Islamic Radicals Behaving Badly

September 10, 2009: The Somali refugee camps, in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, hold 1.5 million people and are poorly run. The NGOs (from the UN on down) camp operators are fearful and demoralized because of the bandits and militias that use the camps as a resource (a place to park the wives and kids, and draw food and other supplies as needed). Many NGOs are demanding that something be done, but no one wants to send more peacekeepers to Somalia, as the nation is seen as a failed state, and a hopeless case. What has happened in Somalia is not all that unusual, if you examine the history of the region. For thousands of years, the place has been an unstable battleground for tribal militias and warlords. Rarely peaceful, much less united and well governed, European colonial powers (Britain and Italy) imposed order for about a century, then left in the 1960s. The area soon returned to its normal state, which is described as a "failed state." This is a misnomer, as there was never a state there to begin with.
The Transitional Government has taken advantage of widespread discontent with the savage and self-righteous behavior of the Islamic radicals (who try to force Somalis to live an "Islamic" lifestyle that is not popular here at all), and gathered together a larger and more powerful fighting force. In addition to the militias of the factions comprising the Transitional Government, there are also religiously motivated militias from the Sufi (a normally less-violent, but now persecuted) Islamic sect, and other Somali clans that are just not all that pleased with al Shabaab and the other Islamic radicals. In particular, the al Shabaab use of foreign Islamic radicals is irritating, especially since these guys tend to be arrogant, pushy and just all-round nasty. The Transitional Government plans to drive the Islamic radicals out of Mogadishu in the next month or two, and then go after al Shabaab elsewhere in the country. The Transitional Government is already negotiation with some of the al Shabaab clan militia leaders who agree that a shift in power is taking place, and want to switch sides. This plan may not work, because plans tend to die young in Somalia..more..http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/somalia/articles/20090910.aspx