For the last few days, however, al-Islah has been anything but a harmonious organization.
Sheikh Mohamed Ahmed Nur “Garyare,”
a co-founding father of the group, announced that the movement had frozen the
membership of three of its top leaders: Chairman Ali Bashe Omar, Dr. Ali Sheikh
Ahmed (current president of Mogadishu University and former chair and co-
founding member of al-Islah) and Mustafa Abdullah Ali, head of the southern division
of the organization. The accusations leveled by Garyare and his supporters against
the three leaders ranged from the mundane--poor leadership, sowing discord
among members-- to the more serious charges of misappropriation of funds and treason.
Dr. Ali Sheik was specifically accused of cavorting with unnamed foreign entity,
in the name of fighting “terror.” In an interview with the BBC, Garyare made it
clear that he was, for all practical purposes, the new leader of the Islamic
movement. The cleric, who lives in Toronto, Canada, was dismissed by a recent
declaration of the deposed leaders as an individual who speaks for none but
himself. The current discord in al-Islah resembles the one that occurred in the
Somali parliament several months ago when the speaker was deposed and a new
leadership was installed, which led to the unending question of who is actually
in charge of the Somali legislature. The drama continues.
For students of Somali politics,
the question is: What led the turmoil in al-Islah to occur now? The
international Muslim Brotherhood is having the best era in its 84 years of
existence—thanks to the Arab Spring. The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Egypt won
both the parliamentary and presidential elections, the Al-Nahda is currently in
charge of Tunisia, and Syria’s Brothers are in the forefront in the existential
fight against Bashar Assad. Morocco’s branch of the MB is also in control of
the government. The only exception has been Libya where a pro-Western secular
leader, Mahmoud Jibril, won the recent elections to lead that country. But then
again, Libya was able to buck the trend, if one is to believe the Washington Post’s conservative columnist
Charles Krauthammer, because it is “less a country than an oil well with a long
beach and myriad tribes.”
Al-Islah, the
internationally-recognized MB outfit, can best be described as a small
organization with an elitist bent. Many of the rank- and- file members are
educated and have no commonality with the average Guled or Maryam. Whereas the
Egyptian MB shares the same elitist quality with its brethren in Somalia, it was
nevertheless able to articulate its political and social agendas with the
Egyptian masses. Al-Islah, on the other hand, has generally steered of being
part of Somalia’s political process because it lacked vision, grass-roots support
among the masses, and a willingness to cooperate with other--and in some cases bigger--
Islamic movements in the country. For the last two decades, al-Islah has
distinguished itself by telling the international community that it is not
Salafi, and hence militant. The leadership has failed to define its movement
other than reciting that it is not Al-Ittihad al-Islami (AIAI) or al-Shabab.
The movement’s former vice chair, and now presidential candidate, Abdurrahman M.
Abdullahi “Baadiyow” had articulated, in his various writings that the state of
militancy in Somalia is due to the presence of Salafis in the country. The Sufi
orders and the Muslim Brotherhood, argued Baadiyow, are peaceful and tolerant, whereas
the Salafis are “confrontational.” Therefore, “the root of the Islamic conflict
lies with the ideology of Salafism as practiced in Somalia.” However, Baadiyow’s
moderate beliefs have not endeared him to the very audience he has attempted to
reassure in the West. According to several independent sources of al-Islah—one
a top-ranking figure— who spoke to this writer, Baadiyow is not allowed to fly
to the United States. It is not clear
why Washington did that as Baadiyow, in his writings, speeches, and interviews,
has never advocated violence.
The root cause of the discord
among al-Islah was the proposal to form a political party. The proposal was, of
course, led by Baadiyow and Dr. Ali, and was rejected by Garyare and his
supporters, mainly because they felt disempowered by the ‘politico’ wing of the
group, which by then had full control of all the finances, as well as the
group’s jewel: Mogadishu University.
For the last several years,
al-Islah suffered defections and dissent. A new group, naming itself the New
Blood, has emerged and collaborated with two other major Islamic groups, the
Tajamuc and al-Isctissam, a Salafi group whose members were once part of now
defunct Al-Itihad. The Tajamuc is unique because it is a local homegrown Muslim
Brotherhood outfit with no ties to Cairo, the headquarters of the international
Muslim Brotherhood. The Tajamuc, unlike al-Islah, has established extensive
working relationships with other moderate Islamic groups in the country.
The recent turmoil in al-Islah
weakens the organization as the divergent leaders of the group are going
through identity crises. The fact that the leaders have failed to iron out
their differences internally, but have aired out their dirty laundry to the
public, is an indication that there is an organizational break-down caused by a
lack of necessary mechanisms to resolve conflict. The discord among the leaders
might have an impact on the functioning of Mogadishu University, perhaps, the
most successful project the group has ever undertaken in Somalia, the
institution provides high-quality educations to thousands of Somali students. Some
say that the organization is over-extending itself, especially in its pursuit
of power, and, hence, does not know its own limitations. Perhaps, it would be better off heeding to the
popular Egyptian adage, “Calaa addil xaafaha, mid riglayk,” (based on the
length of the mat, extend your legs).
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