Somalia Jihad Update: The allegation of apostasy classifies the Somali government and its allies as infidels at war with Muslims, and subjects them to Muhammad’s orders that apostates be killed. “Somali Islamist Group Gives Government Five Days to Surrender,” by Hamsa Omar for Bloomberg, July 6:
July 6 (Bloomberg) — The leader of Somalia’s Islamist al- Shabaab movement gave the government five days to surrender and hand over its weapons or face prosecution by Shariah courts.
The rebel group, which the U.S. accuses of having ties to al-Qaeda, is fighting to oust Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed who came to power in January and has called for peace talks between the countries Islamist factions.
“I call on the apostate government soldiers who are in the frontline of battle to surrender to the Islamists and to hand over all their weapons,” Sheikh Muktar Abu-Subeyr, the highest ranking officer of al-Shabaab, said in an audio recording distributed to reporters in the capital, Mogadishu, yesterday.
Sheikh Yusuf Mohamed Siyad Indha”ade, Somalia’s minister of state for ministry of defense, verified the authenticity of the recording and rejected the call for surrender.
“The government soldiers will not lay down their weapons,” he told reporters late yesterday in Mogadishu.
Somalia is in its 18th year of civil war and hasn’t had a functioning central administration since the ouster of Mohamed Siad Barre, the former dictator, in 1991. Islamists in the country are fighting to establish a caliphate, or Islamic government, in Somalia.
“I call on the Somali people to become ready to establish an Islamic government,” Subeyr said. “It is based on justice and Islamic brotherhood. It doesn’t need any foreign aid and it will benefit from the land of our resources.”…