Did ICU ban Khat to profit from black market or retaliation vs. Kenya

[Somali_Friend]

The Khat effect: The last battle of Somalia’s Islamists

 

BY BASHIR GOTH

 

18 December 2006

 

THE Mogadishu Islamists’ decision to ban Khat, the narcotic stimulant that millions of Sumalis use, seemed to run on the lines of the old maxim, “A word of truth used with an ill intention”. For long, Somalis have been using Khat as a pastime and for generating income to feed millions of children in a country where more than 43 per cent of the population lives on less than a dollar a day. Yes, Khat is a curse on the economy, health and family fabric of the Somali people. It props the economies of Somalia’s neighbouring countries; with Kenya exporting $250 millions worth of Khat to Somalia annually and Ethiopia earning $60 million a year from Somaliland alone. Most of this money is the remittances sent by overseas Somalis to feed their loved ones back home.

 

In addition to its financial burden, the Khat causes numerous health problems; causes family break ups, wastes people’s time and energy and increases the ranks of the country’s unemployed as addiction forces millions of productive countryside people to quit their farms and livestock to Khat markets, towns and villages.

 

On the surface of it therefore, it seems any sound thinking Somali should applaud such move and thank the clerics for ridding the community of such an age-old curse. But the timing of it may make one question the real motive of the clerics. The ban comes at a time when Islamists view Ethiopia and Kenya, exporters of Khat to Somalia, as hostile countries and accuse them of siding with the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) that they want to topple. They have declared a jihad on Ethiopia and they showed their mistrust to Kenya. By banning the Khat, the Islamists have waged an economic war on both countries. It is also a quick answer to Kenya’s ban of all flights to and from Mogadishu.

 

Banning the that, however, is different from all the other bans the Islamist have imposed on the Somali people such as prohibiting music, singing, cinemas, going to the beach for women and even denying women to go out of their house without a chaperon. The Khat is not only a narcotic that almost all Somali men and many of the women use on daily basis, but unfortunately it is the only lucrative business in Somalia that feeds tens of thousands of families. It is the main business for thousands of women who sell the Khat in order to secure food, medicine and schooling for their children. What alternative do the Islamists have for all these families one may ask?

 

Did they think about the reaction of Ethiopia and Kenya? What about if Ethiopia and Kenya decide to slap a trade ban on Somalia? With Khat replacing tea and coffee as a hard currency earner for both countries, it is obvious that both countries will feel the pinch. According to some estimates, Kenya alone would lose up to Sh19 billion and an estimated 500,000 jobs. It is my hope that the Islamists have seriously thought about how they would feed the Somali people if both Kenya and Ethiopia decide to close their borders and airports to Somali trade.

 

One may also remind the Islamists that when the British colonial authorities attempted to ban Khat in Somaliland it only strengthened the people’s resolve for freedom. It was also the ban of Khat that fuelled the Somali people’s resentment of Siyad Barre and eventually contributed to his downfall.

 

Will history repeat itself? Will the Islamists revoke their decision when they feel the heat or will they stay the course until either the Khat or the Caliphate wins the battle? Only time will tell. But one thing is sure that the world may soon see an exodus of tens of thousands of Somali Khat refugees pouring to neighbouring countries and even to Somaliland, Puntland and the TFG ruled zone of Baidoa in search of their freedom to chew what many Somalis believe to be the nutrition of God-fearing people (quutul awliyaa).

 

Khat may also force hundreds of the young Islamist militia’s, the majority of whom were the former mooryan’s (drug addicts) of the warlords, to desert the Islamists side and join the TFG, thus reversing the Islamists hitherto unstoppable advance. One may not rule out, nevertheless, that those that slapped the ban may have an agenda to extricate themselves of this brinkmanship by turning the Khat into a blessed black market that could fill their war chest.

 

Bashir Goth is an African journalist based in Abu Dhabi.

[xiinfaniin]

lol@nutrition of God-fearing people!

 

I believe poor Bashir's article needs no critique, it just collapses under its own weight! The common lament over it with which I share many though is the fact that the nature of Bashir’s very partisan rancor weakens his rhetorical genius.

[Taliban]

Bashir Goth is an active and longtime member of Somaliaonline and Somalinet forums.

[N.O.R.F]

^^Is he? I wonder what name he uses?

[Taliban]

Originally posted by Northerner:

Is he? I wonder what name he uses?

Bashir Goth has written a sizable number of articles and poems (in both Somali and English), and if you keenly observe his writing style/signature and compare it to his topics/comments in the forums, then it shouldn't be difficult to know what name he uses.

[Somali_Friend]

Taliban,

Is there any doubt that ICU may have done the ban of Khat for other purposes and reasons than morals and religion, small or big doubt?

 

Bashir only wrote what he thinks and what he observed from the timing and the areas the ban was first implemented.

Afterall ICU did not implement it in other areas than the Kenya side until people started seeing the ingeniousness and complained of the unfairness.

[ElPunto]

Originally posted by Taliban:

quote:Originally posted by Northerner:

Is he? I wonder what name he uses?

Bashir Goth has written a sizable number of articles and poems (in both Somali and English), and if you keenly observe his writing style/signature and compare it to his topics/comments in the forums, then it shouldn't be difficult to know what name he uses.

Bashir Goth - please stand up!

[Faarax-Brawn]

Originally posted by Northerner:

^^Is he? I wonder what name he uses?

My best bet will be Tolstoy

 

Anyway,Waxaan la yaabay if Modern Western secular countries have banned this narcotic,Maxaa looga diidan yahay in an islamic nation?

 

Whenever ppl say They banned Jaad,I say to them...Does the USA permit Jaad? Waa maya. Nabadee

[Caano Geel]

^ hehehehehe, turn 'em around and hit them with logic again brown.

[Taliban]

Originally posted by Somali_Friend:

Taliban,

Is there any doubt that ICU may have done the ban of Khat for other purposes and reasons than morals and religion, small or big doubt?

No, no small or big doubt, it was banned for morals and religion. The ICU banned khat along with liquor, narcotics, porno movies, brothels, iwm.

[Somali_Friend]

Taliban,

What calendar do you use for this posting? Do you remember when Khat was banned and when the other things like sports on TV etc?

 

I think you are being less Taliban now?

[Taliban]

Originally posted by Somali_Friend:

Taliban,

What calendar do you use for this posting? Do you remember when Khat was banned and when the other things like sports on TV etc?

 

I think you are being less Taliban now?

You didn't get it. The term "along" doesn't entail happening at the same calendar. It entails a list, as the ICU has a list of things (muharamat) to ban. In my comment, I am telling you the achievements of the ICU, what it managed to ban, the end result, not whether it managed to ban at the same calendar.