<cite> @Holac said:</cite> This guy deserves credit. He has put his life on the line for his country. / Edit - Odey said all I wanted to say.

^Clearly he's 'their' warlord so how dare anyone else criticize him. The pathetic clannish group think continues.

I believe #8 is not correct. Shangaani - from Swahili - has nothing to do with Shanghai.

LOL. You go girl!

Muted public reaction. Guess people expected it.

What a great story. I used to hear stuff about how good bananas tasted in Somalia from relatives but I used to chalk it up to nostalgia. It's amazing that an expert actually confirms it.

^LOL at Futurenow. What is the ideology/platform of ala-Sheikh or Damul Jadiid? Is there a real difference between the two? I suspect that these are meaningless Arabic titles currently in vogue among Somalis that describe totalitarian and kleptocratic cliques who attained power in Somalia.

So tired of this ridiculously overblown story. As if the fate of freedom of expression depended on silly people who produce a weekly that specialized in offensive and demeaning cartoons that would never be published in any North American newspaper. Please! And whatever happened to coverage of Achmed - the Muslim 'defender' of the right of racists to publish their crap. Or does he not merit great weeping, teeth gnashing and exaggerated acts of grief. And what is with this retarded commentary re: does your God need killing etc. God needs nothing from anyone. Islam 101 folks. But if a provocateur gets hurt through his/her actions it shouldn't come as a surprise. That is the simple point.

^ a photo of Aden’s SUV, taken about two months ago, showing anti-Muslim graffiti, reading, “Quran is a virus disease (worse) than Ebola.” There are a number of Somalis with that disease - I can't recall them putting something up like that on their cars.

^Did you even read the article that was posted? If you had - you wouldn't be making these moronic statements. Somalis don't create jobs for Kenyans?? Really? Maybe it's you who should 'iska amus'. I don't know where these wierdos that have been brainwashed by Kenya come from. Newsflash: Kenya is a corrupt, third world country that is hell to live in for most of its citizens.

^This is nonsense. When Kenya invaded Somalia - was that bloodless? You have got to be prepared for blowback. And Kenyan police are doing the killing - it's not an angry mob. What's worse - Kenyan police are killing xoogsate and business owners who actually create jobs for Kenyans. It is wrong and inexcusable.

It's not America. The poor kid (AUN) was run over by a crazy Somali Christian who had serious issues. Before suffering gruesome and fatal injuries Thursday, Abdisamad Sheikh-Hussein helped lead the evening Muslim prayers at his mosque near downtown. “He asked for mercy for humankind and asked for humans to follow the righteous path,” remembered Ali Abdi, the assistant director of the Somali Center of Kansas City and its mosque. But Abdisamad, 15, received no mercy minutes later as he stepped off the curb at 1340 Admiral Boulevard and headed toward a car. A Chevrolet Blazer speeding eastbound sideswiped the car and struck Abdisamad, nearly severing his legs. The Staley High School sophomore died later at a hospital. The driver of the SUV, Ahmed H. Aden, a 34-year-old Kansas City truck driver, told police after his arrest that he had been searching for men who’d threatened him nine days earlier. And he said he planned to kill those men if he found them, according to court records. Aden told police that he intentionally struck Abdisamad, but he had mistaken the teen for one of the men who had threatened him. Jackson County prosecutors charged Aden with first-degree murder, armed criminal action, leaving the scene of an accident and unlawful use of a weapon. Abdisamad’s uncle, Abdinajib Dirir, said the family, who had emigrated from war-torn Somalia, was devastated. “There are no words to describe,” he said. “This is a community that fled a violent situation. Now we’re facing violence in the United States. … We are American like everyone else. And this is a tragedy for us.” Aden, whom sources described as a Somali Christian, now is the target of both a state murder investigation and a federal hate-crimes probe, authorities said. Members of the Somali community said that Aden long was known to have made frequent and violent threats against Muslims and the mosque, occasionally even threatening the mass slaughter of worshipers. Abdi said the man had been reported to authorities repeatedly and that Abdisamad even was interviewed by police about threats he had heard Aden make before. “He said he will kill a number of people,” Abdi said. “Ultimately, he killed one. Allah did not allow him to kill more.” Moussa Elbayoumy, chairman of the Kansas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said a member of the mosque has a photo of Aden’s SUV, taken about two months ago, showing anti-Muslim graffiti, reading, “Quran is a virus disease (worse) than Ebola.” “He made verbal threats to them that he intended to kill several people,” Elbayoumy said. Ahmed Abdi, 13, and other boys at the mosque on Friday confirmed they had seen the graffiti scrawled across the SUV as it cruised around the mosque recently. “He said bad things about our religion,” Ahmed said. “He came around with his car and had signs saying, ‘Islam is a disease.’” Also Friday, Kansas City police released a report of a telephone interview of Aden, conducted Oct. 25 by an officer investigating an assault at a Somali market on Independence Avenue. “The (suspect) stated to me that several people from … Islam (were) going to kill him,” the officer wrote. “I then asked the (suspect) why they want to kill him, and he stated that he was only practicing his freedom of press/expression.” No charges were filed in the assault case, police said, because the victim declined to pursue prosecution. Court records indicated that Aden previously lived in Dodge City, Kan., and Minnesota. He appeared to have a minimal criminal record. He was ticketed by the Missouri Highway Patrol earlier this year for driving a vehicle exceeding the allowable weight. A court in Rice County, Minn., convicted him in 2008 for driving under the influence of alcohol. He served a 90-day sentence in the county jail and was on probation for one year. In mourning “It is heartbreaking, I tell you that,” Mohamed Abdikafi, 34, said standing over the ovens at Jabaland, the Somali grill he owns on Independence Avenue. Abdikafi, a Somali who has been in Kansas City for about five years, said he knew both Abdisamad and Aden. He said Aden was well-known in the community as a disturbed and angry man. “That guy, he had an issue with the whole community,” Abdikafi said. Aden, he said, would frequently spout hatred and at times was known to be threatening. “You could tell he was looking for trouble,” Abdifaki said of Aden, whom he served beef stew at 10 a.m. on the morning of the killing. He said most people in the community tended to wave off Aden’s opinions as hateful, but meaningless, rantings. “Nobody took him seriously. Everybody would walk away,” Abdifaki said. Yet now, he added, “I wish we took him seriously.” Abdisamad also was well known in the Somali community, but as a kind, happy and decent boy from a good family. His father, Adullahi Mohamud, is the assistant to the imam at the mosque and also teaches there. He and his wife, Hawa, have three other children, a son and two daughters, Abdi said. At the mosque on Friday morning, Bashir Alew, 42, a Somali who is a pharmacist now living in Lee’s Summit, broke into tears as he talked about the death. Alew has four children. “This is where my children come on the weekend,” he said of the mosque. They attended weekend religious school there on Saturdays and Sundays. Alew said his 13-year-old used to play basketball with Abdisamad, whom Alew had known for 10 years. Abdi said Abdisamad spent most of his weekends at the mosque, arriving at 8 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays and leaving about 8 p.m. He would distribute food to the needy and help Somali community members with their English. Abdisamad also looked out for the drunken homeless men who occasionally staggered by the mosque. Abdi remembered that recently Abdisamad helped one such man to his feet after he’d fallen. Abdi remembered teasing the boy, telling him not to bother unless he also had a home for the man. “I said, ‘Leave him alone,’” Abdi recalled. “But he needs help,” Abdisamad replied. Abdi paused to compose himself. “He was one of the best boys at the center,” he said. Friday prayers Later Friday afternoon, more than 200 men, women and children packed the Somali Center mosque for Friday prayers. Afterward, many gathered around the boy’s family to offer comfort. A group of teenage boys stood in a group across the room, some almost in a daze, trying to figure out how to cope with the loss of their friend. Mohamed Ahmed, 13, said on Thursday, Abdisamad “was leading our prayer, and then after that, he just went outside. He was going to the gym to meet his friends and play basketball. And then, he got hit.” Ahmed Abdurahan, 15, described his friend as “a nice guy, very easy to talk to.” “He was like a regular kid,” he said. “He was smart in school, and he knew about the religion. It’s really shocking to see him gone now.” He said he had just seen his friend at the prayer service on Thursday afternoon. “It’s unbelievable,” he said. “I still can’t believe he’s gone. My mind can’t wrap around it.” Ahmed Mohamed, a close friend of the boy’s family, described him as “that friend you could go to and talk to.” “Everybody in this community knew him,” he said. “There was no person that he would exempt, nobody who didn’t like him. He was the kind of person who everybody loved.” Alew and others dismissed the notion that Abdisamad’s death was an outgrowth of some sort of larger religious differences between Somalis who are Muslim and those who are Christian. “It is a small community,” he said of Somalis in the Kansas City area. The most recent U.S. census puts the number at just short of 600 inside the Kansas City limits, but it does not include the outlying suburbs. Alew said that on any given Saturday or Sunday, some 600 to 700 Somalis will flow in and out of the mosque. Christian and Muslim Somalis, he said, get along well in Kansas City. “I don’t think this is a Christian, Muslim issue,” he said. “I think this is a mental issue.” Abdirizak Mohamed, 34, who came to Kansas City from Somalia about 12 years ago, said the same. “Everybody gets along here,” he said. “Everyone’s at peace.” Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article4299890.html#storylink=cpy

^Things are bad indeed if Oodweyne is speaking like that. Ultimately - you need serious reform not just in Somaliland but in all of Somalia. How does a minister hire his clansmen in a ministry - civil servants should be hired and fired by an independent non-partisan organization. How does a minister or the President unilaterally raise taxes wily-nily by decree? Is there are a parliament - isn't that a new statute that has to go through procedure? It still seems that real institutions with power have not been established even in Somaliland which has the longest time to develop working political structures.

Burahadeer - resorting to threats and we will wipe you out? Shows that Somalis really haven't advanced much since Siad Barre. Galbeedi - if what you say is true - why are people so passive against all these injustices? Why haven't taken to demonstrations day and night to protest these actions? If need be - why don't they shoot up the customs places? I don't know why Somalis act like caags when faced with crap like this. Each citizen is part and parcel of the government - who will act to stop injustice if citizens are not organized and active against it. Che's point is valid too - it's not Durriyada vs Reer Awdal thing - it's elites using qabiil to achieve their aims and running roughshod over those they are numerically superior to.

What a tease! I wonder how the case was overturned.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — In Kenya, where the police have long been known to harbor death squads, evidence mounts that many ordinary cops on the beat have turned into killers — doling out death to terror suspects, civilians, even children. And shakedown victims like three cable guys who, on one hot day on a dusty street corner of a sprawling Nairobi slum, pleaded with police for a break. They earned their living installing pirated cable, giving locals an illegal discount on Latin American soap operas and British soccer. But earlier that day, two plainclothes officers had confiscated their equipment, demanding a bribe for its return. The police wanted 50,000 Kenyan shillings, roughly $550. When the cable guys said they only had $230, the officers threatened them, said Mohammed Gulow, the oldest of the three. "He told us we are going to see fire and returned to the car," said Gulow, 34. "We soon saw fire." The officer rolled down his window, aimed a pistol and shot twice, according to Gulow and his buddy, Adan Hussein. The first bullet hit Aliyow Alinoor and sent him reeling through a shanty door. The second bullet caught Hussein in the arm, shattering the bone. Alinoor, 21, was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Hussein, 33, lost the use of his hand. The May 13 shooting in Mukuru slum, recounted to The Associated Press by Gulow and Hussein, is one of hundreds of similar cases, according to other eyewitness accounts and interviews with human rights workers. Underpaid, caught up in a brutal war with terrorists, too many police have become outlaws themselves. And the evidence suggests that the killers are rarely punished. Concerns about impunity were also raised when the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor in The Hague on Friday dropped all "crimes against humanity" charges against Kenya's president for lack of evidence. That case was linked to violence after the 2007 elections. Police said the shooting in Mukuru is being investigated. Gulow says no action has yet been taken against the officers. Dr. Eric Thuo, a forensic specialist at the Independent Medico-Legal Unit, a Kenyan human rights organization, studied gunshot-related deaths in six major urban areas between 2009 and 2014. By examining post-mortem records, he found 1,873 gun deaths. Police were involved in nearly two-thirds of them, many of them suspected assassinations. "Illegal killings are the norm rather than the exception," Thuo wrote in his report. Thuo's findings, which he says are conservative, contradict Kenya's official statistics. Thuo was told by the Independent Police Oversight Authority that only 120 people were fatally shot by police between September 2012 and February 2014. But Thuo's post-mortem reports indicated that nearly twice that many died from police fire in six cities alone — Nairobi, Mombasa, Eldoret, Kisumu, Kakamega and Nyeri. Kenyan police spokeswoman Zipporah Mboroki declined to comment about the allegations of police executions. The Independent Police Oversight Authority would not comment on how many of the police killings were suspected of being extrajudicial assassinations. But some officers acknowledged the killings, and even their own participation — though they would not be identified, for fear of reprisals. Three senior officers who spoke to AP confirmed that such killings were common. Bosses are well aware of what's going on, the officers said, adding that, in some cases, the orders to kill suspects come from the bosses themselves. The constant killings are spreading fear, breeding corruption and have the potential to inflame Kenya's terrorism problem. "The broader picture here is one of utter impunity," said Leslie Lefkow, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Africa Division. "My fear is that the pattern of extrajudicial killings will only worsen." Some of the deaths, like Alinoor's, come from alleged shakedowns gone wrong. Others are committed to make a point: One officer said he had had taken part in a killing in the capital. "I took part in an extrajudicial killing at the time there was pressure to reduce muggings downtown and we needed to send a message," the officer said, without giving details on who was killed. Others come from increased police vigilance in poor neighborhoods — like the Somali enclave of Eastleigh, just outside Nairobi — in an attempt to fight terror, an effort that has been financed by the United States and other Western nations. The Islamic militant group al-Shabab has been fighting for years to establish Islamic rule in neighboring Somalia. When Kenya sent in troops, the group, which is linked to al-Qaida, retaliated with terrorist attacks. It claimed responsibility for the Westgate shopping mall attack in Nairobi last year that left 67 dead, along with two recent massacres of non-Muslim civilians. Observers say Kenya's bid to crush al-Shabab is often used as cover for a wide variety of abuses. The bodies of Yusuf Mohamed and four of his friends — Mohamed Kaburu, Kevin Kahuri, Simon Kingori and Martha Wairimu — were discovered deep in a forest near the central Kenyan city of Nyeri on April 17. The men had been shot in the head. Wairimu's corpse was hanging from a nearby tree. The last time Mohamed and his friends were seen alive, his family said, they were in police custody. The five friends, aged between 20 and 25, had been watching a soccer match at a local pub. After the match, police arrested the four men and drove them toward the Nyeri police station. Wairimu was not arrested, but she followed them in a taxi with cash to bail them out. Local reporters quoted unnamed police sources as saying the group had traveled to Somalia to train with al-Shabab, an allegation their families deny. "At the time they are supposed to have been training with the al-Shabab in Somalia, they were in the country shuttling between court hearings and school," said Saida Mohammed Kaburu, Mohamed Kaburu's mother. She believes the real reason the men were killed was for opposing a local gang with allies in the police. "They were totally innocent," she said. Advocates worry that police brutality will serve only to drive Kenyan youth into the arms of al-Shabab. "There's no question that these kinds of abuses against communities can contribute to radicalizing youth," said Lefkow. Human rights activists have blamed Kenya's Anti-Terrorism Police Unit, or ATPU, for some of the worst abuses. Suspects have been shot dead in public places, abducted from vehicles and courtrooms, beaten during arrest and denied contact with their families or access to lawyers, according to a Human Rights Watch report released in August. The research — conducted between November 2013 and June of this year — documents at least 10 cases of killings and 10 cases of disappearances linked to the ATPU. The rights group also documented another 11 cases of mistreatment and harassment of terrorism suspects. "The last time these people were seen was in the hands of the government agents," said Francis Auma, an officer with the Mombasa-based Muslims for Human Rights. "The government's reluctance to investigate these cases also makes it complicit." Masoud Mwinyi, a police spokesman, said those allegations are not true. The West shares some responsibility for the emboldened ATPU. Following the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombing in Nairobi and the Sept. 11 attacks, Western governments spent millions of dollars to help Kenya control the terror threat. The U.S. alone provides an average of $8 million a year to Kenya's security forces, including police units. Asked to comment, the U.S. Embassy press office issued this statement: "The U.S. takes allegations of extra-judicial killings seriously everywhere in the world and urges the Kenyan government to thoroughly investigate all reported claims. U.S. training for law enforcement entities in Kenya aims to increase the professionalism and capacity of partner forces, and includes support for police oversight bodies to improve accountability and transparency in the police services." It added that "trainees and units are thoroughly vetted" in accordance with U.S. law, and the training includes lessons "devoted to respect for human rights and the rule of law." Britain's Foreign Office says it gives training and "capacity building support" to the ATPU, but refuses to put a figure on the assistance. In a statement, it said the money was "designed to build the capacity of the Kenyan authorities to deliver peace and security in line with domestic and international law." The foreign money has not made its way into higher salaries for police. Officers make an average of $200 to $300 a month, something Washington-based East Africa scholar Samuel Aronson said was "not a sustainable salary, even by Kenyan standards." That means officers often look to supplement their income, giving Kenya's police the reputation of being the most corrupt institution in an already corrupt country, according to Berlin-based Transparency International. After a spate of violence in 2008, officials promised to reform the police service. But attempts to improve the working conditions of police officers has only meant more money for corrupt Kenyan elites, according to anti-corruption campaigner John Githongo, while reform work has stalled amid bureaucratic turf wars. Meanwhile, the hunt for cash means some police officers pair extrajudicial killing with theft. Human rights groups have documented cases where suspects have been allegedly extorted by police and then killed. That's what appears to have happened on May 5, when four men who identified themselves as police dragged Mohamed Abdi Mohamed from his shop in Eastleigh, according to the shopkeeper's cousin, Mohamed Shine. The men said Mohamed was being taken to Pangani police station. But when his relatives went there to look for him, they were told he had not been booked there, said Shine, who spoke to the AP with other family members. The family searched for Mohamed through the night. In the morning, they noticed that 50,000 Kenyan shillings had been withdrawn from his Barclays bank account, Shine said. Fearing the worst, the family called the morgue repeatedly over the next three weeks. They heard nothing until a relative paid off a mortuary attendant. The attendant revealed that police brought Mohamed's body to the morgue on May 25 along with the remains of two other Muslim men. The three were found floating near the Masinga Dam, some 90 miles (145 kilometers) northeast of Nairobi, Shine said. The police had ordered the staff not to say anything about the bodies, the attendant said. The atmosphere of intimidation reaches from the morgue all the way to the highest levels of the Kenyan government. Last year, just before the vetting process for security contracts aimed at overhauling Kenya's police, a package was left outside the office of Johnston Kavuludi, the chairman of the commission in charge of the reforms. Inside were a human head, two hands and a note saying: "Kavuludi, you are next." Still, hopes persist. When the country's top cop, Inspector General David Kimaiyo, resigned on Tuesday, only hours after al-Shabab's second mass slaughter, critics cheered his departure and urged reforms of the police and corrupt government institutions. And occasionally, police are called to account for the deaths. Two officers recently were charged with the killing of 14-year-old Kwekwe Mwandaza, whose ramshackle house in a Kenyan coastal village was raided by eight police officers on August 22. The officers shot her in the head and tried to dump her body in the forest, according to human rights lawyer Harun Ndubi. But her case was an exception. Few families get justice. Some never even get answers. Abdifatah Odowa Adan, a 30-year-old bus company manager, disappeared on May 5. He had been stopped by five men, one of whom flashed a police badge. When Adan's relatives traced the taxi they'd taken, the driver identified the captors as undercover officers, according to his sworn statement. Mohammed Korane Abdi, Adan's relative and an assistant at the bus company, said it was the first time Adan, a father of three with two wives, had a brush with the law. He said they had obtained court orders asking the police to explain the reasons for detaining Adan and why he should not be released, but the police denied having arrested him. "The government has the right to secure the safety of the nation. We are not saying Abdifatah is not at fault," said Abdi. "We, as his brothers, have the right to know if he is alive or dead. If he is alive, let him be charged in court, but at least we will know that he is alive. If he is dead, let his people bury him. "The uncertainty is too much to bear." http://news.yahoo.com/kenya-police-kill-suspects-near-impunity-095938882.html

AUN to them. Seychellois Muslim? - that's definitely a rarity. What struck me were the kids names - very South Asian.

LOL@Tillamook. The whole thing is a farce.

^You really do have your head up your ass don't you. All of this brouhaha over a cabinet reshuffle. I'm surprised the PM has survived this long - looks like he may win this battle.

Before it degenerated - Galbeedi wrote a fascinating and well documented first post regarding the situation of Somaliland folks/elites and the administration from 1969 to 1980. I don't believe this is taught to kids in Somaliland - for obvious reasons.

Why does someone who makes $125,000 go to Somalia to get a tenth of that as a minister? I can tell you for 99% of them - it is to get dhac dhac.

This is a crap article with next to no analysis or evidence capped off with a picture of Muslims praying Eid. As if to suggest Eid prayers are inherently dangerous/extreme. I hate these labels - Salafi, Wahabi, moderate Muslim etc. There are only three - extremists, non-practicing and regular Muslims. These attempts to divide and label/self-label are by nature insidious and dangerous.

Poor couple - one reason not put yourself out there. It's the nature of the social media world we live in. Every twit can air his/her half assed whatever on anything at anytime. Add to that - we come from some of the most opinionated folks on the planet and the fact that this is a Somali woman married to a non-Somalia.

^Anyone may be killed anywhere including in Canada. This is not a prosecution - this is a deportation - whether a country has the death penalty as part of its criminal code has nothing to do with legitimate deportations. If an illegal alien in the US can be deported to dangerous parts of Mexico and Columbia with a murder rate many times higher than Hargeisa, Bosaso or even Xamar - what makes it unconscionable to send a criminal, non-citizen Somali to his home country? There is a certain illogic to this argument.

Anyone who puts a price tag on love/marriage is shallow and greedy. If that's who you want in your life then it's your choice.