Is it time for Washington to team up with militant Islamists, postulates Gamal Nkrumah A key faction of Somalia's opposition Hizbul-Islam captured the strategic port of Haradhere, hitherto a pirate haven and declared the city governed according to Islamic Sharia laws. The pirates have fled the port, leaving it in the hands of Hizbul-Islam militias. Piracy is illegal under Islamic jurisprudence. The pirates are reported to be in a state of panic and are seeking refuge in other pirate-controlled ports along the 3,025km-long Somali coast. The United States has recently spent $6.8 million on training Somali troops to combat the pro-Al-Qaeda forces in the sprawling country in a desperate bid to spruce up the fighting prowess of the beleaguered government forces in Somalia. The fact, however, is that Somalia's past is another country when its army was among the best equipped in the African continent. If the past was another country, its farcical borders can now be crossed frighteningly fast. Thousands of Westerners, or to be more precise holders of Western passports, are being recruited by Al-Qaeda in Somalia -- according to Western intelligence agencies. Possibly a trickle of disgruntled British nationals are answering the call to join the jihad in Somalia against infidels, but such sweeping claims are unsubstantiated. Many, it is claimed, enter Somalia via neighbouring Djibouti on flights from Ethiopia, Kenya, Saudi Arabia and Yemen dubbed the "Djibouti Express". So why are members of Britain's 250,000-strong ethnic Somali community risking their lives and relative comfort in the West to fight for Al-Qaeda and its affiliate organisations in Somalia? It is a question that is too rarely asked in the West. The question, then, is to what purpose? The answer is to prop up the growing Islamist insurgency in Somalia. A spate of Iraqi-style bombings of mosques killing more than 30 worshippers alone in one Mogadishu mosque this week complicates matters. The aim of the bombers was to assassinate Fouad Mohamed Khalaf, better known as Fouad Shongole, reputably a top Al-Qaeda leader in Somalia and a prominent member of Harakat Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen (The Movement of Youth Fighters) better known as Al-Shabab. Now who, pray tell, might want to blow up an Al-Qaeda cum Al-Shabab leader? Moderate Islamists as exemplified by the Sufi militia Ahl Al-Sunna Wal-Jamaa are engaged with Al-Shabab in a fierce battle for the hearts and minds of Somalis. But they are an unlikely suspect, unless prodded by Western powers. The black flag of Al-Shabab which has two crossed swords, Saudi-style, and the inscription La Illah Illa Allah, Mohamed Rasul Allah (There is no God but God, Mohamed is God's Messenger) flutters over much of the country. But, the Ahl Al-Sunna Wal-Jamaa are fighting back. The picture is ugly and complex. The Sufi militia now controlling huge swathes of central Somalia is being courted by the Transitional National Government (TNG) of Somalia which is recognised as the sole legitimate government of Somalia and backed politically by the United Nations, the Arab League and militarily by the African Union. Many of the key members of both the TNG and Ahl Al-Sunna Wal-Jamaa were once active members of the Council of Islamic Courts (CICs) when they were all fighting the Ethiopian occupiers. Somalia was a country that was discarding the deadend of civil war and political chaos and attempting to reinvent itself as a country with a future under the leadership of the CICs in different guises -- mostly moderately Muslim. As far as the West, Ethiopia and Kenya are concerned, there is the persistent threat of totalitarianism and the institutionalisation of an oppressive theocratic state -- untenable in the strategic Horn of Africa. The legal process of the CICs and its breakaway organisations has always been strictly Islamist, following to the letter the stipulations of Islamic Sharia law. Is it simply the lust for power that drives Ahl Al-Sunna Wal-Jamaa or the Hizbul-Islam, for that matter? It is a question that has been too rarely asked by both the friends and foes of the Islamists. Both groups, Sufi and militant Islamists, have insisted that they do not want to usurp power for power's sake. They want to instill the fear of God into the hearts of their compatriots. They wish to create an exemplary Islamic state that will be a beacon of righteousness in the region. This has not been an easy task. The main reason for any seeming prevarication on the part of Ahl Al-Sunna Wal-Jamaa to make a move on Mogadishu seems to be a latent fear on their part that the US will stand in their way and stop them from claiming what they see as their political mantle. What in particular has Washington been wrong about? Just about everything. Training TNG troops to no avail, backing the wrong horse and making a mess of an already messy situation. If true, this would stimulate a chilling return to terrorist tactics Iraqi-style and sound the death knell for moderation in Somalia and result in the institutionalisation of a Taliban- like state. Unfortunately, the world is clueless about how to deal with the Somali crisis because Western powers adamantly refuse to tackle the root cause of the crisis. The Islamist forces, such as the Hizbul-Islam, are quite capable of governing the country, as demonstrated by their principled and courageous action against the pirates this week, but Washington does not approve. On the very uncertain subject of terrorism, I am inclined to leave the Somalis to handle their own affairs free of foreign interference. Alas, this sounds like an echo from a gentler age. But Somalia is a dangerously unpredictable country as far as the West is concerned. The unstable political situation in Somalia has created a political vacuum in which rival anti- American group vie for power. This jostling for political power has been an unprecedented situation facing Somalia in recent months. As the situation evolved, the Islamist Alliance for the Re- Liberation of Somalia (ARS) and its most dynamic components Hizbul-Islam under the leadership of Sheikh Dhaher Aweis and Al-Shabab made political capital out of the current predicament. ARS fairly successfully predicted the consequences of outcomes of decisions made by Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and his TNG. "We are in Haradhere now, we came here after we received a request from the local people to help them provide security," Hizbul-Islam Chief of Operations Mohamed Abdi Aros told reporters in the port city soon after it fell into the hands of his militiamen. These militiamen bring to bear a degree of discipline in the territories they control. The problem is both the lack of political will on the part of the Somali government and the ill- conceived interventionist approach by its Western backers.
