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| Africa Horn |
| Profile of Ahmad Sherif |
| 2006-06-08 |
| Very little seems to be known about the man who led Somali Islamist militants to win on Monday the decisive battle against the coalition of the so-called warlords for the control of the Somali capital, Mogadishu. His name is Sherif Sheik Ahmad Sheik Mahmoud, often shortened to Ahmad Sherif, and he is the leader of the forces of the Islamic Courts Union, which many suspect is the Somali branch of Al-Qaeda. Some initial information about the man now running Mogadishu was recently published by websites close to al-Qaeda. Ahmad Sherif was born in the Somali southern region of al-Mahadi in 1964. Young Ahmad Sharif was initiated to the study of sharia - Islamic law - by his father, Sheik Mahmoud, who was the leader of the Somali Islamic movement al-Idrisia. In 1992 he left al-Mahadi for Sudan, where he studied literature and education at Kardafan university. Afterwards Ahmad Sharif moved to Libya, where he was awarded a degree in law at al-Maftuha university. During the long period he spent studying abroad he was appointed secretary general of the association of Somali people abroad. Once he returned home, he was firstly elected chairman of a Somali cultural organisation and in 2002, appointed judge at the Islamic Court of Shabelle, in central Somalia. A number of Islamic courts originated through the country during the period of anarchy which began over ten years ago, and in 2004 Ahmad Sherif was elected leader of the Islamic Courts Union. He seems just short of his goal, to become the first leader of the new Islamic emirate which many say is currently emerging in Mogadishu. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |