 By Dr Afyare Abdi Elmi In the past, probably fearing a repeat of Black Hawk Down, the international community has given little attention to addressing the root of Somalia's problems - statelessness. It has ignored the necessity of rebuilding the Somali state, particularly its coercive capacity.
As Charles Snyder, the former US assistant secretary of state for Africa, openly said, US efforts in the country have largely focused on denying al-Qaeda the opportunity to establish military bases there and in containing Somalia's problems to Somalia's borders.
In retrospect, neither objective has been achieved.
The al-Shabab group has become a fully-fledged movement and is now not afraid to openly challenge both Somalis and the international community.
Moreover, long gone are the days when any given conflict affects only the people in that country. The refugee flow, free weapons and human suffering affect places that are far from Somalia.
However, attitudes are now changing. The profile of this issue has been raised and there is a sense of renewed urgency and international attention. According to the press, Somalia is activated and the UN Security Council may debate its options soon.
If the situation is to be reversed, Somalia's state has to be reconstructed.
The long term solution to the Somalia challenge is to rebuild a strong central state.
The international community must, therefore, come up with a comprehensive strategy - and one that has a security, political and economic plan.
Moreover, the international community must keep in mind that all of its efforts have to enhance the will and the capacity of Somalis - it should not replace them.
Regarding the security component, the international community's intervention has to focus on a suitable mandate for international peacekeeping forces that can assist the Somali government in the short term and in developing Somalia's security forces in the long term.
One of the most challenging tasks would be to convince troop contributing countries to participate in a Somalia mission.
The Black Hawk Down event haunts many countries when considering committing to such a mission. But, things have changed in a significant way.
Although there are political stakeholders that are competing for power and resources, most Somalis are tired of the ongoing war. Moreover, the stakes are high now - as extremism and piracy pose threats to world peace - and the Somali conflict has transformed to such a significant degree that it is now "ripe for resolution" to use William Zartman's vocabulary.
As such, events in the past should not keep the international community from doing the right thing.
Moreover, developed or semi-developed countries need to have self interest when sending their troops to Somalia.
Such leverages, while not present now, can be created.
Indonesia or Turkey might be interested in leading such a mission if Washington pressures them. As in the case of East Timor, if Somalia's resources are on the table, powerful and energy-hungry countries, such as China, might be tempted to invest in a peacebuilding project.
 Concerns are growing in the intelligence community that Somalia could be acting like Yemen in terms of its expanding ability to serve as a training ground for terrorists able to pick up and head out of country to attack other nations. Already one terror-related case involves a man from that troubled African country. The suspect, who was injured by police during his attack earlier this month, was carried into court where he faced attempted murder charges. The 28-year-old Somali man is accused of terrorism. Allegedly carrying a knife and an axe, he broke into the home of a Danish cartoonist whose controversial images of Mohammad led to threats on his life. The attack is believed to be the first documented case of an operative trained by the Al Qaeda-linked group Al Shabaab launching a mission outside of Somalia. Until now, Al Shabaab was seen as a regional player. "They are gaining global presence so to speak, at least getting a global reach, where Somalia can reach out, where Al Shabaab can reach out and conduct an attack. That's troubling," said Rick Nelson at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The Western face of Al Shabaab is an American, Omar Hammami, from Daphne, Ala. In propaganda videos, he goes by the name of Al-Amriki, which simply means "the American." The FBI is investigating the disappearance of two dozen Somali Americans into the Shabaab camps in Somalia. The camps are also drawing recruits form England, Canada and Western Europe. "Al Shabaab controls much of southern Somalia. It has, as I said. apparently set up camps from which they have run at least several hundred foreign fighters. They've introduced and uh, made use of suicide bombings which up until a few years ago were virtually unknown in Somalia," said Mark Bellamy, former U.S. ambassador to Kenya. Al Qaeda is established in the Far East, along the Afghan-Pakistan border, in Iraq, in Yemen, through Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, which claimed responsibility for Flight 253. Al Qaeda is also hooked up in Somalia through Al Shabaab. As for the connection to Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman Al-Zawahiri, some analysts say Al Qaeda in Yemen and Somalia are now taking their lead from the core players. "AQAP and Al Shabaab are ultimately receiving influence and guidance from that senior leadership, and they're going to seek ways to coordinate together," Nelson said. So is the group capable of launching its own attack like the flight on Christmas Day? It’s possible, said Bellamy. "I should add that Somalia is probably not the best location from which to try to stage international jihad, , it's not, it's not connected, it's hard to get to," Bellamy said. FoxNews 
 The Somali rebel militia and terrorist movement al-Shabaab also has sympathizers in Odense, where they have collected money for the organization, according to reports from the Somali community, confirmed by Poul Hansen of the Odense municipality.
Poul Hansens says there are a few older shadow-men among the Somalis, who are hard to get a hold of. They use the Koran and Islam to try and put others in place.
They sympathize with al-Shabaab, but operate in secret. They don't openly profess they support al-Shabaab and therefore it's not easy to spot them. Fortunately, he says, a large portion of the Somalis in the city keep their distance from them.
"These people try to score some easy points with some of the youth by telling them that they are unwanted in Denmark. 'therefore your only option is to do what we say - then you'll get to paradise'. I don't know who they are, but once in a while they try to missionize with their extremist views - often among the most vulnerable and week. And it's then a problem," says Abdirashid Abukar Abdi, integration employee at the Odense municipality and member of the Somali Network in Denmark.
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Danish authorities are certain that some of the many millions of Kroner which Somalis in Denmark send to Somalia every year goes to terrorism. But until now there hasn't been a single case of terrorism-financing against Somalis in Denmark, reports Danish newspaper Politiken.
Jakob Scharf, heads of the Police Intelligence Service (PET) said in a statement to Politiken about PET's investigations that people in Denmark of Somali background deal with economic (...) support for foreign terrorist organizations. PET did not want to elaborate on that statement.
Cases of terror financing should be prosecuted by the Public Prosecutor for Serious Economic Crime (SØK), populary called the finance police. Public Prosecutor Jens Madsen says that SØK hasn't prosecuted in cases of terror financing related to Somalia, or in which Somalis have been involved.
Fund-raising for Somalia is ongoing in many countries, but there is not much information about the extent of terror-financing. In Norway, a Somali was charged in the fall based on the terrorism law for transferring a large sum to his homeland.
Jens Madsen says that SØK has data from Danish banking institutions about the transfer of very large amounts where Somalis are involved, through so-called omnibus accounts, but that SØK don't have information about terrorist links to the transfers.
Sources: Kristeligt Dagblad, Fyens Stiftstidende (Danish) With thanks to Islam in Europe
 Hot on the heels of the axe attack on Motoonist Kurt Westergaard comes this. The Islamic supremacists are clearly feeling free to act as the wish to in Europe. "Somali threats against Swedish illustrator," from The Local, January 4 Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who sparked outrage with caricatures of the Muslim prophet Muhammad as a dog, has received threats via telephone from Somalia. Police in Helsingborg in southern Sweden are taking seriously the threats made against Vilks, which come just three days after Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard was subjected to an axe attack at his home in Denmark. The first of two phone calls to Vilks came on Monday morning. A subsequent check by the Swedish artist revealed that the call originated in Somalia, where the Islamic militant group al-Shabaab has gained increasing influence in the war torn country. Al-Shabaab is also believed to have ties to al-Qaeda. In the last month, al-Shabaab supporters who reportedly used to live in Denmark have killed at least 22 people, including three ministers, in a suicide bomb attack carried out in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. According to Vilks, the man who threatened him spoke Swedish. "The man, who spoke accented Swedish, asked me if I knew about what happened in Denmark and to the artist Kurt Westergaard. I said I certainly did," Vilks told the Helsingborgs Dagblad newspaper. "The man then explained that they were out after more and that they would soon come for me. I told them they were welcome," said Vilks.... Bravo. No one in the West should allow themselves to be intimidated. I have received so many death threats I have lost count of how many there have been. But I don't care. They can kill me, but I was going to die anyway. They can't make me bow. With thanks to JihadWatch
 One of the most visible leaders of an Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist militia in Somalia spent a year in Toronto ingratiating himself into the Somali immigrant community as a convert to Islam.
Omar Hammami – known to followers as Abu Mansour "Al-Amriki" (the American) – ate at Somali restaurants and prayed in Somali mosques.
He married a Toronto woman of Somali origin and had a daughter with her.
Then, after learning Somali ways, he left to join the Horn of Africa's top terror group, Al-Shabab, to wage Islamic jihad and recruit other foreign nationals to the cause, say former friends and relatives speaking publicly of the terrorist's Toronto connections for the first time.
"He betrayed us," says a former friend who worked with Hammami at a Weston Rd. pizzeria. "For a man to be saying that, Islamically, it is okay to be killing innocent people – and yesterday you fed him bread and welcomed him into your houses – it kind of shatters you."
Five ethnic Somali men disappeared from Scarborough this fall, all friends believed recruited into Al-Shabab. Three are said by family associates to have since phoned home from Somalia. No direct connection to Hammami is known but in the Somali community his Internet postings are notorious.
On a 2008 recruitment video, referring to one of his dead fighters, Hammami says, "We need more like him.
"So if you can encourage more of your children and more of your neighbours, anyone around, to send people like him to this jihad, it would be a great asset for us."
A least 20 young men have left Minneapolis, Minn., for Al-Shabab in the last 18 months. One of them is confirmed to have blown himself up with a car bomb in the Somali port town of Bosasso. Five others are said by relatives to be dead.
Other young men have left from Boston, Columbus, San Diego and Seattle. Others have joined from Australia and the United Kingdom.
The suicide bomber who killed three government ministers and at least 16 others at a graduating ceremony for doctors and engineers last month in Mogadishu was recruited from Denmark.
Hammami himself is said to have been wounded in fighting late last year.
Al-Shabab's stated goals are to take power from the fragile government backed by African Union troops and turn Somalia into an Islamic state friendly to Al Qaeda. Ultimately, its leaders say, the aim is to establish a global Islamic state.
"We are striving to establish the Islaamic Khilaafah from East to West," Hammami writes in an Internet posting of Jan. 8, 2008, "after removing the occupier and killing the apostates."
For Torontonians, al-Shabab recruitment presents another terrifying possibility: A fanatic returns to explode himself in a crowd.
Or as RCMP Commissioner William Elliott put it in October: "The potential follow-on threat is Somali-Canadians who travel to Somalia to fight and then return, imbued with both extremist ideology and the skills necessary to translate it into direct action."
Omar Hammami is 25 years old. He grew up in Daphne, Ala., just outside Mobile.
His mother is Baptist by religion. His father is Shafik Hammami, a Syrian-born engineer with the Alabama transportation department and president of the Islamic Society of Mobile. Reached by phone last week, he refused comment.
Although Hammami grew up Baptist, he converted to Islam in the late 1990s while attending Daphne High School.
"He had tons of friends," fellow student Shellie Brooks told Fox News four months ago, "and of course things changed a bit when he converted because his beliefs changed."
In September 2001, Hammami had just started computer science studies at the University of South Alabama – and been elected head of the Muslim Student Association – when Al Qaeda launched its suicide attacks on the United States....
Read it all here.
 THE leader of Somalia's al-Qa'ida-linked insurgency has declared he would send hundreds of fighters to join the Islamist campaign in Yemen, adding to fears that increased US involvement in anti-terrorism operations in the country could fuel even greater instability. Yemen said yesterday it would not allow foreign fighters to infiltrate the country as the international jihadi network was swinging into action to counter Western efforts to bolster the feeble government, which is struggling to confront the Islamist threat. "We tell our Muslim brothers in Yemen that we will cross the water between us and reach your place to assist you fight the enemy of Allah," declared Sheik Mukhtar Robow Abu Mansour, a senior official of the al-Shebab militia, as he addressed hundreds of newly trained recruits cheering "Allahu Akbar". "Today you see what is happening in Yemen; the enemy of Allah is destroying your Muslim brothers. I call upon the young men in Arab lands to join the fight there." On the one hand, it has to shore up a failing and often reluctant ally in the war against the Islamists, who launched the failed Christmas Day Detroit airliner attack from a base in Yemen.
On the other, it may energise hundreds of recruits among the fiercely anti-American tribes of Yemen, whose civilians have often been the casualties of airstrikes carried out by Yemeni warplanes acting on US intelligence. "The American entry into the war is very dangerous," said Abdulelah Haidar Shaea, a Yemeni expert on al-Qa'ida, who has met the Yemeni branch's leadership. "If most people hate the government, then all the people hate America for its alliance with Israel and its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan." He said witnesses to an attack before Christmas on an alleged al-Qa'ida base in the south had told him that US missiles had killed at least five civilians. The government claimed its warplanes had wiped out the al-Qa'ida leadership as well as Anwar al-Awlaki, a US-born Yemeni preacher who inspired both Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Detroit bomber, and Major Nidal Hassan Malik, who shot dead 13 fellow US soldiers at the Fort Hood army base in Texas. After the attack, Mr Shaea said that relatives of the victims took their bloodstained clothes to al-Qa'ida leaders and pledged allegiance. The government has been unable to confirm any of the deaths it claimed because its forces are unable to enter the area without being attacked by the well-armed tribes and al-Qa'ida. Gregory Johnsen, of Princeton University, an expert on Yemen, said there was evidence that while the US military was being forced to invest in a weak and unpopular government, al-Qa'ida was building a powerful support base among the tribes. Foreign al-Qa'ida members are even marrying into local tribes, while many of the fighters are native Yemenis who enjoyed the full protection of their clans. "This development is both new and worrying because it has the potential to turn any counter-terrorism operation into a much broader war involving Yemen's tribes," Mr Johnsen said in a recent article, noting Said Ali al-Shihri, the deputy commander of al-Qa'ida, had moved his family from their native Saudi Arabia to Yemen. "Yemen will not accept on its territory any presence by (foreign) terrorist elements and will be on guard against anyone who tries to act against its security and stability," Yemen's official Saba news agency quoted Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kurbi as saying. Saba said Mr Kurbi was "astounded" by the Shebab pledge to send militants to fight Yemeni government forces who have been battling al-Qa'ida. The Australian
 THE US and British embassies in Yemen closed last night in response to al-Qa'ida threats to attack Western interests. The move came after US President Barack Obama blamed a Yemen-based al-Qa'ida affiliate for the foiled Christmas Day attack on a US airliner, and a day after a visit by the American regional military commander, General David Petraeus. Al-Qa'ida's franchise in Yemen had called on Monday for embassies to be targeted as it claimed responsibility for the thwarted attack on the Detroit-bound Northwest airliner. “The US Embassy in Sanaa is closed today, January 3, 2010, in response to ongoing threats by Al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to attack American interests in Yemen,” said a statement posted on the embassy's website. On Thursday the US mission sent a warden message to American citizens in the country reminding them of the “continuing threat of terrorist actions and violence against American citizens and interests throughout the world”. AQAP on Monday urged further attacks on Westerners in the Arabian Peninsula. “We call upon every Muslim who cares about his religion and doctrine to assist in expelling the apostasies from the Arabian Peninsula, by killing every crusader who works at their embassies or other places, declare it an all-out war against every crusader on Mohammad's peninsula on land, air and sea,” an AQAP statement said. Both London and Washington have agreed to fund Yemen's special Counter-Terrorism Unit after Mr Obama on Saturday for the first time singled out the al-Qa'ida franchise in Yemen for the thwarted attack. The special force had in the past received US training and assistance. On September 17, 2008, the US embassy was the target of an attack claimed by al-Qa'ida in which 19 people were killed - seven attackers and 12 others, including Yemeni guards and civilians, one of them an American woman. Last month the defence ministry newspaper said that a raid north of the capital on December 17 killed four suspects and foiled a plot to bomb the British embassy in Sanaa. Yemen yesterday welcomed the British and US decision to fund the special force. “Any assistance provided to Yemen's counter-terrorism force will be most welcome,” a government official said. The official also said that Sanaa would need help to modernise its coastguard “in light of the danger coming from Somalia”. Somalia's Shebab insurgents pledged on Friday to send militants across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen to help the al-Qa'ida affiliate behind the failed US airliner bombing. Mr Obama on Saturday blamed Al-Qaeda's Yemen branch for the attack on the US jet by 23-year-old Nigerian suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. “We know that he travelled to Yemen, a country grappling with crushing poverty and deadly insurgencies,” Mr Obama said in an address posted on the White House website. “It appears that he joined an affiliate of al-Qa'ida, and that this group, al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula, trained him, equipped him with those explosives and directed him to attack that plane headed for America.” General Petraeus on Saturday personally delivered a message from Mr Obama to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on bilateral cooperation against terror groups. Britain, meanwhile, has called an international meeting on combating extremism in Yemen for London on January 28, in parallel with a conference on Afghanistan drawing senior ministers or leaders from more than 40 nations. Yemen is the ancestral homeland of al-Qa'ida chief Osama bin Laden. The Australian
 AN axe-wielding Somali terrorist is behind a foiled attempt to break into the home of a Danish cartoonist whose depictions of Islam's Prophet Mohammed infuriated Muslims. The 28-year-old Somali national armed with an axe and a knife had terrorist intent and was close to the Somali Shebab movement and al-Qaeda, which was responsible for the 9/11 attacks in the United States, the internal security service PET said in a statement. Danish police shot and wounded the man who tried to enter Westergarrd’s home. He was shot in a knee and a hand but his life was not in danger, according to reports. He was expected to be charged with attempted murder of Westergaard and a police officer. It is understood the Somali man had a legal permit to be in Denmark. Kurt Westergaard, who has received several death threats since a Danish newspaper four years ago published his drawing featuring Prophet Mohammed wearing a turban in the shape of a bomb, was at home in Viby near the western city of Aarhus guarded by police when the intruder tried to get in. Prosecutors said a Chicago-based men spent at least a year working with a Pakistan-based terrorist group to plan an attack. The security alarm was set off when the man tried to enter the house before being shot by the guards, the daily Politiken reported online. The intruder, wounded in the arm and leg, was hospitalised. It is unclear whether the Somali man managed to enter the home. “I locked myself in our safe room. He tried to smash the entrance door with an axe,'' Westergaard, 74, who was in the house with a five-year-old grandson, told Danish news agency Ritzau. PET said in a statement: “The attempted murder of cartoonist Kurt Westergaard is linked to terrorism. The person arrested ... has close links with the Somali terrorist organisation al-Shebab as well as with the heads of al-Qaeda in east Africa. “He is also suspected of being implicated in terrorist activities when he was in east Africa. The individual arrested has also been a member of a terrorist network implanted in Denmark that has been under surveillance by PET for a long time.'' Police had earlier reported there were three intruders before saying there was just one. Ritzau said a dozen police vehicles were at the scene while sappers were sent in to look for a bomb that might have been laid. Westergaard is one of 12 cartoonists whose drawings of the Muslim prophet were first published in Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September 2005, sparking controversy among Muslims worldwide. The 12 cartoons were considered offensive by many Muslims and their publication sparked violent protests worldwide in January and February 2006. Two men had already been arrested in 2006 for plotting Westergaard's murder. Demonstrators burned Danish flags in protests that culminated in February 2006 with the torching of Danish diplomatic offices in Damascus and Beirut and dozens of deaths in Nigeria, Libya and Pakistan. The Australian
 A man tried to board a commercial airliner in Mogadishu last month carrying powdered chemicals, liquid and a syringe that could have caused an explosion in a case bearing chilling similarities to the terrorist plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The Somali man — whose name has not yet been released — was arrested by African Union peacekeeping troops before the Nov. 13 Daallo Airlines flight took off. It had been scheduled to travel from Mogadishu to the northern Somali city of Hargeisa, then to Djibouti and Dubai. A Somali police spokesman, Abdulahi Hassan Barise, said the suspect is in Somali custody. "We don't know whether he's linked with al-Qaida or other foreign organizations, but his actions were the acts of a terrorist. We caught him red-handed," said Barise. A Nairobi-based diplomat said the incident in Somalia is similar to the attempted attack on the Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day in that the Somali man had a syringe, a bag of powdered chemicals and liquid — tools similar to those used in the Detroit attack. The diplomat spoke on condition he not be identified because he isn't authorized to release the information. Barigye Bahoku, the spokesman for the African Union military force in Mogadishu, said the chemicals from the Somali suspect could have caused an explosion that would have caused air decompression inside the plane.
However, Bahoku said he doesn't believe an explosion would have brought the plane down. A second international official familiar with the incident, also speaking on condition of anonymity because he isn't authorized to discuss the case, confirmed that the substances carried by the Somali passenger could have been used as an explosive device. In the Detroit case, alleged attacker Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab hid explosive PETN in a condom or condom-like bag just below his torso when he traveled from Amsterdam to Detroit.
Like the captured Somali, Abdulmutallab also had a syringe filled with liquid. The substances seized from the Somali passenger are being tested. The November incident garnered little attention before the Dec. 25 attack aboard a flight on final approach to Detroit. U.S. officials have now learned of the Somali case and are hastening to investigate any possible links between it and the Detroit attack, though no officials would speak on the record about the probe. U.S. investigators said Abdulmutallab told them he received training and instructions from al-Qaida operatives in Yemen — which lies across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia. Similarly, large swaths of Somalia are controlled by an insurgent group, al-Shabab, which has ties to al-Qaida. Western officials say many of the hundreds of foreign jihadi fighters in Somalia come in small boats across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen. The officials also say that examination of equipment used in some Somali suicide attacks leads them to believe it was originally assembled in Yemen. Law enforcement officials believe the suspect in the Detroit incident tried to ignite a two-part concoction of the high explosive PETN and possibly a glycol-based liquid explosive, setting off popping, smoke and some fire but no deadly detonation.
Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian national, is charged with trying to destroy an aircraft. A Somali security official involved in the capture of the suspect in Mogadishu said he had a 1-kilogram (2.2-pound) package of chemical powder and a container of liquid chemicals. The security official said the suspect was the last passenger to try to board. Once security officials detected the powder chemicals and syringe, the suspect tried to bribe the security team that detained him, the Somali security official said. The security official said the suspect had a white shampoo bottle with a black acid-like substance in it. He also had a clear plastic bag with a light green chalky substance and a syringe containing a green liquid. The security official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information. The powdered material had the strong scent of ammonia, Bahoku said, and samples have been sent to London for testing. The Somali security officials said the Daallo Airlines flight was scheduled to go from Mogadishu to Hargeisa, to Djibouti and then to Dubai. A spokeswoman for Daallo Airlines said that company officials weren't aware of the incident and would have to seek more information before commenting. Daallo Airlines is based in Dubai and has offices in Djibouti and France. YahooNews
 Said the al-Shabaab spokesman: "The Mujahideens have realized their grip on all southern regions in Somalia and in the near future we hope to govern all Somalia under the holy Quran rule." Indeed, that is the aim of all jihad: the imposition of Islamic law. And should al-Shabaab prevail in the remainder of the country (even excluding Somaliland and Puntland) they will certainly aim to "defend" their regime by posing an increasing threat to the security and territorial integrity of Somalia's neighbors.
After all, as the apologists have noted, "defensive" jihad can be waged even without a caliph; indeed, that's not much of a deterrent to jihad. All that's needed is an excuse. "Al-Shabaab Seize Islands Near Kenya," by Shafii Mohyaddin Abokar for Newstime Africa, December 26: The Al-qaeda inspired Al-shabasb militants in Somalia have on seized five islands near the Kenyan coast, the group's spokesman in the southern Jubba regions told reporters on Wednesday.
Spokesman Sheik Hassan Yaqub Ali said that the Mujahideens have peacefully taken the five islands including Raskamboni and Kudha both two important hideouts early on Wednesday morning. "We arrived here to implement the Islamic law, and this is kind of extending our rule into more lands in Somalia" the militant spokesman added during a press conference in the Raskamboni Island on Wednesday. "The Mujahideens have realized their grip on all southern regions in Somalia and in the near future we hope to govern all Somalia under the holy Quran rule" he stated. Some interesting journalistic license: This foolish doctrine based on Islamic Sharia law has not been embraced by Muslims in the wider Islamic world as most of them see this fundamentalist Islamic translation of Sharia law as the Muslim extremists' way of strangling the peaceful teachings of the Quran.
Sharia law does not seem to have any place in contemporary Islamic lifestyle because of the terror, brutality and consistent human rights abuses associated with it. The Islands were formerly controlled by another Islamist rebel group Hezbal Islam which was driven out of the southern Jubba regions after clashes with Al-shabab which the United States accuses of being Alqaed's proxy in the horn of Africa. Last week the Kenyan government closed its border with Somalia after it deployed hundreds of its military troops along the 600KM border-line as militants were advancing to the Kenyan side of the border.
 This went much smoother than I expected. The United Nations has voted in favor of placing sanctions on Eritrea as requested by Uganda. The assets of government officials involving in supporting al-Shabaab will be frozen and their travel outside the country is now banned. An arms embargo has been approved, and cargo traveling to and from Eritrea via the Red Sea can be inspected. The Chinese abstained from the vote and Libya voted against it. Hopefully, this lands Eritrea a place on the State Department’s list of State Sponsors of Terrorism.
If it doesn’t, then what standard does a country need to reach to get on the list? Directly supporting an Al-Qaeda affiliate cannot be tolerated under any circumstances, and if that isn’t viewed as deserving of harsh retaliation, then we aren’t taking this conflict seriously. World Threats
 However, the Taliban didn't invent it. Prominent elements of this "dress code" far predate their movement. "Somali militants enforce Taliban-style dress code," from the Associated Press, December 23: MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Residents of a southern Somali town say Islamists are enforcing a Taliban-style dress code. And the sign says, long-haired freaky people need not apply: Kismayo resident Abdulahi Omar Dhere says members of the al-Shabab insurgent group are targeting young men who have long hair, no beards and wear Western-style trousers below the ankle. The demands regarding pants are from Muhammad's own instructions and example -- the example in all things for all time per Qur'an 33:21. Muhammad did not care for trailing lower garments, saying "The part of an Izar which hangs below the ankles is in the Fire" (Sahih Bukhari 7.72.678). As for beards, among other things, Muhammad said "Act against the polytheists, trim closely the moustache and grow [the] beard" (Sahih Muslim 2.500). Dhere said Wednesday that Islamists are publicly cutting off parts of trousers that violate the order and giving haircuts to anyone with long hair. The group has ordered men to grow beards and shave mustaches. Al-Shabab has already banned movie theaters, musical ringtones and dancing at weddings -- echoing rules ones imposed by the Taliban when they ruled most of Afghanistan in the late 1990s, though the group didn't oppose long hair.
 Yassin Mahi Mallin (40) is an information officer and lives in Katrineholm. He has written seven books, including translating Pippi Longstocking into Somali. He wrote the following opinion piece.
We Somalis must fight terrorism.
On Dec. 3rd of this a Danish citizen came into a ceremony for newly graduated doctors in Mogadishu in Somalia. He was disguised as a woman and had his face hidden by a burka. The man was a father to children and established in Danish society, but had radicalized in Copenhagen's suburbs where he lived and took his family to Mogadishu to carry out a feat of hell when he blew himself up he also killed three ministers and young Somalis who fought to become doctors and save lives in their homeland.
I wish I could say that he was an exception. I can't. Somalis in Denmark and Sweden as well as other countries are recruited to fight in Somalia for the Al-Shabaab terrorist group.
In Sweden there lived in the past an imam I knew. He lived many years in a Stockholm suburb and had Swedish citizenship. I knew him as a friendly, football loving man, wise and sensible. He doesn't live in Sweden any more. He's in Somalia and is now one of the top leaders of Al-Shabaab, the Islamist terrorist organization.
On the net there are pictures in which he condemns four alleged thieves to have their hands and feet amputated. He doesn't only advocate Sharia, he and his peers also practice it.
I am a Somali and I live in Sweden, a land to which I am deeply grateful. Here I got a safe haven, protection and security after having to flee the chaos that broke out in Somalia almost 20 years ago.
When I look at my homeland and at my compatriots in Sweden and in other parts of the Western world, I mourn. I mourn my people, a peaceful people, a proud and hardworking people. I mourn when I see how extremism is growing among some compatriots.
We were always Muslims, but not extremists, I can't understand how it took hold among my people. My mother never wore a burka, our women were never draped in Arabic fabrics. We were and should be Muslims in our own way, not like in Afghanistan.
We Somalis, as a group, have had trouble settling here in Sweden. You have to admit that. Unemployment is high and therefore exclusion. Despair over the collapse of our country, cultural difference and the inability of the Swedish state to deal with us Somalis are some explanations.
It's as if we shut ourselves within ourselves and seek solace in a type of Islam that is really foreign to us. We have become passive, we have given up. Though the great struggles for both integration in Sweden and peace in Somalia are before us.
It's unbearable to see how my people, far too many, import the clan-thinking to Sweden and other Western countries. It's unbearable to see how Islamist extremist groups can do their work undisturbed in democratic countries such as Sweden and Denmark.
We in the moderate group of exiled Somalis, who want to create a western democracy of our homeland, are certainly many. But if I'll be self-critical, maybe we haven't organized ourselves as well as the extremists. Neither do we get the support of the Swedish state as we could have expected. Why does the Swedish government adapt, for example, to clan thinking? When they call in people for discussions, you get representative Somalis from each clan. But it's the clan thinking that has caused all the conflicts to begin with and which forced us into exile.
Somalis act by peer pressures. Often based on fear. But when that terrible Dec. 3rd happened it was as if the people in Somalia had enough. People went out on to streets and protested against the act. People didn't dare do this in the past. But now people knew that it was enough. I hope and believe that the Somalis in Sweden realize the same thing - that it's now enough.
What we Somalis need is education; education in democracy and human rights, education on how people rebuild a country that now lacks all forms of government. We've had enough of terrorism and isolation.
We can no longer sit in our clan-based Somali organizations with activities such as .. you know? .. in any case they don't aim to open up for integration or to create democratically trained members.
At the same time we also need the help of Sweden. Without supports our people will go under.
Source: Expressen (Swedish)
See also:
* Denmark: Somali suicide bomber came from Denmark
* Denmark: Somali community shocked
* Stockholm: Al-Shabab recruited at youth center (UPDATE: Hate preacher too)
* Sweden: Increased interest in fighting in conflict areas With thanks to Islam in Europe
 MOGADISHU, Somalia — Islamic militants fired mortars into Mogadishu's police compound as the force was celebrating its 66th anniversary Sunday, sparking a battle that killed at least 12 civilians and a police officer, officials said. One police officer was killed and three others were wounded in the fighting, which began after the mortar landed near the compound during the ceremony, police official Aden Ahmed said. He said that government soldiers and the African Union forces returned fire, shelling Mogadishu's rebel-controlled district. Most of the shelling hit near the Bakara market, a busy shopping area, Ahmed said. Ali Musa, the head of the Mogadishu ambulance service, said at least 12 civilians were killed and 15 others were wounded in the retaliation. Somalia's capital sees near-daily bloodshed as a powerful insurgent group with links to al-Qaida tries to overthrow the fragile government and push out 5,000 African Union peacekeepers. Somalia has been ravaged by violence since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, then turned on each other. A moderate Islamist was elected president in January amid hopes he could unite the country's feuding factions, but the violence has continued. Suicide bombings, unheard of in Somalia before 2007, have also become increasingly frequent and the lawlessness has raised concerns that al-Qaida is trying to gain a foothold in the Horn of Africa. Earlier this month a suicide bomber attacked a university graduation ceremony in Mogadishu, killing 24 people, including three government ministers, medical students and doctors. The government blamed al-Shabab, which has denied responsibility. The group is part of an Islamic insurgency trying to topple the government. FoxNews
 MOGADISHU, Somalia — Witnesses say Islamist militants have executed two men accused by the fighters of murder and adultery.Witnesses in the town of Afgoye southwest of the capital say the Hizbul Islam militants on Sunday stoned to death the man accused of adultery and shot the man accused of murder. They say the militants summoned the town's residents to watch the executions. Islamic courts run by radical clerics have ordered executions, floggings and amputations in recent months. In some areas militants have also banned movies, musical telephone ringtones, dancing at weddings and playing or watching soccer. Somalia has been ravaged by violence since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, then turned on each other. Report on Arrakis
 Mogadishu, Somalia 10th Dec, 2009 – The Al-qaeda linked Islamist rebels Al-shabaab have ordered Somali women in the border town of Dhobley close to Kenya to wear veils or face punishment, the top rebel commander in the town declared late on Wednesday.
During a press conference yesterday afternoon, Al shabab’s security chief in the town Sheik Da’ud Hassan Ali said that all women in Dhobley and surrounding villages are told to wear veils and cover all their bodies otherwise they will be punished for neglecting the Islamic orders.
“According to the holly Quran Allah had obligated Muslim women in all over the world to have veils, that is a religious article and any woman who doesn’t obey will be dealt with in accordance with Islamic sharia law” the Islamist official told reporters.
Al-shabaab also banned cigarettes and Kat {the green narcotic leafs grown in the neighbouring Kenya} to be used in the city.
Dhoble, a key border town close to Kenya is about 695 kilometres south of the capital Mogadishu and it fell into the hands of Al-shabaab late last month when militias belonging to their former ally Hezbal Islam fled from the city toward Kenyan border.
This week, Kenya said that its security forces have been put on a high alert to intercept Islamists from entering in its territories as they are getting very closer to Kenyan side of the border.
On may 7 this year, both groups united in combating against Somalia’s world-backed transitional government and launched a big offensive to topple it, but later they disagreed over the administrative power of the key port town of Kismayo, about 500 kilometres south of Mogadishu.
Al-shabaab Islamists, Al-qaeda’s proxy in the horn of Africa say they are fighting to establish Islamic state in Somalia, while the Somali government accuses them of wanting to make Somalia a safe haven for international terrorists running from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere in the world.
 ACCORDING to Karl von Clausewitz's dictum, "the aim of any war has to be a situation better than when hostilities began". After nearly a decade of the global war on terror, how do we know if the situation has improved? One measure may be the cadence of terrorist attacks.
So far this year, more than 7500 people have been killed in more than 5000 incidents across four continents.
That is a significant improvement on last year, when more than 15,000 people were killed in more than 11,000 terrorist attacks.
Despite a clear desire to do so, Osama bin Laden and his central al-Qa'ida leadership have been unable to replicate the mass-casualty atrocities of the 2001 airlines plot against the US, nor can they get their hands on a nuclear weapon. Can we therefore say that terrorism is a declining security threat and the situation is better than when hostilities began? Public opinion in Australia supports this view. An Australian Strategic Policy Institute survey on national security and defence last year found terrorism had dropped to 13th out of 14 touchstone issues at the 2007 election.
Two-thirds of Australians think terrorism is now a part of everyday life. Climate change is the new terrorism.
But when we asked if the government was doing all it could to prevent a terrorist attack, the public's response was more equivocal. Only half thought the government was on the ball. Despite the investment of nearly $10 billion since 2001 in national security measures, 41 per cent of respondents said governments should be doing more.
That there has not been a serious terrorist attack on Australian soil since the Sydney Hilton bombing in 1978 leads some to argue that the threat is so low, national security funding should be channelled elsewhere. As Peter Clark of the British police said recently, "The current terrorist threat is of such a scale and intractability that we must not only defeat the men who plot and carry out appalling acts of violence. We must find a way of defeating the ideas that drive them." The number of terrorist attacks across the world may have decreased, but the corrosive ideologies that drive international terrorism continue to gain traction from Somalia to the southern Philippines. And the focus of this ideological brainwashing is increasingly directed towards children. In Indonesia, the radical Islamist Hizb ut-Tahrir is focusing its attention on schools, providing reading materials and instruction to teenagers advocating the overthrow of secular democracy and the introduction of Islamic law and a caliphate. Although such organisations stop short of promoting violence, the radicalising link between propaganda and terrorism has been well-established. As internet coverage expands, so too does the extremist message. Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia runs a sophisticated website that rivals global news organisations. Teenagers are the greatest users of the internet, and interactive social networking websites provide terrorist groups with new opportunities to recruit and radicalise. It is no surprise the terrorist organisation in Somalia is called al-Shabaab (the youth). For the ideology to succeed it must constantly seek new recruits. As a new generation of terrorists is formed, the international community appears incapable of responding in a comprehensive, strategic way. To date, the global war on terror has been split between 95 per cent military operations and 5 per cent ideological operations. That must be reversed, because it is winning the ideological war that will ultimately determine whether we succeed or fail against the present wave of religious terrorism. Carl Ungerer is director of national security at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. The Australian
 MOGADISHU, Somalia — Hundreds of students marched in Mogadishu's streets Monday in the first known protest against Islamic militants, as Somalia's government warned that militants are planning suicide attacks against key installations in Mogadishu. Intelligence information gathered by Somali authorities showed that homicide bombers plan to target Mogadishu's airport, seaport and the presidential palace, said police spokesman Abdullahi Hassan Barise. Members of al-Shabab — a militant group with ties to Al Qaeda — plan to disguise themselves as army generals and carry out the attacks, he said. Barise said officials don't know of a timeframe for the planned attacks. The warning comes four days after a homicide bomber attacked a university graduation ceremony in Mogadishu, killing 24 people, including three government ministers, medical students and doctors. The government blamed al-Shabab, which has denied responsibility. The group of protesters — mainly students — took to the streets in the small area of Mogadishu that the transitional government controls, where some shouted slogans against al-Shabab. It was the first such demonstration against al-Shabab, and students taking part could have put themselves at risk of reprisal attacks from the militants. The protest march — which lasted about 20 minutes — began at the Shamo Hotel, the sight of last Thursday's bombing, and ended a half mile later at Benadir University, the school whose graduation ceremony was attacked. Somalia has been ravaged by violence since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, then turned on each other. A moderate Islamist was elected president in January amid hopes he could unite the country's feuding factions, but the violence has continued. Homicide bombings, unheard of in Somalia before 2007, have become increasingly frequent and the lawlessness has raised concerns that Al Qaeda is trying to gain a foothold in the Horn of Africa. The anarchy has also allowed piracy to flourish off the country's coast. FoxNews
 As the United States turns its attention to security threats abroad, the disturbing trend of extremism in America’s Somali communities is a reminder that there are also real and present dangers at home. A growing body of evidence suggests that Somali communities in the Unites States have become fertile ground for terrorist groups to recruit and implant operatives. On November 23, the federal government announced eight more indictments of Somali-Americans in Minnesota on charges of recruiting members of their community to join the al-Shabaab terrorist organization in Somalia. This brings to 14 the number of Somalis from Minnesota who have been indicted for helping the Al-Qaeda-linked group. Of the eight indicted, only one has been arrested; the rest are currently outside of the United States.
Four of those previously arrested have pled guilty and two have been released while they wait to be tried. The government believes that about 20 Somali-Americans have left the state to join al-Shabaab’s jihad in Somalia, at least three of whom have died since departing. One, Shirwa Ahmed, died when he became the first American suicide bomber. Several of those indicted attended the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in St. Paul, as did many of those who were recruited.
The mosque released a statement in March saying that “Abubakar Center didn’t recruit, finance, or otherwise facilitate in any way, shape, or form the travel of those youth.” Somali gangs are also becoming an issue in Minnesota. Shukri Adan, a former Somali community organizer, said in 2007 that there 400-500 members of his community were involved in gangs. More at FPM
 From CAN: Up to five Somalis living in Canada disappeared earlier this month and the authorities are investigating whether they have joined the ranks of the Al-Shabaab terrorist group in Somalia, The National Post reports.
The individuals are believed to have flown together to Kenya, which borders the East African country currently suffering from a civil war.
“As you know, we have one of the largest Somali diaspora communities in the Western world,” the newspaper report quoted William Elliott, the Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mountain Police, as saying during an October 30 presentation. “The potential follow-on threat, from a Canadian and RCMP [Royal Canadian Mountain Police] perspective, is Somali-Canadians who travel to Somalia to fight and then return, imbued with both extremist ideology and the skills necessary to translate it into direct action.” The National Post reports that if the group has indeed joined the terrorist forces in Somalia, they wouldn’t be the first Canadians to do so.
A businessman in Toronto was killed in 2008 fighting Ethiopian troops that had intervened in the conflict, and a “handful” of others had also joined the fight. Somali-Americans have also gone to Somalia to join al-Shabaab, at least two of which have since died in the conflict, including one who became the first American suicide bomber.
Press reports indicate that as many as 20 Somali-Americans have disappeared in the Minneapolis area and are believed to have gone to Somalia. World Threats
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By Dr Afyare Abdi Elmi 
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