Somalia’s High Road to Self-Destruction
By Hassan M. Abukar
December 28, 2009

It was sometime in 1988, somewhere in Southern California, when I met a young undergraduate student from the Middle East. At the time, I was a graduate Teaching Assistant. The student told me he was an Iranian Jew and that his family had fled Iran for fear of persecution. “Have you seen the movie Rambo II?” he asked me. I told him that I didn’t.  “Well, John J. Rambo, played by Sylvester Stallone, is quoted saying in the movie, ‘what you call hell, I call home’ “the student said, with a chuckle.

Somehow, that quote stuck in my mind. I never thought that one day my own country, Somalia, will degenerate into chaos and become the playground for international terrorists. 

Sheikh Shariif the fugitive and sh. Shariif the Statesman

The year 2009 was a tragic one for many Somalis because the country went through a hellish period. There was a change of government, piracy piqued, thousands of people were killed or left the country for failed states like Yemen. Thousands of people were also displaced. Moreover, there is an ongoing Talibanization of the country in the hands of Al-Shabaab terrorists.

The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has changed its leadership. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was elected by a gerrymandered parliament assembled in Djibouti. The former Geography teacher and Shari’ah court cleric was the last person who expected that, one day, he would be crowned the president of Somalia. He was content in issuing edicts until the Union of Islamic Courts propelled him into the forefront of the country’s political landscape. That is when his scheming and double-talk became in play. He was a colleague of Hassan Dahir Aweys, a radical who never minces words. Sheikh Sharif had no trouble cavorting with Aweys and Ayro (the founder of al-Shabaab) when it suited him. He even fled, with some wanted militants, according to Jon Lee Anderson of the New Yorker when Ethiopia invaded Somalia. But the powers that be had another plan for this pedantic and unassuming cleric. He was installed as the president of the TFG. Abdullahi Yusuf, his predecessor, became expendable. 

Sh. Sharif and Hassan Dahir Aweys in Moagdishu during the heydays of the Islamic Courts Union.

Sheikh Sharif, meanwhile, has been trying to defeat Al-Shabaab terrorists, on one hand, while at the same time trying to lure his one-time compatriot Aweys from the militants on the other.  Aweys, interestingly, is vying for Sharif’s own seat, and would not accept anything else. He is having difficulty accepting the idea that Sharif can be the president of Somalia and not him. Sharif could have been a ‘wanted terrorist’, like Aweys, if he had not, according to the New Yorker article, accepted to cooperate with the powers that be. He was threatened; Cooperate or go to Guantanamo. He instead chose the latter.  Now, the former Chairman of the Union of Islamic Courts is castigating his former colleagues as ‘terrorists’ and ‘foreign-inspired’. His handshake with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sealed the deal, literally and figuratively.  Many of his former allies were dismayed that the president not only deviated from the ‘right path’ but had also aligned himself with infidels.  

The enemies of Sheikh Sharif, notably Al-Shabaab, have proven their commitment and dedication to imposing radical, misguided, and draconian religious rule in the vast areas they control. Like the Taliban of Afghanistan, Al-Shabaab banned movies, music, television, pictures, videos, etc.  There was even the report of the Koran competition organized by Al-Shabaab in which the winner was awarded, “an AK-47, two hand grenades, and anti-tank mine, and a computer.” Oddly, I was surprised that the Shabaab terrorists, unlike their brethren in Afghanistan, did not ban lobsters and crap. Afghanistan, a land-locked country, apparently puts no premium on sea food. But al-Shabaab controls Marka, a coastal city 90 kilometers south of Mogadishu. It is Marka where newly-arriving Jihadists are received and, perhaps, trained.  Moreover, all men are expected to grow beard. Have you ever heard of the Prophet-Peace be Upon Him- going around Mecca and Medina, with a sword, ordering men not to trim their beards or else. These al-Shabaab terrorists must know something about Islam that no one else does. 

Then, there are the pirates who have been, unfortunately, lionized by even some intellectuals as modern-day Robin Hoods. I have heard many smart commentators defending the pirates as the shield against illegal fishing and dumping of chemical waste in the shores of Somalia. There were two periods in our most recent and shameful history when the country became awash with hundred-dollar bills. First, it was when the CIA funded Somali warlords and gangsters, under the umbrella of what was comically dubbed as ‘The Alliance for Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism’.  Second, it was when pirates started getting paid handsomely by insurance companies and timid states for their criminal enterprise. Do you think a Qaat-chewing, gun-wielding pirate, somewhere in Puntland, cares about the protection and the welfare of Somalia’s national resources? It is very unfortunate that some Somali youngsters in the West have fallen into the trap of justifying the illegal and heinous acts of pirates. There are no doubts that some countries have exploited Somalia’s resources due to the lack of a strong and viable government in Mogadishu. But there are of course other strategically important considerations when countries like Iran place their naval ships in the Red Sea ‘to fight pirates’. The Iranians are also probably there to counter the new Saudi naval presence in the Red Sea.  

Overall, the year 2009 was a sad year for some Somali youth who were recruited to leave America and Canada and wage violent jihad in Somalia. Al-Shabaab might have liquidated some of these youngsters when they attempted to return to North America. It is a vicious world! Although the number of Somali jihadists from the USA is dismal, al-Shabaab has used the recruitment of these young militants as a resume-enhancement. The mantra of al-Shabaab being, “we are an international group that we even have jihadists from the USA and Canada”. Finally, there is a glimmer of hope. A Somali man claiming to be 112 years old wed a 17-year old girl in Guriceel, a small town in Galguduud region. Ahmed Mohamed Dhore, the groom, though elderly, does not appear like an octogenarian. The good news is that he is already the father of 114 children and grandchildren. The bad news is that he is not likely to withstand the physical rigors and demands of marriage. This will be the first time, since the beginning of Somalia’s bloody civil war, a Somali man might be accused of possessing a DEAD weapon!