July 31, 2006 issue - Finally the warlords of Mogadishu and southern Somalia have been subdued, bringing peace to the ravaged area for the first time in 15 years. The Islamic Courts Union, a popular uprising built around traditional Islamic Sharia courts and financed by fed-up businessmen, collected the warlords' guns and rounded up their battlewagons. "In 15 years, no one was able to do what they did in 15 days," says U.N. official Saverio Bertolino.

But Somalia's troubles are far from over. Instead of warlords now, Somalis have what many are calling an African version of the Taliban, bent not only on imposing a harsh, Wahhabi-style Islam on the country but allegedly also providing a safe haven, Afghan style, for international terrorists. Movies and music have been banned; open-air video parlors showing World Cup matches were shut down. Recently the group appointed a Majlis al-Shura (consultative council) as its supreme spiritual and policy-setting body, appointing as its leader Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, who is on the U.S. terrorist watch list for his connection to a Somali militant group, Al Itihad al-Islamiya. In an exclusive interview with NEWSWEEK last week in Mogadishu, Aweys didn't deny his connection to the militant group but said, "I don't know anything that Al Itihad al-Islamiya did to America. The Americans are targeting us, and there is no power that can protect us from them except Allah." Aweys insisted the group was interested only in opposing Ethiopia, which late last week moved its troops across the border, warning the Islamists against taking complete control of Somalia.

Explaining the Islamists' crackdown on non-Islamic culture, Aweys said that Somalis, as Muslims, "have to choose the way our people want to go or learn ... Television, for instance, misleads the people and teaches them bad character and a culture from some other countries that we don't share. And we know what leads our people astray." He added, "I want to tell you that America has a phobia of Islam."

—Rod Nordland