Gamal Nkrumah navigates the Sufi sea of opposition in the face of Wahhabi Al-Shabab atrocities in Somalia Thousands of Somalis took to the streets of the capital Mogadishu to protest against the atrocities committed by the Harakat Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen (The Movement of Youth Fighters) better known as Al-Shabab. Al-Shabab is widely feared in Somalia as a group of fanatical vagabonds renowned for the erratic behaviour of their followers and the public humiliation they inflict on their enemies. They have resorted to public floggings and stoning to death of alleged adulterers and those who break the strict Wahhabi Islamic code of conduct upheld by Al-Shabab as the only sanctioned strand of Islam. A suicide bomber disguised as a woman in a niqab (full veil) blew himself up at a graduation ceremony in Mogadishu last Thursday killing three government ministers and scores of innocent bystanders. Most of the victims were medical students attending the graduation ceremony. Al-Shabab issued a statement soon after denying responsibility for the attack. Mukhtar Ali Robow, a former leader of the now defunct Islamic Courts Union, leads the movement. The former leader of Al-Shabab, Adan Hashi Ayro was killed in a United States missile attack in May 2008. In other words, everyone who objected to the excesses of Al-Shabab have left the movement, prompted by a sustained US policy of isolating the militants, leaving the moderates open to the charge of political opportunism. Last Thursday's suicide bombing was widely condemned as an act of indiscriminate killing and terrorism 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. The TNG, however, only controls certain districts of the Somali capital while much of the countryside is in the hands of Al-Shabab. Nevertheless, many Somalis have grown disgruntled and impatient with the actions of Al-Shabab who have instituted a reign of terror in southern and central Somalia and promulgated strict Islamic Sharia laws based on their Wahhabi doctrine. Most Somalis belong to various Islamic Sufi sects and believe that the Wahhabi brand of Islam is alien to their traditionally moderate Sufi Islam. Protesters, in an unprecedented move, burned 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). Somalis have objected strongly to the systematic desecration of graves and mausoleums of revered religious leaders and Sufi saints whom the Wahhabi Al-Shabab have branded as un-Islamic. They have also instigated the destruction of several Sufi mosques, and graveyard caretakers are habitually attacked and arrested by Al-Shabab militias. According to the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, espoused by Al-Shabab, Sufism is tantamount to idolatry. The Somalis seem to be both warming up to the contradictory phraseology of the two contending strands of Sunni Islam-- Wahhabism and Sufism. Nevertheless, the latest popular protests against Al-Shabab's excesses have intensified in the past few weeks. The political instability of Somalia has stunted the nascent democratisation process in the country. The secularist-dominated TNG favour the Sufis. Al-Shabab, complete with idiosyncrasies is resolute about the implementation of Islamic Sharia law in Somalia. In a hamlet 40km north of the Somali capital, Al-Shabab attacked Sufi participants in a moulid festival dedicated to Sheikh Hassan Moalim. Matters came to a head with the intervention of government officials in defence of the Sufis. Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdel-Rashid Ali Sharmake has publicly protested against the atrocities allegedly committed by Al-Shabab. In a letter to the British Times, Sharmake outlined his government's objections to Al-Shabab's ideology and urged the international community to intervene to save Somalia from Al-Shabab's stranglehold which he likened to the Taliban's control of Afghanistan prior to the US-led invasion and occupation of that country in 2001. "What is so startling is that all the conclusions are as true about Somalia as they are about Afghanistan," Sharmake warned. "Piracy and the growth of Islamic extremism are not the natural state of being. They are symptoms of an underlying malaise -- the absence of government and hope." Sharmake's statements amounted to a testament of the failure of his government to secure peace and stability in the war-torn country. Somali President Sharif Ahmed was himself a leading member of the Islamic Courts Union, but has distanced himself from the militancy and zealotry of Al-Shabab. Sufi-inspired groups have taken up arms against Al-Shabab. The Sufi militia Ahl Al-Sunna Wal-Jamaa now control the strategic Golgadud Region of central Somalia after a series of deadly skirmishes in which they defeated Al-Shabab militias. Al-Shabab have declared their political affiliation to Al-Qaeda, which gives Washington the excuse to bombard their strongholds. The TNG have also used Al-Shabab's Al-Qaeda connections to solicit support from Western powers. The trouble is that it is hard to say how the political impasse in Somalia will be resolved. Both Al-Shabab and their adversaries are confident that the Somali people will eventually rally around their respective causes. This week's bombing and subsequent protests demonstrate that matters are not quite so clear cut. The fact that Al-Shabab washed their hands of the latest suicide bombing suggests that subversive elements, possibly warlords sympathetic to Al-Qaeda, are determined to derail the national reconciliation process, as is the case with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
