Armed militants on trucks mounted with machine guns and others walking with sticks have ordered butchers not to slaughter animals and meat traders not to sell their meat, saying they are practicing their trade outside of religious law and that al-Shabaab would create their own network of butchers and traders in a move dismissed by Mogadishu's religious leaders.
"You have to stop your illegal butchering, we will launch new legal ones soon." A masked militant who identified himself as Abu Qatada told traders yesterday.
"We shall do this in the way our religion allows." He added as some traders moved in shock from the scene.
The militants have beliefs that meat not prepared with their hands is not suitable to be eaten according to Wahabi ideology.
"What al-Shabaab said shows a lack of understanding of our religion" Sheikh Abdirizaq Ahmed, the chairman of Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca, a group of local religious leaders in Mogadishu, told Radio Mogadishu referring to al-Shabaab's ban of butchers.
Somalia has been without central government since1991 after clan militias and warlords overthrew the Honourable Somali Presiden Siad Barre after which the nation was plunged into constant violence for 20 years.
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