Abu-Salman, I'm glad to hear that the brothers have found it inspiring. I certainly have. The lecture is filled with profound and striking ways of re-examining thought itself. Nur, Sh. Mustafe is a favorite of mine. Allah has endowed him with the ability to draw inferences from the most peculiar of angles. May Allah increase his knowledge.

I found this lecture by Sh. Mustafe Ismaaciil very beneficial. It is a long lecture (a bit over 60 mins) but is well worth the effort. If you can't watch it in one sitting, I urge you to watch it in little chunks - as much as you can. The Sheikh addresses many of the self-limiting (mainly modern) myths which suffocate our mental capacities. Awoodaha Allaah SW nasiiye oo aanu dayacnay

^ Try this link. Unfortunately, it isn't the complete Quran - only a couple of Surahs. You will also find recitations by Abdul Hakeem's older brother - AbdiRashid - on the same site. Try some of his recitations, if you're not already familiar with him.

^ Waa su’aal muhiim ah. Whichever quarter they get their advice from surely does not have Somalia’s best interests at heart. Abdullahi Omar’s efforts have been one of the main reasons why the TFG has won much of the International support it currently has. They will regret removing this hard-working and honest fellow from the FM post.

Wasaaradda Arrimaha Dibedda: Cali Jaamac Jangeli This is the worst reshuffle of all. Jangeli has already failed in this post. What the hell are they thinking! With his thick British accent and trailblazing diplomatic skills, Abdullahi Oomar was doing pretty well in the FM post. And to think that he was fired simply for refusing to accompany the PM (see below report) on his trip to PL speaks volumes about the TFG's lack of direction and seriousness about the enormous difficulties facing our nation. Walee kuwani waa lagu qasaaray. Somalia: PM 'fires' Foreign Minister in dispute over Puntland visit 17 Aug 17, 2009 - 7:28:29 PM Somalia: PM 'fires' Foreign Minister in dispute over Puntland visit 17 Aug 17, 2009 - 7:28:29 PM GALKAYO, Somalia Aug 17 (Garowe Online) - Somalia's interim Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmake has fired Foreign Minister Abdullahi Oomar in a dispute over the Prime Minister's first visit to the northern regions of Puntland, confidential sources tell Garowe Online. The Prime Minister has appointed Mr. Ali "Jangeli" Ahmed as the Horn of Africa country's new Minister of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Jangeli, who was Foreign Minister during President Abdullahi Yusuf's term, is presently part of the Prime Minister's delegation in Galkayo. It is not clear why the Prime Minister fired Mr. Oomar, but unconfirmed reports said the former Foreign Minister refused to accompany Prime Minister Sharmake as part of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) delegation in Galkayo city for talks with Puntland government leaders. The Prime Minister is expected to a formal announcement soon, with some reports voicing the possibility for a complete Cabinet re-shuffle. Meanwhile, official talks between the visiting TFG delegation and Puntland government leaders are scheduled to begin tomorrow. Prof. Ibrahim Addow, the TFG's Minister for Higher Learning, is also expected to join the talks. The talks will primarily focus on cooperation between the TFG and Puntland government organs in the fields of security, politics and resource-sharing. It is Sharmake's first visit to Puntland since being appointed Somali PM in February 2009. Source: Garowe Online

You're right about that. But how does that diminish the scale of sustained killings and destruction of livelihoods that this region has suffered from? It does not. The conflict in Darfur is at least open to the outside world. This isn't the case in Somali Galbeed. Ilaahay ha u gargaaro walaalaheen.

It being the next darfur is an understatement. It is worse than Darfur - when one considers the timeline of the conflict and brutality of the Ethiopian armed forces.

AlJazeeraEnglish August 07, 2009 Riz Khan In Ethiopia a separatist war is taking place far from media headlines around the world. The ****** conflict has claimed thousands of lives and is being called the next Darfur by some. The ****** region of Ethiopia lies between Oromia to the west, the Republic of Djibouti to the north, Kenya to the south and the Somali Republic to the east. It is home to approximately five million people, who are for the most part ethnic Somali nomads. Over the past two years, the conflict has escalated following the ****** National Liberation Front's (ONLF) attack on a Chinese-run oil exploration field that resulted in the death of 74 Ethiopian guards and Chinese workers. Since then, the area has been closed off by the Ethiopian army. The armed ONLF resistance began in 1994 when they broached the idea of splitting from Ethiopia. The central government then imprisoned ******i leaders and has since labeled them as terrorists, linking them to al-Qaeda. The ******i allege assassinations, torture and rape at the hands of the Ethiopian solders. Joining the programme to discuss the ongoing conflict will be Fowsia Abdulkadir, an independent researcher and human rights activist who testified before the US Congress on the situation in the ****** region, Gregory Stanton, the founder and president of Genocide Watch and the president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and David Shinn, the former US ambassador to Ethiopia and co-author of A Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia.

Che, many thanks for delving into this history for us. Your choice of Al-Kindi is a good one. I would caution against Ibn Rushd (Averroes), along with Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Al-Farabi (Alpharabius). Some of Ibn Rushd's ideas were/are at odds with certain tenets of Islamic theology. Al-Ghazali, a critic of Ibn Rushd, is more sound - Islamically. The Muslim Heritage site has a good article, with bibliography, on Al-Kindi.

^Try again. The site is now back up. The father of economics isn't Adam Smith but rather Ibn Khaldun. If you don't find the muslim heritage site convicincing enough, then check this liberal site.

Many of the celebrated Western thinkers (including the ones cited above) benefited immensely from work carried out by Muslims. Very few Western thinkers have acknowledged the debt they owe to these predecessors. Check out the link below. Muslim Heritage

Kirkus Reviews May 2009 Keane, John THE LIFE AND DEATH OF DEMOCRACY A distinguished political scientist takes a broad view of democracy, speculating on both the lineage and the prospects of a cherished doctrine. In the realm of the ideal, writes Keane (Politics/Univ. of Westminster; Violence and Democracy, 2004, etc.), democracy "was to be the government of the humble, by the humble, for the humble." It was meant to remove power from the hands of the elite few fortunate enough, by accident of birth or property, to direct the lives of those less fortunate. Ideals, of course, do not often conform to reality, and in this long - indeed, a touch too long, making Karl Popper's 800-page magnum opus The OpenSociety and Its Enemies (1945) seem slender by comparison - treatise, Keane considers all the ways in which democracies have gone awry over the course of history. The author distinguishes numerous types of democracies, assembly and representative and, now, monitory - those born of movements to correct the ruling class on particular issues, such as civil rights for ethnic minorities. Provocatively, Keane extends the history of democracy beyond the walls of Athens, where, Western legend has it the idea of rule by the demos, the people writ large, was born. The author locates democratic ideas in ancient Syria and Mesopotamia, as well as Mycenae and other Mediterranean locales. Contradictions abound in those ideas: Can a slaveholding state such as Athens be democratic? Can Sparta, with impressed military service? Must a state be democratic to be prosperous? Keane's explorations should occasion some rethinking - on, for instance, the history of India, which shows the possibilities of multiethnic democracies, and of Islam, which has a neglected democratic tradition. The author also isolates desiderata for fulfilling "the humbling ideal of democracy," among them access to education, health care and livelihood - the sorts of things that champions of free-market democracy minimize as somehow socialistic. A significant work, though an abridgement could help spread the word.

What a way to run a country It has taken 4,500 years for democracy to reach its modern form ... So what, exactly, have we been left with, asks David Runciman David Runciman The Observer, Sunday 7 June 2009 The Life and Deat of Democracy Though it is often difficult to know what democracy really means, it has never been hard to say where it started, or when: it all began in Athens about 2,500 years ago. Right? Wrong, according to John Keane, who thinks that our taste for these sorts of founding myths is a large part of why we are so confused about what democracy is and how it works. We want the story to be neat as well as noble, and so we lose sight of all the ways in which democracy is neither of these things. Instead, as Keane shows in this monumental new history, it is often chaotic and its progress around the world has been highly contingent, with neither tidy beginnings nor happy endings. Keane's aim is, as he puts it, to "democratise" the history of democracy, opening it up to all the unheralded sources and unlikely experiences that have shaped its fate and ours. So Athens isn't where it all kicks off: we need to look further back, and further east, to find the origin of the idea that public gatherings could discuss and decide on matters of real importance. The ancient civilisations of Syria-Mesopotamia were experimenting with popular assemblies up to 2,000 years before the Athenians had a go. What marked out Athens was not so much its democratic institutions as its self-importance, its sense of destiny. Keane thinks that we spend too much time thinking about the demos ("people") in Athenian democracy, and not enough worrying about the kratos ("rule"). This wasn't a cosy idea implying order and stability; it "referred to might, strength, triumphant power and victory over others, especially through the application of force". It gave the Athenians a feeling they could make their own fate, competing on equal terms not just with kings, but with the gods as well. They were wrong about this and Athenian democracy was eventually snuffed out by the kings of Macedonia, who included the god-like Alexander the Great. Athens wasn't where democracy was born but it was, as Keane points out, where it suffered its first death. Still, the idea of democracy didn't disappear along with Athenian pride. One of the things Keane most objects to about our founding democratic myths is the assumption that, as an inherently Western idea, it must have gone into deep storage until rediscovered in England/France/the US (whichever you prefer) about 2,000 years later. In fact, democracy continued to develop in the East, fusing with Islam to produce strange and dynamic hybrids of religious faith, market economics and communal politics. Keane shows that the re-emergence of democracy in the West was not an attempt to break with Eastern traditions, but to compete with them. He locates the earliest European parliaments in 12th-century Spain ("the mother of parliaments", he says, can be found at Léon), where they were a direct response by Christian kings to the threat of democratic Islam, which was threatening to sweep all before it. Eventually, though, the story has to move west. What Keane calls "assembly democracy" was replaced in the modern era by "representative democracy", with its characteristic mix of mass elections, party political machines and charismatic leaders. Here, the originality of Keane's account lies in his willingness to keep moving south as well: he tells the story of 19th- and early 20th-century Latin American democracy before discussing its more familiar European equivalents. The brutal strongmen and fraudulent caudillo democracies of places such as Mexico and Argentina are held up not as a falling away from some European ideal, but as horrible precursors of the brutality and absurdity of what passed for democracy in "the European graveyard" of the first half of the 20th century. Keane's preference for "assembly" over "representative" democracy is clear, as is his distaste for what he calls "the pseudo-democratic doctrine of self-determination" that emerged after the first world war and was used to justify "the brazen murdering and herding of peoples". But what he prefers above all is what he thinks has emerged since 1945 - a new kind of democracy he christens "monitory" democracy. This ugly phrase refers to the multiple and overlapping means citizens now have to scrutinise, complain about and resist their governments, not just through parliaments, but also through watchdogs, audits, regional assemblies, civil society monitors and so on. This isn't as new an idea as Keane implies - the constitutional theorist Benjamin Constant was proposing something similar in the early 19th century - but what is new is the technology now driving it, above all the internet. Keane's central example of monitory democracy in action is India, which is appropriate, given India's distinctive combination of almost limitless political variety bordering on chaos and its increasing technological expertise. Monitory democracy is an essentially negative idea of politics - it is, as Keane says, the idea of a politics in which "no body should rule". As such, it's only at best a partial description of what democracy is and what it needs to be. In Britain we are living through a monitory democratic moment right now. The expenses scandal shows how much harder it has become for politicians to keep things hidden. But the resulting public rage is also a reflection of how hard we find it to know what democratic politicians are for any more - we can't see what they are doing to justify our having to pay for their swimming-pools. Monitory democracy distances us from politicians by making it increasingly difficult for them to justify any ruling that they have to do. So more and more of the ruling tends to go on behind closed doors. It is no coincidence that Indian politics, for all its dynamism, is just as dynastic as ever. This is a remarkable book, nearly 1,000 pages long and with something to be learnt from almost every one of them. Still, it's longer than it needs to be. Keane has travelled widely and thought deeply about his subject, but his repeated insistence on the originality of what he's doing starts to grate after a while. He says that his is the first real history of democracy for more than 100 years. It isn't - there was an important (and much shorter) one published by John Dunn just four years ago. What it is is the first history of this type, with this sort of global reach. Keane seems torn about monitory democracy - he celebrates it, but, in a chapter speculating about the coming century, he foresees all sorts of problems, as people get turned off from politics and violence spills out in ways states can't control. What he doesn't say is that democracy, as well as being a highly contingent idea, has also always been a deeply schizophrenic one. It pulls in different directions. Monitory democracy can function only if it learns to co-exist with some of those democratic ideas that Keane is too quick to dismiss as bogus, from the self-importance of the ancient Greeks to the 20th-century principle of self-determination. Democracy needs something more than the feeling of irritation that comes with being ruled. It needs a sense of purpose - some kind of kratos that the demos can live with. • David Runciman is the author of Political Hypocrisy: the Mask of Power from Hobbes to Orwell and Beyond (Princeton) Source

Tracking Africa's people smugglers By Brian Hungwe Harare Human smugglers are running a complex multi-million dollar network, fleecing distressed Somalis seeking a way out of their war-torn country and desperate Ethiopians caught up in vicious cycles of hunger, floods and political repression. Thousands of people leave their countries every year, trekking thousands of miles through eight countries from the Horn of Africa, via East Africa down to South Africa. Bribes oil their journeys across the region by air, overland and sea. And immigration and police are complicit. The state of the airports and the corruption that goes on there mirrors the body politic of the countries involved. And this has security implications for the countries involved. In a recent report on smuggling in the region, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) noted that "guardians of national border integrity... are deeply compromised, creating a threat to national security". It says their complicity is keeping the smuggling business afloat and that they "should be considered part of the illegal and abusive enterprise" where "cupidity appears to be the foremost and only visible motivation". Huge sums IOM's Tal Raviv, based in Nairobi, acknowledges that the smuggling ring is "sophisticated." "Tens of thousands of people are able to move from Somalia and Ethiopia, all the way down to South Africa, and they arrive successfully," she said. "All the borders are porous, it's just that," points out Mokotedi Mpshe, who heads South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority. Mr Mpshe knows the extent to which corruption has permeated his society. "Some government officials can let you down. We may try to fight human trafficking, but at the same time there may be elements amongst ourselves that are working against us," he said. Cash-strapped governments can't match the huge sums smugglers pay immigration and police officers to ease the path of illegal immigrants en route to South Africa. Expanding business I found that immigrants pay smugglers on average $1,500 - $2,000 before the journey begins. The IOM also estimates the smuggling business generates annual revenue of about $40m. Along the way the immigrants lose much more to robberies. And rape and other abuse is common. Over the years, the flow of Somalis has been growing, and thus, according to the IOM, "providing smugglers an expanding and lucrative business opportunity". "The next five to 10 years, Somalia will have nobody there," said Ismail, a Somali truck driver living in Malawi. "There is no peace which is coming, there is nobody who is fighting for Somalia." Lions and snakes Salma left Somalia with her son Nasir, 3, six years ago, when she was 23. She left her mother and brother behind, and has no clue where they are. From her flat in Cape Town, South Africa, she says that everyone in Somalia is trying to flee the fighting there. She says she walked on foot for 24 days during the journey. In Kenya, Salma met Amina, a smuggler linked into a network that carried her across several countries. Nairobi's Eastleigh district is, according to IOM, the smuggling hub of the region. It is a little Mogadishu in the heart of Nairobi, whose life runs 24 hours, hosting a close-knit Somali community that keeps itself to itself. Money transfers are done with ease, and anything goes. Vehicles with tinted windows are a common sight, and haulage trucks move goods in and out every hour. It is here that Salma gave $1,000 to the smuggler, Amina, who accompanied her and a small party of migrants on the first half of their journey. Police bribed In Tanzania, six members of the party were arrested. Salma says the smuggler bribed the police to secure their freedom. She says they had similar experiences in Zambia and Zimbabwe. "[smuggler] paid some money and we came out." Six years later, Salma's journey is still vivid for her, as she recounts how she was terrified of lions and snakes as she trudged through the bush. "Sometimes [smugglers], they ask the women to sleep with them," Salma remembers. "You sleep with them, otherwise they leave you behind... they do that." The IOM's Tal Raviv confirmed that almost all smuggled women get raped, and her organisation has also received reports of the same thing happening to men. Salma's journey was even tougher than usual because she was travelling with a child, so the smugglers told her they could not give her accommodation. "I was struggling too much," she remembers. Nasir, now nine, vividly recalls sleeping in the forest, his mother walking long distances, and sometimes going for days without food. "I never ever, I don't want to do again that journey." Source

Originally posted by Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiy aar: Soomaaliya is a nation, it is not beholden to an individual or a special interest group. Soomaaliya ma'aha jaraanjar meel lagu gaaraayo, oo dan qabyaaladeed laga leeyahay. Soomaaliya is nation oo Soomaalida ka dhaxeyso, it is not dal lagu gorgortamaayo meel lagu gaaro la rabo for selfish reasons. Soomaaliya cannot be a jaraanjar lagu koraayo meel one wants enrich one's self. No, no, and no. MMA, Thank you! Tani waa mid u baahan in lagu celceliyo.

For those of you excited about this development, I'm sorry to dampen your moods. This title of this thread should instead read - "Exploitation - a step closer". I say this because the men leading the negotiations and those currently in power are simply incompetent. I feel sorry for my homeland.

Interesting series of videos. They reenact certain Hadiths' about Shaitan's relentless pursuit in trying to misguide and lead astray believers from the straight path. There are a number of videos related to the topic - check them out. Sleep is better than Prayer Forget about your mother

Apologies if this video has already been posted. A short but poignant video about impoverished, helpless Somali parents in the West and their seemingly futile attempt at preserving the good character of their young and impressionable sons and daughters. Yet another reminder to inquire into the circumstances of our fellow Somalis' in the West, especially newly arrived ones. There are countless families in the same situation as that portrayed in this video.

MMA, walaal I share your sentiment. Never lose hope though - keep believing. Murugtaada (iyo murugta Soomaalida kale oo qiimaha leh) meel bilaash kuma bixi doonto. The blue flag will fly again and dominate the plains of Africa and beyond. I know, it seems unimaginable amid the current upheaval. One must never forget though that whhat we see today is far removed from the essence and character of the true Somali. The Sharifs' and Al-Shabaabs' of today will simply delay the matter. The true sons of the blue flag aren't all dead. It is these sons and daughters who will rise to reclaim our land and dignity. Wadankeena hooyo waa loo magan yahay walaal. Waqtiguna wuu soo dawyahay.

^Mahasanid. Perhaps you should remember to put on your logical cap more often I have equal respect for some of the stances you take in this forum.

Read the post in the thread that I referenced above. Ironically, you and I seem to be on the same page in that I don't support either side in this conflict. Whatever benefits the poor civilians caught in the middle is all i care about. Neither side cares much about the civilians - hence why I support neither.

Originally posted by NGONGE: The man became president and the first thing that this humble, Armani-wearing geography teacher did was to visit Addis Ababa and have a photo opportunity with the man who, up to that moment, was supposed to be Somalia’s biggest enemy! This and like points in your thread are inconsequential. Originally posted by NGONGE: The humble geography teacher, they told us, was not like his predecessor. He will get rid of foreign troops. He will return Somalia to the Somalis. He will reach out to all his opponents and include them in his government. He is a genuine man who means well and has Somalia’s interests at heart! It doesn't happen too often but here's where I am in partial agreement with you (i doubt if we'll ever be in total agreement on anything). The parts I agree with include his reneging on removing foreign troops. This has led me to question his genuineness and indeed of whether he truly places the interests of ordinary Somalis at the heart of his policies. As I've indicated in an earlier thread, his single biggest mistake to date is his insistence on keeping AMISOM troops in the country. Too many innocent Somalis have perished as a consequence of this misguided policy of his. This doesn't excuse the reckless actions of the opposition groups - who have been responsible for most of the casualties amongst the civilians. One wonders though, how many innocent civilians would have been saved if Sharif heeded the 'Uluma council's call and asked AMISOM to leave?

AT, thanks for the follow-up. Fascinating review. Our arch enemy has enumerable internal problems which any state can exploit. Our old leaders exploited this weakness in different ways but none did so to the extent they should have. Any future state of ours should pay more attention to the inner workings of this vast, weak, ungovernable state. Instead of engaging in two wars with it ( one of which was unnecessary), we should have armed and supported the oppressed ethnic groups within - much like Eritrea has done to great affect. Sure, it will take a long while before the desired effects materialize but it is less costly and more strategic. Over time, once we've built enough alliances within Ethiopia, we might even find ourselves with a friendly regime (or even better - one controlled from Mogadishu!) willing to work cooperatively with us on an equitable outcome to the Ogad'en issue.

AT, quite informative. Thank you. Apart from the challenges posed by the mainstream parties you've highlighted above, do you have much info on the influence of guerilla / insurgent groups from the various ethnicities on Ethiopian politics. Apparently the increase in sophistication and tactics of these groups is the real reason behind Meles' call to change the old-guard. Do you share this view?

Couldn't agree more. Good post. There should be more threads about our common interests. Most threads argue over positions. For those of you interested - Check out this book - wiki link. Although written by non-Muslims, its approach to the subject is very close to some Islamic books that I've read over the years - unfortunately I don't have an online link for any of those Islamic books.