Many Somali and foreign observers may have been baffled by Sheikh Sharif’s muted reaction to al-Shabaab’s destruction of the graves of highly respected Sheikhs in Mogadishu. Some probably thought that Sheikh Sharif’s “government” missed a good opportunity to highlight al-Shabaab’s barbarism and disrespect for the dead. However, there is a simple explanation for Sheikh Sharif’s current silence on this issue: Sheikh Sharif himself started the ugly phenomenon of the desecration of graves when as the head of the Islamic Courts Union he approved of the disinterment of close to 700 bodies from the Italian cemetery in Mogadishu. It is true that the actual work of digging the graves and pulling it out bones and skulls was done by the Islamic Court’s armed wing al-Shabaab, but there is little doubt that the move had Sheikh Sharif’s backing.
One of the main reasons the Italian cemetery was vandalized was so it would be transformed into a training camp for the Islamic Courts. Sheikh Sharif not only backed this decision but even tried to mislead the international community about the presence of foreign terrorists in the camp. The Associated Press reported (June 20, 2006): “Ahmed, the union's chairman, acknowledged the union's militia uses the camp for training, but denied that any foreigners or suspected terrorists were there.”
As the man who started it all, or at minimum, as someone who gave it his seal of approval, Sheikh Sharif is in no position to condemn the current defiling of Mogadishu’s graves, and that is why he is keeping his mouth shut.

























 

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