|
Somali Rebel Islamists Declare Somali Govt Islamists to be Apostates
July 6 (Bloomberg) The leader of Somalias Islamist al- Shabaab movement which desires Full Hanbali as modified by Salafist Sharia gave the government which has Sharia based on various schools including Hanifi, which is frequently the least restrictive five days to surrender and hand over its weapons or face prosecution by Shariah courts. The rebel group, which the U.S. accuses of having ties to al-Qaeda, is fighting to oust Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed who came to power in January and has called for peace talks between the countries Islamist factions. "I call on the apostate government soldiers who are in the frontline of battle to surrender to the Islamists and to hand over all their weapons," Sheikh Muktar Abu-Subeyr, the highest ranking officer of al-Shabaab, said in an audio recording distributed to reporters in the capital, Mogadishu, yesterday. Sheikh Yusuf Mohamed Siyad Indhaade, Somalias minister of state for ministry of defense, verified the authenticity of the recording and rejected the call for surrender. "The government soldiers will not lay down their weapons," he told reporters late yesterday in Mogadishu. Somalia is in its 18th year of civil war and hasnt had a functioning central administration since the ouster of Mohamed Siad Barre, the former dictator, in 1991. Islamists in the country are fighting to establish a caliphate, or Islamic government, in Somalia. Posted by: Lord garth 2009-07-08 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=273898 |