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The killing
of students, teachers and politicians at a graduation ceremony in
Mogadishu’s Shamo hotel elicited widespread condemnation, and rightly
so. But in the midst of that wave of condemnation there were also
attempts to find answers to burning questions such as who was behind it,
and why did it happen? One of the people to whom the Voice of America’s
Somali Service turned for answers was Abdi Samatar, a professor in
Minnesota. After asking several soft-ball questions, the VOA reporter,
Farhiya Absiye, brought up the fact that he was once an ardent supporter
of the Islamic Courts which was then headed by Sheikh Sharif and that
the situation had gotten worse since Sheikh Sharif came back to
Mogadishu. It was easy to see where Farhiya Absiye was headed. She was
indirectly telling Abdi Samatar that neither Sheikh Sharif and his
cronies, nor Aweys and his Hizb al-Islam, nor al-Shabaab dropped into
Mogadishu from the sky but were all part of the Islamic Courts, and
since Abdi Samatar supported the Islamic Courts, doesn’t he bear some
responsibility for what is happening in Mogadishu?
It was an intelligent and honest question that has crossed the mind of
many Somalis who remember the extraordinary lengths that Abdi Samatar
used to go to in defending and promoting the Islamic Courts.
Unfortunately, Farhiya Absiye did not get an intelligent or honest
answer. What she got instead was the usual intellectual warlordism and
evasion of moral responsibility that Abdi Samatar and his brother Ahmad
are famous for, whereby they do not take responsibility for the
consequences of their political stands; in this case, the consequences
that flow from backing the Islamic Courts who are the authors of the
greatest catastrophe that has recently befallen southern Somalis, the
catastrophe of the radicalization, politicization, and clanization of
the Islamic religion, a crime that is a thousand times worse than what
Mogadishu’s infamous warlords had done.
Instead of leveling with Somalis, Abdi Samatar ducked the issue and
blamed the US and Ethiopia for removing the Islamic Courts from power.
What he failed to explain is that the same people who were basically in
charge of the Islamic Courts then are now in charge of the TFG, Hizb
al-Islam and al-Shabaab. So if they were really so nice and groovy why
don’t they practice the rosy and ideal Islam that Abdi Samatar was
telling the world they believed in. Did they suddenly turn into monsters
who revel in suicide bombings and stoning people to death?
Abdi Samatar also claimed by way of defense that he does not support
individuals but supports principles and ideas. Nonsense. If this is not
a clear example of intellectual dishonesty, we don’t know what is. He
was supporting individuals called Sheikh Sharif, Aweys, Janaqo, Addo,
and Ayro, who lived in a place called Mogadishu, and who belonged to an
organization called the Union of Islamic Courts. These people have
turned the already precarious existence of many Somalis into a veritable
hell. Somalis know these people and what they have done in the name of
Islam. They also know that Abdi Samatar was one of their biggest
cheerleaders. So to turn around now and say he supported ideas will not
wash, especially, after Farhiya Absiye’s question, the question that
Yusuf Garad will never ask him.
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