The Failure of Somali Political Islamists

[Deeq A.]

From left: President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, former President Sharif Ahmed, Ahmed Mohamed Islam (Jubaland State President) and Mukhtar Robow (Federal Minister for Endowments and Religious Affairs) were associated with the political Islamists’ project in Somalia.

Mogadishu (Commentary) — The former director of the Heritage Institute for Policy Studies, Abdirashid Hashi, commented on the leadership failures that plague President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

“President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud must recognise Ethiopia’s longstanding ambition to dominate, destabilise and exploit Somalia. His lack of firm resolve risks enabling Ethiopia’s overreach,” tweeted Hashi.

This verdict is shared by a section of Somali political Islamists. Political Islam officially entered Somalia’s political landscape in January 2009 when President Sharif Ahmed was elected in Djibouti after the 2008 agreement between the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia and the Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia. Hashi served as Information Minister in the first council of ministers appointed by Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, the then Prime Minister.

Damuljadid, the political faction to which President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud belongs, achieved its political goals with sponsorship from Qatar and other Arab countries that funded NGOs in Mogadishu before 2012. The faction fused opportunistic political affiliations with the Muslim Brotherhood and clan interests. As a president who sees Mogadishu as his stronghold, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud defines Somalia’s foreign policy based on the interests of his constituency.

This aspect of his foreign policy has not gone unnoticed by Kenya and Ethiopia—two neighbouring countries attuned to Somali politics. As the late Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi  stated in 1995: “We understand the intricacies of Somali politics.” Zenawi’s comment came in response to a question by former BBC Somali Service star interviewer Abdullahi Hagi, regarding claims by former Somaliland President Mohamed Ibrahim Egal that “terrorists are based in Laascaanood and Boorame.”

Under President Mohamud, Somalia has become a country oblivious to its own tribulations and limitations. His tendency to misuse international goodwill and politicise the role of peacekeepers threatens to further diminish Somalia’s standing on the global stage.

A month ago, the Federal Government of Somalia hailed Ethiopia’s exclusion from the peacekeeping force as a diplomatic victory against the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Yet, the Ankara Somalia-Ethiopia Agreement now permits Ethiopian forces to be part of the peacekeeping mission in Somalia.

Somali political Islamists have proven as adept at courting Ethiopian support as the warlords before them. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who authored an embargoed doctoral dissertation titled Examining the Challenges of Clan Politics in Statebuilding: A Case Study of Somalia, echoed the view expressed by Zenawi in a 2008 interview. “An oversupply of national sentiment is not the problem in Somalia. The problem is a lack of it. The problem is an oversupply of sub-sub-clannish attitudes” Zenawi said.

Zenawi, like President Mohamud, employed essentialist descriptions of Somali politics, omitting the central role of politicians in perpetuating the civil war after the state collapse in 1991.

Somali political Islamists are increasingly recognising that political Islam is incompatible with political realities in Somalia. 

© Puntland Post, 2024

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