The fight against Islamic jihad groups in Somalia that launch deadly attacks on government officials and intellectuals, as well as against local forces and African Union (AU) peacekeepers, is widely reported in local and international media, but little is covered about the lesser known but fiercely raging ideological war between Somali Muslim reformers and the radical Wahabi wadaad, or clergy.
Recently, the radical Muslim cleric Sheikh Mohamoud Mohamed Shibli issued a fatwa, an Islamic religious ruling, excommunicating (tafkir) five Somali moderate and reformist Islamic scholars and authors, including the prominent Muslim reformer Abdisaid Ismail and Abdirahman Jibril for spreading “subversive and dangerous ideas” and of misleading Kenyan and Somali Muslim youth.
Jibril, the author of Islamic Extremism: The Untold Truth, was forced to publicly, and some say disgracefully, retract his book and declare his “repentance” after he faced social and family pressures following the issuance of the so-called death fatwa against him and other fellow Muslim reformers and Islamic scholars.
Jibril’s seminal book is about the link between Islamic radicalism and the Wahabi interpretation of Islam advocated by the wadaads and the deadly Islamic insurgency that has been raging in Somalia for the past decade and half. The Wahabi-inspired armed insurgency has since claimed the lives of thousands of Somalis and Kenyans and left the Muslim Horn of African nation in ruins.
This is not the first time the Wahabi clerics issued fatwas against Islamic reformers. In 2014, Islamist radical wadaads issued a similar fatwa against Abdisaid Ismail, an Islamic reformer and prominent author of the Somali language booklet, Xadka Riddada (Islamic Apostasy Laws).
The issuance of the latest fatwa was seen as being part of the wadaad’s efforts to silence voices of dissent against Wahabism and to prevent exposition of their role as the ideological reference for the Islamic jihadists waging the ongoing militancy in the Horn of Africa.
Unlike the traditional Somali Sufi wadaad, who call for moderation in religion and the depolitization of Islam, Wahabi wadaads have political ambitions and are the purveyors of the jihadist Wahabi ideology that drives Al Shabaab and other Islamist terror groups that are wrecking havoc in Somalia and in Kenya, and are responsible for the hundreds of people killed or wounded in Horn of Africa.
Fatwas Weaponized
The Wahabi wadaads regularly issue fatwas against the reformists, calling them apostates, a charge that carries death penalty in their interpretation of Islamic texts.
The fatwa-issuing Wahabi wadaads, many of whom are based in Nairobi, control most of the mosques and Islamic centers and propagate Wahabism and the doctrine of Jihad, armed militancy against and hatred for non-Wahabis, Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
These Wahabi clerics regularly and fiercely oppose any hint at reform and moderation or criticism of the Wahabist ideology that fuels the deadly terrorist insurgency in Somalia, which at times spills over into that nation’s neighboring countries, including Kenya, with deadly consequences.
The clerics bully and threaten reformist Muslim scholars who try to discuss the direct link between Wahabi ideology and the insurgency in Somalia and Kenya and to suggest moderate interpretation of the Islamic canons in an effort to confront militancy and jihadist sentiments among Somali youth in particular and society in general, and to promote peace and harmony in Somalia and the wider Horn of Africa.
The clerics have repeatedly issued fatwas calling for a Jihad (holy war) against the Somali government and AU peacekeeping troops in Somalia, including those from Kenya.
The wadaads call for the reformers’ books to be banned and burnt, and warn their supporters and the wider Somali public against listening to or watching the moderates’ talks and sermons, or visiting their websites and blogs.
Rich Celebrity Wadaad Phenomena
The Wahabi wadaads, though a minority among Somali Muslim clergy, wield considerable influence not only among large section of the population, but also with the political leaders in Somalia.
The clerical clique is a monied, closely-knit group that gets financial support from wealthy Arab fellow Wahabis in the Gulf States. These wadaads also collect donations from the general public on local TV and radio programs to enrich themselves.
These wadaads, who mostly have dual citizenship with Western and Somali or Kenyan passports, travel widely to Western countries, where they deliver hate-filled sermons for Somalis in the Diaspora, particularly in North America, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
The rich celebrity wadaads are a far cry from the traditional and austere peace-loving Sufi wadaads of Somalia. This is a new phenomenon in Somali society, and is truly the ideological source of the jihadist sentiments and radicalism that are now fanning the flames of war and discord in communities in Somalia and the Horn of Africa region at large.
Guuleyste Ali is a Somali academic. Twitter: @guuleyste
mortimer says
This story explains in gruesome detail why no Islamic reform movements have many members … or members at all … for very long. As soon as the Wahhabi sheikhs start writing fatwas, the reformers suddenly get cold feet or cold bodies.
Once again, Gulf oil money is flowing which creates the Wahhabist propaganda spreading the Wahhabist jihads. Saudi Arabia spread its jihad to all countries while jailing or killing all dissidents in KSA.
Geoffrey Britain says
Why do the Wahabi Imams gain traction in traditionally moderate Muslim societies? Why do they find such a receptive audience? You can’t sell something to someone who doesn’t want it…
Could it be that the Wahabi ideology more closely follows Allah’s declarations in the Qur’an and Muhammad’s pronouncements? That would mean that the Wahabi Imams hold the theological high ground and of course the moderate Sufi Imams must know it.
Bill W. says
Gulf oil, expense new buildings ,,food, jobs building the buildings, Saudi Arabia spends money in area were people living hand to mouth. They buy peoples souls anyone who gets in there way they use there goon hit squads on. In the West we have plenty of food, people do not believe in anything so they use collective guilt to get there way , they use marxs, and progressive mush heads. If they get the upper hand in the West the first people to get kill will be the mush head progressives then the Marxs. There plan has work in the West great they have elected leaders eating out of their hand. and MSM kissing their ass.
Zak Osman says
So true. Much of the Somali thinking had been controlled by these Wadaads for the last 2 decades and UNLESS we get rid of it, Somalia is far from standing on it’s feet.
Karen says
“These wadaads, who mostly have dual citizenship with Western and Somali or Kenyan passports, travel widely to Western countries, where they deliver hate-filled sermons for Somalis in the Diaspora, particularly in North America, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand.”
Why? Why is their 2nd citizenship not being revoked? Why are they being allowed to enter the West with their treachery?
Matthieu Baudin says
Thank you Guuleyste for casting new light on the political/religious machinations of Somalia and neighbouring regions.
sidney penny says
“The rich celebrity wadaads are a far cry from the traditional and austere peace-loving Sufi wadaads of Somalia.”
Wrong to say that Sufis were peace loving.Maybe now but not in the past.
commonsense says
Oh, please – I’m sick to death of Muslims who speak of “radical ideologies,” “jihad ideologies,” and similar rot. These so-called “radical Islamists,” etc. are simply Muslims who are acting in accordance with the tenets of Islam and the behavior of their execrable prophet. Let’s be honest, for a change. Guuleyste Ali, the author of this piece of nonsense, should do what ALL Muslims who are (and with complete justification)) uncomfortable with Islam should do (and some, to their credit, have actually done so) – leave Islam altogether. Walk away from this death cult, repudiate this cancer upon humanity. I know that to do so publicly is to reveal yourself as an apostate and consequently be targeted for death (there- yet another reason to loathe Islam!), but no one is demanding that Ali do this. Do so quietly, keep it to yourself, and be done with it. At the very least, stop writing these misleading and absurd articles that call for Islam’s reform. How can a belief system that normative Muslims believe is perfect and infallible, coming, as it is, from Allah himself, as revealed to Muhammed, the Perfect Man, be reformed? I leave you – and Guuleyste Ali – to draw the inevitable conclusion. And even the notion or the suggestion that Islam needs reform is an admission of apostasy, and hence a capital offense in Islam. So, better to just give up the nonsense, already. Just…leave…Islam.
robert_k says
I heard from a Somali that Saudi Arabia offered to supply teachers to Somalia to get people off qat. They taught the Somalis Arabic and Islam and made Somalia an Arabic country and part of the Arab League. My Somali friend spoke fluent Egyptian Arabic as he was forced to learn Arabic in High School by his Saudi-funded Egyptian teacher.
isabella van der Westhuizen says
Somalia another African hell hole