Islamists Impose Sharia Law on Somali Port Town

(AP Photo)

By VOA News
13 November 2008

Islamist insurgents have moved to impose Sharia law in a key Somali port town they seized Wednesday.

Residents of Merka were ordered Thursday to shut down their businesses during Muslim prayer times. An insurgent commander, Sheik Abukar, also vowed to change the behavior of youths in the town.

The al-Shabab militant group took Merka without a fight Wednesday after pro-government forces fled. The town is the main entry point for U.N. food aid to Somalia, and is just 90 kilometers south of the capital, Mogadishu.

Islamist forces have been conquering territory in recent days as the Somali government squabbles over formation of a new cabinet.

Witnesses Thursday said al-Shabab has taken the town of Elasha, just 18 kilometers outside Mogadishu. However, Reuters news agency said the insurgents left when Ethiopian troops who back the Somali government arrived.

In Washington, a State Department spokesman, Robert Wood, said attacks by Islamic forces are a matter of "great concern" to the U.S, and pledged to support Somalia's transitional government.

Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein are in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. The Ethiopian news agency said they came to discuss their country's situation with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

Ethiopia sent thousands of troops into Somalia two years ago to help the government oust an Islamist movement that had seized power across much of southern Somalia. The government took control of Mogadishu but has struggled to extend its authority or contain the insurgency.

Ethiopian troops are scheduled to withdraw under a tentative peace deal signed by the government and some moderate Islamist opposition figures last month. Al-Shabab and other hardline militants have rejected that deal.




Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

Why I don't Believe In Evolution

Thanks to VeanomfangX

Are We All Used Up ? ( Michael Savage Audio Clip )

10 minute clip

Hamas says its officials met Obama aides before U.S. election

The Arab daily Al-Hayat on Tuesday quoted a senior Hamas official as saying that United States President-elect Barack Obama's advisors met with members of the Palestinian militant group before the U.S. presidential election.

Ahmed Yusuf, a political advisor to Hamas' Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh, reportedly told the London-based paper that, "The connection was made via email and after that we met with them in Gaza."

Al-Hayat reported that Yusuf also said the relations were maintained after Obama's electoral victory last Tuesday. He said the president-elect's advisors requested that the relations be kept secret so as not to aid his rival, Senator John McCain.

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Saudi Arabia to Lead U.N. Faith Forum

Saudi Arabia, the oil-rich Islamic kingdom that forbids the public practice of other religious faiths, will preside Wednesday over a two-day U.N. conference on religious tolerance that will draw more than a dozen world leaders, including President Bush, Israeli President Shimon Peres and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

What's next, the kkk on civil rights for Blacks ?

Paying Jizyah is a Sign of Kufr and Disgrace

Allah said,

until they pay the Jizyah), if they do not choose to embrace Islam,

(with willing submission), in defeat and subservience,

(and feel themselves subdued.), disgraced, humiliated and belittled. Therefore, Muslims are not allowed to honor the people of Dhimmah or elevate them above Muslims, for they are miserable, disgraced and humiliated. Muslim recorded from Abu Hurayrah that the Prophet said,

(Do not initiate the Salam to the Jews and Christians, and if you meet any of them in a road, force them to its narrowest alley.) This is why the Leader of the faithful `Umar bin Al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, demanded his well-known conditions be met by the Christians, these conditions that ensured their continued humiliation, degradation and disgrace.

tafsir

Islam / Jews and Christians