BBC
Sunday, June 25, 2006
 Sheikh Aweys used to head an Islamic armed group |
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys is now chairman of the Council of the Islamic Courts. He replaces Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a more moderate figure.
The militia was formed to counter Mogadishu’s warlords and two weeks ago wrested control from them.
Sheikh Aweys used to head a group which the US said was linked to al-Qaeda.
Terror link?
The network of 11 Islamic courts has been set in recent years in Mogadishu, funded by businessmen in an attempt to restore law and order.
The courts’ stated goal is to restore a system of Sharia law and put an end to impunity and fighting.
An interim government based in Baidoa, 200km (125 miles) north of the capital, Mogadishu, has been largely ineffective.
Sharif Sheikh Ahmed had said the militia did not want to impose a Taliban-style Islamic state on Somalia.
But some Islamic courts officials have said they would only support a government based on Islam.
Sheikh Aweys previously headed a Somali Islamist armed group, al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, which the US said had links with al-Qaeda.
A Somali link has been assumed in al-Qaeda-linked attacks in East Africa – including the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2002 attacks on Israeli tourists in Kenya.
Source: BBC, June 25, 2006
