They call themselves "Al Shabaab" – an Arabic term, meaning, "The Youth." Indeed, as the saying goes, the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled is to convince the world that he does not exist.The Al Shabaab terrorist group that feeds on the innocent blood of Somali mothers and children in Mogadishu is an "expert" at hiding its true face – quite literally. These men wrap their faces with cloths and hide behind veils in order to commit all types of atrocities and crimes against humanity, such as: the unprecedented massacre of Somali medical graduates and their families at Shamo Hotel bombing in Mogadishu in Dec. 2009, and more recently, the 2010 World Cup viewers who blown to smithereens in Kampala, Uganda.
Somalia's youth have suffered 20-years of lawlessness, lack of education and employment opportunities, and have adopted acts of desperation to survive. The examples are many: some flee the country as refugees, at times dying on the high seas as they attempt to be smuggled into Yemen and beyond; others join pirate gangs, hoping to collect quick cash despite a cost-benefit analysis that extremely favors their loss; and most worryingly, some have joined terrorist groups who promise a salary, a wife, and long-sought "prestige" among society in areas under the terrorists' control (south-central Somalia).
A group like Al Shabaab is able to exploit these conditions expertly due to a key factor: finances. This group is led by foreign fighters – fugitives from their own native countries, such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle Eastern nations. A steady source of income from Somali ports, airports and roads, combined with "donations" from supporters in foreign countries and governments, including the West, ensure that the Al Shabaab terrorist group continues to recruit, train and use Somali youth for their evil intentions.
Aside from the foreign fighters, the backbone of Al Shabaab is a cross-section of Somalis from all clans, regions and dialects, who have all been sucked in by worldly promises such as, a salary, a wife, a mobile phone, and even cars for the "officers." This group led by international terrorists – with the required "Somali face" like Godane and Shongole to play the necessary "house slave" character that instructs fellow Somalis on how to meet the foreign fugitives' standards of law – mislead Somalis and the world alike with public utterances of implementing Islamic law in Muslim Somalia.
Take Mogadishu, for example. During the term of Transitional Federal Government (TFG) President Abdullahi Yusuf, Mogadishu's dominant Hawiye clan-family spent all available resources to fight President Yusuf and his Ethiopian allies. At the time, Al Shabaab consisted of a few hundred guerrilla fighters who controlled very little territory and excelled at hit-and-run-to-your-mother's-house attacks. Mogadishu's clan-centric media organizations are primarily responsible for giving unlimited airtime to Al Shabaab terrorists who played into the common fear among Somalis of an "Ethiopian colonization of Somalia." Mogadishu's media organizations, like much of the city's population, simply opposed President Yusuf because he represented the same Somalis they massacred, raped and pillaged in 1991: the Darod clan-family, of former Honourable .Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre.Ironically, today's TFG President, a Hawiye clansman and suspected Al Shabaab sympathizer named Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, sits on Gen. Barre's presidential seat that was restored for the first time since President Barre's departure by a fellow Darod clansman: President Yusuf from Puntland.What did the population of Mogadishu, their politicians, and their media houses get in return for supporting terrorist groups like Al Shabaab? Thousands of civilians were killed, politicians were targeted and assassinated, and media personnel like HornAfrik founder Ali Sharmake were gunned down in broad daylight by Al Shabaab assassins. Here, it is noteworthy to cite a comic-yet-painfully-true quote by former U.S. presidential candidate Ross Perot: "If you see a snake, just kill it – don't appoint a committee on snakes."Indeed, those in Mogadishu who miscalculated the dangers of Al Shabaab – by simply blaming everything on former President Yusuf – erroneously thought that a snake (Al Shabaab) would sit across a negotiation table with them. They held meetings with Al Shabaab, appointed committees to steer the "direction of Somalia" after Ethiopian troops withdrew, and even contemplated grandiose ideas of "taking over Somalia" with the help of the Devil's own pet: Al Shabaab. The Ethiopians have gone home, but the suffering continues in Mogadishu. Unfortunately, in playing a zero-sum game with the Devil's pet, one stands to loose everything. Today, the truth of the matter is that Hawiye politicians who held the Somali nation-state hostage for nearly two decades by demanding that all other Somali clans "bow down" to centrist rule in Mogadishu are today themselves in the worst of all predicaments and are begging for Ethiopian troops to return.
Deceptions and mistaken policies
One wonders: if Al Shabaab terrorists are fighting for Islamic law, why do they literally hide their faces? Why did they deceive (a Devilish trick) the population of Mogadishu and then punish them to date? Our Islamic religion teaches us that any man or woman struggling in the Cause of Allah (the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful) has nothing to fear or to hide. But one can easily find the discrepancy between Al Shabaab's public utterances and their actions. Publicly, they speak of righteousness and piety, but their actions (louder than words) point to worldly desires: salaries, wives, gadgets, houses, and vehicles. What is the difference between this group's violent drive for worldly benefits and the pirate gangs? The only difference is the use of language, or more appropriately the use of propaganda intended to mislead and deceive the public.
Since Sheikh Sharif's ascendance to the TFG Presidency, Al Shabaab has not only gained momentum, they actually control more territory for a longer period of time than did the six-month rule of the now-defunct Islamic Courts Union (ICU). The West's mistaken approach to deal with this terrorist threat has been to train 2,000 "Somali" soldiers in Uganda to help form the core of the TFG army. We write the name "Somali" in quotations due to the Mogadishu-centric nature of the TFG recruits currently receiving military training in Uganda with European Union instructors. At home, the TFG remains unable to provide salary payments to its troops – forget anything else. Are we surprised then, that a majority of the TFG recruits trained aboard come back to Mogadishu only to join terrorist groups like Al Shabaab?
Somalia needs major support to fight Al Shabaab, and secondly, to help reach a lasting political settlement using a federal structure, followed by the injection of funding to create jobs and development projects for all regions. But the military-focused solution, such as the ongoing training mission in Uganda, seek to make short-term gains that financially profit outside countries (i.e. Uganda) while Somali civilians are left to apply for Al Shabaab jobs!The failed Somali State and terrorism (Part2)
Somalia at War – Between Radical Islam and Tribal Politics : Education Segment
The Somali Conflict Root causes , peace-building strategies
Renewing fight against al Qaeda in East Africa
Somalia Strikes Out
IGAD is misleading the world on Somalia
Terror Attacks Continue to Traumatize Somalis
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