More protests and saber-rattling after Friday prayers. From AP: “Thousands in Somalia rally for holy war”
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — More than 2,000 people gathered after Friday prayers for a pro-Lebanon rally organized by Mogadishu’s new fundamentalist rulers, calling for holy war and chanting “Down with the enemies of Islam, wherever they are!”
Yusuf Ali Siad, one of the organizers, said the protest was sparked by the monthlong conflict between Israel and Lebanon that has killed more than 800 people, mostly in Lebanon.
“We must sympathize with our brothers in Lebanon,” Siad told The Associated Press. “It is compulsory to join the holy war.”
The demonstrators also shouted slogans against the United States and neighboring Ethiopia, which is Somalia’s longtime enemy.
A similar protest was held in neighboring Kenya, drawing about 300 people to Nairobi’s main mosque. The protesters, most of them young men, carried signs saying “Israel Stop Killing Our Brothers and Sisters” and “End America’s Terrorism of Army Invasion in Iraq.”