Hiiraan Online

The Prospect for State Reconstruction and the Role of Islamic Scholars

by Daud Ed Osman
Thursday, May 28, 2009

It’s not a coincident to witness the forces of extremism, literalists, and rejectionists emerge as robust political and military force and threaten to defeat the new Transitional Federal Government (TFG) that has broader coalition and under the control of former insurgents and the Islamists.

However, the emergence of these forces were a local response to extreme neoconservative policies that contracted-out American Counter Terrorism Policies in the Horn of Africa to autocratic Ethiopian Prime Minister Mele Zenawi, which included invasion, humiliation, displacement, war crimes, and annihilation of Somalia’s political, economic and social infrastructure.

Furthermore, given the context in which the Ethiopian invasion took place, including 911, and the Islamic courts they intended topple, gave the invasion a religious dimension, it also showed international community’s lock of understanding of Muslim public opinion and its insensitivity to local grievance given the level of support they provide with this policy blunder. As a result the Islamic scholars gave coherent response to legitimize the resistance as religious cause or “Jihad” which is equivalent to what in the west we call “just war.” However, Al Shabab which has been the most extremist of all the insurgency groups exploited this legitimization and adopted extreme tactics that went beyond the Scholars intension and labeled the members of the Transition Federal Government (TFG) and every one who supports the government as religious apostate, and used this legitimization as carte blanche for suicide bombing, provocation of unnecessary confrontation, shelling of mortars and other heavy weaponry in a civilian populated areas, and assassination, and intimidation which is direct contradiction of the Sharia.

Ironically, Al Shabab attracted many followers from the youth because of its self-discipline, commitment to their ideology, the care they provide the people who commit their ideology, consistency as well as its rigid view that have no relation to time, context, or the Islamic concept of “masalih al mursalah” (public interest), which is based on literal, and shallow interpretation of main sources of Islamic jurisprudence and ethics, such as the Quran, and the Hadith.

Al Shabab which has been the biggest asset for the insurgency group turned a major liability after the end of Ethiopian invasion, and became impediment to stabilization, civil discussion, or order based on the implementation of the sharia as interpreted by four school of Islamic jurisprudence and the use of shura (democracy) process to achieve the Maqasid Al-Shariah (the intension of the shariah), which is similar to the ideals of every civilized society, such as prevention of Hobbesian State of Nature.

Islamic scholars such as Dr Yusuf Al Qardawi (who wrote a book in the early 1980s entitled: Islamic Awakening Between Rejection and Extremism) had warned this calamity, and described them as by product of Islamic awakening as some groups within the Islamic movements, when confronted  the problems of their societies, such as corruption, injustices, political repression, lack of freedom of speech, and moral degeneration, and instead of showing patience, and steadfastness when dealing with these problems as long term, gradual process through education, dialog, and finding long term political solution, they opted for quick fixes, and expedience, and retorted to violence, and in order to find justification for their actions they engaged simplistic, literal interpretation, and out of context Quran verses or Hadith texts as though the end justify their violent means, and label with those with different opinion as weak, caqlani (rationalist), or un-Islamic.

My prediction is that Al Shabab’s popularity will grow overtime unless two things happen. First, the Islamic scholars who unleashed this group during the Ethiopian invasion must create united front which includes members of various Islamic movements and with the help of well know Islamic scholars from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other Islamic Countries, who have influence to drift comprehensive document that explains the meaning, conditions for declaration and conduct of Jihad, whether it is legal to wage war under the African Union forces in Mogadishu who are there to protect key installations, and whether the members of TFG are religious apostate.

In this document it is important to underline the importance of dialog, reconciliation, civil discussion, constructive criticism (nasiha), and bringing this group to the new context of “post invasion” and returning to the ‘bigger Jihad” which means: contributing towards stability and order, taking their family responsibility, serving the public by providing schools, hospitals, and feeding the poor, and caring for the weak as a perquisite for Sharia implementation.

They must be reminded that Islam doesn’t call to bringing social change and reform through violence and assassination, but through education, dissemination of Islamic information (da’wa), individual self reform, tolerance, and changing people around you through the content of your character. Moreover, this is how the Salaf al Saleh (those who lived the first three centuries of Islam) understood Islam. The Salef Al Saleh such as Hassan Al Busri, Ibrahim Al Nakhai, Sufyan Al Thauri, Awza’i, and other scholar who founded the four schools of Islamic jurisprudence did not wage lesser Jihad on their people in order to implement Sharia and as a result to disrupt the stability and social order, because implementation of sharia is to build on the existing social harmony. In contrast some of these scholars such as Imam Ahmed Ibn Hanbal was forced to change his opinion on Quran as a word of God and as a result faced beating and imprisonment, and had never declared Jihad on the Abbasid Caliphate.  

This document must reference the early commentators of the Quran such as Al Tabari’s “Jami al Bayan” and Tafsir Ibn Kathir to enlighten, and rehabilitate these youth by redirect their energy towards state building projects and the implementation of comprehensive sharia – as apposed to selective Sharia which is the implementation of corporal banishment without perquisite political, economic, and psychological stability and social safety net  – which involve building the country’s social, political, economic infrastructure, and putting in place a transparent government institutions and at the end create Islamic society that is able to live and sustain sharia and its ideals.

The second thing that must happen in order to halt the Al Shabab’s popularity or to soften its extremist tendency is to improve the TFG’s image which has been undermined by the existence of former warlords or individuals that are implicated to have commit war crimes that still hold key government positions and in the parliament, as well as the lock of progress towards jump-starting key government institutions and appointing commissions such as:

§  The creation of the judiciary branch including the supreme court, regional, and local courts, because the justice system, and local Islamic courts in particular is the most visible and trusted institution in Somalia. The reason for their popularity has to do with its amazing track record, since the collapse of the Somali state where ever these courts are established all of a certain life becomes normal again.

§  Unifying various armed groups with the government forces and providing them inexpensive and intensive physical and moral training intended for rehabilitation which includes introduction of standard guidelines and paying them a decent salary

§  The creation of independent advisory commissions composed of highly respected individuals including Islamic scholars, civil society groups, traditional clan leaders, women’s groups, the Diaspora, academics, intellectuals, and the Islamists

The leaders of TFG must understand that it cannot succeed without grass root support and the key to gaining local support is to implement comprehensive reforms to improve its internal legitimacy. Thus, the TFG leaders must implement core policies intended to win the hearts and minds, and to discredit extremism. However, this reform starts with sacking the controversial individuals in the executive, and legislative branch, and building disciplined, and accountable force led by a leaders who are competent, and credible enough to confront Al Shabab’s propaganda and its claim to have a monopoly on Sharia.

In conclusions, it is important to view the behaviors of Al Shabab, Hisbul Islam, and their supporters as a failure of current education system, which but more emphases on the necessity of Sharia implementation to cure everything that is wrong with our society, but lack the Fiqh and social sciences education that are necessary to expose these people the complexity and the need of intellectual capability to achieve this task, through gradual process, cost-benefit analysis, conflict resolution and peace building, patience, Masalih al Mursalah   and over all understanding of Maqasid al Sharia and Usul Al Fiqh (Fiqh methodology). It is not too late for these groups to change the disastrous course they sit, because Somalia can not afford to emulate Afghanistan model, we need other models that involve reconstruction, dialog and development not more destruction, killing, and displacement.