Somalia: Fatwa Against Al Shabab, ‘It Has No Place In Islam’
September 12, 2013
Some 160 Somali religious scholars have issued a fatwa (judgment or learned interpretation in the Islamic faith) against the al Shabab, saying the group “has no place in Islam”. It is the first time Somali religious leaders have come up with a fatwa against the group, which controls vast rural areas. The announcement comes as residents of Bula Burte, in central Somalia, denounced that the al Shabab Islamists executed a young man and performed a double amputation in front of a crowd of dozens of people.
The fatwa establishes that al Shabab “is not an Islamic movement” but an extremist group with “an erroneous ideology” that comes together “to kill Somalis without any legitimate reason or justification”. The mufti and scholars, who came from all regions of the nation and the numerous Somali communities abroad, gathered in the past days in Mogadishu for a conference on the phenomenon of extremism in the Horn of Africa nation.
At the conclusion of the conference, the participants issued a seven-point religious edit establishing that: al Shabab has strayed from the correct path of Islam, leading the Somali people onto the wrong path. The ideology they are spreading is a danger to the Islamic religion and the existence of the Somali society; The Somali government is an Islamic administration, it is forbidden (“haram”) to fight against it or regard its members as infidels; It is forbidden to join, sympathize or give any kind of support to al Shabab.
Though the edit may not have immediate effects on the ground, it marks a crucial step against the armed group and winning over the Somali society as to a behavioral concept.
Quick Links
