by Yuusufbile Abdi
Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Some of the dictionary definitions of devil are: an evil spirit; a cruel and annoying person; a person of mischievous energy. By summing up these definitions, I can draw up a definition of diabolism by having a characteristic of wickedness, cruelty and evil spirit, which is, the mentality of the current ill-fated religion-lords in Somalia.

May be, some of us may have forgotten the warlords because we have religion-lords these days. But let me remind you that the warlords were the first notorious actors that threw an arrow of evil to Somalia through the civil wars. Of course, these days, we have forgotten them because we witness an absolute horror of the current devils. And no doubt, as we are oral community, most of us do not write and record events; therefore, we easily forgive and forget what had happened.

The main focus of  my article today remains on three issues: How the warlords are responsible for the current horror in Somalia; Why Somali Transitional Governments fail and the culture of Religion-MORIANIZATION fosters in Somalia; and last, how to defeat the devil.

Come and analyse with me scientifically in the following paragraph the cost of the civil war and then see how the perpetrators of the civil war i.e. the warlords gave chance to the current rising Islamic militancy from Somalia.

Many scholars, including the author of The Bottom Billion, Breaking the Conflict Trap, and other books, Paul Collier, believe that the civil war has horrible consequences. In short, the civil war collapses the central government and brings anarchy into play. It forces people to flee to an area where they have no immunity against some deceases, namely, malaria. It also spreads global diseases such as Drug Addiction and AIDS though exporting drugs and rape respectively. It makes the civil war country one of the poorest in the bottom billion on the earth because the capital flies then muscle-move and brain-drain flow. It introduces the culture of violence to the neighbouring law-abiding citizens; as a consequence, this destabilizes the national security of the neighbouring countries, and then changes the whole region into a conflict-prone zone. It provides save havens to every rogue element that is wanted to the international justice. These rogue elements can only operate in an area wherever there is a weak government or in failed states, just like Somalia. Therefore, these rogue elements establish camps to train and brainwash youngsters to make them intolerance to the culture of others. These brainwashed youngsters are today changing the airplanes into flying coffins; graduation ceremonies into grieving; and attacking people at their homes both in the Northern and Western Hemispheres. This is what the scholars call the cost of the civil war. Hence, let us not forget that the warlords are also accountable for the current havoc in Somalia.

I want use the latest two Somali Transitional Governments (the current and the former) as a very small sample to make a comparison between the governmental system and the devilry discipline, and then, draw a conclusion for my latest argument of today i.e. defeating the devil in the last part of this article. Of course, other things being equal, I only concentrate on the following factors that are crucial to win the stomachs, hearts, and minds of the Somalis:

First, The leadership of the governmental system is based on the biased clannish power-sharing scale of 4.5 while that of the opposition gunmen is based on selective faith and spirit. Second, System Loyalty exists in the government as an individual form and personal interest is the main motivation, but in the other side, they create it through brainwashing; therefore it exists, somehow, collectively. Third, Organizational Hierarchy is not clear to both leaders and the staff of the government; it is haphazardly decentralized, but the devils’ is strictly centralized in the form of Sheikhdoms or Amirs. Forth, The Public Trust, the government do not or can not pay their inadequately disciplined soldiers; therefore, the soldiers loot and rob the public in clear and widespread form, from the poor to the rich; therefore, they lost the stomach of the hungry, the heart of the rich, and the brain of the educated. But the militants extort money in systematic way from the rich and receive other funds in mysterious forms, then tell the public that they do not burgle and cheat. Therefore, a proud cell phone owner can use his phone every time without having fear of losing it as long as his mobile beep-beeps with the Anashiid tunes. Fifth, The Justice system in the government does not/cannot work since it has not an effective law enforcement organ but in the Islamic Militants, they chaotically flog, selectively amputate, and cruelly behead. Sixth, The Propaganda Machine is very weak in the government side but it is really high in the militants using internet, and the mass media at large displaying selective evens of miseries in Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq, etc. to show that they really have a true Islamic agenda and concern. This is how they won the hearts of the educated boys in the West, and even  the dropouts are also given a speed process to martyrdoms to reach Allah’s consent. The militants are actively trying to persuading people that they are new messengers of the 21^st century.

May be, these small comparisons can be diagnoses of what fails the transitional governments and nurtures the militants.

Dear reader, at last, I am at my last argument of defeating the devil. Long ago the international community adopted an attitude of “Let them fight among themselves”  towards the civil wars. They applied this approach on the Afghanistan and the Somalia civil wars and the consequences, -from terror in ground to the sharks in the sea i.e. pirates, are now unbearable. Hence, this outlook of turning a deaf ear to the civil wars  is now inapplicable in this globalization era.

What to do then? First, we, the Somali people should admit that we had enough and the risk is real and the control of our country is no more only in the hands of Somalis. We should lobby to turn the international eyes to Somalia. Second, parents should wake up and know what teachings their children receive otherwise they will cry over a TNT teenage. Third, the International community should take tougher actions against armed militancy in Somalia. Tougher action means NOT a military intervention or firing blind missiles that kill innocent civilians BUT they should systematically empower the governmental system. They should create transparency system based on merit with checks and balances.

They have tried several times to solve the prolonged Somali problems but failed because they rewarded the warlords by making them presidents, parliamentarians and ministries.

Indeed, the current governmental  is a decayed pie since its MPs are killed in Mogadishu, jailed and humiliated in neighbouring countries, but it is the only system we have today in the face of the rising terror, therefore, the international community should support the government with weaponry and financially to establish a strong disciplined military that do not loot the public and then the public trust will take care by itself. In addition to that, all other forces against the current devil, who display an outstanding resistance should be consulted and convinced to unite under the governmental leadership otherwise they can be another problem to solve in the next future. Please, make no mistake, there should be system change in the government and this can only happen when there is unbiased justice system, strong law enforcement organ plus powerful military.

Last but not least, there should be religious approach of de-radicalizing the radicalism. Religious scholars, especially those who live outside the country, should use a sophisticated Islamic method of debate to make clear to the public that what is happening in Somalia is not the right method of Islam. They can use channels based on abroad so as not to suppress, intimidate, and kill the producers or the crew in general. Remember, you can only defeat a devil when you have strong faith of believe that you are doing the right thing and your opponent is doing evil actions, and really, this is the strategy that can defeat the devil because the current devil use it!

Yuusufbile1@hotmail.com 

You can reach Yusufbile’s profile: http://www.trcb.com/author/yusufbile.htm

ahmedeer @ 1/27/2010 11:33 AM EST  Your description of Somali situation is out context. First, the so called Government lacks the drive, political idealogy or any agenda that unify its members except for want for some money. Secondly, the Islamic groups have goal, an idealogy and purpose which unite them rather than motivation for power and money. Who stands to unite the people out the current sitaution? anyone with with strong political agenda and can't be bought to forgo will create harmony in the end. Some of the Islamist group are just regrouping of warlords hiding under islamic banner but this will be clear with time. I don't see religous groups involvement in Somalia as negative devilish act but rather postive move. Anyway, we are all muslims and present our conflicts before an Imam all the times, why then can't we see religion as the way out of this civil strife? Maybe it is because of fear that other nations will attack us as it happens in the muslim world? or it means we don't believe in what we say. we know where solution to our problem lies and let's not sink our heads in the soil. it is madness when one seek something from elsewhere when that very object lie in our midst.

baadiyow @ 1/26/2010 7:01 AM EST   The late Edward Said said Alqaida is "a tiny band of crazed fanatics for criminal perposes" on his defence of "Islam" the hieght of Islam bashing 2001/2002.

mucaawiye @ 1/26/2010 5:57 AM EST  It's comforting to see that somalis in large, particularly, in diaspora are about to hitting the bottom of our endless conflict. As the writer reflects on this article, if we want to achieve peice in our homeland; there are number of critical steps that need to be taken, parents, teachers and community as large need to protect indoctronation of their youth by the ridicul groups; including but are not limited alshabaab, but to all muslim groups. as the writer mention, we should make clear to our people that we should stopped following wrong headed religious in somalia and around the world.

djibsomali @ 1/26/2010 12:30 AM EST  At first I thougth the usual Alshabab bashing from a sitting room somewhere in a 1st world country. But I got it wrong for once. This article is targeting rigthly the curse of somalia which is the current government based on an ilegitime platform. Even lately you could see that the so called presidential guards are none somalis from third world africa countries. You can't get any worse than the current situation in somalia and the current president.