Stewart Bell, National Post
Friday, July 02, 2010
Ranked the world's most failed state, Somalia is lawless and heavily armed.
Al-Shabab, which means The Youth, emerged from this bleak chaos in 2006. Its goal is to turn Somalia into a Taliban-like state. It controls most of southern Somalia.
Human Rights Watch says Somalis living under Al-Shabab control are subjected to grinding repression. Like the Taliban, Al-Shabab has marginalizedwomen, banned dancing, music and movies and stoned to death those deemed to have violated its militant version of Islamic law.
The impact of the conflict is felt in Canada, home to between 150,000 and 200,000 ethnic Somalis (Somalia was the fourth-largest source of refugee claims between 1989 and 2006). While extremist Islam has little appeal to most Somali-Canadians, some support Al-Shabab.
But Ahmed Hussen, president of the Canadian Somali Congress, said while there was once "quiet support" for Al-Shabab, that has evaporated due to the group's conduct in Somalia and the news reports, which first appeared last fall in the National Post, that young Canadians had been recruited.
"Canadian Somalis have now seen the true face of Al-Shabab on the ground and they are disgusted by it. I'm not speaking for everybody but there's a large majority that's upset."
The Canadian government placed Al-Shabab onto its list of outlawed terrorist organizations in March.
According to the listing, the group "has carried out suicide bombings and attacks using land mines and remote-controlled roadside bombs, as well as targeted assassinations against Ethiopian and Somali security forces, other government officials, journalists and civil society leaders. The group is believed to be closely linked with al-Qaeda and has recently formally pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network.
Source: National Post