"Many Jowhar locals have reportedly filed disputes with the Islamic Court, including disagreements over land ownership."
If that is the case, depending on the reliability of the reports, it is obviously a very bad sign for the future of Somalia if citizens prefer to take their cases to Sharia courts rather than using the established legal system.
Somalia Jihad Update. "Somalia: Islamic Court opened near Mogadishu," from Garowe Online, June 1:
MOGADISHU, Somalia June 1 (Garowe Online) - A new Islamic Court has been established in the town of Jowhar, capital of Middle Shabelle region which borders Mogadishu.
Many Jowhar locals have reportedly filed disputes with the Islamic Court, including disagreements over land ownership.
A spokesman, who did not identify himself, told reporters Sunday in Jowhar that the court will rule according to Islamic Shariah law.
"Already, several people have been arrested and are waiting to appear in court," the spokesman said.
The development is a blow to Somalia's interim government, which is backed by thousands of Ethiopian troops and African Union peacekeepers.
Since arriving in Mogadishu 17 months ago, the government has faced a bloody insurgency in the capital and other parts of the country, including ambushes, assassinations and roadside bombings.
In recent months, gunmen loyal to the Islamic Courts have seized control of several towns in the central and southern regions of Somalia.
The government, which spends massive resources defending the fortress in Mogadishu, has taken no action as Islamists continue to seize power in the countryside.
In 2006, the Islamic Courts took control of Mogadishu and south-central Somalia, where they imposed Shariah law and restored order....
Restoring order and instituting tyranny are two very different things. The Islamic Courts also banned citizens from watching the World Cup on television, killing two who disobeyed, and threatened to kill people who didn't pray five times a day. More on the Courts and "restoring order" can be found here.
My bet is they are preferring Sharia courts because the plaintiffs are Muslims looking to steal land from non-Muslims.
I could really care less about what they're doing in Somalia.
Who is funding this UK charity?
Oxford Research Group
"One of the main aims of ORG and the Iran Action Group has been to make it POLITICALLY UNACCEPTABLE for the British Government to support military strikes against Iran”
Rebel Radius
Oooops wrong thread (blush)
Take note of the previous tenure of the islamic courts, where they dooled out death threats for failure to attend the required prayers: It´s all in muslim law! A "favourite" law-book among us here at Jihadwatch, "Reliance of the Traveler", clearly gives suport to the islamic courts harsh ideas.
"Reliance of the traveler" is, as most of you know, a shafi'i legal manual and somalis like many other muslims are shafi'i. No shafi'i muslim has to my knowledge repudiated that part of sharia law. Do any one of us belive they will, just because the move to western lands? When will we see the first threats being delivered in Europe and the U.S? Have they allready?
So, the behaviour of people in Somalia will affect us wether we like it or not. This will only give momentum to islamists, who see the courts as a victory. But, if we care about people, at least this will serve as yet another warning sign for the effects of increased islamic influence in the west. And that might wake some more infidells, if we make the effort to spread the knowledge. Then we might ask our goverments to use the necesary force against the courts. Thats why we have to care!
I imagine the sharia courts feature an Islamic version of Judge Judy:
"You're a moron! You should be taken out and have your hand cut off for what you did, or maybe your head!"
Restoring order, along the lines of Musolini: The trains now run on time in Mogadishu.
There goes the neighborhood...........
Bingo,
Same here. As long as what happens in Somalia stays in Somalia, they can live however they like. The only caveat is that if Americans (or Western or Christian interests) are attacked in the name of Islam, we should close our embassy and any consulates that exist there and stop all aid from America. Jihad may be constructive but there's no reason it shouldn't come at a price.
The reason that what happens in Somalia Islam is important is because there is only one Islam. What happens in one part of the hive, effects other parts of the hive. An Islamic success anywhere is an Islamic success everywhere. Allah willing...and he always is...
Unfortunatley for them there are no trains to run. Very little of anything else either except weapons and ammo. A failed state. Has been a failed state for 25 years. Will remain a failed state. Still, every jihadist kia in action there will not turn up a year or two from now driving your taxi in someplace like, err... Minnesota.
PMK- I hear you. Agreed.
I'm not sure why they're even allowed to emigrate to the USA since they're mostly poor and uneducated. And hostile.
I could really care less about what they're doing in Somalia.
Posted by: Bingo at June 2, 2008 2:54 AM
That is great "Bingo", but in reality, there are over 100,000 Somalis in the US right now, with many more lining up to come seeking asylum.
Many have relatives back home whom they are in constant contact with, and many of those have a much better command of geopolitics than it appears that you do.
Better do a little "google searching" next time before you make yourself look silly again....because you might find out that the Somali diaspora has a huge influence on what goes on in Somalia, and vice versa...
Re. the business of 'restoring order' - there was a perfectly sickening Associated Press puff piece, reproduced in Jerusalem Post, on 2nd June, entitled 'Hamas Rule Deepens in Gaza', with the first paragraph reading as follows:
"A year into Hamas' rule in the Gaza Strip, courts are meting out justice, police are arresting thieves, motorists are paying for licenses and authorities are blocking Internet porn sites."
Yeah. 'Justice'. I'll bet. Sharia-style. Wear the headscarf or cop a faceful of acid, or worse. And so on.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1212041453529&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
And as for 'arresting thieves'...I haven't heard that Hamas has made even a token effort to find and punish the jihadi thugs who murdered Arab Christian Rami Ayyad, owner of 'The Teacher' Bible Society bookshop in Gaza, and left his pregnant wife widowed and his two young children fatherless...And I am quite, quite sure Hamas never will.
The whole piece is a peculiar mix of agitprop, paragraphs that try to shove off all the blame for anything bad in Gaza, onto Israel, but with the occasional truth slipped in almost by accident, as if the reporter were having a few misgivings. AOh yes, 'order' exists or seems to exist...but at a hellish human price.
"Not everyone is happy with Hamas' methods, but Gazans are reluctant to complain. Hamas has shut down all opposition media in the strip, and two men interviewed for this story said they were tortured by Hamas - one displaying a leg wound that he said came from metal spikes driven into his shin."
Fortunately, Jerusalem Post also published, recently, an article by the redoubtable Khaled Abu Toameh, which looks at 'palestinian' Arab Muslim in-fighting. 'Order' and 'peace' do not and cannot exist for very long in societies suffused with Islam. When they are not stabbing Infidels in the back they devote themselves to stabbing each other in the back.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1212041440088&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
As was true in the 1930's, the ascending dictatorial government is doing one thing we're not: providing for people's livelihood. Yes, I know it seems like a big funny joke when you live in the wealthiest nation in the history of man. But some people really struggle to make their daily living. You can not enjoy democracy's greater freedoms if, under these democracies, you starve to death or are at constant risk of being attacked. Even the very limited freedoms the Islamists provide are more likely to be enjoyed, because the chances of starvation and assault are drastically lowered.
It's nice to make bellicose statements about how "freedom is not free" while sitting in cushy chairs and typing on our keyboards. It's a very different thing when you've never seen a computer in your life, you live by the sweat of your brow, and/or a grenade just went off outside your front door.
The Nazi Party was gaining political momentum in the immediate aftermath of Versailles, which was understandable. But then, as economic growth continued, the Nazi and Communist Parties drastically lost ground and nearly faded into oblivion. When the economic situation worsened with the Depression, only then did the two totalitarian parties regain ground and Hitler ultimately attain power.
If we want to stop the next Hitler, we must improve the actual physical circumstances of our contemporary Weinmar Republics.
Maxwell Smart- Again, so I should care why? They've had Islamic courts over there for a long time. Who could forget the video of the teen thief getting his hand and foot chopped off back in the 1990's?
We are not the boss of them. But "nations" that have sharia law should not receive anything in U.S. aid in any form. Cut 'em off.