EFL - Rooters
Residents say the 1,400-student university and an affiliated Mogadishu school network that teaches more than 150,000 pupils have done more to rebuild the city's morale in recent years than all the U.N. and Western relief agencies put together. Residents hail the teachers' achievement in getting young people off the streets and behind desks. They also recognize it as something the fractious political class has never managed. "Your future will not be good if you have guns," said nursing student Mohammed AbdulRashid Kursow, 25. "I urge young people to take up the pen instead of shooting, looting and raping women."
| Yeah, but it's easier to do that than to learn how to read and write... |
The university teaches four-year courses in Islamic law, education, English, Arabic, economics and computer science. An affiliated program provides a three-year diploma in nursing. Fees are $400 a year, which covers a third of running costs per student. The gap is made up by diaspora funds and charities. The university has ties to counterparts in Egypt, Pakistan, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen and plans to win recognition for its degrees from Western universities. Most warlords are only vaguely aware of its existence, and the university's president, Saudi-trained historian Ali Sheikh Ahmed Abubakar, says that isn't a bad thing. "If some of the warlords knew about us they could create problems," he said.
| Something along the lienes of wanting a rake-off from the tuition... |
The university's existence and its teaching of Arabic in most of its courses is seen by some in the West as evidence of the influence of radical Islamists.
| I'da kinda guess so. If they're not there yet, they're going to want to move in and take over... |
Somalia watchers say its leaders are moderate Islamists, noting tuition is co-educational and teachers include Christians and Hindus as well as Muslims. Arabic is essential because the Gulf is historically a big job market for Somalis. |