MOGADISHU, 9 July 2006 — Militiamen loyal to Somali Islamic Courts on Friday raided a wedding party, beat a woman, and confiscated musical instruments in the capital Mogadishu as they enforced a ban on band music, officials and witnesses said yesterday.
Around 20 heavily-armed militiamen stormed a house in Mogadishu’s Huriwa neighborhood, fired shots in the air and confiscated musical instruments from a band entertaining guests at the wedding party, they said.
Organizers said the militiamen said the band was performing “satanic” music contrary to the teachings of the Qur’an.
“We were ordered to stop the music and empty the house which we all complied with immediately,” said Hayir Ali Roble, one of the musicians performing at the party.
“We followed their orders and kept our musical instruments in a room but they forcefully entered the house and took the instruments, and in the process broke some of them,” he added.
In addition, they struck a woman with sticks, but it was not clear why they took such extreme measures, Roble said.
Khadijo Weheliye, who organized the wedding party for her son, said they had earlier sought permission from the hard-line Islamists to hold the celebration with music.
“We didn’t know what their aim was because we had asked the Islamic court for permission to hold the party,” she told AFP in Huriwa neighborhood, where the courts have banned cinema halls showing the World Cup, or Western and Indian movies.
“They gave us a permission letter this morning, but attacked our home in the afternoon,” added a visibly shocked Weheliye.
The Islamic courts confirmed the raid, but denied that a woman had been beaten.
“We have told them to stop evil acts that derail the practice of Sharia law and it is our duty to enforce the ban on band music,” said Ali Salad, the head of Ridwan Islamic courts in Huriwa neighborhood.
“We confiscated musical instruments that are satanic simply because we have previously told party orgnizers not to bring bands with music at the party,” he added.
It was not clear whether the ban covers recorded music, but the Islamists are known to oppose any form of musical entertainment.
On Wednesday, a top cleric announced that any Somali Muslims who failed to perform daily prayers would be killed in accordance with Qur’anic law.
The requirement for Muslims to observe the five-times daily ritual on penalty of death appears to confirm the hard-line nature of the increasingly powerful Shariah courts in the capital.
It was not immediately clear who would enforce the regulation, or how. But the courts have well-armed militias that routed a US-backed alliance of warlords in June after four months of bloody battles for control of Mogadishu.
Four Killed as Rival Militias Clash
At least four people were killed and six others wounded yesterday when rival militias clashed in southern Somalia over control of land, elders and witnesses said.
They said the militiamen burnt huts in a village in the southwestern Somali region of Gedo, forcing hundreds of civilians to flee to safer locations within the district of Luuq.
“I have seen four dead bodies and six other injured persons,” said an elder reached by radio from the capital Mogadishu.
As elders shuttled between rival sides and managed to broker a truce, militiamen repositioned themselves for possible revenge attacks.
Inter-clan fighting has flared regularly in the shattered Horn of Africa nation since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991, an event which split the vast desert country of some 10 million people into a patchwork of fiefdoms governed by unruly warlords.
