Somalia's council of ministers is expected to be meetingPrime Minster Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke today to discuss ways ofimplementing Sharia law. The move is expected to weaken Islamic hard-linerinsurgent groups, including al-Shabab. Described by Washington as a terroristorganization with links to al-Qaeda, al-Shabab has refused to recognize the newunity government, threatening to take control of the country and fullyimplement Sharia. President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed recently agreed toinstitute Sharia in response to rebel demands. The fundamentalist codegenerally demands a separation of unrelated men and women, bans music, requireswomen to envelop themselves in public and demands that men wear beards. Councilof ministers member Abdirashid Irro Mohammed tells reporter Peter Clottey thatthe application of Sharia will take the country a long way toward endingongoing bloodshed.
"Todaywe have a meeting with the prime minister as council of ministers, and I thinkthe agenda will be the performance of the 90 days of our government. And wewill also discuss how we will apply the sharia law," Mohammed pointed out.
Hesaid discussing the implementation of Sharia law is new to most of the membersof the council of ministers.
"Hopefully,this is new for us, although we are Islamists. But we need to discuss seriouslyas council of ministers the way that we can apply the Sharia law. We willdiscuss the modalities we can use, whether in the stricter sense or the way ithas been implemented in other Islamic worlds. But if we will accept as councilof ministers the ways to implement the Sharia law, then we will send it toparliament. Then parliament will also have it take on discussions anddeliberations to either accept or reject our proposal. But hopefully parliamentwill approve of the proposal to implement the Sharia," he said.
Mohammedsaid the discussion on ways to implement the law aims to end escalatedinsurgent attacks.
"Thereasons why we are going to apply the Sharia law are two things. First of all,the Somalis have been fighting for a long time, and we will like to stop thebloodshed because our opposition from the Somali community in and outsideSomalia are requesting for the implementation of the Sharia law. And that wewill hope as soon as we approve of it, the opposition will join the government,and the bloodshed will be over," Mohammed noted.
Hesaid the government is also taking a cue from average Somalis who have beenappealing for the implementation of Sharia.
"Theother reason why we are going to apply the Sharia law is that you know as weare all Somalis and our community is requesting and asking the governmentleaders every time that one day there will be an application of the Sharia law.So we have to work with the demands and request of our people and that is thesecond idea that we are going to apply. And it is a demand of our people," hesaid.
Mohammedsaid there is an agreement between the government and the opposition that onceSharia is implemented, the other opposition forces will team up with thegovernment in its effort to ensure a stable Somalia after at least 18 years ofineffective rule.
"Ithink most of our opposition forces, especially the hard-line one, have anagreement with our leaders like the president and prime minister that they willjoin the peace process as soon as the government implements the Sharia law,except al-Shabab. For us, we are thinking about local issues, but al-Shabab isalways connected with the international Islamic policy and I think most of thegroup's leadership are not Somalis and are from outside," Mohammed noted.
Hesaid the new Somali administration will take full liability for theimplementation of Sharia law.
"TheSharia law and the implementation of our religion is the responsibility of ourgovernment, and the government will take the responsibility of the Sharia law.And the government will also take responsibility of the whole Islamic religionand for the Somali religion," he said.
In February, Somalia's President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed accepted a proposalby local and foreign religious leaders for a truce with hard-line Islamists andthe implementation of Sharia. The religious leaders mediated between thegovernment and its foes that escalated their onslaught against the newpresident, who was elected on January 31.
The hard-line al-Shabab militia and other Islamist fighters havewaged battles against the government and its allies and vows to fight on untilall foreign forces in Somalia withdraw and Sharia is imposed.
So far, African Union peacekeepers (AMISOM) whom insurgents alsorepeatedly attack are the only foreign troops in the country since Ethiopiansoldiers pulled out last month.