Mogadishu, Sept 2 (AFP) – Islamist militia stormed makeshift cinemas in the Somali capital, seizing equipment and arresting more than two dozen people for watching banned films, officials and witnesses said on Saturday.
The raids late on Friday came on the eve of peace talks between Somalia’s powerful Islamic movement and weak government and were further sign of the Islamists’ intent to enforce strict Sharia law in areas they control.
It also followed by hours the imposition of new restrictions that forbid all forms of trade and public transport during prayer times, which has fuelled fears of a Taliban-style takeover in the anarchic nation.
Witnesses said at least 30 people were detained in the raids when heavily-armed Muslim gunmen known as the “Soldiers of Allah” entered two packed cinemas halls in southern Mogadishu’s Wardhiigley district.
They dispersed audiences of more than 300 people who were watching Indian Bollywood features, deemed pornographic by the Islamists, and carted off projection equipment and generators, witnesses said.
“We managed to arrest 30, but most of them fled,” militia commander Nuur Hassan Raghe said. “They were watching movies that are ethically unfit.”
He added that his men had also caught several people smoking marijuana and had flogged them for violating Qu’ranic proscriptions on the use of intoxicants.
Since seizing Mogadishu from warlords in June after months of fierce fighting, the Islamists have rapidly expanded their territory and begun enforcing strict, fundamentalist versions of Sharia law.
In addition to the new ban on business and transportation during prayers, clerics decreed in July that Muslims who do not pray daily can be punished by death.
It is not clear if anyone has been condemned under that ruling but the Islamists have presided over the public executions of at least two convicted murderers, numerous floggings and closures of cinemas and photo shops.
They have also banned live music at wedding receptions and other events and have harassed civilians, mainly women, for failing to wear appropriate dress in public.
Fearing reprisals, many Somalis, the vast majority of whom practice a moderate form of Islam, have begun to conform with the edicts.
US and other Western officials have expressed concern about a “creeping Talibanisation” in Somalia by the Islamists, some of whom are accused of links with Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network.
The Islamists flatly reject any ties to terrorism but have made clear they intend to restore order through Sharia law to the Horn of Africa nation that has been without a functioning central authority for the last 16 years.
Source: AFP, Sept 2, 2006
