The fusion of business and religion is a deadly mix. Business requires flexibility in interactions with partners and clients. It also instructs unyielding devotion to self-interest. Religion imparts wisdom and guidance with intransigence and selflessness. Flexibility doesn’t go hand-in-hand with intransigence; selfishness doesn’t pair with altruism. So, the new breed of Wadaads with proven acumen in business and investment must really be cunning and intelligent lot. They have managed to reconcile the seemingly conflicting principles without causing even a gentle bang.  They have succeeded in remaining as self-centered as a Wall Street Stock Exchange broker and as charitable as Mother Theresa at one and the same time. That their theological reputation and hegemony is mounting as fast as the expansion of their business empires, is a measure of their unparalleled sagacity and sophistication. But, it seems intoxicated with their colossal achievements, the ‘Sheikh’s’ may be getting complacent, even too arrogant to notice the swelling skepticism among the “not-so-enlightened hordes”, who have so far been profuse in their  reverence of the ‘men of God’ and their contributions of cash and glittering gold.

You start with Alshabab and the daily carnages they cause. You notice the theatrical Sheikh Sharif who dons suitable attire for each occasion- from battle-field Kaki to the checkered clerics’ scarf and cleric gowns to Armani suits. You look at the multi-storey multiplexes from the dusty East Leigh Township in Nairobi to deluxe Dubai Apartments. You look at who are at the fore-front in Friday prayers, lavish Hotel corridors and big social gatherings. And you start to relate A to B and see a disturbing pattern. But that is for another day and in any case it is quite wrong to issue categorical condemnations against religious leaders on the basis of what, at best, appears to be a circumstantial evidence of a growing correlation between business and religion. 

The sheikhs will, of course, fight back and their first bullets will be that the writer is a westernized anti-Islam murtad. Or they could just issue a blanket Fatwa against anyone who propagates the same message on one of the upcoming Friday sermons. But it is not for fear of that, that I want not to go into generalizations. It is because it is true that there are many genuine religious leaders and workers who are doing a remarkable job in raising awareness, building Mosques and Madrasas and even giving useful counsel on social and family difficulties Somali’s are facing today. But it is also true that there are those who are using the religion mask to advance personal ambitions and business deals.

I want to focus on a disconcerting development of Wadaads expanding their control over the masses beyond their traditional areas that we know. Not that I don’t know they will dispute what I call ‘traditional areas’ and claim that politics is part of Islam, but that the politics that they do these days just looks a bit too worldly and not the same as “anyone who rules with a man-made constitution and not with the Allah’s book is an apostate” mantra.  There is reason to want to welcome this new flexibility and moderation and I certainly like it. But the flip side is once Wadaads’ interpretation of issues that involve the politics in the contemporary world is sanctioned, it leads to further complications. Nuances and ambiguities will prop up and a single political decision by a politician will draw out a multiple and contradictory judgments from various Wadaads. That is exactly what is happening in the last couple of years - from the Djibouti peace process to reconcile the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the opposition to the ‘peace deal’ signed by the United Western Somali Liberation Front (UWSLF) and Ethiopia.  Somehow, those of us who are not robust in religious teachings find it confusing when a Sheikh we meet at a mosque gives different religious rulings on two separate but similar issues.  

For instance, when paramilitary units in the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia massacred more than six civilians at the outskirts of Caabudwaaq early July 2010 and also allegedly raped teenage Somali girls, I was shocked to hear what a UWSLF man, who was part of the delegation that was sent to South Africa to sell the Peace Deal with Ethiopia to the Diaspora, told me. He argued that the killing is a good development because the Regional Government is taking the unprecedented action of securing our borders (the borders of the Ogaden clan in his words, against intrusive Somali clans from Somalia).  It was nauseating. Suddenly, all the talk of the sanctity of the blood of a Muslim, the duty to fight against infidels, the obligation to defend your sisters and religion is thrown out of the window for political expediency. When religious decrees are issued with such egotism by people who claim to be an authority in religion, it negates the inviolability of religious teachings doctrine. 

We have seen the example of how hapless Sheikhs can get when they want to please too many constituents (some at Mosques, some at business centers, and some at diplomatic circles) in the past weeks, when a renowned sheikh traded accusations with Aljazeera journalist over what he said or did not say.  From the verbosity yet baldness of the refutations of what the Sheikh argued was a misrepresentation of his position, it left no doubt to those with average thinking minds who was telling the truth. But it still would have required valor to confront the erring side in this case, given the arduousness of the task.  Incidentally, the Shiekh’s verdict is still awaited, and given that the sought answer is really a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ verdict for an event, it is hard to understand why it has taken him so long to say it. Some cheeky and wicked friend told me that maybe the Shiekh will release his ruling as a single Fatwa in a commercial CD.  That is too mischievous a thought but given the absence of the Sheikh’s verdict it may linger in the minds of some.  He has in the past issued Fatwas left, right and center for all kinds of innocuous events and this one is long overdue.

But what is truly astounding is that many people are waiting for the Sheikh’s Fatwa to make up their mind about the rightness or wrongness of UWSLF’s peace deal with Ethiopia. To me, any forthcoming Fatwa (whether yes or no) doesn’t change much. By their own admission, those who signed the peace deal signed it on the basis of political considerations. The wider public’s acceptance or rejection of the deal will depend on individual political beliefs, assumptions and understandings. So, perhaps nothing is missing and the Sheikh should not overburden himself with yet another fatuous Fatwa that could only serve to alienate one or the other of his followers. Perhaps, it is time the new Wadaads realize that they are no more seen as infallible by the masses. Perhaps it is time they go easy with Fatwas and political commentaries issued with the full weight of the Mosques behind them. They are still entitled to air their views on all developments, politics included, but as opinions of mere mortals, not with the finality of the word of God.

On a related but slightly different note, with the benefit of hindsight and with a bit of malicious cynicism, one wonders if all the vilification against Sufi’s in the past two decades for merely asking for a rib of a goat in exchange for the services of Duca and Qardhaas and for their fondness of mild stimulant in the form of tea in a forbidding climatic environment, was just.  With relentless half truths and financial might, the new breed of Wadaads dismantled the carnivorous Sufi sect at once. One wonders if it was to erect shopping plazas at the fields where the carcasses of goats and sheep devoured by Sufis was once scattered.