First of all I know you are new to the place, so welcome brother. I do have to ask you though, couldn't you come up with something else to ask rather than asking us about condoms? It's very funny though how most of the respondents are ladies! good luck finding an answer to your Q. Assalamu Calaykum.

Rageh Omaar: The Scud Stud aims for truth Monday, 15 May 2006 Rageh Omaar: The Scud Stud aims for truth The Somali-born journalist Rageh Omaar became a celebrity during the Iraq conflict, but he has no regrets after walking out on the BBC. He tells Ian Burrell why he has joined Al Jazeera's new English language TV channel In the eyes of Rageh Omaar, Western news organisations are perpetrating a "fraud" on their viewers with their misleading coverage of the war in Iraq, the conflict in which he established himself as an internationally-recognised journalist. Omaar is outspoken in voicing his frustrations, and his words help to explain his recent career-path, which has taken him from being the flak-jacketed golden boy of the BBC to a presenter for Al Jazeera who is also writing a deeply personal book about the experiences of living as a Muslim in contemporary Britain. He won admiration for his cool-headed dispatches from Baghdad during the aerial bombardments of the first days of the invasion of Iraq, and was nicknamed The Scud Stud by the New York Post, but suffered a whispering campaign by British Government officials that his work was unduly influenced by Iraqi information ministers. Now it is Omaar, 38, who is calling the veracity of the reporting into question, saying that news organisations are failing to inform their audiences as to how their reports have been compiled. "Some of us, I feel, are engaged in some kind of a small fraud on the British public, the readers and viewers," he says. "I feel very uncomfortable that we are not putting a health warning on reports from Iraq because to not do so lends an enormous legitimacy. We are saying Channel 4 or the BBC or Reuters or ABC can vouch for this when individual journalists are not so certain." Omaar says he has spoken to a number of senior correspondents from different news organisations who feel "less inclined" to return to Iraq because they cannot do their jobs properly. "When a broadcaster says Rageh Omaar, or 'X', reports now from Baghdad it's actually not wholly true, as I haven't shot the pictures because it's far too dangerous and I haven't been to visit the different areas because it's too dangerous." His comments, he stresses, are not a criticism of his colleagues in the field but are "a reflection of the terrible circumstances in which journalists have to operate". He says: "Unless you explain those circumstances you run the danger of participating in what I think is a small fraud." It is time, he says, for news organisations to "fess up" and make clear that many of the pictures that comprise what are effectively "pooled reports" have been shot by anonymous Iraqi freelancers, whilst the Western journalists have remained inside the protected Green Zone in Baghdad. "If we as an industry don't grapple with the question of putting up a health warning then we will slowly but surely have some of the legitimacy sapped from us." His fear is that if atrocities and scandals in Iraq are later brought to light by Non-Governmental Organisations or other non-journalistic bodies, then the public will feel betrayed. "When it turns round in a year's time and Iraq is in even more of a mess, people will say: 'Hang on, I thought you guys were reporting all this'." Omaar has just celebrated the birth of his third child. He is a family man at heart and far from the tank-chasing war correspondent that the memorable images of him in khaki helmet and red fleece suggested. His reporting from Baghdad made his name but also left him with some doubts as to what journalists could achieve, particularly under the restraints experienced during such a conflict. His new venture will approach news-gathering from a different perspective, from the first-hand accounts of those who actually saw the events they are describing. Witness, which will be shown every night when the new Al Jazeera International channel launches later this year (after a series of delays) will "give a platform to film-makers from all over the world," says Omaar. It will feature reports from Cuba, Iran and other countries whose film-makers are invariably ignored by Western broadcasters. Omaar says he will help to select the stories, will interview the film-makers and, in some instances, will go back on the road to talk to eye-witnesses and compile films himself. "We will seek to try to make it as pure first-hand storytelling as we can," says Omaar, who believes the idea reflects the "enormous political and cultural impact" of documentary film-making in the last five years, embodied by the successes of Michael Moore, Morgan Spurlock and others. But it is not just this new genre (free of the commentary of analysts, experts, spin-doctors and politicians) that marks out Omaar's new career direction, it is the new employer too. Three years ago he seemed to embody all the qualities that BBC news might look for in a correspondent. This product of Cheltenham Boys College and New College, Oxford had a quick brain, elegant diction and a self-assuredness that couldn't be rattled, even under fire. And, having spent his early childhood in Somalia, he was a good ambassador for the corporation as a global broadcaster. But only months after he pulled out of Iraq, having famously reported on the pulling down of Saddam Hussein's statue in Fardus Square, his perception of where his career should go was at odds with what the BBC had in mind for him. After his experiences in Baghdad, Omaar wanted to take on a variety of new projects, from documentaries to series about Islam. The BBC wanted him to remain as a face of its hard-news output, if not at the front line then as a newscaster. "I was offered: 'How would you like to be developed as an anchor?' I can, hand on heart, say I will never be an anchor. I did it once or twice but it's not for me." He went freelance but now seems more than happy to be associated with Al Jazeera, a news organisation which he describes as having "blown apart the Western monopoly". Omaar is joining a new network that has caused shockwaves in broadcast journalism with its ambitious programme of recruiting senior talent. Sir David Frost is the most high-profile hire, but the English-language channel has poached Veronica Pedrosa from CNN International to anchor its Kuala Lumpur-based output and Five News's Barbara Serra will present from London. Shahnaz Pakravan, formerly with BBC World, is to present a twice-weekly women's show, Everywoman. Richard Gizbert, the former ABC reporter who took the network to court after he was fired for refusing to return to Iraq, will host a media show, The Listening Post. Equally important, Al Jazeera International, which will operate from Doha in Qatar (the home of its Arabic sister channel), London, Washington and Kuala Lumpur, has made a series of top appointments for behind-the-camera roles, with staff lured from the BBC, ITN and the big US networks. Omaar is heartened by the calibre of his new colleagues but well aware of the suspicion in which Al Jazeera is regarded in some circles in the West. He trots out the accusations: "It's a mouthpiece of bin Laden, it's terrorism TV and - the most outrageous and outlandish - that Aljazeera is in cahoots with al-Qa'ida." He believes that some people "become demented" when talking about the network, and says the flawed idea that it broadcasts beheadings endures. The reputation is all the more unfair, he claims, because Al Jazeera has dared to "throw political and cultural hand-grenades" into an Arab world formerly used to the stodgy and censored reports of state broadcasters: when the storm over abuses of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib was at its height, Al Jazeera dared to point out that conditions in regular Arab jails were appalling too. But, having been derided by Muslim fundamentalists and Western politicians (including being accused by Donald Rumsfeld of working "in close proximity" with terrorists), the network does not operate in fear of criticism of its reputation. Omaar feels that Al Jazeera's reputation in the West will rise dramatically as soon as it begins broadcasting in English. "The scales will fall from people's eyes," he says. "Al Jazeera has changed the face of international television. They've brought non-Western journalists to the top table for the first time." The reporter, who witnessed attacks by the US military on Al Jazeera bureaux during operations in both Kabul and Baghdad, is optimistic that the process of Western audiences engaging with the English-language channel will also help the Aljazeera Arabic service to reappraise its position in the world and to realise "that there's not this enormous conspiracy in the West to get Al Jazeera". Then he adds: "Because frankly they have every reason to believe that, in my estimation." Profiles of Rageh Omaar tend to dwell on privilege: his looks, his private education, his refined accent and his wife's family's entry in Burke's Peerage. Having been born in "one of the poorest countries on Earth", he has always been careful to acknowledge how lucky he has been. But though it is true that his father, Abdullahi, made good money that paid for Rageh to attend the elite Dragon prep-school in Oxford and that the journalist's wife Nina is the daughter of a baronet, such observations can be misleading. Omaar is not particularly posh, his wife is a former occupational therapist at London's Charing Cross Hospital, specialising in mental health, and they live in a family home in the west London suburb of Chiswick. More importantly, Omaar's Somali background is, he appears to suggest in this interview, more central to how he sees himself than has been suggested in the past. He relates not just to his East African roots (his parents have returned to northern Somalia) but to the experiences of Somali family members. "I have got 20-30 relatives who emigrated here. I came here when I was young and my parents came of choice but virtually all my other relatives - first cousins, second cousins, aunts, uncles - have fled," he says. "They've come as refugees and been through the asylum system. It's something I wanted to capture in a book that I'm writing at the moment about the experiences of Somalis that I know who have grown up here in Britain, not just as Somalis but as British Muslims. That's a very important aspect that I wanted to write about, not as a journalist, but as someone who has grown up here and feels British as well as Somali." The book, called Only Half of Me, will be published by Penguin in the summer and is remarkably different from Omaar's last offering, when he was still at the BBC, an account of his role in reporting the Iraq invasion. Reviewers noted the almost complete absence of personal content. "That was more of a journalist's book", says Omaar. The experiences of his relatives are not something that he has recently learned of. It has been a major influence on his reporting, he says. "It has been a part of me that's fundamental and has informed my work as a journalist. I did have close relatives who fled wars and who lived in Mogadishu during the US intervention, and went through that appalling experience, and who have been asylum-seekers. It's not something that even many of my colleagues in the BBC knew about. They just saw Rageh, a very privileged bloke. But it has been very important to the way I've approached the world and has made me who I am. It has perhaps given me a different perspective to many other colleagues who have not had relatives who have gone through the experiences we are reporting on every day." The idea of Omaar having grown up in the leafy environs that surrounded his boarding school is also a little misleading. The Omaar family home was close to central London's Edgware Road, or "little Arabia", as he terms it. After that, the coffee shops of Baghdad, and their hookah or shisha pipes, seemed like a home from home. "They held no surprises for me. When I first arrived in the Middle East they said, 'You must try this,' and I said, 'Look mate, I've grown up with it since I was eight, it's not a big deal. When I got off the bus each day I went through clouds of shisha smoke." When Omaar left Oxford, where he studied modern history, he did not, as some viewers may have assumed, head straight for a BBC traineeship. "I didn't know anybody at the BBC. I sent one application letter off to the BBC and didn't even get a rejection letter back, so that played into all my stereotypes of, 'Forget it, you've got no chance'," he says. "I had done no journalism at university. It wasn't a crowd I had much in common with and was more a sort of clique." So instead he approached The Voice, the black newspaper based in a side-street in Brixton, south London. There he met people such as Dotun Adebayo (now a BBC broadcaster) and his brother Diran (now a novelist). "I just got exposed to an environment where I could do things," says Omaar. He gained the confidence to approach the BBC's Africa Service in Bush House with a suggestion that he string for them from a family friend's home in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. He was given a tape recorder, a microphone and some batteries and a letter of introduction on BBC paper, and that was the start of his relationship with the corporation. A subsequent decision to brush up on his mother tongue by studying Arabic at Amman university in Jordan led to him getting a posting in the Middle East and the opportunity to report from Iraq for six years, on and off, prior to the 2003 invasion. Omaar remembers the country as "by far the most anglophile nation in the Arab world" and he thinks the events of the last three years have damaged Britain's reputation in that region immeasurably. "There was a sense in which Britain was seen on the Arab street and in Arab ministries as an honest broker. I think that's shattered completely and utterly as a result of Iraq and it is now seen in every way as partisan as the United States." Omaar says he cannot understand why BBC World and the BBC World Service, which could help to improve Britain's standing overseas, are so poorly funded. The BBC's belated rebuilding of its Arabic service (the dismantling of which led to the formation of Al Jazeera a decade ago) means it faces an uphill battle in a now-crowded Middle-East market where it is in danger of being seen as promoting British values, Omaar says. He claims his own new network has no allegiances. "It won't be beholden to one sensibility," he says. "This is not an organisation that's going to have to watch its back in terms of what newspapers write about it. The worst has been said already." ON REPORTING IN IRAQ 'Some of us are engaged in some kind of a small fraud on the British public' ON ALJAZEERA 'For the first time, it has brought non-Western journalists to the top table' ON GREAT BRITAIN 'Once seen by Arabs as an honest broker, now as every bit as partisan as the USA' Who's who at Al Jazeera SIR DAVID FROST A broadcasting legend, and the only person to have interviewed the last seven US presidents and six British prime ministers. Will be based in London but the exact nature of his on-screen role is not yet known. VERONICA PEDROSA News anchor in Kuala Lumpur, one of al-Jazeera International's four broadcast centres. Pedrosa grew up in exile in London after her mother wrote a biography of Imelda Marcos. She has worked for the BBC and CNN. SHEREEN EL FEKRI Based in London, she will present AJI's business and politics strand People & Power. Raised by Egyptian-Welsh parents in Canada. She joins AJI from The Economist, where she was healthcare correspondent. RICHARD GIZBERT Will present a world media review, Listening Post. Gizbert worked for ABC from 1993, but was sacked for refusing to work in Iraq. The London-based journalist successfully sued the network for unfair dismissal. BARBARA SERRA Will present from the London studios. Studied international relations at the London School of Economics and journalism at City University. She was a producer on the Today programme before moving to Sky News. SHAHNAZ PAKRAVAN Twice a week from Doha, Pakravan will present Everywoman, the first show from the Middle East centred on women's issues. A former news presenter on BBC World, BBC News 24 and Channel Four Daily. The Independent

The poor building skycrappers, no wonder the end is near just as predicted by our Prophet salalahu Calayhi Wasalam.

Originally posted by Scarlet: They found her body. May Allah rest her soul in peace and extend his mercy towards her. Ameen. They did!, Inaa Lilaalahi Wa inaa ilaahi Raajicuun. May Allah forgive her sins, Allah is oft forgiver.

Here is what he had to say in another report. He said: Niman ***** ah oo Waqooyi ka Yimi Ayaa ku leeday Dagaalkii Mogdishu oo aanu ku Laynay" Qabqable Muse Suudi Yalaxaw Posted by: qaran Qabqable Muse Suudi Yalaxaw oo ah dagaal ooge ka soo jeeda Magaalada Mogdishu ayaa waraysi siiyey Idaacad la yidhaahdo Radio Banaadir oo laga leeyahay Mogdisho. Mr. Yalaxaw oo faahfaahin dheer ka bixiyey Dagaalkii ku dhexmaray Mogdishu kooxda uu la safan yahay ee la yidhaahdo Isbahaysiga la dagaalanka Argagixisda iyo Maxkamadaha Mogdishu, ayaa ka dhawaajiyey in dagaalku dhexmaray Isbahaysiga la dagaalanka Argagixisada iyo koox Munaafiqiin ah oo ku soo gabanaaya Magaca Maxkamada ah Islaamiga, Nimanka ku dhintay dagaalka ee wadaadada sheeganaayey may ahayn dad wanaagsan oo Culimo ah taasna waxa kuu cadaynaaya Maydkoodii waa loo dhawaan waayey Qadhmuunkii iyo Urtii ka soo baxaysay, Dirxi ayaa Maydkoodii markii ay dhinteenba galay, waa la buufiyey markii loo maro waayey Urtii ka soo baxaysay nimankaa jidhkoodii, Dadka waangsan ee Culimada ah jidhkoodu ma uro mana Qudhmaan marka ay dhintaan......... Waxa ku leeday oo lagu dilay dagaalka niman Isaaqa oo Waqooyi ka yimi iyo Oromo aan Muslim ahayn oo la soo waalay iyo looma ooyaan Puntland ka yimi. Mr. Yalaxaw oo la wediiyey su'aal odhanaysa adiga oo ah wasiirka ganacsiga ee Somalia, Waxa uu u qabtay Ra'sal wasaare Ali Mohamed Geedi in aa 7 cishu ku timaadaan Baydhabo adiga iyo Wasiiro kale.........Arintaa maxaad ku odhanaysaa. Jawaabtii Yalaxaw..........Ma anigaa wasiir ah !!!!!!! waligay ma noqon, mana Noqonaayo Abidkay, ma jiro wax Wasiir ah oo aan ahay iyo wax xil wasiirnimo oo aan cid u hayaa. Jawhar oo 90 kilo meter ii jirta ayaan tegi waayey. ma anigaa markaa meel 250 kilometer ii jirta taga.....Ma tegaao. Dawladan aad sheegayso iyo Madaxweynaha iyo Ra'sal wasaaraha iyo Gudoomiyaha Baarlamaan midna ma Ictiraafsani. Dawlada Mogdishu Iman-weyday ma Ictiraafsani. Su'aal kale oo odhanaysa, Waxa uu Iclaamiyey Dagaal oogaha layidhaado Sheekh Yussuf Indhacade Daliil odhanaaya nimanka Isbahaysiga ku jiraa waa lala jahaadayaa, Xaasaskuna waa ka furan yihiin.........Arintaa maxaad ka odhanaysaa hadaad tahay Xaaji Suudi Yalaxaw. Jawaabtii Yalaxaw...........Aar yaa Islaantayda iga Furi kara.......Aar dad iyo duunyaba miyaa la is-bililiqaysanayaa. ma nimanka sidaa u hadlaaya ayaa diin iyo wanaag wada........Islaantayda la igama furi karo. ku sidaa yidhina ma u jaawabayo. Mr. Yalaxaw ayaa ku adkaystay in uu la dagaalamaayo Argagixiso iyo Al-qaacida, kuwaas oo ka difaacayo Magaalada Mogdisho. By: Osman Abdillahi Sool.......Freelance Journalist.

Originally posted by ViBe: ok, this is somewhat going to sound weird, but i was actually born in burco. i grew up there and went to burtenlee. i also stayed in galkacyo, and it was to new zealand from there. from new zealand i came to autralia, melbourne. and here i am . You said here I am, and where is that; Melbourne perhaps? Nothing weird being born in Burco and ending up somewhere in the West. You talk about being weird just check the responses of some other nomads, like some whom I still can figure if they are fooling around or not like Socod Badne who insists that he was born in Isreal.

Originally posted by Kashafa: Kulu shay yarjac ilaa aslihi Including Mr. Kashafa from the land of his forefathers.

ASSALAMU CALAYKUM, Congrats to the new Garaad, he is very young fellow I see. Moreover, brother Soo maal, can you enlighten me what the Garaad's specific duty is and will be in the community and in the society fadlan? Or do they handle the same duty of Suldaans' and Boqors? Thanks, Assalamu Calaykum.

To those folks who are changing the subject, I say to you respectably stop changing the topic. If you want to participate, please do so based on the way the thread is intended . If not, and you would want to talk about something else. Then fantashiruu fil ardi; meaning start your own topic fadlan. Assalamu Calaykum.

Originally posted by Bishitta: Is this another Somglish way of asking everyone's tribe? Why not PM me, I'll gladly tell you. We don't all think the same you know. If you think by asking your birth place is another way of asking you your tribe, that is your way of seeing things, not mind.

Assalamu Calaykum, There are many nomads here in SOL from all regions. So it would be nice to know what state and what city everyone was born? Let me start with myself. I was born in Hargeysa, spent my second half of my early childhood years in Togdheer especially Burco and sometime in Oodweyne. I also went to a place in Kilinka 5aad,where I spent 5 years before my family and I left to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1999. I spent 8 months in Ethiopia and then 7 more months in Nairobi, Kenya, before I left there to come to U.S (Minnesota) in spring of 2000. That is summary of mine. How about yours? Share it with us, and help us to get to know you more. Assalamu Calaykum.

Assalamu calaykum, Brothers and siters in SOL, can you impress us with your knowledge? This could be in any subject except may be politics. However Religion (Islam only), science,philosophy, peotry, Xagxidhaale, Maahmaah, and just wise words can all be included. So can you impress us? Go head step up to the plate. Assalamu Calaykum.

Professor Cali Galaydh said, Maamulka Baydhabo sidaad sheegtay maaha mid soomaali wada kafaynaya, aniguna mawqif ayaan ka taaganahay inaan soomaali ijtihaadka ay martay lagu sixi karin maanta, cabdilaahi yuusuf dee dagaal ooge ayuunbu halkani ka ahaa, imikana kama ah soomaali dhisid iyo hogaan u noqo eh waa mansabkii hungurigu ka hayey mudada dheer oo uu sheeganayo inuu helay, taasina ma qabo in dhibka soomaali haysata ay ka saarayso. I fully agree. The professor is one of the respected Somalis here in the twin Cities as well as his home region of Sool. His response to the questions that was asked were honest, and in accordance of the way he views the situation.Therefore he has full right to express his opinions and there is nothing wrong with that in my view. The Somaliland media has no problem posting it into its websites. Everyone in Hargeysa is fully aware of the stand of Prof. Cali Galaydh regarding Somaliland. Moreover, yes the Jamhuriya reporter was arrested and that should come no surprise to anyone since it's taking place in Africa . The peace and posperity in Somaliland is the thing that draws the most attention and matters the most, not few reporters that have been abused and denied their rights to do their job properly by the spearhead politicians. After all they are Politicians and their actions don't neccesarily reflect of that of the people themselves. Assalamu Calaykum.

INAA LILAAHI WA INAA ILAYHI RAAJICUUN. Walee ma dhawa dhamaanshaha dhibta Soomaali haysataa.

and the ball game is------ over.

Assalamu Calaykum, You folks can signed the petition and million more and there is still nothing it would do to help the situation. The warlords don't stop at nothing when it comes to killing innocent civilians, they have lost their inner peace to feel the pain of others. So they, the warlords are utterly hopeless. I think doing two Rakaca prayers, then a Duco after each prayer for the Somalis in Muqdisho as well as us, since we need it, is a lot better than say, signing something that has no value whatsoever. Thanks for the efforts though Mr. Duke. You have outdone alot of us, who didn't even attemp to do even just that. So in respect to you and hope that Allah puts powre in it, I signed it. My name is Ismail Mohamed Ismail Sheikh Idriis. Assalamu Calaykum.

Originally posted by Tuujiyee:

assalamu Calaykum. What makes me smile of being a Somali? let see--, being a Muslim, then compromising the largest state blocks in Africa. I can go to Jabuti, Somali Galbeed, Somaliland, Puntland, Southern Somalia, NFD, and feel as though it's my own home and it's. Being simple, honest, laid back, intelligent, warriors, unshakable character, and even more are what makes me smile to be a Somali. But the most important one is being a Muslim. Assalamu Calaykum.

Assalamu calaykum. Most of the people that I work with or I am around consider themselves to be Christians but once you question them about anything regarding their faith they say " I don't really practice religion" or " I am not religious". A lot of it has to do with that they are made to believe somethings that no rational thinking mind won't except such as 3=1, or the trinity meaning that Jesus( ciisa pbuh) is once A God, once the son of God and he is also the holy spirit (Ghost). On the other hand Islam rather than being misterious, explains things and comes in terms with reality. Prophet Muhammed Pbuh would say things in plain way and in a way that applies to the dialy lives of the people without causing any confusion in the hearts of the people. So it's not suprising to hear these Christians feeling disconnected from their own faith, because they don't see any benefits that in stored for them in their own faith. The fear of God isn't stored in their hearts that would prevent them from drinking, commiting adultery, and other things that are prohibited in their own faith. It's facinating though how the Vatican is taking hits in wake of our faith's growth and success. Just like Mr. Khalaf mentioned Islam it's the true religion and is the only one that will be excepted from anyone in the hereafter. The non believers can try to discredit Islam but Islam is a light that will not dim forever. To prove Allah said in the glorious Quran --> 61.8]"They desire to put out the light of Allah with their mouths but Allah will perfect His light, though the unbelievers may be averse". Thanks for sharing with us this article Soo Maal. Allah is greater. Assalamu Calaykum.

Once again Wareerka adaa isku keenaya and my signature is not a Hadith, it's a verse from the Quran. Secondly, are you color blind? because the Iraqi flag has black color in it, while the Somaliland flag doesn't have such, it is Red,White, and Green with the Tawxiid knitted on it. http://www.bwhafs.co.uk/images/ri00003.gif vs. http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/rdonlyres/B6652FBF-E5FF-4563-BA96-5B641929246B/8050/iraqflag.gif You be the judge-- p.s. Is there anything that I can do to snap you out of your confusion sir?

Originally posted by Tuujiyee: Can I say Seeeeegsi!!! xaax... laakiin adiga yaa ogaado busho madoow oo lipfloss raaxada looga qaade aa wadataa!!ileen bajaq somali lee tahee!!!kkkkk... I still don't understand this stolen Iraq flag and he brings us a stolen habar name!!! Wareer Badanaa!!! Dude you must be insane or you must have spent too much time in chat rooms, . Adigaa wareerka isku ridayee maxaa yeelay wax baad iska dhex tuuraysaa. Mar Somaliland baad wax kasheegaysaa which you are more than welcome but keep it clean , marna gabdhaha ayaad wax kasheegaysaa. A little piece of advice for you my fellow nomad, zip it or leave this thread if you don't have anything important to add. If not then laguma casuumin. Salaam Causin. good luck. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/Flag_of_Somaliland_until_1996.svg/800px-Flag_of_Somaliland_until_1996.svg.png

Originally posted by SOO MAAL: Although, as a Muslim brother ethnically Somali, I would like to wish well to all somalilanders (or should I say north westerners, because Somaliland= Somali peninsula dhulka soomaaliyeed oo dhan) Anyways, I hope to all somalilanders a happy holidays first of all Salaan Sare Saxiibkay Soo Maal, I admired you very much for your comments such as this. You are more than welcome to call it Northwest since Las Anod is North Central. And yes Somaliland does equal the land of Somalis as well. After all what matters the most is that we are Muslims first then Somalis second. May 18th isn't quite a holiday as of yet,but it's a celebration of UDI (unilateral declaration of Independence)which by the way was declared in 1991 as you are probably aware of it. Thanks for your class act Mr. Soo Maal as always. Assalamu Calaykum.

Assalamu Calaykum. I have always been aware that I am closely watched even as I write this. It doesn't hurt to watch of certain things that we say sometimes. This law enabling the government to closely monitor people's phones, internet use, and other private activities was part of the " Patriotic act" that was passed after the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers of New York city and other areas. So you should bear in mind that you can still critize Bush and his adminstration for wrongfully going to war with Iraq without any proof that Saddam Hussein was in position of weapons of Mass destruction (WMD). But dont' comment or say anythings that are glorifying Saddam Hussein or any of America's oppositions, because that is when you will run into some sort of trouble, like getting a visit from the FBI. Also keep in mind brothers since we live in this country, we have to obey whatever "law" that is passed by the government. By self censoring yourself, you are sure to safe yourself from any evil doings. Don't act all tough now and think that you have full rights under the constitution, therefore you can say whatever you want. That is no no, don't be misled. No one has those type of right these day, especially if you an immigrant or refugee who is specifically a Muslim. I am trying to explain in small letters, so I hope you understand where I am coming from here exactly. Assalamu Calaykum.

Assalamu Calaykum, You can say that again!. However this must have been along time ago, like 3-4 years ago. The buildings that appear to be under construction were finished few years back. Nevertheless, this is great eye opening piece of work. I am glad some people have the courage to go back home and prove to us that life is surely possible back home even if you are used to the life in the diapora. They have realized that this is their real home and the place for them to really settle permenantly. Very very couragious people I must say. Thank you so much Mr. Nazir. Assalamu Calaykum.

Assalamu Calaykum. I am not nearly as mad as Mr. J. Lee for being left out,although I have the right to be furious after not being mentioned while others have mentioned twice such as Tolstoy aka Mr. OOdweyne , because I am not really known for glorifying the views of POLITICIANS, but I am a Somalilander so for your request Lander, there I put up the flag to show some patriatism. It's the old flag, I hope you don't mind. Assalamu Calaykum.