Why I am not ashamed of being a somali

[Coloow]

Assalamu calaykum waraxmatullahi wa barakaatuhu.

 

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Why I am not ashamed by Idris Axmed

IN every nation, there are certain values, principles and beliefs, which characterizes its identity. Those who strictly and strenuously adhere to it are categorised to be devout and honest followers. Faith is the most influential factor which controls, moulds and curbs Man’s activities, whereby other man-made motives of positive attitude, however concretely established, are set to fail and forsake its believer. Islam is the only faith accepted by God to be the sole means to approach Him through the guidance of His last prophet Muhammad (Salallahu alaihi wasallam).

 

A topsy-turvy interpretation/presentation of Islam based on ignorance by its own followers lead to a turmoil and confusion among the non believers.

Islam, though, is the most tolerant, peaceful, cooperative and generous religion. In addition to the above mentioned, there is definitely a deliberate and clandestine conspiracy to undermine Islam. There is extremely abusive image of Islam paradoxically perpetrated and instigated by ignorant individuals who claim to be Muslims. It is a temptation and tribulation (Fitna) to the weak-hearted overwhelmingly caused by the abominable deeds of the hypocrites.

 

In my own country, Somalia, Muslims killed, robbed, raped, looted, tortured Muslims. The exodus and massacre of the hundreds of thousands has ever been an enigma and a badge of shame on my face. While I was spending sometime with intellectuals from different countries, sitting on the balcony of a restaurant overlooking on a crystal clear beach, littered with tiny pink crabs, coral reefs and shell fish; I suddenly indulged to boast the mild evening breeze near Abu Hussein seaside, the tumultuous waves of the Indian Ocean which constantly hit its huge rough rocks, Lido, second Lido beach and Jaziira.

 

Had I limited my exhilarating comments and singing of my own praises to this point, it would have been recorded as a score of mine. As none of my colleagues could contradict me in establishing facts and features of the natural beauty of my own country that it was an innocent peace of land which once used to be a paradise on earth. I was taken deep into my flattering prowess and sense of proud, but startled by one of my colleagues refuting my claims that the quality lies not in a country but its people.

 

Despite being denied of solid evidence to support my argument, yet I did not give in to the defeating blow of the former Italian journalist, Mario; a tall and skinny young man in his thirties with a ponytail, suddenly jumped to his feet fiddling vigorously with his rough leather rotten brown bag, he produced some documents and excerpts of Italian newspapers, depicting the brutal civil conflict since the overthrow of the late regime. Mario seemed to be determined to defy Somali’s least human identity, where he went pale and barked in Italian: Mio amico, vedi qui, vedi, vedi cosi, vedi qui e qui e qui, questo e Mogadishu, questo e Kismaiu, e ancora questo e Baidoa!. Each time he was yelling in a vulgar and coarse tone resembling the Napolitano dialect.

 

The guy was waving several glossy photos, in his hands, of maimed men, dishevelled women with frowning faces running bare-footed, banana and mango trees slashed, uprooted and reduced to ashes with heavy gun fire, corpses scattered on the streets, and an old man whose hands are tied to his back sitting on a pool of blood. Another newspaper showed a gunman brandishing his rifle while mounted on the top of an armoured, rusty, old Toyota (Tekniko). Though I was struck by a fit of rage, I lost no conscience and orientation to challenge him of the existence of anyone Somali who committed suicide due to undergoing severely harsh ordeal! Instead, almost all Somalis who lost both life and chattel maintained an utmost steadfastness and said: “we belong to Allah and unto Him we return “. Such is the essence of the Muslim, whatever the negative circumstances prevailing at the time. Furthermore, I mentioned to Mario that Somalis enjoy an enormous monotheistic doctrine negating the Godless, atheism, and pluralistic trinity of the east and the west.

 

It is yet a positive indicative of this fact that Somalis around the globe, the good and the bad, the old and the young, the devout and the deviant, were all moved by a disastrous shock and a tremour to find once their own daughter and sister turned an apostate to deny the existence of God!. Having warded off and refuted Mario’s accusations, it is our duty to come to our conscience and improve our ever deteriorating and constantly aggravating awful situation. What can be understood from my dialogue with Mario is that we are at the final frontiers of faith. Apart from being monotheistic and Unitarian nation, we have done everything and anything of the most abominable evil from which even the worst of atheists shun. Not only Mario ashamed me in front of the panel of multinational intellectuals, but also the old Hindu lady who was hymning glory of an idol was taken back by poignant astonishment, to hear during our conversation while on the train, that Killing we killed each other, raping we did, not to mention looting, pillaging, and the massacre of children and women. Trust me, a Japanese monk called Hirohito Yoshimoto who was sitting by her side and his two daughters burst into tears as soon as they heard me saying: Even the sacrament of Masjids (places of worship) were violated! Unlike for the notoriously curious Mario, I did not have any solid evidence as to what was the main cause of the civil conflict after the escape of the former dictator regime! A Lebanese young man asked me: are there different religions or sects, like in Lebanon, fighting each other? I said in Somalia we are all Muslims.

 

The Hindu lady shrugged agog, raising her eyebrows in an awesome gesture, while frowning she murmured: perhaps you speak different languages and belong to different races: I said we all speak Somali language (with slight and minor difference in some dialects)! They were both confused, as they were still waiting for the real cause of the conflict: I hit the nail on the head and declared: “It is a tribalism based conflict with an influence of political interestsâ€. While the Indian and the Lebanese appreciated it quite abruptly, I had the greatest difficulty explaining the first part of the cause to Yoshimoto: what is the meaning of tribalism? As I understand political interest, asked Yoshimoto. It is a social structure whereby communities belonging to a certain clan help each other, remain faithful to each other, cooperate and a very strong bond of fraternity and sincerity to each other is practiced. Yoshimoto sighed in big relief and said: you must be joking young man, this is a positive thing, nothing wrong with it, we Japanese people do it, we love each other, we help each other, we cooperate together and it is called nationalism. That is not the real cause of the conflict, you must be joking! No, No, No, No…..Noooo…….

He continued saying: Look, the Germans prioritize the German products, language, and nationals, we do the same, the British, the French, the Americans, the Chinese, and every nation puts its people and products first. We buy Japanese and rest assured there are many facilities favoured for the nationals first and foremost. Let alone on national scale, I am from a very small island north east of Japan, people in our locality cooperate more, are strongly united, yet come from different backgrounds or clan as you say.

 

After pondering over the most suitable analogy, I said: It is like you hating or fighting your own brother/sister in faith, just because he/she belongs to another tribe with whom your tribe has had a hostility or conflict. The Japanese was so bewildered and muttered: No, No, No, impossible! I further continued: The negative part of the tribalism is that cooperation, love, fraternity, mutual help and assistance is solely confined to and reserved for members of the same clan. The other person who belongs to another clan, though there is no any trace of tribal animosity, is not rendered as much confidence as the person from the same tribe and always remains the odd man out!. In your case, the people who live in a certain region in Japan, cooperate and harmoniously help each other due to regional factor, belonging to the same environment or location regardless of tribal origin.

 

Before I could start the next sentence to relax and soften the severity of the scenario, he said: you mentioned during your explanation of tribalism, brothers of the same faith, could you please tell me which faith is this? Once again I perspired vigorously and felt the swift and heavy throbs of my heartbeat from behind my back, my legs started shivering and gradually started swelling heavily, I did not want to fall into the same dilemma as I did with Mario again, though, (better an open enemy than a false friend), I should not mix the chaff with the wheat, neither mistake chalk with cheese. Look, I said: In every faith, there are people who deny its teachings called apostates, if they originally belonged to the same faith and renounced it; then there is the true and devout follower, in the middle lie a third category, neither to this side nor to that side who are in between Hypocrites (Munafiqin).

 

Better Yoshimoto know about the hypocrisy of tribalism than tell him our faith is Islam, we are Muslims, yet we fought, killed and hate each other to this extent! So, I continued, Islam is the faith, Muslims are the followers, there are true, faithful, pious, virtuous, good Muslims, fortunately we do not have the second category (apostates), but unfortunately we have the third category (hypocrites). It was to my delight to find out that Yoshimoto was not only a Buddhist monk but just came back from a trip to Malaysia where he met a group of University students from various countries studying Islamic studies in Kuala Lampur. He reached out to his luggage on the rack, and took out a copy of the Quran in Japanese. It is a gift from one of the students, he grinned, tightly clutching the small booklet between his fingers. I have seen the best character of Islam with these students, and they presented to us an ideal application of Islam. One of his daughters who were carefully following up the conversation with much interest snatched the Quran from the hand of her father and swiftly browsed the pages till she stopped on a page where the verses were underlined with red and yellow marker: She started reading in Japanese:

 

3:110 Ye are the best of peoples, evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, and believing in Allah. If only the People of the Book had faith, it were best for them: among them are some who have faith, but most of them are perverted transgressors.

 

She said this verse from your book (Al Quran) and others were the answer of the Muslim students in Malaysia to the question of my Dad who asked them why they were interested to call us to Islam. When asked what was the secret of their intimacy, fraternity, close relationship and mutual cooperation, despite the vast differences of their origin and social background, they quoted:

 

3:103 And hold fast, all together, by the rope which Allah (stretches out for you), and be not divided among yourselves; and remember with gratitude Allah's favour on you; for ye were enemies and He joined your hearts in love, so that by His Grace, ye became brethren; and ye were on the brink of the pit of Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus doth Allah make His Signs clear to you: That ye may be guided.

 

My dad made further enquiry about the secret of their personal evaluation of the personality, regardless of personal interests or worldly superiority, with all equal opportunity, justice and without the least discrimination, they referred to the this verse:

 

49:13 O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise (each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things) .

 

Though I had difficulty persuading my Japanese companion in the journey, that the misconducts committed by my people in Somalia was totally adverse to the pure teachings of Islam, I succeeded to comment on the positive and bright side of my beloved Somali people.

 

Virtually there are many positive attitude we excel the rest of the world, behold, all people commit mistakes and the best of those who commit mistake are those who oft return (to Allah and seek His forgiveness). There are numerous well-wishers, the new generation who is looking forward to bright future. For this reason I am sure yesterday’s culprits and war criminals are regretting of their past, they are serious to repent to Allah, and peace is hopefully blossoming in the country. Once we come to our conscience, fully resuscitate, I am definitely sure, we are the best of people. All we need is to return to Allah, seek His forgiveness, exercise self-restraint, steadfastness, and high morale, love one another, be kind to each other and give peace its right and utmost importance.

 

I am looking forward to bright prospects towards unity, peace and progress in Somalia and behold with every hardship there is an ease.