The news of the embarrassing defeat of the longtime thorny warlords of Mogadishu couldn’t have come at a better time, but as inhabitants of Mogadishu celebrate this milestone, they should couple it was a cautionary question: Are the Islamic Courts (IC) aptly tooled to infuse life back to the Capital? Unfortunately, though we hate to be the deliverers of the bad news, it seems that they’re deeply unorganized and unsophisticated to deal with local and global issues at disposal.
The reason? The tale of the Islamic Courts is all but unified. Tribal elders, whose objectives are distinguishably different than that of the Islamic Courts Union, continue to maintain substantial oversight on individual IC’s. Worse yet, their initial rhetoric have not only been contradictory, but it has been mired with un-pragmatic, anti Western and anti-Israeli provocations, all of which are perfect ingredients to touch off America’s ever-widening war on terror. I bet you, it’s the last thing people of Mogadishu would want to see in their backyard after a decade and half of industrial level destruction.
Islamic Courts might seem a unified apparatus from high above, but the reality is different. They are made up of a dozen or so individual courts established by tribal elders to provide autonomous judicial services within each tribe. The mission and vision of each individual court is demonstrably unique.
For example, IC’s in north Mogadishu, who happened to be the first to be incorporated, have largely differed from their own tribes’ political endeavors and mostly provided much-needed judicial services. When the then powerful Ali Dheere spearheaded the good old days of north Mogadishu IC’s, he was later squashed by his tribe’s political wing, namely Ali Mahdi and Muse Sudi Yalahow, because he was amassing significant power.
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Islamic Court’s jihadi rhetoric is surely to instigate Washington’s easily-evocable terror temper – photo HOL |
Novice IC’s in south Mogadishu, on the other hand, are quite different. They tend to entertain their tribe’s political ambitions at will and, at times, have contributed to the military might of their tribe. A good example of that is Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweis’s previous intermingle with the same warlords he now helped dislodge from Mogadishu. At the climax of the Transitional Federal Government’s split, Sheikh Aweis, a former military colonel, embraced the warlords’ side of the government by joining them in the now infamous Balcad luncheon. He was photographed standing comfortably in the midst of who’s who of Mogadishu and Jubba Alliance warlords- a group he now deems infidels (non-believers). Furthermore, Sheikh Aweis and his heir apparent, Adan Hashi Ayrow, both of whom belong to the Ifka Xalane Islamic Court, have strong militias stretching 500 kilometers between Mogadishu to Kismayo, a fertile farming communities squarely controlled by their kinsmen. This smooth coexistence between the secular militia of Sheikh Aweis’s tribe and his Islamic militia underscores a suspicious political ambition equally observed by both sides, who’s otherwise declared objectives are at odds.
Ditto for the south Mogadishu-based Xararyaale and Gubta IC’s who hail from the same tribe as the now sacked minister of national security, Mohamed Qanyare Afrah. These two IC’s refused to partake the current war in Mogadishu against the warlords for they deemed it “tribally motivated.”
Making matters worse is today’s call by north Mogadishu elders who demanded that “Balcad occupiers withdraw from it immediately and unconditionally,” a euphemism statement for folks such as Sheikh Yusuf Indhacadde, the de facto Lower Shabelle region governor, whose militiamen have reportedly helped IC’s militarily before later appearing in Balcad after its fall to the IC’s.
The inner fragmentation of the IC’s is further evidenced in the capture of Hotel Saxafi, the former oasis of the Counter Terrorism Alliance. Though all IC’s apparently helped the capture, the Al-Furqaan Islamic Court, which belongs to the same tribe as the owner of the hotel, demanded a complete oversight and reportedly ejected fellow IC’s from the hotel. Ditto to the apparent forced negotiation deal that led to the peaceful capture of Dayniile, the site where the Counter Terrorism Alliance was engineered.
If the victorious Mogadishu IC’s survive their unspoken fragmentation, they have to address another equally daunting task: Their un-pragmatic, jihadi rhetoric against neighboring countries, Israel and the U.S. Such rhetoric, while serving no purpose, creates a negative public relations image for IC’s.
The Friday’s throngs who were chanting anti Western phrases is a reminiscent of the early days of Taliban rule in Afghanistan. The name of the Islamic Court’s newsletter alone, Al-Jihad, catalyzes their unstable political condition.
Certainly, IC’s won the hearts and minds of Mogadishu people over the warlords, and there’s a good reason for that: The warlords have collectively and individually failed to deliver for their tribes, for Mogadishu and for Somalia. Their embarrassing defeat is perhaps the most notable victory for the people delivered in a silver plate.
But, we at Hiiraan Online Editorial Board are deeply concerned that the euphoric stupors resulting from the warlord’s defeat maybe short lived as Islamic Courts appear to lack the rock bottom organizational foundation and the political sophistication needed to avoid disenfranchising secular groups. Moreover, IC’s jihadi rhetoric is surely to instigate Washington’s easily-evocable terror temper.
