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History repeats itself. Sharia Alert from AP:
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- The Islamic militiamen controlling the Somali capital broke up a wedding celebration because a band was playing and women and men were socializing together, witnesses said Saturday, describing the latest crackdown by a group feared to be installing Taliban-style rule in this African nation.
The Islamic fighters beat band members with electric cables and confiscated their equipment, said Asha Ilmi Hashi, a singer with the group Mogadishu Stars.
"We had warned the family not to include in their ceremony what is not allowed by the sharia law. This includes the mixing of men and women and playing music," Sheik Iise Salad, who heads an Islamic court in the northeastern Huriwaa District, told The Associated Press. "That is why we raided and took their equipment."
"What was going there was un-Islamic," Salad said.
The late Friday attack came three days after militiamen in central Somalia shot and killed two people at the screening of a World Cup soccer broadcast banned because it violated the fighters' strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Washington has said some leaders and members of the militia that seized control of the capital and much of the south last month have links to al Qaeda and are sheltering terror network members responsible for the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Osama bin Laden said in a recorded message last month that Somalia was a battleground in his war on the United States.
A recruiting video issued by militia members and obtained by The Associated Press this week shows Arab radicals fighting alongside the local extremists in Mogadishu, provided the first hard evidence that non-Somalis have joined with Islamic extremists in Somalia. The group has repeatedly denied links to extremists such as al Qaeda.
The militia has filled a power vacuum in this anarchic country without effective central government, setting up a court system and a militia to enforce their vision of Islamic rule.
The group has appeared to grow increasingly radical, forbidding movies, television and now music.
In the World Cup crackdown, the Islamic fighters were dispersing a crowd of teenagers watching the match. They opened fire after the teenagers defied their orders to leave the hall in which a businessman was screening the Germany-Italy match on satellite television. The dead were a girl and the business owner.
The Islamic group said it has arrested two of its fighters who shot and killed the victims.
Posted by Marisol at July 9, 2006 12:56 PM
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"What was going there was un-Islamic," Salad said.
And un-African, Salad forgot to say!
Sorry, but the funniest thing about this is the guy's name!
SALAD!!! Hahahahaha!!!
Posted by: AIG![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/nav-commenters.gif)
at July 9, 2006 1:44 PM
No dinner music with your Salad in Somalia.
Posted by: Shinoliite at July 9, 2006 1:45 PM
Somalia is the worse country on earth, thanks to those mindless savages.
Posted by: Dumbo at July 9, 2006 3:12 PM
There's a 2 week festival of Islamic music going on in the UK at the moment: (tastefully coinciding with the first anniversary of 7/7):while there is plenty of music in the Islamic world, it has often survived despite, not because of, Islam. In some regions only acapella or voice accompanied by drums, is allowed. As with the visual arts, Islam has limited and distorted an entire area of human expression for an awful lot of human beings.
Posted by: wallyUK at July 9, 2006 3:37 PM
Ya, but you know what? The music probably sucked. Can we really blame them for cracking down on wedding music? Ever been to a wedding with live music?
Posted by: somethingaboutislam at July 9, 2006 3:38 PM
Poor old Salad I would hate to have my "in" removed the way those somali muslims do it :)
Posted by: Zathras at July 9, 2006 3:57 PM
This is just a Muslim misunderstanding of the phrase "well don't that beat the band".
They just took it literally.
As they do with everything.
The more they oppose natural human instincts of joy and creativity, the more they will destroy themselves.
Let the Islamo-repression continue.
Posted by: profitsbeard at July 9, 2006 4:05 PM
This would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic.
Posted by: freewoman at July 9, 2006 4:40 PM
Well, on the postive side, banning television means that they would ban Al Jazeera.
at July 9, 2006 5:15 PM
I guess I won't be playing any wedding gigs in Somalia.
Posted by: TexasInfidel at July 9, 2006 7:08 PM
Boy, talk about a tough crowd!
Posted by: Bohemond_1069 at July 9, 2006 7:28 PM
I was thinking about the kids in Somalia who had been shot to death while I was watching the Germany/Portugal game of the World Cup yesterday. Except for the World Cup, it was an average Saturday. And any other time of the year I might have tuned in to a Baseball, Football. Hockey or local Soccer game. After the game, I ran an errand--we needed a new rice cooker.
I wore a simple summer print dress--modest enough, but it was short-sleeved and reached about mid-calf. In some places, this would be considered dressing as a whore. My husband didn't accompany with me--he was at an in-store concert in San Francisco of a band he really likes. It was a warm day, and several people on the bus downtown were wearing shorts, including the driver. We passed the construction site for the new Catholic cathedral (the old one had been damaged 15 years ago in the Loma Prieta quake).
At the department store, a saleswoman rang up my purchases. The guy who bagged up my stuff joked with us both about the weather and how he was going to a barbeque on Sunday. After the store, I went and had an iced coffee at a cafe. I could have gotten wine or a beer instead if I had wanted.
When my husband came home, we listened to his new music CD. This was a really pleasant, ordinary day, but I realized that I had done, or witnessed people doing, things that could have gotten us beaten, imprisoned or killed in many hardline Muslim countries.
Posted by: gravenimage at July 9, 2006 8:45 PM
"I wore a simple summer print dress--modest enough"
LOL, and on a hot day I can't manage in anything more than short shorts and a little sleeveless top. I'll wear what I jolly well want to - it's my body!
You're so right about how we enjoy every day the things that islam wants to ban. That's why we need to defend our culture of freedom.
Posted by: Lili at July 10, 2006 12:06 AM
OTP but interesting.There is an unconfirmed report concrning Zidane being sent off in the Worl Cup Final after performing a spectacular head butt on an Italian player. The latter is said to have called him a terrorist. Zidane is a non-practicing Muslim, of Algerian origin.
Posted by: wallyUK at July 10, 2006 3:59 AM
I've heard the whole team is Muslim.
Even the 'white' players ae converts I've heard.
SO sad.
Bravo Italia!!
Posted by: Mike_W at July 10, 2006 4:43 AM
From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Minnesota Somalis offer advice to new ruling group
Members of the Islamic group now in control sought answers from Somali leaders living in the Twin Cities, some of whom may return to help shape the country's future.
Sharon Schmickle, Star Tribune
Last update: July 07, 2006 – 10:09 PM
A market in Somalia this week.
On June 10, influential Somalis in Minneapolis gathered in an office on Nicollet Avenue for a phone call that would connect them with a tense drama unfolding a world away.
Shaykh Sharif Ahmed was on the other end of the call to brief the Minnesotans on the takeover a week earlier of Mogadishu by a group known then as the Union of Islamic Courts.
"He asked for our support and our advice," said Ali Khalif Galaydh, a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and a former prime minister of Somalia.
Galaydh said the Minnesotans advised the new ruling group to convince the outside world it is not a radical organization connected to terrorists and to work with the United Nations-backed transitional government operating from the city of Baidoa.
It was expected that the Islamic Courts would seek help from Minnesota, home to a large concentration of Somalis, Galaydh said. Two former prime ministers and several former cabinet members live in the Twin Cities, Galaydh said, as do many prominent doctors, lawyers and religious leaders.
"This metro area is very much on the political map of Somalia," Galaydh said.
Some Minnesota Somalis expect to go home within the next few weeks, he said, seeking to help shape the shaky order that is emerging from the Islamic group's takeover.
The Islamic group has solidified and expanded its authority since June 4, when the chaotic rule of U.S.-backed warlords collapsed in Mogadishu. At the time, the relatively moderate Sharif was the group's presumed leader. Since then, another leader has stepped forth -- Shaykh Hassen Dahir Aweys -- who is on the U.S. terrorist watch list as a suspected collaborator with Al-Qaida. Last week, President Bush said he is monitoring events with the primary concern "that Somalia does not turn into a safe haven for Al-Qaida or a place where terrorists meet to plot and conspire."
Somalis in Minnesota reflect a range of opinions, but many downplay fears that a radical, Taliban-like rule has taken hold. In Mogadishu on Thursday, the Islamic group arrested two of its own militiamen for killing a teenage girl and a businessman who were watching a World Cup soccer match, the Associated Press reported. Aweys said the group has not banned television or movies.
Meanwhile, Minnesota Somalis say that both Aweys and Sharif are leaders in a loose coalition that has yet to fully define its ideology. Last week, Sharif served as the Islamic group's chairman in meetings with the Arab League, the African Union and the European Union.
Hassan Mohamud, a Minneapolis lawyer and an imam at an Islamic center, also participated in the phone call with Sharif. Mohamud said, "We asked him many questions to clarify who they are." Knowing that Minnesota Somalis yearn for law and order at home, Sharif pledged, "This is the beginning of what you are looking for."
While Somalis in Minnesota do not speak with one voice, most are grateful for the relative peace in Mogadishu, Galaydh said. A next step to watch will be whether the Islamic group can deliver on promises to reopen Mogadishu's international airport.
"If they do that, it will be a major, major coup for them," he said.
Mohamud said a member of the transitional government's parliament is in Minnesota this week to discuss options for building political bridges in Somalia.
One potentially explosive concern, Galaydh said, is Ethiopia. The BBC reported last week that Ethiopia is amassing troops along its border with Somalia and has crossed the border in some places.
Minnesota also is home to thousands of recent immigrants from Ethiopia. Leaders in the St. Paul office of Ethiopians in Minnesota Inc. declined to be interviewed by the Star Tribune last week, saying any comment could damage sensitive relations with local Somalis. Even within Ethiopian groups, there are competing passions. Ethnic Oromos, for example, oppose the ruling Ethiopian regime and any moves it might make on Somalia, where thousands of Oromos have taken refuge.
"If Ethiopian troops come to Somalia, this will inflame the whole situation, not just in Somalia but in the region," Galaydh said.
Sharon Schmickle • 612-673-4432
at July 10, 2006 7:42 AM
WallyUK must be proud of the latest example of Islamic "tolerance".
Posted by: Elric66 at July 10, 2006 10:15 AM
The new taliban.
Posted by: bigcatgirl13106 at July 10, 2006 12:01 PM
Somalia is fast blooming into a perfect islamic country. Given aid, this process shall surely accelerate (pakistan). Not given aid, this process shall surely accelerate (afghanistan before 9/11).
Posted by: arjun.sevak at July 10, 2006 12:33 PM
I hope the Bush Administration is monitoring events in Somalia very closely. I am aware that our troups are bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, but it might be a good idea to meake a pr-emptive strike on terrorist bases in Somalia as soon as we know that an attack on us or our allies is being planned from there. A pre-emptive strike would allow us to avoid another 9/11 or an even worst catastrophe.
Posted by: Christian at July 10, 2006 10:10 PM
WallyUK, the news today is full of pics and video footage of Zinedine Zidane head-butted Marco Materazzi in the chest and knocking him down.
http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/5775564
Glad to hear Zidane is a peaceful, non-practicing Muslim.
at July 11, 2006 9:13 AM
Re CGW's post above about Somalis in Minnesota.
For those who aren't familiar, Minneapolis is generally considered a really friendly, welcoming city. It generally has excellent schools and a low crime rate. It consistently shows up in those studies of "Best Places in the US to Raise a Family"--that sort of thing. As drawbacks, it has long, chilly winters and gets ribbed by everyone else in the country for being a bit dull.
So what lessons do these Somalis take away from living in this near model city? Of course, that what Mogadishu really needs is Sharia law!
The article refers to these Somalis over and over again as "Minnesotans"--I'm sure that a few really do feel that way, but that most of them do not consider themselves to be Minneapolitans, Minnesotans, or Americans, or anything other than Muslim.
Posted by: gravenimage at July 11, 2006 4:24 PM
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