MOGADISHU --After two years of fighting in Mogadishu things seem to be different. People are busy with shopping in the main Bakara market in Mogadishu. Mogadishu residents who fled from the fighting between the Ethiopian and government troops and al-shabaab jehadist insurgents started trickling back to the capital Mogadishu. People are talking about peace and progress while some Islamist hardliners are vowing to keep on fighting until foreign troops withdraw from the country and the sharia is imposed. New Somali talaban President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed bowed Saturday to demands from Islamist insurgents, agreeing the introduction of sharia law. Ahmed, a former Islamist rebel leader who was elected president on January 31, said he had accepted proposals by local and religious leaders mediating between his government and the hardliners, but the question is that are the Islamists ready to stop the fighting if sharia is imposed. Somali religious organizations are divided the kind of Islamic version which is to be practiced and that is yet another obstacle which is to be solved before any thing else. Al-Shabaab, for example, banned the commemoration of Prophet Muhammad (peace of Allah Be Upon him), while Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca condemned the act. The Islamic clerics who have been mediating between the government and the Islamists jehadist called the Somali government to rule the country by the Islamic Law and also asked the government to tell the African union troops to leave the country with in hundred and twenty days which they described as an imperative step. The hawiye jehadist clerics also called for the Islamist insurgents to stop the fighting but the Insurgents did not listen, they suddenly launched fresh offensive to the bases of the government and AU troops in the capital.At least 50 people were killed and 180 others were injured in the bloodiest clashes since talaban president Sheik Sharif was elected. Al-Shabaab Islamists also fired mortars to the presidential palace.
There are new voices from many intellectuals who are against any wars in Mogadishu. Somalis have been fighting for the last 18 years. The capital city has been destroyed by civil wars.
“We have to obey the calls by the clerics, that is the only solution,” said Abshir Nor Farah, a Somali poet. “Shame on those who started the fighting,” he added.
Many people believe that the Islamists would never stop fighting until they take over the country by force.
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