issues of
moderation when their concern is stabilization and if al-Shabaab can
provide them with public order and some sort of opportunity for
sustainable livelihood. Then, it is not a question of if they support
al-Shabaab's ideology and extremist views, but it is a survival
mechanism. In Somalia, whoever is perceived as being the winning force
is the one that is going to get support," she added.
Since 1991, clan-based power struggles and corruption allegations have
doomed more than a dozen attempts by Somalis and the international
community to establish a functioning government in Somalia.
Source: VOA News, November 02, 2009
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