MOGADISHU, June 29 : Islamist rebels shot dead three members of Somalia’s security forces in the capital on Sunday, police and witnesses said on the first day of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month when insurgents had warned they would stage attacks.
The government and African Union peacekeepers have stepped up security to try to prevent assaults during the month by the Islamist Al-Shabab group, which has waged a seven-year campaign to impose its strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Two traffic police men were gunned down by militants on Maka al Mukaram road, a major thoroughfare through the center of Mogadishu, the commander of traffic police, Ali Hirsi, told Reuters. “The attackers escaped,” he said.
In a northern district of the city, a soldier was shot dead by men with pistols, shopkeeper Ali Abdullahi said, adding it happened on the street outside his store.
Al Shabab has a strong presence in the north of the capital, residents say.
The group claimed responsibility for all three killings. “This marks the beginning of our operations. More are to follow,” the spokesman for Al-Shabab’s military operations, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, told Reuters.
Another Al-Shabab spokesman, Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, had said on Saturday that the extra deployment of African Union and Somali forces would not be able to halt their operations.
Al Shabab also staged a series of gun and bomb attacks last year during Ramadan, when Muslims fast from dawn to dusk.
In the past year or so, Al-Shabab has killed dozens of people in guerrilla-style assaults in Mogadishu, on UN offices, the presidential compound, parliament and the courts.
The government, which is trying to impose order on a nation that has been ruined by more than two decades of conflict, has said it wants more international training and other help, and has also improved coordination between its security agencies.
“The security situation remains unpredictable,” the UN special representative for Somalia, Nick Kay, told Reuters in Nairobi on Saturday.
He noted the government’s warning about attacks during Ramadan, saying it was “apparently a traditional period of Al-Shabab activity.”
The African Union forces mounted a new offensive earlier this year against Al-Shabab strongholds in the country, driving the militants out of several towns.
But the group still controls swathes of countryside and has made it difficult for the government to send supplies to newly regained towns. That worries officials who say the failure to help inhabitants could be used as propaganda by Al-Shabab.
(Additional reporting by Drazen Jorgic in Nairobi; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
Somali rebels kill 3 as Ramadan starts, vow more attacks
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Events around the world have proven that extremist ideologies breed terrorism. This extremism transcends borders and language barriers; and affects people across all sectors of society, regardless of religion, class or gender.
The Boko Haram terrorist group in Nigeria is a prime example of how ignorance and a shallow understanding of religion can transform into something dangerous and sinister. They do not represent the religion, but give fodder to those hate-mongering Islamophobes who want to portray Muslims as narrow-minded and intolerant.
It is extremely disconcerting to see Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau threatening to sell into slavery the hundreds of female students his group abducted. Extremism has blinded the hearts and minds of Shekau and his followers. They have become hostages to their distorted views of the world, and even expressed pride in the deaths they have caused by their terror operations.
It is obvious that they have a little learning: “I like to kill whoever God orders me to kill, just like I kill sheep and chicken,” said one of Boko Haram’s members. There seems to be an almost farcical disconnect from reality, as they have also threatened to kill the late Margaret Thatcher, the former British prime minister.
The kidnapping of the Nigerian girls has rightly resulted in global outrage and concern. It has also been particularly appalling for Muslims to hear these terrorists shouting “Allah-o-Akbar,” thus further sullying everything that Islam stands for.
Muslims everywhere are facing a growing threat from extremist groups. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Al-Nusra in Iraq and Syria, and Al-Shabab, the group in Somalia, to name a few, essentially share the same beliefs. Some of them have even developed close ties and launched operations together.
That they have been able to operate in several countries, demonstrates the limited success of military operations against them. There clearly needs to be a different approach taken. Islamic history shows that the Kharijites were defeated, and their influence radically reduced, by leaders providing an alternate worldview.
Many conferences are currently being held to discuss the phenomena of these extremist Islamic movements and the way to confront them. Most studies and research show that an incorrect understanding of religion leads to extremism. In many instances, certain groups have used their dominance in society to manipulate educators to impart a slanted view of Islam. The results have always been violence.
Terrorism is the scourge of this generation. These groups are like a new mafia operating in the shadows by using new media to their advantage. They have been able to secretly connect with each other on the Internet and branch out in many locations. The Saudi government recently arrested 62 members of the ISIL who had planned to launch attacks on local and international facilities, and assassinate various leaders, including scholars and government officials.
Terrorist cells flourish in chaos. This is certainly the case in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen and Somalia. There is also significant evidence that Boko Haram has made contact with so-called jihadist groups in the Maghreb, including Al-Shabab in Somalia. An additional danger for all countries is that there are people out there supporting, justifying and promoting the views of these groups, often in an indirect manner.
The fight against Boko Haram is not a Nigerian problem, but an issue that faces all humanity. The international community needs to fight these groups, and the Muslim world has to raise its voice against this distortion of Islam. Religious institutions have to review their advocacy programs, open up and communicate with the modern world.
It would be no exaggeration to say that our future as a nation is going to be determined by the way we deal with this issue. We face a stark choice — of either having a future of chaos and destruction, or one where moderation prevails.
• malharthi@arabnews.com
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