Recently in Somalia Category

The U.S. has brought large numbers of Somali jihadists into the country without making any attempt to determine whether or not they support the bloody Somali jihad, or to stop them from doing so. And so we have effectively imported the Somali jihad to the U.S.

"2 Minnesota women sentenced for funding Somali militants," by Faith Karimi for CNN, May 17 (thanks to Suneil):

(CNN) -- A federal court has sentenced two Minnesota women to lengthy prison sentences for soliciting donations in the name of charity, then funneling the funds to Somali militants.

Authorities said the two women went door-to-door in Somali neighborhoods in the U.S. and Canada, seeking contributions.

Amina Farah Ali, 36, got two decades in prison on 13 terror-related counts that include providing material support to Al-Shabaab.

Hawo Mohamed Hassan, 66, got half of that on one count of conspiracy to support a terror group and lying to authorities.

Both women, naturalized U.S. citizens from Somalia, were convicted in October 2011. They were sentenced Thursday in Minneapolis.

Evidence presented at their trial showed they supported the terror group between 2008 and 2009, according to B. Todd Jones, a United States Attorney.

Teleconference appeal for Al-Shabaab

"Ali communicated by telephone with Somalia-based members of Al-Shabaab who requested financial assistance on behalf of the group," Jones said in a statement. "Ali often sought the money under false pretenses, contending that it was to help the poor."

In both years, authorities said, she hosted teleconferences and urged listeners to give money to the terror group instead of the poor.

In one instance, she recorded $2,100 in pledges at the conclusion of that teleconference, according to officials.

She would then funnel the funds to the terror group using various remittance companies under false names.

'Questioned by the enemy'

Ali has maintained that the funds were for the poor, but authorities said monitored phone calls reveal otherwise.

"On July 14, 2009, the day after the FBI executed a search warrant at Ali's home, she telephoned her primary Al-Shabaab contact, saying, "I was questioned by the enemy here . . . they took all my stuff and are investigating it . . . do not accept calls from anyone."

Hassan, on the other hand, made false statements when questioned by federal agents about international terrorism, Jones said....

The women were among a group sentenced this week in the federal government's probe focusing on Al-Shabaab, which is believed to recruit young men in the Minneapolis area. The U.S. has designated it a terrorist group, and has said it has ties to al Qaeda.

In recent years, about 20 Somali-American men have traveled from the area to Somalia to train with the terror group, and some have gone on to fight with the militants, according to U.S. officials.

"'As we get closer to building a federal state in Somalia, we actually risk it disintegrating,' the diplomat said." As rival factions of Islamic supremacists and jihadis battle each other for dominance, nothing seems much less likely than the establishment of a stable federal state.

Tiny Minority of Extremists Update: "Former Islamist warlord elected president of Somali region," by Drazen Jorgic for Reuters, May 15:

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – A former Islamist warlord was declared president of Somalia’s southern region on Wednesday, something likely to upset the government in Mogadishu as it tries to assert its authority.

Although Ahmed Madobe, leader of powerful Ras Kamboni militia, fought against the al Qaeda-linked militants that tried to seize control of the country, he is not viewed favourably by the central government.

Hours after the constitutional assembly in the volatile Jubaland region elected Madobe president, a rival warlord who is widely seen to be backed by Mogadishu, Barre Hirale, declared himself to be the president.

Madobe and Hirale are backed by rival clans competing for control of the strategically important port city of Kismayu.

“There is a risk that Somalia will be split along clan lines,” said one Western diplomat, who expressed concern that the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab may benefit from any clashes between rival militias.

“As we get closer to building a federal state in Somalia, we actually risk it disintegrating,” the diplomat said.

Madobe was a former governor of Kismayu during an administration that was routed by Ethiopian forces sent into Somalia between 2006-2009 with tacit U.S. backing.

His Ras Kamboni militia has fought alongside Kenyan troops over the past year, flushing al Shabaab out of their strongholds in the south....

The Star Tribune's headline calls him a "Minneapolis man." Is the salient aspect of his identity, and the reason why he is going to prison for jihad activity, really that he is from Minneapolis?

"Minneapolis man gets 12 years for Somali terror case," by Randy Furst for the Star Tribune, May 14 (thanks to Block Ness):

One of the “middlemen” who helped send young men from Minneapolis to fight in Somalia was sentenced to 12 years Tuesday by U.S. Chief Judge Michael Davis.

Omer Abdi Mohamed, 28, of Minneapolis, is among nine people being sentenced this week in federal court in Minneapolis for their roles in helping the anti-government group Al-Shabab fight in Somalia’s chaotic civil war.

Mohamed and others met at mosques and restaurants, raising money and arranging travel for recruits to go and fight.

Mohamed cut a deal in July 2011 allowing him to plead guilty to one conspiracy count, which carries a maximum term of 15 years. He was free on bond until October, when Davis ordered him returned to jail after authorities discovered his activities as a “parent liaison” at Essential Learning of Minnesota Institute in Minneapolis, a private nonprofit school that offers after-school programs on the Qur’an.

Earlier in the day, U.S. Chief Judge Michael Davis sentenced Abdifatah Yusuf Isse of Seattle and Salah Osman Ahmed of Brooklyn Park to three years in prison.

At Tuesday’s back-to-back hearings, the prosecution made motions for lighter sentences for Isse and Ahmed because of their willingness to cooperate with the FBI in its investigation. Davis granted their motions before issuing the sentences.

Attorneys for both men said they do not plan to appeal....

Claiming the promise of Paradise given by Allah to those who "kill and are killed" for Allah (Qur'an 9:111).

"Somalia: 16 killed in Islamic extremist assault on courthouse," by Abdi Guled and Jason Straziuso for The Associated Press, April 14:

MOGADISHU, SOMALIA—Nine al-Shabab Islamic extremists, most wearing suicide vests, stormed Somalia's main court complex on Sunday while the Supreme Court was in session, firing a barrage of bullets during a running gun battle with security forces that lasted two hours, officials said.

A preliminary death toll stood at 16, including all nine attackers.

The assault was the most serious in Mogadishu since al-Shabab militants were forced out of the capital in August 2011. Al-Shabab controls far less territory today than in years past, and its influence appears to be on the decline, but Sunday's attack proved the extremists are still capable of pulling off well-planned and audacious assaults....

The militants took an unknown number of hostages during the siege. Many other government workers and civilians in the court complex — a confusing labyrinth of buildings and rooms — hid while fearing for their lives....

The complex and sustained nature of the assault on the court system suggested militants hoped to inflict severe casualties. Later, a suicide car bomber rammed a vehicle carrying Turkish citizens.

On a Twitter feed believed to belong to the militants, al-Shabab appeared to take credit for the attack. A posting said five militants from the “Martyrdom Brigade” took part in the “daring” attack....

Yet when Pamela Geller calls attention to the plight of gays under Sharia, it is she who is the villain.

"And [We had sent] Lot when he said to his people, 'Do you commit such immorality as no one has preceded you with from among the worlds? Indeed, you approach men with desire, instead of women. Rather, you are a transgressing people.'...And We rained upon them a rain [of stones]. Then see how was the end of the criminals." (Qur'an 7:80-84)

"The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, 'Whoever you find doing the action of the people of Loot, execute the one who does it and the one to whom it is done.'" (Sunan Abu Dawud 4462)

"Gay Man Allegedly Stoned To Death In Somalia," from Identity Kenya, March 18 (thanks to Jerk Chicken):

MOGADISHU, March 18 - A GAY man was allegedly stoned to death as punishment for homosexuality, a gay Muslim group has said Saturday.

According to Somali Gay Community, the young man, Mohamed Ali Baashi ,18, was buried in a hole up to his chest and then pelted with rocks by members of the Al Qaeda link group Al Shabaab on Friday, March 15, in Barawe, about 50 miles from the capital, Mogadishu.

The group, through its Facebook page, Somali Gay Community, posted three photos of alleging they were from the stoning.

However, Identity Kenya could not independently verify this claims or the alleged stoning and efforts to reach the group have not been successful.

The group said the young man was accused of sodomy and was stoned to death by Islamic rebels while horrified villagers were forced to watch.

According to the reports, a judge announced that Mohamed Baashi, along with a man who had been accused of murder, had both confessed to their crimes. The alleged murderer got a more merciful punishment. He was shot to death, the group said over the weekend.

"This is their day of justice," the judge, told the hundreds of villagers who had been forced to attend.

"We investigated, and this man did what Muslims shouldn't do and as a result, he will be stonedto [sic] death and the one that killed someone will be shot because homosexuality is more punishable in Islam," the judge is alleged to have said.

Muhammad said: "Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him" (Bukhari 9.84.57). The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence. Yet Muslim spokesmen such as Harris Zafar, Mustafa Akyol, Salam al-Marayati, M. Cherif Bassiouni, and Ali Eteraz (among many others) have assured us that Islam doesn't punish apostasy. I am confident that Zafar, Akyol, al-Marayati, Bassiouni, and Eteraz are making their way to Kismayo as we speak, so as to explain to these enraged Muslim gunmen that they are getting Islam all wrong, wrong, wrong.

"Christian Shot Dead near Kismayo, Somalia," from Morning Star News, February 28 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – Suspected Islamic extremists in Somalia shot a Christian to death this month on the outskirts of the coastal city of Kismayo, sources said.

Two masked men killed Ahmed Ali Jimale, a 42-year-old father of four, on Feb. 18 at 1 p.m. as he stood outside his house in Alanley village, near a police station, they said. The killers were suspected to be members of the Islamic extremist Al Shabaab, a rebel militia ousted from the area four months ago but still engaging in hit-and-run tactics. A few of the four rival clans in Kismayo, 328 miles southwest of Mogadishu, are said to be housing members of Al Shabaab.

A businessman, teacher and medical consultant well-known in the area, Jimale ran a pharmacy in Kismayo. He would give private lessons on medicine and first aid, and as an underground Christian – as are all Christians in Somalia – he highlighted the teaching with discussions comparing the Bible and the Koran, sources said.

The students would share these lessons with other children, and this teaching, along with his close work with a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that provides aid, appeared to have caught the attention of the Al Shabaab extremists, said a source who worked with Jimale but is no longer in the area.

When the Somali National Army and the Kenya Defense Forces wrested control of Kismayo from Al Shabaab, Jimale became increasingly open in presenting the religious content of his teaching, and the Islamic extremists suspected he was a Christian – and guilty of “apostasy” or leaving Islam, on the common assumption that all Somalis are born Muslim, the source said.

Toward the end of 2012, Jimale began receiving threatening messages in his phone, sources said.

“We have been monitoring your activities,” read one. “You have to stop introducing the children to foreign Christian religion as well as your close working relation with a foreign organization, otherwise we shall come for your head.”

Jimale had been an employee of the NGO, and occasionally he continued receiving contracts from the aid organization. Such organizations are often associated with Westerners and Christianity, both anathema to Al Shabaab.

“Jimale was a good man who helped our community,” a friend of the slain Christian told Morning Star News. “His widow is very scared and afraid, not knowing what will happen.”

Jimale’s children, two daughters and two sons, are ages 10, 8, 6 and 4.

The incident was the latest in a series of murders of Christians in Somalia over the past several years. On Dec. 8, 2012 in Beledweyne, 206 miles (332 kilometers) north of Mogadishu, gunmen killed a Christian who had been receiving death threats for leaving Islam (See “Christian Shot to Death in Somalia,” Dec. 14, 2012). Two unidentified, masked men shot Mursal Isse Siad, 55, outside his home for leaving Islam, Muslim and Christian sources told Morning Star News.

Siad and his wife, who converted to Christianity in 2000 according to a source who used to worship with them, had moved to Beledweyne from Doolow eight months before, after Somalia’s transitional federal government and African Union Mission in Somalia troops captured Beledweyne from Al Shabaab rebels. Siad had taken a job with a local NGO.

The area was under government control and there was no indication that the killers belonged to the Al Shabaab rebels who have vowed to rid the country of Christianity, but the Islamic extremist insurgents were present in Buulodbarde, 20 kilometers (12 miles) away, and Christians believed a few Al Shabaab rebels could have been hiding in Beledweyne.

In the coastal city of Barawa on Nov. 16, Al-Shabaab militants killed a Christian after accusing him of being a spy and leaving Islam, Christian and Muslim witnesses said. The extremists beheaded 25-year-old Farhan Haji Mose after monitoring his movements for six months, Christian sources said (see “Christian Convert from Islam Beheaded in Somalia,” Nov. 17, 2012).

Mose drew suspicion when he returned to Barawa, in Somalia’s Lower Shebelle Region, in December 2011 after spending time in Kenya, according to underground Christians in Somalia. Kenya’s population is nearly 83 percent Christian, according to Operation World, while Somalia’s is close to 100 percent Muslim.

"War is deceit," said Muhammad. And when he was annoyed by Ka‘b bin Al-Ashraf's verses mocking him, he allowed one of his followers to deceive Ka‘b in order to get close enough to kill him. Muhammad asked: “Who is willing to kill Ka‘b bin Al-Ashraf who has hurt Allah and His Apostle?" One of the Muslims, Muhammad bin Maslama answered, “O Allah’s Apostle! Would you like that I kill him?” When Muhammad said that he would, Muhammad bin Maslama said, “Then allow me to say a (false) thing (i.e. to deceive Kab).” Muhammad responded: “You may say it.” Muhammad bin Maslama duly lied to Ka‘b, luring him into his trap, and murdered him. (Bukhari 5.59.369)

"Suicide blast kills two near Somali president's palace," by Abdi Sheikh for Reuters, January 29 (thanks to Kenneth):

(Reuters) - An Islamist militant persuaded Somali government officials he had defected, then walked up to the president's palace compound on Tuesday and blew himself up near the gates, killing at least two soldiers, witnesses and rebels said.

Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab rebels said the early morning suicide attack was the start of a new campaign against the country's Western-backed government and its leaders.

Palace officials said Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was abroad at the time and Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon Saaid, whose house was near the site of the explosion, was not injured.

The attack was a reminder of the threat still posed by al Shabaab, even after African peacekeepers pushed it out of the capital last year and forced it to retreat to the south....

Government officials said the attacker, Ali Abdi Hared, told them he had defected from the rebels and went on to join the country's security services on January 14.

Hared frequently visited the palace guards and was given an official pass to the palace, officials and guards at the scene said.

The government had been "rehabilitating and investigating" Hared, Somalia's information minister, Abdullahi Ilmooge, told Reuters. "The bomber was a national security soldier. The bomber had defected from al Shabaab," he added.

"A RENEWED CAMPAIGN"

When Hared walked up on Tuesday morning, the guards said they carried out a routine check and found he was wearing an explosive jacket.

The guards tried to prevent him from detonating his device, but it went off. "The man blew up himself near a wall between the Ethiopian embassy and the Somali PM's residence," Ahmed Ali, a Somali soldier at the presidential palace told Reuters.

"One guard died there and then. Another died of his wounds. They were all the guards of the prime minister," he added.

Al Shabaab - which wants to impose its strict version of Islamic law, or Sharia - said it killed seven soldiers in the attack and warned there would be more to come.

As I have pointed out many times, there is no non-strict version of Sharia. There is only implementation or non-implementation of its various provisions.

"The operation is part of a renewed campaign of attacks against Western puppets in Somalia, reminding them that the Mujahideen will get into them, whatever security precautions they take," the movement said in a statement....

Kidnapping infidels and releasing them for ransom or killing them -- whichever is more advantageous for the Muslims -- is fully sanctioned in Islamic law: "As for the captives, the amir [ruler] has the choice of taking the most beneficial action of four possibilities: the first to put them to death by cutting their necks; the second, to enslave them and apply the laws of slavery regarding their sale and manumission; the third, to ransom them in exchange for goods or prisoners; and fourth, to show favor to them and pardon them. Allah, may he be exalted, says, 'When you encounter those [infidels] who deny [the Truth=Islam] then strike [their] necks' (Qur'an sura 47, verse 4)" — Abu’l-Hasan al-Mawardi, al-Ahkam as-Sultaniyyah (The Laws of Islamic Governance), trans. by Dr. Asadullah Yate, (London), Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd., 1996, p. 192.

"Somali Islamists threaten to execute Kenyan hostages," from AFP, January 24 (thanks to Twostellas):

Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents issued an ultimatum to Kenya on Wednesday to release all prisoners held on terrorism charges or they will execute all Kenyan hostages they hold.

Issuing a February 14 deadline, the extremist group demanded in messages posted on Twitter the release of "all Muslim prisoners held on so-called terrorism charges in Kenya".

Kenya must also "secure the release of Muslims extradited to Uganda for terrorism charges", it added, apparently referring to those jailed or on trial for the Shebab’s July 2010 twin bomb attacks that killed at least 74 people in Kampala.

The Shebab also released a video titled "the final message" with two men featured and a photograph of four others, who the Shebab said were Kenyan prisoners....

"Following the expiration of this period, all the kuffar (non-Muslim) Kenyan prisoners who appeared in the recent video will be executed," the Shebab added on Twitter....

That's their jihad. What's yours?

Still more Muslims succumb to the all too prevalent misunderstanding of Islam that gets the crazy idea that it teaches some kind of violence. Yet no Muslim group anywhere has any program for teaching against this view of Islam. Now, why is that?

"Three Men Appear in Court in Mysterious Terror Case," by Mosi Secret in the New York Times, December 21:

Three men appeared in Federal District Court in Brooklyn on Friday on charges that they had trained to be suicide bombers with a Somali terrorist group.

The defendants, Ali Yasin Ahmed, 27, Mahdi Hashi, 23, and Mohamed Yusuf, 29, were arrested in August by authorities in Africa while going to Yemen. They are accused of participating in weapons and explosives training with Al Shabab, a United States-designated terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda, during a four-year period beginning in 2008. Court documents show no connection between the alleged crimes and the United States.

Much of the case is shrouded in mystery. For four months, the case remained under seal, and the court documents unsealed on Friday contained little elaboration on the crimes or any indication of why the case was brought in New York. Even the nationalities of the men were unclear. They appeared in court with the aid of a Swedish interpreter.

The case is not the first brought in New York involving foreigners accused of acts of terrorism abroad. In June, an Eritrean man, Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed, pleaded guilty in Federal District Court in Manhattan to conspiring to support Al Shabab. More than 30 defendants have been prosecuted in this country for supporting the group.

Al Shabab is known for a strict Islamist ideology calling for amputations and public stonings for violations of Islamic law....

There we go again with "strict." There is no version of Islamic law that doesn't call for amputations and stonings. Islamic law is by its nature "strict."

Conversion away from Islam is forbidden on pain of death. Muhammad said: "Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him" (Bukhari 9.84.57). The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence. Yet Muslim spokesmen such as Harris Zafar, Mustafa Akyol, Salam al-Marayati, M. Cherif Bassiouni, and Ali Eteraz (among many others) have assured us that Islam doesn't punish apostasy. I expect that Zafar, Akyol, al-Marayati, Bassiouni, and Eteraz will immediately be jetting over to Somalia to explain to Somali authorities that they are getting Islam all wrong, wrong, wrong.

"Christian Shot to Death in Somalia," from Morning Star News, December 14 (thanks to Jerk Chicken):

NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – Gunmen in central Somalia on Saturday (Dec. 8) killed an underground Christian who had been receiving death threats for leaving Islam, area sources said.

Two unidentified masked men shot Mursal Isse Siad, 55, outside his home in Beledweyne, 206 miles (332 kilometers) north of Mogadishu, for leaving Islam, Muslim and Christian sources told Morning Star News. The assailants fled immediately after the murder.

Siad’s oldest daughter (name withheld), 15, said her father was killed “because he failed to attend the mosque for prayers and used to pray at home. He used to share with us about Jesus.” She said that he had received messages on his mobile phone stating, “We know what you are doing, and you must stop, otherwise you risk your life.”

Siad’s 42-year-old wife (name withheld), three daughters and two sons have fled the area, fearing for their lives.

A Christian source in Mogadishu confirmed the killing, and a Muslim resident of the Beledweyne area also said Siad was killed for leaving Islam.

“Siad deserved to die because he was not committed to the Islamic religion,” the resident said....

More misunderstanders of Islam who somehow got the crazy idea that jihad meant warfare and killing, instead of what it really means: exercising to stay fit despite a busy schedule. "Car bomb kills two in Somali capital," from Reuters, December 14 (thanks to Kenneth):

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber killed two people in the centre of Somalia's capital Mogadishu capital on Friday in a blast that appeared to target an African Union peacekeepers' convoy, police and residents said....

The bomber struck on the Maka al-Mukaram road, a thoroughfare lined by construction sites and tea-rooms that last year was a frontline in the battle for control of Mogadishu.

"An AMISOM armored convoy passed us and just after we heard a loud explosion. We looked back and saw thick smoke," Samira Hussein, who was travelling down the road in a minibus taxi, told Reuters at the blast site where the twisted wreckage of the car smoldered.

The blast killed the bomber and two civilians and wounded seven others, Abdifatah Sabriye, a senior police commander in Mogadishu's Waberi district, told Reuters.

The al Shabaab rebel group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was targeting the United States' head of counter terrorism in east Africa....

"Yusuf laughingly said she hoped another terrorist strike like the Sept. 11 attack occurs in America: 'Oh! It will be happening again. Trust me, more this time it will be double, triple their deaths.'" Lovely woman.

"Somali woman sentenced to eight years for helping terrorist group," from the Los Angeles Times, December 11:

A 25-year-old Somali woman living in San Diego was sentenced Tuesday to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to sending money to a suspected terrorist group in her native country.

Nima Yusuf admitted in San Diego federal court that she sent $1,450 to men in Somalia who were fighting on behalf of al-Shabaab, considered a terrorist group by the U.S. government. She also admitted trying to recruit a local man to go to Somalia to fight for al-Shabaab.

According to FBI wiretaps, Yusuf was pleased when told in a phone call by another Somali that al-Shabaab had killed Burundian peacekeeping troops. She allegedly responded: "Oh my God! God is great! Wonderful! I swear to God, you told me something to be happy about."

In another conversation, Yusuf laughingly said she hoped another terrorist strike like the Sept. 11 attack occurs in America: "Oh! It will be happening again. Trust me, more this time it will be double, triple their deaths."

Yusuf has pleaded guilty to conspiring with four other Somali nationals in Minnesota to provide money and other support to al-Shabaab, which is attempting to overthrow the transitional government in Somalia and oust African Union troops....

Apparently Shaker Masri is a Misunderstander of Islam, who somehow got the crazy idea that jihad involved waging war against unbelievers (as well as those deemed insufficiently Muslim), when as everyone knows, it is really all about paying your taxes and taking the kids to school.

"Chicago man gets 10 years in overseas terrorism plot," by Ellen Jean Hirst for the Chicago Tribune, December 11 (thanks to James):

A Chicago man was sentenced today to nearly 10 years in prison for planning to travel to Somalia in 2010 to wage jihad for a terrorist group connected to al-Qaida.

Shaker Masri, 29, a native U.S. citizen of Syrian descent, pleaded guilty in July to attempting to provide material support to the Somali group al-Shabaab, which is designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman considered Masri’s younger age, mental health and stress from his mother’s sudden death in accepting the sentence worked out between prosecutors and his lawyers – 9 years and 10 months in prison.

However, she also ordered that he be under supervised release for 20 years following his release from prison.

Masri's lead attorney, Thomas Anthony Durkin, had opposed the unusually lengthy supervised release, noting his client would be an old man by the time he was no longer under court supervision.

"With all due respect, 50 years old is not old," Johnson Coleman said. "You've still got a lot of time left.

But Joshua Dratel, another Masri attorney, pointed out that Masri would be nearly 60 by the time he was free of the court restrictions.

"Still not old," the judge said.

At one point during the sentencing Tuesday, Masri raised a hand and asked to speak after prosecutors had just described his jihadist ideology. After conferring with his attorneys, though, Masri chose to remain silent....

In one, he recalls “glorious battles that took place in the early days of Islam between truth and falsehood.” Yet Islam is the one element of the jihadis' motives and goals that our government and law enforcement officials have determined to ignore. "Briton stars in Somali terror videos," by Duncan Gardham in the Telegraph, November 20 (thanks to David):

Terrorists in Somalia have produced a series of full-length documentaries featuring a masked narrator with a British accent as part of a publicity drive designed to attract Western recruits.

The videos feature suicide bombers, the corpses of African peace keepers and describe military operations by the militant group al-Shabaab, which is closely linked to al-Qaeda.

The footage is the latest addition to a well-oiled media machine which has attracted nearly 16,000 followers to its English-language Twitter account since it was set up last December.

It is unclear whether the reporter is the same man behind the Twitter account and a press office that has churned out online press releases giving updates on battles and “martyred” fighters in recent months.

MI5 is concerned that the conflict has drawn in dozens of young Britons and last September Jonathan Evans, the director general of MI5, warned that it was “only a matter of time before we see terrorism on our streets inspired by those who are today fighting alongside al-Shabaab.”

Earlier this year three men from East London were jailed for channeling thousands of pounds to three associates who are still with militants in the East African conflict zone.

Samantha Lewthwaite, the widow of 7/7 bomber Jermaine Lindsay, is also thought to be with al-Shabaab in Somalia.

In the first 32-minute video released by al-Shabaab’s media arm, al-Kataib, last November, called “The Burundian Bloodbath” the reporter, dressed in army fatigues, visits the scene of a battle in which he claims 101 soldiers died.

Carrying a microphone, he compares the battle at Dayniile with the “glorious battles that took place in the early days of Islam between truth and falsehood” and interviews al-Shabaab fighters who took part....

Muhammad said: "Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him" (Bukhari 9.84.57). The death penalty for apostasy is part of Islamic law according to all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence. Yet Muslim spokesmen such as Harris Zafar, Mustafa Akyol, Salam al-Marayati, M. Cherif Bassiouni, and Ali Eteraz (among many others) have assured us that Islam doesn't punish apostasy. I expect that Zafar, Akyol, al-Marayati, Bassiouni, and Eteraz will immediately be jetting over to Mogadishu to explain to al-Shabaab that they're getting Islam all wrong, wrong, wrong, and should stop beheading converts immediately.

"Christian Convert from Islam Beheaded in Somalia," from Morning Star News, November 17 (thanks to all who sent this in):

NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – Islamic extremists from Somalia’s rebel Al-Shabaab militants on Friday (Nov. 16) killed a Christian in Somalia’s coastal city of Barawa, accusing him of being a spy and leaving Islam, Christian and Muslim witnesses said.

The extremists beheaded 25-year-old Farhan Haji Mose after monitoring his movements for six months, Christian sources said. Mose drew suspicion when he returned to Barawa, in Somalia’s Lower Shebelle Region, in December 2011 after spending time in Kenya, underground Christians in Somalia told Morning Star News.

Kenya’s population is nearly 83 percent Christian, according to Operation World, while Somalia’s is close to 100 percent Muslim.

A crowd assembled in the coastal city on Friday morning to watch the slaughter of Mose, the sources said.

“His body was split into two, then carried away, only to be dumped near the beach of Barawa city,” a Christian source who witnessed the murder told Morning Star News.

Other witnesses, Muslims, independently described the same scene. They and the Christian witness told Morning Star News that the Islamic extremists accused Mose of being a spy for foreigners and of embracing the “foreign religion of Christianity.”...

Muslim converts in Somalia imbibing their new religion's traditions of peace and tolerance. "Somalia Militants Use ‘Ex-Christians’ To Bomb Kenya Churches," by Joseph DeCaro for BosNewsLife, November 4 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

NAIROBI, KENYA (BosNewsLife)– Somalia's militant Islamist group al-Shabab uses converts from religious Christianity to Islam to carry out attacks against churches in neighboring Kenya as part of what they call a "holy war", or Jihad, officials said in comments monitored by BosNewsLife Sunday, November 4.

Al-Shabab, which still remains influential in southern Somalia despite suffering setbacks, launches border attacks into Kenya with "poor youths from Christian backgrounds," confirmed Reverend Wellington Mutiso, head of the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya.

"It is the recent converts who (are) being used to bomb churches," he said. "It is not members of the Somali, Boran, or Swahili communities, which have many Muslims, but the other tribes which have been known to follow Christianity" as a religion, Mutiso added in published remarks.

Analysts aren't surprised about the trend. Godffery Ngumi, senior lecturer at the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Kenya's Kenyatta University, said recent converts can be "easily manipulated" because they "know very little about their new religion."

And if they knew a great deal about it, what is there within it that would stop them from doing this?

The use of converts from traditional Christian peoples makes it extremely difficult to identify and stop would-be attackers who can seamlessly blend into any Christian congregation....

The restaurant was "popular with Somalis returning from abroad in the hope that the country's darkest days are over." Point made. "Suicide bombers hit Somali capital, three dead: witnesses," by Feisal Omar and Abdi Sheikh for Reuters, November 3 (thanks to Kenneth):

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Two suicide bombers attacked a restaurant in the Somali capital on Saturday, killing a security guard who stopped them entering the building, locals said.

It was not clear who was behind the bombings but Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab insurgents have conducted similar previous attacks and remain a serious security challenge even after being forced out of their strongholds.

The blasts rocked the restaurant, popular with Somalis returning from abroad in the hope that the country's darkest days are over, damaging cars and scattering the area with body parts.

"Two suicide bombers opened fire at guards at the gate and as soon as they entered two successive blasts took place," Mogadishu resident Farah Hussein told Reuters....

I've heard of comedians dying out there, but this is taking that a bit too literally. Anyway, Islamic supremacist "comedians" such as Baba Ali and Dean Obeidallah should book a few dates in Mogadishu -- their whining Muslims-are-victims act would go over big there. "Islamists respond with bullets to jokes of Somali comedian," from Middle East Online, October 30 (thanks to Twostellas):

MOGADISHU - Gunmen assassinated a well-known comedian and musician who poked fun at Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents in the Somali capital Mogadishu, police and colleagues said Tuesday.

Warsame Shire Awale, a famous composer who had worked with Somalia's national army band before joining Radio Kulmiye as a drama producer and comedian, was attacked by two gunmen late on Monday.

"Gunmen killed him... we are investigating the matter and the killers will be brought to justice," police chief Ahmed Hassan Malin told reporters.

"Two men armed with pistols shot and wounded him near his house in Waberi district, he died shortly after in hospital," said Abdi Mohamed Haji, a colleague at Radio Kulmiye.

The killing, the latest in a string of attacks on media workers in Somalia, follows the murder of fellow comic Abdi Jeylani Malaq Marshale in August, who also worked at Kulmiye....

"It's really surprising," said Saeed Fahia, executive director of the nonprofit Confederation of the Somali Community in Minnesota. "It doesn't even seem rational." And Minnesota Public Radio fell for it, of course.

"Terrorist pipeline continues to flow from Minn. to Somalia," by Laura Yuen for Minnesota Public Radio, October 26 (thanks to Kenneth):

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Four years after federal authorities in the Twin Cities began investigating homegrown recruitment for the terrorist group al-Shabab, at least two additional men slipped away to Somalia as recently as July.

Federal authorities believe the Minneapolis men joined the group and are still in the East African nation.

The FBI's confirmation this week that a terrorist conduit continues to flow from Minnesota to Somalia perplexes members of Minnesota's Somali community, who have watched with dismay as young men have disappeared.

FAMILY STUNNED

Among those missing is 19-year-old Mohamed Osman, who once called a leafy little cul-de-sac in south Minneapolis home.

Inside his family's two-story house, Osman's older cousin, Jamal Salim, recalled when the family realized that Osman, who graduated last year from Southwest High School, was missing.

"One day we're at home, like, 'Where is Mohamed?' " Salim said. "It's been two days, and we're thinking he's out with friends. The parents are going crazy. They think he's got arrested or something."

Salim said Osman's mother didn't realize her son was in Somalia until she received a visit from the FBI. Salim said his aunt was stunned.

As were earlier waves of about 20 Twin Cities men who federal authorities say enlisted with al-Shabab, the introverted Osman was especially secretive about his plans, his cousin said.

"It made me mad because he didn't speak to no relative about it," Salim said. "We're heartbroken about it because he's like our sibling. Imagine not knowing what's going on with your own brother — how he's been feeling, who he's been talking to, and what they're telling him. We lost a brother, and I don't know how to get him back."

Authorities say Osman and 20-year-old Omar Ali Farah left Minneapolis for Somalia on July 18.

Salim said Osman was religious — to the point of nagging Salim for not praying, and for not wearing the long white tunics favored by some devout Muslim men. Osman had no desire to go to college. He taught the Qur'an to kids at an Islamic school on Lake Street.

Osman's family didn't worry about him, because he appeared to be staying out of trouble.

Salim said he now regrets not intervening in his cousin's life.

"To me, it's like he made a stupid mistake," Salim said. "If he would have talked to the elders who were responsible for him, they would told him, 'What's the reason we brought you from Somalia if you're going to go back?' "

COMMUNITY LEADERS PUZZLED

What's even more puzzling to Somali-American community members is why someone would want to join al-Shabab now. Aside from the fact that it's a ruthless militia known to behead, amputate and bomb its victims, military pressure has forced al-Shabab to withdraw from several major cities it used to control.

"It's really surprising," said Saeed Fahia, executive director of the nonprofit Confederation of the Somali Community in Minnesota. "It doesn't even seem rational."

Fahia said only someone vulnerable would be duped into fighting for a badly losing team. He said most young Somali-Americans he knows are excited to return to their homeland to help its people.

"They are going back for business, to find work, to connect with their roots, to learn about the culture," Fahia said. "Mogadishu seems to be thriving."...

So religion appears to be al-Shabab's predominant battle cry. Al-Shabab's end game has always been to to radicalize its troops through its extreme interpretation of Islam, Wilson said.

One local figure who has emerged as an alleged recruiter in the plan to send Minnesota men overseas to fight is Omer Abdi Mohamed. Former Twin Cities recruits have testified at trial that he used his knowledge of the Qur'an to preach jihad. Mohamed pleaded guilty last year to being a part of the conspiracy, and this week a federal judge ordered him jailed while he awaits sentencing.

A big concern, said U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones, is that Mohamed may be still involved with the effort to send more men overseas to fight.

"There are indications that there are people who have traveled to Somalia, and he may have had some role in it," Jones said.

Mohamed's attorney said his client had nothing to do with it.

Federal authorities, however, note that Mohamed is in a position to influence young people through his association with an Islamic school on Lake Street in Minneapolis. It's the same school where Mohamed Osman, the 19-year-old traveler who left in July, taught the Qur'an....

Stoning adulterers is not "extremist"; it is Islamic law. The caliph Umar, one of Muhammad's closest companions, even maintained that it was originally in the Qur'an:

'Umar said, "I am afraid that after a long time has passed, people may say, "We do not find the Verses of the Rajam (stoning to death) in the Holy Book," and consequently they may go astray by leaving an obligation that Allah has revealed. Lo! I confirm that the penalty of Rajam be inflicted on him who commits illegal sexual intercourse, if he is already married and the crime is proved by witnesses or pregnancy or confession." Sufyan added, "I have memorized this narration in this way." 'Umar added, "Surely Allah's Apostle carried out the penalty of Rajam, and so did we after him." (Bukhari, vol. 8, bk. 82, no. 816)

"Allah's Apostle" is, of course, Muhammad, who did indeed carry out stonings. Here is the hadith in which he challenges the rabbis about stoning, and in which there is amidst the barbarism and brutality a final act of love and compassion:

The Jews came to Allah's Apostle and told him that a man and a woman from amongst them had committed illegal sexual intercourse. Allah's Apostle said to them, "What do you find in the Torah (old Testament) about the legal punishment of Ar-Rajm (stoning)?" They replied, (But) we announce their crime and lash them." Abdullah bin Salam said, "You are telling a lie; Torah contains the order of Rajm." They brought and opened the Torah and one of them solaced his hand on the Verse of Rajm and read the verses preceding and following it. Abdullah bin Salam said to him, "Lift your hand." When he lifted his hand, the Verse of Rajm was written there. They said, "Muhammad has told the truth; the Torah has the Verse of Rajm. The Prophet then gave the order that both of them should be stoned to death. ('Abdullah bin 'Umar said, "I saw the man leaning over the woman to shelter her from the stones." (Bukhari, vol. 4, bk. 56, no. 829)

Even the monkeys practiced stoning, according to another hadith:

During the pre-lslamic period of ignorance I saw a she-monkey surrounded by a number of monkeys. They were all stoning it, because it had committed illegal sexual intercourse. I too, stoned it along with them. (Bukhari, vol. 5, bk. 58, no. 188)

Muhammad's example is, of course, normative for Islamic behavior, since "verily in the messenger of Allah ye have a good example for him who looketh unto Allah and the Last Day, and remembereth Allah much" (Qur'an 33:21).

"Al-Shabaab order woman stoned to death for sex offence," by Abdulkadir Khalif in Africa Review, October 26 (thanks to Blazing Cat Fur):

A young woman was stoned to death Thursday in Somalia after being convicted of engaging in out-of-marriage sex, reports say.

Residents of Jamama town, 425km south of Mogadishu in Lower Juba region, said that militants loyal to Al-Shabaab carried out the stoning at the town’s main square in late afternoon.

“Many residents were called to attend the execution of the punishment,” a resident who requested anonymity for own safety told Kulmiye, an independent broadcaster in Mogadishu.

He added that Al-Shabaab officials in the town witnessed the stoning.

“The woman admitted having out-of-marriage sex,” said an Islamist official who talked to the crowd after the stoning was completed.

“This type of punishments that are compatible with Sharia (Islamic laws) will be administered,” said the official....