Islamic militias imposing moral codes in Mogadishu..(scary stuff)

[SoCalDem]

Islamic militias imposing moral codes in Mogadishu
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0625somalia-islam0625.html
Craig Timberg
Washington Post
Jun. 25, 2006 12:00 AM

MOGADISHU, Somalia - That warm February morning felt so perfect that Abdirisack Noriftin, a 22-year-old movie buff whose friends nicknamed him "American," said he imagined himself in the kind of sandy, sexy Hollywood movie he had watched just the night before. He had no surfboard or volleyball, as did the carefree stars of that film. But his girlfriend, Faisa Hassan, 18, cast aside her Islamic modesty by stripping off her head scarf and exposing her dark hair to the sun. Together, she and Noriftin walked on the beach. They kissed in the surf. Never before in their young lives, they recalled later, had they felt so exhilaratingly free.

Then, this being Somalia rather than a Southern California movie set, gunmen arrived and abruptly reminded the couple of the perils of being young and in love in one of the world's most dangerous cities. One of the four gunmen reached for Hassan. She screamed. He screamed. Nearby villagers chased the attackers away. Noriftin and Hassan have not gone back and, they figure, never will. Not only do criminals still prowl the beach, but most of Mogadishu has been taken over by Islamic militias that are curbing crime but also demanding adherence to strict moral codes in some neighborhoods. Coed beach trips are now strictly off-limits, the young couple has concluded.

snip...

"Since he's here," Hassan said softly, "it would be better for him to have a long beard and short hair." Noriftin, who recently trimmed his hair and began wearing a knit cap, has come to agree. "Right now, I must change the nickname. I must change the accent. ... If I go to American films anymore, I'm not going to speak aloud. I'm going to shut up."

snip...

That has changed with a swiftness that many young adults say has left them frustrated and afraid. Abdifatah Nur, 26, said he was watching a World Cup soccer match at a movie house when Islamic militiamen crashed through the doors and ordered the television turned off. They beat the children with lashes and took the young men to a jail. Before the militiamen let their prisoners free three days later, Nur said, they whipped him and cut off his long, curly hair. "I hate what they are doing," Nur said. "We have no choice."

snip...

To many young Somalis, the Islamic militias seem to bear an eerie resemblance to the old warlords. In many cases, they are in fact the same gunmen, carrying the same AK-47s while riding on the backs of the same pickup trucks, residents here said. As the secular warlords' grip weakened, many of the families controlling the gunmen simply ordered them to switch sides. "The people who are running the sharia courts now are no better than the warlords," said Salad Adan, 16, who lost an eye to a stray bullet when he was 14 and this year was shot in the leg by a gunman working for a warlord. "They are the same. ... It's like they put on another shirt." Sharia refers to Islamic law.

[clyrc]

1. I am shocked I tell you that there are crazies in Somalia

shocked I tell you... :sarcasm:

[SoCalDem]

2. It's a crazy world, isn't it?

Young people are pretty much the same all over..it's the Dads & Uncles who seem to be NUTS!!

[applegrove]

3. Remind me again why it was WH policy to back the crimelords?

[Retired AF Dem]

4. What is the time frame

you are talking about?

[applegrove]

6. Well - people in the know like the State Department didn't understand

Bush WH support of the crimelords in Somalia. Then, a month ago, the al Qaeda linked radical islamists..got control of the country.

Again.. what was Bush policy on Somalia and why?

[Yupster]

7. The Bush policy was to not let the

Islamists win.

Like Afghanistan he used the local warlords to fight them.

Like most Bush policies it didn't work.

[originalpckelly]

5. They are the ones who lost...

if they had won this wouldn't be happening. Somalia has been a shit hole for a long time now, it was that way for Clinton. In fact that is why we had to withdraw troops. Just imagine Iraq, only on our parties hands. Thankfully Clinton didn't commit our troops to a civil war, unlike dumb shit. Some day we will have to deal with Somalia, but we aren't going to start a freaking war to deal with it. We need to start thinking about it before it becomes another Afghanistan.

[SoCalDem]

8. Poppy tossed that hot potato into Clinton's lap, deliberately

There was no reason for him to pick that particular time for the "aid mission" to Somalia.. he did it because military was Clinton's main weakness, and he wanted Clinton to have to deal with a military action in the very beginning of his term.. The seeds for defeat were sown by the haphazard way GHWB sent troops there..

The humanitarian crisis there at the time could have been handled with more NGOs and more money, but GHWB wanted to embarrass the new president, more than he wanted to "help" the poor people.. he KNEW that military intervention there would cause an uproar..