| Is it a battle of Ideology or a battle of politics between the Sufi’s and the Shabaab’s

7 April, 2010

By: Abdullahi Jamaa Abdi

This week’s battle between Al-Shabaab and Ahlu-sunna Waljamaa to control the town of Matabaan located at hiraan region of Central Somalia is one of the very latest incursions between the two groups who often engage in repeated cycles of fierce fighting.
Since 2009, the adherents of Ahlu-Sunna took up arms and started fighting against the militant Al-Shabaab, who controls much of Central and South Somalia as the war in the war-wrecked Horn-of-Africa nation intensifies.
If we were to go by the timelines of the war in the war-torn country, there has been a frequent battle of control between the hard-lined Islamists Al-Shabaab and the Sufis.
Many people say, the increased military activity between the two sides is based on a heated controversy surrounding the kind of Islamic ideology that is to be spread in Somalia, a state whose people are overwhelmingly Muslims.
But in the real sense, the animosity between the two sides is so deeply entrenched making the hope for peace in the country to hang in the balance for now.
Although there seems to be a battle over Islamic ideology, but from my own understanding of the aggravating situation in the country, the fight for the control of major towns and strategic key points is one that shows an intense political quagmire.
For the two groups, their current standoff is one that is seemingly based on an opinioned power brokerage that will obviously exacerbate the state of affairs in Somalia.
Each of the two parties here struggles to remain in firm control of each of their strong bases, making ambitious forays to hold the country’s power nod.
From every side of their struggle, both Ahlu-Sunnah and Al-Shabaab are pursuing the battle to win the rat race, which has started since the overthrow of Siad Barre some two decades ago.
These days Al-Shabaab had apparently taken the Sufis more seriously than even the authority of president Sharif. According to the emerging signals the Shabaab’s are on a mission to suppress the gains of the Sufis.
The two archrivals have engaged themselves in bitter raging battles in the two-year old insurgency in the failed state.
Their animosity has grown bitterly over the last few days after the Sufi’s signed an agreement with the fragile transitional authority.
Now look at the catalogue of fighting between the two opponents, since January this year, we have witnessed repeated cycles of orgy fighting, the bloodiest we have seen was within this month of April, when Al-Shabaab militants raided Rage Ele in middle Shabelle region leaving more than 20 people dead and scores of other injured.
Since the history of Somalia and Somalis, the Sufis were linked with calmness and sobriety, but their veneer of peace is fraying at the edges as its loyalists join violent wars in a bold bid to stagnate the progress made by their opponents.
From time immemorial, Ahlu-Sunna was an old well-known Sufi group but has since transformed itself into a militant faction, and is one of the new groups to take up arms and join the two decades of fighting in Somalia.
Traditional Somalia had a pristine Sufi tradition that goes back to as far as the 16th century.
Their belief is based on a moderate version of the religion believed to be supported by many of the Somalis.
In real sense the group had played a pivotal role in the spread of Islam to Somalia and East Africa.
As the military battle rages on and on, Sufi loyalists now have been enraged by the desecration of graves, the beheading of clerics, and bans on celebrating ‘Mowlid’ the birth of Prophet Muhammed imposed by the Alshabaab fighters, who are standing by their stance to propagate a harder version of Islam.
In December 2008 violent clashes erupted, this was one of the very first fights for the Sufis who experienced early success as Al-Shabab were driven out of several towns in the central region of Galgadud.
The increasing fight is branching partly from al Shabab’s fear that Ahlu Sunna, with assistance from the government, is likely to strengthen control in several strategic towns.
Al-Shabaab is pursuing an operation to disrupt any gain by their enemies, perhaps in a bid to create an impasse, or more apparently to make significant military progress that is at the moment not very clear, given the fact that many of the towns they seize are often recaptured back by the Sufis.
The Sufi’s have many a times successfully defended themselves from brazened military attacks orchestrated by the Shabaabs.
“Together, we are going to eliminate radical Islamists from the country. We will confront Shabaab directly not through the media,” one of the leaders of Ahlu-Sunna Maalim Muhamud said recently.
In response to the Sufi’s claims, the leaders of Al-Shabaab say, their battles rest on a holy war to see infidels are removed out of Somalia.
Finally, I can gauge that, the fight between the two groups is one that will leave a trail of disaster and throws Somalia’s long-awaited peace opportunity into disarray.
It is better to have an incursion based on politics than one that rests on religious beliefs-the latter will presumably result more bloodsheds in Somalia.