Duke, given your stance on past 'war criminals' no one will take you seriously. Some of what you report in this thread, if true, is very concerning. All we ask is that you be consistent.

Kashafa, this post seems to have moved on from our initial exchange. In any case, I thought I’d respond to some of your earlier points. Originally posted by Kashafa: [q]Brotherman akhi, those of us who took a principled stand against Yey, must take that exact same stand against Sharif. Otherwise, you are declaring your stand yesterday to be one of convenience .[/q] My principled stance against the TFG of old was not one of convenience. My concern remains for the innocent civilians caught in the middle, regardless of who is in charge. I never take a stance in support of individuals or groups. My stances have always pertained to what is good for Somalia and its people - not whom i'd like to be in charge. For example, you'll be surprised to learn that I support most of what Aweys and his allies demand from the TFG. Specifically, I support their call for all foreign forces to leave our country. You might also be surprised to learn that I largely blame Sheikh Sharif for the breakdown in the talks. His almost unholy intransigence of insisting on AMISOM's continued presence led to this upheaval. Sheikh Sharif had a golden opportunity to wrestle momentum away from the opposition and bring back the Somali ideals and noble-mindedness of our leaders of old - making the Somali people arbiters of their own affairs. That opportunity arrived when the 'Uluma Council called for the withdrawal of AMISOM in return for its full support of the government. Not only that but they, along with the Somali public were ready and willing to defend the government. Had Sheikh Sharif siezed that opportunity and ordered AMISOM out of the country, the situation would have been very different. With AMISOM gone, Aweys would have had no choice but to honour his oft-repeated phrase of 'leaving the Somalis to talk amongst themselves'. Al-Shabab would have most likely continued their struggle but it would have done so without much of its Somali fighters. The mood of a public tired of war, coupled with an inspired leader willing to end all foreign influence in our country would have swerved many of the Somali members of Al-Shabab away from their current struggle. As a result, Al-Shabab would have been left to rely on its foreign contingent alone and would not have posed much of a challenge. I'm not speculating. The scenario I speak of was a real possibility had Sheikh Sharif acted in the manner described. Sheikh Sharif's insistence on AMISOM's continued presence brought all that to a halt and gave the opposition room to maneuver. Rather than respond positively to the demands of the opposition and avert disaster, he responded in the true fashion of a subservient puppet. It was as if asking AMISOM to leave would lead to the ceasing of the support the TFG receives from abroad. Having said that, the opposition (excluding Al-Shabab - i don't know what to make of this group) ought to have known better than subjecting more suffering upon on an already traumatized public. Their arguments do not stand up to scrutiny Islamically or politically. Scholars more senior and learned than Aweys and Turki have dismissed the religious arguments outright. Their political arguments are just as futile. Dismissing every new entity as foreign controlled and vowing to fight it will only prolong the suffering of our people. This is where my real contention lies. How much more suffering and mayhem can our people take? Aweys' recent appeal for the people to have 'patience' and 'endure' the turmoil he has instigated is morally reprehensible. This is where our views diverge. Neither AMISOM's continued presence nor the support the TFG receives from abroad excuse the actions of the opposition. Dismantling a government willing to institute Shariah and move positively in other avenues, simply because of a small force whose area of influence does not even extend more than a few blocks in Mogadishu is not persuasive enough for me. Yes, it is honorable to call for a Somalia free of all foreign interference. It is honorable to demand full sovereignty. But one must not demolish the only entity capable of ensuring full sovereignty without giving it a chance. Rather, the opposition should use its influence to demand that the TFG mould itself into a more independent, acceptable government which properly defends the interests of our country. Instead of thinking strategically and placing the needs of the people and indeed of our country first, the opposition chose to cling on to flimsy and half-baked principles. Instead of defending the country against undue external influences, they risk endangering the very existence of our country and bringing about more untold suffering for our people. It is ironic that they speak of defending the honor and sovereignty of the Somali people while at the same time leading it to the abyss. The potential consequences of their actions far outweigh the ills they claim to be fighting.

The TFG ought to have held out a little longer. Its taking a huge gamble by going on the offensive. If it loses, it will only have itself to blame.

NG, when will you change saxib? Do you still measure ideas through the prism of tribalism? I remember having a long discussion with you about my stance on qabiil. I'm first a Muslim (slave of Allah) and secondly a proud Somali - i do not have a third identity. Inquire into my arguments and stances but please refrain from linking my ideas to clan x or y.

Kashafa, my statement that "You will not find a single religious argument against Sharif's administration" relates to Godane's recent audio. It is he who did not advance religious arguments against Sharif's admin. I make no judgement against the religious credentials of this admin. I feel that it hasn't been given the chance to put in practice what it has promised. My stance has not changed. I'm saddened by the fact that some of yesterday's thugs have found a seat in this re-branded TFG. I still crave for an Islamic state the way you do. My wish though is for a different kind of Islamic state, a more sophisticated, intellectual one. The version advanced by AlShabab and enforced by the gun is not the one I wish for my homeland. Anyhow, you've written much for me to ruminate on. I'm short on time now but will get back to you sometime soon.

Kashafa, I once admired you for your posts during the Ethiopian occupation. The scenario today is entirely is different. The kind of actions you're trying to defend are indefensible saxib. Al-Shababa, Turki, Aweys and their supporters have lost all legitimacy in the eyes of the Somali people. Their continued shelling of the innocent civilians in Mogadishu and afar is an abomination. No religious or political argument will suffice. Neither have the leaders of these groups even tried explaining their actions. They've understood the fragility of their arguments and have decided to seize power before the TFG's mist of incompetence settles. The best Ahmed Godane could come up with is that Sheikh Sharif visited Addis Ababa! Listen to Godane's recent diatribe carefully. You will not find a single religious argument against Sharif's administration. Still, here you are advancing non-sensical religious arguments for this senseless war.

^Nice sum up. I agree.

Rob Crilly, Posted January 31, 2009 Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed: Somalia Elects Man Demonized By The West Funny how things work out. Two years ago Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was on the run from an Ethiopian assault that had snatched Mogadishu from the Islamists who ran the city peacefully for six months. America had given its tacit support to the strike, fearing that Somalia was about to become a haven for al Qaeda. Sheikh Sharif was a wanted man. Now he is president of Somalia, or at least that part of Somalia controlled by an alliance of the old discredited Transitional Federal Government and Sheikh Sharif's moderate wing of the Islamist Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia. He was chosen by the country's MPs meeting in Djibouti, a result that will be something of an embarrassment for the West. British diplomats in particular were lobbying hard for his rival Nur Adde. Yet for anyone who wants peace in Somalia it has to be the right result. Nur Adde may be the better politician, with his years of experience as an aid official. But Sheikh Sharif is the man who can unite the country. The new president faces an Islamist insurgency that has wrested control of large chunks of the country. If he can survive the initial onslaught that is sure to come from extreme opposition movements, and start to show momentum, bringing in donor cash and showing that his is the only game in town, he stands a chance of bringing his old allies in the Union of Islamic Courts on board. The man I met two and a half years ago in a battle-scarred city struck me as a man prepared to talk. He wanted to tell the world that he was not a terrorist or an extremist but a man who wanted to make Somalia a better place. He and the Islamic Courts brought peace and security to a city that had experienced nothing but anarchy for a decade and a half. He was anything but a cartoon Islamist. With his checked shirt, cargo pants and headscarf he looked more like Islamist by Gap. His problem was that extremists within his movement went too far. Some of the Sharia courts within the union banned music in their areas of the city, cinemas were shut down and - the biggest mistake of all - stopped the trade in qat, the mild stimulant so beloved of Somali men. With popularity at home ebbing and little support from the international community Sheikh Sharif was unable to sideline the hardliners like Sheikh Aweys and the project was ultimately doomed. This time around he faces the opposite challenge, bringing al Shabaab - designated a terrorist outfit by the State Department and which controls big chunks of Somalia - and Sheikh Aweys on board. It will be tough but he stands a better chance than Nur Adde, a former prime minister of the hated TFG, which is seen as a stooge of Ethiopia and western powers. If there's one thing I've learned about Somalia in four years of reporting (aside from the fact that anyone who tells you they know what they are talking about is a fool) is that nothing will work unless it comes from Somalia itself. The British diplomats haven't learned that lesson, trying to dabble in Somalia's political process to promote their man (he has a Brit passport too) at the expense of Islamists. Somalis generally throw in their lot with whoever looks like winning. Analysts tell me al Shabaab's strength is overestimated. So if Sheikh Sharif can hold on to a fractious bunch of MPs, start to bring order to Mogadishu as he did once before, clans will start coming in behind him. They have a well-attuned radar for knowing which side their bread is buttered. For now, at least, one of the men demonised by the West is Somalia's best chance of peace. source

By Doug Rutledge Tuesday, November 27, 2007 Help the Somali Refugees in Greece By now, everyone who is interested in Somalia knows the United Nations has declared that this small country houses the worst refugee crisis in Africa. We know that nearly a quarter million people have been displaced from Mogadishu alone, and we know that the southern route to the refugee camps in Kenya has been cut off by the Kenyan military. But what happens to the people who make it out of Somalia? Where do they go and how are they treated? One of the most common refugee routes leads people north from Mogadishu to Bossaso, Somalia. Here people fleeing the violence of their hometown must pay as much as $2,000 to take a raft across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen. From Yemen, they can take a bus through Saudia Arabia, but then they must walk through Syria and Turkey. This journey often takes place at night and usually requires two weeks of hard, quick walking. Amal is 19. She was pregnant when she left Somalia. She and her husband could not afford to pay the smugglers for two passages, so they thought it best if Amal were to have her baby in what they thought would be the safe harbor of Europe. For this part of the walking tour, the pregnant Amal had to pay the smugglers $550. All through the journey they pushed and shoved the young woman, threatening to leave her behind if she could not keep up. When she reached Izmir, Turkey, Amal’s child was born. From there, Amal had to pay the smugglers another $1,000 to cross the Aegean Sea. There were 18 people on the inflatable raft that carried Amal and her baby away from Turkey. The smugglers forced her to get out of the raft before it reached shore, because they did not want to get caught by the Greek Coast Guard, so the terrified Amal had to carry her child over her head, while she struggled through the waves toward dry land. Then she had to carry her baby over a mountain, with the trees tearing at her clothes. On the other side of the mountain, Amal was captured by the Greek police. Nearly all refugees are captured by the Greek police, but one would think that this would be fine. After all, Greece is part of the European Union, where the Geneva Convention is recognized, as is the European Declaration of Human Rights. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Almost no one is granted asylum in Greece. In order to apply for asylum, a person needs a job. To get a job, you need a work permit, and to get a work permit, you need to have applied for asylum. There is no way to break the cycle of bureaucratic requirements. Ali Hussien, of the Greek Refugee Council, told us that between 2000 and 2005, the Greek government granted refugee status to a mere 114 people. This works out to be 23 a year or about two a month. In fact, the European Union has sanctioned Greece for offering asylum to less than 2% of the people who apply. Instead, what Greece offers refugees, after it has held them in detention for anywhere from one week to a month, is a card that tells them to leave the country within 30 days or be arrested. The authorities held Amal in detention on an island for 18 days. In detention, she was given only adult food for both herself and her baby. Many people report being beaten in detention, as the police try to determine the identity of the smugglers. When she was released, Amal was put on a ship that took her to the mainland and Athens. Amal was expected to pay her own fare. She had no money, so other refugees had to pay her way. Because they are denied official status, Amal and other Somali refugees are told to leave the country, but if they try to leave, Greek authorities will arrest them for traveling without papers, and if they actually manage to get on the plane, the authorities in other countries will send them back to Greece because of the Dublin Regulations. The Dublin Regulations hold that when a refugee enters Europe, he or she must remain in the country through which he or she first entered the European Union. The EU is clearly using border countries like Greece as a barrier to the rest of Europe. So Amal is being told that she cannot travel to a country that will recognize her rights as a war refugee, and she is also being told that she cannot work in Greece. How is she supposed to care for her baby? She can’t even earn money for baby food. Her husband, who is still in Mogadishu, is prevented by the war from earning any money. It is true that a Christian organization, Helping Hands offers food to Somali refugees once a week. However, its goal is ultimately to convert the Muslim Somalis. Moreover, the Somali women are afraid to go there, and one meal a week is hardly enough to relieve the horrible plight the refugees face. The situation for Somali refugees in Greece is really desperate. We witnessed several flophouses where 30 to 50 Somali refugees must live. Here the same room serves as living room, bedroom and dining room. People can stay in the flophouses, only if they have friends or relatives who will send the 3 euros a night required to rent a tiny space in these rooms. Otherwise they will become homeless. We interviewed several Somali people who sleep in the park. Finally, some men are able to work illegally picking farm produce. Abdirizak has been in Greece for four years. He works on the farms when he can. The work is intermittent, and he is paid much less than white people. Like other Somali farm workers, he lives in abandoned housing and saves his money so he can buy a ticket to another European country, where he hopes to be treated more humanely. While he works in Greece, he is abused and called racist names, but every year when he tries to leave, the authorities inevitably send him back. They never return the price of the ticket, however, so the process of being homeless and working for low wages must begin all over again. The Somalis in Greece need the help of the Somali Diaspora and of good-hearted people around the world. They cannot work, and they cannot leave. Consequently they are cut off from the means of helping themselves. We need to help these refugees in at least two ways: first of all, we need to draw attention to the injustice of the Dublin Regulations. From European wars, people have been able to seek refuge all over the world. It is unspeakably unjust that many Africans are now unable to seek refuge from their wars in Europe. However, as we are lobbying to change the legal barricades to Europe, we must also find a way to care for the Somali people in Greece, such as Amal, who are prevented from taking care of themselves. Perhaps we can raise funds that would create a sanctuary for Somali refugees. There is a crying need for a place that offers housing and food to people, who would otherwise be desperate. The refugees themselves could be paid to cook and maintain the sanctuary, and if everyone also knew that he or she were free to leave whenever he found a way out of Greece, then perhaps we could save people from the dangerous, dignity-stealing way of life to which they are currently being subjected. Doug Rutledge Writer Somali Documentary Proje E-mail: doug@somaliproject.org

^ I would have loved to see him confront Meles and seek assurances on some sort of a timetable for Ethiopian troop withdrawal. This would have been possible before he accepted the position. Expecting him to do it now is a bit of a stretch. What i will expect him to do, though, is reprimand Dheere on his latest move against the media. Staying quite on this one is not an option. He either supports it or doesn't. After all, he does have powers to stop it. Lets wait and see. Somali media barred from covering conflict: rights group NAIROBI (AFP) — Mogadishu's mayor has barred besieged Somali media from covering insurgents, military operations and the city's fleeing civilians in the face of a deadly insurgency, a rights group said Tuesday. The order by Mohamed Omar Habeb, an ex-warlord, but now mayor, effectively chokes the flow of information from Mogadishu, where reporters and media are targeted by both joint Ethiopia-Somali forces and insurgents who have been battling since January. At least eight journalists have been killed and dozens others either detained, ambushed or robbed, ranking Somalia the second-deadliest country worldwide after Iraq for journalists, according to press groups. Under the order, " the media cannot report on military operations involving the transitional government forces and Ethiopian troops unless they receive written documents that gives them approval, " according to a statement released by Somali Human Rights Defenders Network (SOHRIDEN). " Interviewing government opponents inside (Somalia or) abroad is forbidden and any journalist who dispenses or any radio station that transmits their views ... will be considered as criminal ." " Disseminating (reports) on the displacement of the civilians unless the journalists receive real statistics to base as evidence for their information is also prohibited, " said the order, cited by the rights watchdog. The watchdog labelled the order as "intolerable." With foreign reporters already avoiding Mogadishu due to insecurity, the mayor's order is the latest in a string of restrictions piling pressure on a tiny league of Somali journalists working under near-impossible climate. Mid-November, the Somali military ordered three Mogadishu radio stations off the air, leaving the remaining six radio channels and one TV station no choice but to halt operations. Somali authorities have accused the media of fanning the endless Mogadishu conflict, notably by interviewing anti-government elements, broadcasting propaganda and involving themselves in the insurgency. They have also defied calls by rights groups and foreign nations to relax a heavy-handed clampdown on press freedom. Ethiopia, which deployed troops that helped defeat an Islamist movement in Somalia in January, has also accused the Somali media of disseminating propaganda. Since the defeat of the Islamists early this year, an ensuing guerilla campaign has displaced at least 600,000 people from Mogadishu, including 200,000 who have fled in recent weeks amid some of the heaviest fighting. This brought to a million the amount of people displaced in the Horn of Africa nation, most of whom are living in squalid conditions, spawning Africa's worst humanitarian crisis, according to the UN. In Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said his forces were bogged down in the edgy city, where they are staging near-daily attacks and enduring counter-attacks, but unable to end the insurgency. "Our forces went there on a mission. The question should not be about when they will leave, but about the completion of the mission," Meles said. Addis Ababa said the Islamists militants were linked to Al-Qaeda netword. Meles said the path to "achieving stability in Somalia," had been slowed by long-running clan feuds and the failure to deployed African peacekeepers to bolster 1,500 troops from Somalia, to eventually reach the pledged 8,000 soldiers on the ground. "(This) forced us to stay longer as expected. This was aggravated by the unexpected regrouping of insurgents, but all this hasn't affected our development efforts," he added. Most recently, rebels have killed and dragged Ethiopian troops through Mogadishu streets, a grisly reminders of the fate the befell US special forces in 1993 in the same city. A UN peacekeeping missing pulled out of the country two years later. Bloody clan conflict and power struggles that intensified after the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre have scuppered many bids to stabilise Somalia. AFP

The way you penned those two claims of yours concerned me. Do you really believe them? Leave aside the social and political perspectives for the moment. Historically, i believe you're making the destabilization statement in light of recent events. If i am correct in that assumption, then will you kindly enlighten me on how exactly we destabilized our neighbor (Ethiopia)? And even more baffling, exactly how did we interfere in the internal affairs of Ethiopia? Even Meles wouldn't make the latter claim. No Somali group, in recent times (since the overthrow of Mengistu Hailemariam), was in a position to either interfere in Ethiopia's internal affairs or destabilize it. Yet this is what you seem to be suggesting. An uninformed person would easily make the connection and thereby excuse Ethiopia's invasion of our country based on what you've said. Caamir, it is one thing to be pro-government and advocate for the return of its institutions but quite another to adopt the lies of a foreign regime to achieve it.

Originally posted by Caamir: If you promote the destabilization of your neighbor, the same will happen to you. We have to find some way of getting along with our neighbors and not interfere in their internal affairs: reciprocal agreement . Destabilize our neighbor! Interfere in their internal affairs! Do you really believe these two statements of yours or are you simply trying to sure up a weak point. The way some people, in this forum, cling to empty rhetoric and insult their own intellect really saddens me

The irony of it all is that an avowed humanitarian, who still heads the chairmanship of the Somali Red Crescent Society, can take up a post within an government guilty of creating the biggest humanitarian crises (anywhere in the world) of this year. And perhaps the worst humanitarian crises Somalia has ever seen. Mr. Hussein[Nur Adde] has either overestimated his ability to bring about a change within the TFG (especially in relation to their disregard for civilians) or he is hopelessly optimistic. Or worse, simply after power himself. One assumes that Nur Adde, being a humanitarian himself, will make the fate of the 1 million (and rising) homeless, his number one priority. But how can he affect the humanitarian situation when displacing civilians has become the number tool of 'defence' for the very entity he has chosen to join and represent? I'll wait to see what he does but my initial instinct tells me that he is bound to fail. At the least, he will end up damaging the values of a humanitarian. He is already in breach of an important humanitarian principle: never afford legitimacy to a murderous regime by excusing its transgressions and certainly not by joining them! With his decision to accept the PM post and not speak out against the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe (he hasn't said a word about it - despite it being six days since accepting the position and three days since being sworne in), Nur Adde has breached the forementioned principle. His reputation is fast eroding. If he continues to keep silent on the humanitarian situation, he would have made a mockery of his chairmanship of the Somali Red Crescent Society and would have foreshadowed what most of us imagined.

^Of course Xoogsade is being serious. I doubt anyone would find an atom of seriousness in you though - in any field of life. What else would one expect from someone who shows such indifference to the blight of his own people? The likes of you should do what they're best at doing - haggle over the leftovers of their Xabashi masters.

This is a limited boycott aimed at drawing international attention to the TFG's illegal and reckless practice in relation to Somali media outlets. It is unfortunate that it had to come to this but these broadcasters have been left with no other choice. This boycott is politically savvy and I applaud it. By the end of this 24 hours, it is the reputation of the incompetent TFG that will dive even further. The broadcasters, on the other hand, would have summoned much-needed international attention and support for the cause of free press in Somalia.

The UN appears to have finally landed itself a cool-headed, sensible Secretary-General. A UN force will only confound our problems. Although Ban is not entirely against the idea of bringing a UN force (he has plans for a 'multinational' force) to Somalia, his opposition to an early deployment is welcomed.

Idaacadaha madaxa-bannaan ee magaalladda Muqdishu, oo muddo 24-saacadood hawada ka wada maqnaan doona Muqdisho Isniin , November 19 2007 SMC Agaasimayaasha Idaacaddaha madaxa bannaan ee ka hawlgala magaalladda Muqdishu, oo maanta kulan khaas ah yeeshay, ayaa waxay go’aamiyeen inay muddo 24-saacadood ah hawada ka maqnaadan. Kulankaasi ayaa waxaa ka soo wada qeyb galay Madaxda Idaacadahaasi oo djhan (kuwa xiran iyo kuwa shaqaynayey), waxaana si aad ah loogu lafa-guray xaalladaha la soo gudboonaaday Idaacadaha madaxa bannaan ee magaalladda Muqdishu, gaar ahaan Idaacadaha Toddobaadkii hore albaabadda loo laabay. Madaxda Idaacadaha, waxay si saraaxad leh uga wada xaajoodeen sidii ay Talo-mideysan uga qaadan lahaayeen xaalladaha taagan ee saamaynta ku yeeshay Nashaadaadka Warbaahinta madaxa bananaan ee ka hawlgala magaalladda Muqdishu, waxayna cabasho ka muujiyeen Idaacadaha Shabele, Simba iyo Banaadir ay muddo ku dhow hal Toddobaad hawada ka maqan, kadib, markii ay Ciiddamadda DFKMGS albaabadda u laabeen Idaacadahaasi weli hawada ka maqan. Tallaabadda ay Madaxda Idaacadaha ku guddoonsadeen inay ku xireen Idaacadahooda, ayaa waxaa looga dan leeyahay sidii DFKMGS loogu muujin lahaa in si wadajir ah looga danqaday go’aanka lagu xiray Idaacadahaasi. Sidoo kale, Mas’uuliyiinta Idaacadaha haatan hawada ku jira, waxay guddoonsadeen inay joojiyaan hawlaha Idaacadahaasi muddo 24-saacadood ah, taasi oo ka bilaabanaysa 03:00 galabnimo ee maanta ilaa 03:00 galabnimo ee berrito Inshaa Allaah. Maamulka Sare ee Idaacadda Somaliweyn, waxay si xushmad leh uga raalli-gelinayaan Dhegeystayaasha ku nool magaalladda Muqdishu, Goballadda dalka iyo Caalamka adeegyaddii ay Idaacadda u haysay muddada 24-saacadood ee ay hawada ka maqnaan doonto. Si kastaba ha ahaatee, Reer Muqdishu, ayaa waxaa saamayn xooggan ku yeelan doonta Idaacadaha sida KMG hawada uga maqnaan doona, maadaama ay Warbaahinadda madaxa bananan kala socon jireen Xogaha Wararka xasaasiga ee arrimaha gudaha ee dalka Somalia.

MOGADISHU (AFP) - Mogadishu-based broadcasters on Monday went on a 24-hour-boycott to protest against the Somali government's clampdown on press freedom, station directors said. Six radio stations -- excluding three shut down last week -- and HornAfrik TV, the only operational television station in the capital, went off air at 1200 GMT. "The local stations decided to stop broadcasting for 24 hours starting at 3:00 pm to protest against the violations on independent media," said Mukhtar Mohamed Hirabe, the acting director of Radio Shabelle. Hirabe hoped the boycott would highlight problems facing media in the lawless capital, where joint Ethiopian-Somali troops are battling Islamist-led insurgents. "We need to show solidarity with other muzzled media houses," Said Tahlil, the director of HornAfrik, told AFP. Last week, the Somali military ordered Radio Simba, Radio Banadir and Radio Shabelle off air, sparking a firestorm of protests from press rights watchdogs, the United Nations and the European Union. Authorities have accused the independent media of fanning conflict in the capital, notably interviewing anti-government elements, broadcasting propaganda and involvement in the insurgency. Ethiopia, whose forces are fighting alongside government troops in Somalia, said Somali media was awash with propaganda. Authorities have defied calls by rights groups and foreign nations to relax its heavy-handed clampdown on press freedom, which has been choked by the conflict. So far this year, at least eight journalists have been killed and dozens others either detained, ambushed or robbed, ranking Somalia the second deadliest country worldwide after Iraq for journalists, press groups say. Bloody clan conflict and power struggles that intensified after the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Said Barre have scuppered many bids to stabilise Somalia. AFP - Nov 19, 2007

^^That explains your stance perfectly well.

^ Have you ever entertained the thought that perhaps the problem emanates from you rather than the nomads you "dislike"?

How Islamic inventors changed the world By Paul Vallely - March 21, 2007 The Independent From coffee to cheques and the three-course meal, the Muslim world has given us many innovations that we in the West take for granted. Here are 20 of their most influential innovations: (1) The story goes that an Arab named Khalid was tending his goats in the Kaffa region of southern Ethiopia, when he noticed his animals became livelier after eating a certain berry. He boiled the berries to make the first coffee. Certainly the first record of the drink is of beans exported from Ethiopia to Yemen where Sufis drank it to stay awake all night to pray on special occasions. By the late 15th century it had arrived in Makkah and Turkey from where it made its way to Venice in 1645. It was brought to England in 1650 by a Turk named Pasqua Rosee who opened the first coffee house in Lombard Street in the City of London. The Arabic “qahwa” became the Turkish “kahve” then the Italian “caffé” and then English “coffee”. (2) The ancient Greeks thought our eyes emitted rays, like a laser, which enabled us to see. The first person to realise that light enters the eye, rather than leaving it, was the 10th-century Muslim mathematician, astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haitham. He invented the first pin-hole camera after noticing the way light came through a hole in window shutters. The smaller the hole, the better the picture, he worked out, and set up the first Camera Obscura (from the Arab word “qamara” for a dark or private room). He is also credited with being the first man to shift physics from a philosophical activity to an experimental one. (3) A form of chess was played in ancient India but the game was developed into the form we know it today in Persia. From there it spread westward to Europe — where it was introduced by the Moors in Spain in the 10th century — and eastward as far as Japan. The word “rook” comes from the Persian “rukh”, which means chariot. (4) A thousand years before the Wright brothers, a Muslim poet, astronomer, musician and engineer named Abbas ibn Firnas made several attempts to construct a flying machine. In 852 he jumped from the minaret of the Grand Mosque in Cordoba using a loose cloak stiffened with wooden struts. He hoped to glide like a bird. He didn’t. But the cloak slowed his fall, creating what is thought to be the first parachute, and leaving him with only minor injuries. In 875, aged 70, having perfected a machine of silk and eagles’ feathers he tried again, jumping from a mountain. He flew to a significant height and stayed aloft for ten minutes but crashed on landing — concluding, correctly, that it was because he had not given his device a tail so it would stall on landing. Baghdad international airport and a crater on the Moon are named after him. (5) Washing and bathing are religious requirements for Muslims, which is perhaps why they perfected the recipe for soap which we still use today. The ancient Egyptians had soap of a kind, as did the Romans who used it more as a pomade. But it was the Arabs who combined vegetable oils with sodium hydroxide and aromatics such as thyme oil. One of the Crusaders’ most striking characteristics, to Arab nostrils, was that they did not wash. Shampoo was introduced to England by a Muslim who opened Mahomed’s Indian Vapour Baths on Brighton seafront in 1759 and was appointed Shampooing Surgeon to Kings George IV and William IV. (6) Distillation, the means of separating liquids through differences in their boiling points, was invented around the year 800 by Islam’s foremost scientist, Jabir ibn Hayyan, who transformed alchemy into chemistry, inventing many of the basic processes and apparatus still in use today — liquefaction, crystallisation, distillation, purification, oxidisation, evaporation and filtration. As well as discovering sulphuric and nitric acid, he invented the alembic still, giving the world intense rosewater and other perfumes and alcoholic spirits (although drinking them forbidden, in Islam). Ibn Hayyan emphasised systematic experimentation and was the founder of modern chemistry. (7) The crank-shaft is a device which translates rotary into linear motion and is central to much of the machinery in the modern world, not least the internal combustion engine. One of the most important mechanical inventions in the history of humankind, it was created by an ingenious Muslim engineer called al-Jazari to raise water for irrigation. His Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices (1206) shows he also invented or refined the use of valves and pistons, devised some of the first mechanical clocks driven by water and weights, and was the father of robotics. Among his 50 other inventions was the combination lock. (8) Quilting is a method of sewing or tying two layers of cloth with a layer of insulating material in between. It is not clear whether it was invented in the Muslim world or whether it was imported there from India or China. However, it certainly came to the West via the Crusaders. They saw it used by Saracen warriors, who wore straw-filled quilted canvas shirts instead of armour. As well as a form of protection, it proved an effective guard against the chafing of the Crusaders’ metal armour and was an effective form of insulation — so much so that it became a cottage industry back home in colder climates such as Britain and Holland. (9) The pointed arch so characteristic of Europe’s Gothic cathedrals was an invention borrowed from Islamic architecture. It was much stronger than the rounded arch used by the Romans and Normans, thus allowing the building of bigger, higher, more complex and grander buildings. Other borrowings from Muslim genius included ribbed vaulting, rose windows and dome-building techniques. Europe’s castles were also adapted to copy the Islamic world’s — with arrow slits, battlements, a barbican and parapets. Square towers and keeps gave way to more easily defended round ones. The architect of Henry V’s castle was a Muslim. (10) Many modern surgical instruments are of exactly the same design as those devised in the 10th century by a Muslim surgeon called al-Zahrawi. His scalpels, bone saws, forceps, fine scissors for eye surgery and many of the 200 instruments he devised are recognisable to a modern surgeon. It was he who discovered that catgut used for internal stitches dissolves away naturally (a discovery he made when his monkey ate his lute strings) and that it can be also used to make medicine capsules. In the 13th century, another Muslim medic named Ibn Nafis described the circulation of the blood, 300 years before William Harvey discovered it. Muslim doctors also invented anaesthetics of opium and alcohol mixes and developed hollow needles to suck cataracts from eyes in a technique still used today. (11) The windmill was invented in 634 for a Persian caliph and was used to grind corn and draw up water for irrigation. In the vast deserts of Arabia, when the seasonal streams ran dry, the only source of power was the wind which blew steadily from one direction for months. Mills had six or 12 sails covered in fabric or palm leaves. It was 500 years before the first windmill was seen in Europe. (12) The technique of inoculation was not invented by Jenner and Pasteur but was devised in the Muslim world and brought to Europe from Turkey by the wife of the English ambassador to Istanbul in 1724. Children in Turkey were vaccinated with cowpox to fight the deadly smallpox at least 50 years before the West discovered it. (13) The fountain pen was invented for the Sultan of Egypt in 953 after he demanded a pen which would not stain his hands or clothes. It held ink in a reservoir and, as with modern pens, fed ink to the nib by a combination of gravity and capillary action. (14) The system of numbering in use all round the world is probably Indian in origin but the style of the numerals is Arabic and first appears in print in the work of the Muslim mathematicians al-Khwarizmi and al-Kindi around 825. Algebra was named after al-Khwarizmi’s book, Al-Jabr wa-al-Muqabilah, much of whose contents are still in use. The work of Muslim maths scholars was imported into Europe 300 years later by the Italian mathematician Fibonacci. Algorithms and much of the theory of trigonometry came from the Muslim world. And Al-Kindi’s discovery of frequency analysis rendered all the codes of the ancient world soluble and created the basis of modern cryptology. (15) Ali ibn Nafi, known by his nickname of Ziryab (Blackbird) came from Iraq to Cordoba in the 9th century and brought with him the concept of the three-course meal — soup, followed by fish or meat, then fruit and nuts. He also introduced crystal glasses (which had been invented after experiments with rock crystal by Abbas ibn Firnas). (16) Carpets were regarded as part of paradise by mediaeval Muslims, thanks to their advanced weaving techniques, new tinctures from Islamic chemistry and highly developed sense of pattern and arabesque which were the basis of Islam’s non-representational art. In contrast, Europe’s floors were distinctly earthly, not to say earthy, until Arabian and Persian carpets were introduced. In England, as Erasmus recorded, floors were “covered in rushes, occasionally renewed, but so imperfectly that the bottom layer is left undisturbed, sometimes for 20 years, harbouring expectoration, vomiting, the leakage of dogs and men, ale droppings, scraps of fish, and other abominations not fit to be mentioned”. Carpets, unsurprisingly, caught on quickly. (17) The modern cheque comes from the Arabic “saqq”, a written vow to pay for goods when they were delivered, to avoid money having to be transported across dangerous terrain. In the 9th century, a Muslim businessman could cash a cheque in China drawn on his bank in Baghdad. (18) By the 9th century, many Muslim scholars took it for granted that the Earth was a sphere. The proof, said astronomer Ibn Hazm, “is that the Sun is always vertical to a particular spot on Earth”. It was 500 years before that realisation dawned on Galileo. The calculations of Muslim astronomers were so accurate that in the 9th century they reckoned the Earth’s circumference to be 40, 253.4km — less than 200km out. Al-Idrisi took a globe depicting the world to the court of King Roger of Sicily in 1139. (19) Though the Chinese invented saltpetre gunpowder, and used it in their fireworks, it was the Arabs who worked out that it could be purified using potassium nitrate for military use. Muslim incendiary devices terrified the Crusaders. By the 15th century they had invented both a rocket, which they called a “self-moving and combusting egg”, and a torpedo — a self-propelled pear-shaped bomb with a spear at the front which impaled itself in enemy ships and then blew up. (20) Mediaeval Europe had kitchen and herb gardens, but it was the Arabs who developed the idea of the garden as a place of beauty and meditation. The first royal pleasure gardens in Europe were opened in 11th-century Muslim Spain. Flowers which originated in Muslim gardens include the carnation and the tulip. (Courtesy: The Independent)

Originally posted by Biixi: Most important achievement is Survival… It survived internal fraction caused by outside influences, and kicked out those saboteurs within the TGF who have crippled previous governments. Jump to the TFG's defence if you may but at least address the question of the thread! And do it substantively. Your current reply has nothing to do with the question being asked of you!

Harrowing images. What else can one expect after 17 years of unrelenting violence and displacement? Laila's story is typical of what ordinary folks have had to go through. Losing loved ones in the most incomprehensible of situations, suffering numerous daily injustices and still having to soldier on regardless. Given what we've had to go through, it is amazing that we haven't become a nation teeming with mental illness patients. This is down to the resilience and strong character of our people. Having said that, however, there is no doubt that many more people may have simply become so apathetic that they don't realise just how damaged their mental state is. Ironically, the true scale of this problem may only be become evident once peace returns. It is only then that people will be able to take stock on the true state of their mental health.

Shabelle is already legendary. It's brave, committed and highly professional reporters have done more than anyone else, in exposing the massacres being committed against innocent civilians. Shabelle's reporters have risked their lives to bring us the truth on the ground. They have lent their eyes and ears to the oppressed residents of Mogadishu when the rest of the world has turned theirs. Where else can one find documented evidence (both in audio and pictures) of the occupier's daily transgression against the residents of Mogadishu? Nowhere else. It is for this reason, that the work of Shabelle and its reporters goes beyond mere journalism. Shabelle is the only thing standing between reliable, impartial and up-to-date reporting of events in Somalia and a total news blackout. The occupiers would have been a lot more oppressive were it not for Shabelle's prying eyes. The occupiers and their agents may well succeed in silencing Shabelle this time round, but they should realise that the images that Shabelle has transmitted to the world and to the Somali public, have not gone unnoticed and will live on. Peculiar as it may seem, Shabelle's documented reports and interviews (with families members of victims and survivors of the Ethiopian + TFG perpetrated genocide) over the past year, will one day be used against the very people (Ethiopian generals and TFG ministers alike) wishing to silence Shabelle today.

Originally posted byMiskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar: Eebboow ummaddaada aan waxba galabsan ka qabo cadaawadaan aan waligeed la arkin. Aamiin alahayoow. I'm sorry to hear about the difficulties facing your father in his old age. Personal stories such as your father's, bring to life the harshness of life under the yoke of an oppressive occupier. I understand that your father has now decided to stay put. May Allah protect him and those around him.