Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Xinhua
A Somali radio station closed over the weekend by Islamists for playing local love songs believed to encourage immorality has resumed broadcasting.
Said Haga Afrah, the director of the Radio Jowhar said in a statement received here Tuesday that his station is no longer playing any music.
“We have been on air since midday Monday. We are powerless so we have to heed their call to stop playing music on air,” said Afrah.
Islamist leaders who control the capital Mogadishu and much of the southern Somalia, ordered the station in Jowhar town, 90 km north of Mogadishu, closed on Saturday in the latest show of hardline religious inclination in the movement.
“The Islamic authorities said the music encourages immorality, we had no option but to close down,” Afrah said.
The Supreme Council of Islamic Courts (SCIC), which controls much of the south, is split between hardliners, who want Taliban- style rule, and moderates.
Some cinemas in Mogadishu have also been closed for showing foreign films but others are allowed to operate.
Local Islamic official, Sheikh Mohamed Mohamoud Abdirahman, said Radio Jowhar was closed because it aired the banned music. Radio Jowhar is the only FM radio station in the town.
“We have ordered Radio Jowhar to close down because it is playing music that promotes evil behavior,” Abdirahman said in a statement.
“We cannot have a radio station playing evil music yet we are trying to promote Sharia law across Somalia,” he said, prompting some Jowhar residents to term the move the beginning of censorship against free media.
They have also banned all trade and public transportation during prayer times, live music at wedding receptions and other events and harassed civilians, mainly women, for failing to wear appropriate dress in public in areas under their control.
The Islamists who seized southern Somalia and are currently expanding their influence to the central regions have flogged several people in the capital and outlying outposts for violating Islamic law in recent weeks.
Somalia’s weak interim government is based in the town of Baidoa. The country has not had a national army or an effective central authority since the fall of the last government more than 15 years ago.
Source: Xinhua, Sept 11, 2006
