Posted on 07/06/2006 12:21:22 PM PDT by pissant
ISLAMISTS vowed to execute Muslims who skip prayers as they tightened their religious grip on the Somali capital Mogadishu and again Thursday rejected government calls for foreign peacekeepers.
Under an edict issued by a leading Mogadishu cleric, the five-times daily prayer required by the Koran will be enforced under penalty of death, a move that appears to confirm the hardline nature of the city's Sharia courts. "He who does not perform prayers will be considered as infidel and Sharia law orders that that person be killed," said Sheikh Abdalla Ali, a founder and high-ranking official in the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS).
At the opening of a new Islamic court in a southern Mogadishu neighborhood late on Wednesday, he added that it was the duty of every Somali to implement the provisions of Sharia law.
It was not immediately clear who would enforce the regulation or how, but the courts have well-armed militias that routed a US-backed warlords' alliance in June after four months of bloody battles for control of Mogadishu.
Militia members shot dead two people in central Somalia late on Tuesday while quelling a protest against a ban on watching the World Cup at a local cinema, and have in the past been tasked with carrying out court rules.
Advertisement: On Thursday, Islamic leaders said two militiamen accused in late Tuesday killings of the pair had been arrested for shooting unarmed civilians and would be prosecuted under Sharia law, which could draw the death penalty.
Muslim militiamen have presided at several public executions ordered by Islamic courts in recent months, and some Mogadishu residents have complained of harassment for not dressing properly.
The United States supported the defeated warlords in a bid to stem what US officials describe as the "creeping Talibanisation" of Somalia by the courts, which Washington accuses of harbouring extremists, including Al-Qaeda members.
The Islamists flatly reject the charges, but have vowed to impose strict Sharia law across the overwhelmingly moderate Muslim country, in what many see as a direct challenge to the largely powerless transitional government.
The Islamic courts signed a mutual recognition pact with the government in June and are to meet senior officials next week in Khartoum but remain deeply at odds with the administration on several key issues.
Chief among them is a possible deployment of foreign peacekeepers to help the fledgling government restore a functioning central authority to Somalia, which has been in the throes of chaos for the past 16 years.
President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and prime minister Ali Mohamed Gedi are strong advocates of a peacekeeping force and the African Union has endorsed the idea but the Islamists have vowed to fight any foreign troops on Somali soil.
The schism was underscored on Thursday when the head of the SICS executive committee, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, addressed a delegation of African and Arab officials.
"The residents of Mogadishu and the Islamic courts have categorically stated their objection to the injection of foreign troops into our country," he said, castigating the government for its support of the mission.
"It is regrettable that the (government) has unilaterally decided to pursue the deployment of foreign troops against the spirit of Khartoum agreement. We believe alien forces are both unnecessary and counter-productive."
On Wednesday, Mr Yusuf and Mr Gedi had appealed to the same visiting delegation for the urgent deployment of a peacekeeping mission.
They were speaking at the seat of government in Baidoa, 250 kilometres northwest of Mogadishu.
Mr Ahmed told the some 30 experts and diplomats from the African Union, Arab League and the east African Inter-Governmental Authority on Development that the issue should be discussed between the parties themselves at their next round of talks set for July 15 in Khartoum.
He also accused neighbouring Ethiopia of "violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Somalia" and appealed to the visiting officials to press Addis Ababa to remove any forces it may have in the country.
Ethiopia has denied claims its troops have made incursions into Somalia but maintained it sees the Islamists in Mogadishu as a potential threat.
Wow - that was quick. They turned into the Taliban in about 1 week after preaching tolerance and working together...
Religion of Peace hard at work..
Now, now, Christians do the same thing. /sarcasm
Pray or die.... that's the Religion of Peace being hijacked again! Funny thing though - it seems to get hijacked just about every day!
Instead of simply killing the non-prayers, why don't they glue panties to their heads and faces? That's a sentence worse than mere death, or so they said! Didn't they? Oh, the horrors!
The world would be a better place without these miscreants.
How many more years is it going to take for the infidels to rise up and wipe out this nutcase cult of death?
Some "human beings" are more obsessed with controlling others' lives, under any excuse, than they are in achieving something actually useful.
What is a 'cleric' anyway? other than a parasite?
What intrinsic value does he have?
Oh indeedie. I'm lucky I was able to post at all - the whirl of activity has caused my dsl connection to grind to a halt and all circuits are busy on my phone lines... The condemnations are swift and strongly worded. Oh yeah, that was extreme sarcasm. We can cue the crickets about now...
Nothing says peace-loving religion like prayers under penalty of death.
These are the peaceloving people that the American Left (Pelosi, Boxer, Feinstein, Schumer, Durbin, Kennedy, Kerry, Reid and the list goes on) want us to negotiate with "in good faith." Yeah, right! How long would any of us have our heads? Reminiscent of Clinton and Albright's negotiations with the North Koreans (in good faith).
Somalia was already a s***-hole - my guess is it can only get worse.
How long till they run out of unobservant Muslims to kill and just start rounding up and executing the infidel? The (il)logic is there. Of course, they can keep forcibly 'converting' Somalis as in the Sudan, but eventually they will run out of Muslims to kill or Somalis to convert. No wonder Somalia's neighbors are nervous. Will Cair or any group then stand up and speak out? When will we hear from them? Their silence is their tacit approval...
I'm sure MSM would be all voer if the Pope all of a sudden said "you skip passover you die!" and then give th Nazi salute.. LMAO
Death, death, death...thats the only answer to anything with these dorks. Lord! Am I sick of hearing about them and their idiotic philosophy!
Pig’s Head Thrown Into ME Mosque During Prayers
Oh the horrors
***ISLAMISTS vowed to execute Muslims who skip prayers ***
Next it will be a demand for long beards, covering clothing, prayers in Arabic, No TV, Radio or tape and CD players.
The imans will wake up one morning and say, "My, My. It is such a beautiful day what can I declare Un-islamic today?"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.