From time to time, Somali clerics engage
in a vitriolic war of words against each other. They denounce one another and
even engage in Takfir
(excommunication) from the realm of Islam. Recently, a vicious war of words has
reached its apex and led a regional government to intervene. The state of
Puntland has forcefully denounced and banned one Islamic group while ignoring
another with the same ideology in its midst. However, we will come to that
point shortly.
It all started on April 2, 2017, when a
group of Islamists known as “Al-Saadicuun
Bil-Xaq,” (Proclaimers of Truth) announced its presence in Mogadishu. Osman
Abdulle Roble, the group leader, said that after 40 years of studying the
situation of Somalia, the group decided to come out openly and call its people
to the “correct religion of God.” He
explained that Somalis must return to their religion as they have deviated from
the right path by living under a government that does not apply Islamic rule. In
essence, both the government—with its provisional constitution, parliament, and
judiciary—and the citizens are in ‘jaahiliyaah”
(a state of disbelief). During his announcement, Roble was accompanied by a
dozen of his colleagues, who were all gray-haired professionals wearing suits.
They included doctors, business people, college instructors, and engineers. Roble
emphasized that the group members were nonviolent and that jihad was not their
immediate goal; at least at this juncture of their mission. “Only when there is
an Islamic state,” he declared, “will jihad be possible.”
The reaction to the Takfiri group was swift and strong. Several prominent clerics castigated
it for being a narrow minded and radical group. In a two-part lecture series, Sheikh
Mohamed Umal, a leading Salafi cleric, dissected the belief, history, and
practices of the group and concluded that its members were misguided fanatics
who do not believe Somalis to be Muslims. Moreover, he explained that its
adherents shun praying in mosques. In
his zeal to lash out at the group, Umal made a historical error when he said
that the group appeared in Somalia in 1978 after some Somali students returned from
studying in Egypt. In fact, the Takfiri idea
came from a small number of Somali students who were studying at Ummul Qura
University in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. However, the Somali group is a branch of a
wider movement by the same name (Proclaimers of Truth) based in Egypt that is headed
by an Egyptian named Mustafa Kamil. Kamil was a college instructor at Mecca for
more than 20 years.
Among those who criticized the group was
the infamous militant cleric, Hassan Dahir Aweys, who was, until his arrest in
2013, part of Al-Shabaab. Aweys has been under house arrest for the last few
years, but he did not appear to have his social media activities constrained.
In a video, he explained that the Takfiri
group was not a new phenomenon. “They were silent for forty years,” he
boasted, “because we kept them silent through debate and by shedding light on
their true nature.” He added, “We had debated with them in the late 1970s and subsequently
marginalized them.” In a rare appeal to the public, however, Aweys implored Somalis
not to use violence against the group or to fire them from their jobs. Incidentally,
the Jazeerah University in Mogadishu had terminated the employment of three of
its college instructors after they had declared their allegiance to the group.
Left unsaid in Aweys’ video was the fact
that his younger brother, Abdiraman, is a prominent member of the Takfiri group and one of the three
professors who had lost their jobs. Another member of the group is Abdullahi
Ahmed Nur, a younger brother of Mogadishu’s former mayor, Mohamoud A. Nur also
known as “Tarzan.”
Omar Abdullahi Mohamed, the governor of
Nugaal region in Puntland, denounced the new group, stating, “We declare war
against this new group, we call upon the security agencies to annihilate the
group and its secret cells.” The governor failed to acknowledge the presence of
another larger Takfiri group in
Qardho, Puntland, led by Mohamoud Nur Kenadid. The latter group does not
believe in secrecy and has openly operated in Puntland. The governor’s binary
view was palpable: Puntland militants are OK but not those from Mogadishu.
Abdirahman Jibreel is a Somali cleric
who wrote a book titled, Islamic
Extremism: The Untold Story. When the book was published in 2015, no one
noticed it. However, a few months ago, the book and its author went viral on
social media.
To Jibreel, an extremist is anyone who wants to apply Islam literally. According to Jibreel, the extremist is a puritan who believes he or she is following and fulfilling what is written in the Quran, and anyone who differs with them is misguided. Jibreel sees the Quran and Hadith (Prophetic Tradition) as the source of extremism. In fact, he writes that the Quran “remains the single most important source of extremism or radicalization among the youth.”
If you are wondering why Muslim youth
join these extremist groups, Jibreel has a simple answer. He says, the role of
Islam and its belief system are the core of the problem. Jibreel writes plainly
and bluntly that “Islamic teachings are the main source of terrorism.” Jibreel’s solution is for Muslims to deal with
extremism honestly and truthfully. He proposes that some of the Islamic
teachings in the Quran and Hadith must be discarded, some changed, and others
modified. Modern Muslims, Jibreel concludes, must not implement the meaning of
the Quranic texts literally.
Mohamud Shibli heard about Jibreel and
got a copy of his book. Shibli has a penchant for viciously attacking people
who he believes have deviated from Islam, often with savage efficiency. A few months
ago, he was a guest speaker at an Islamic conference in Kampala, Uganda, when
he gave a speech titled, “The Five Soldiers of Iblis (Satan).” The maligned five are as follows: Abdirahman
Jibreel (writer), Ali Raage, Abdisaid Abdi Ismail (writer), Abdulkadir Kishki,
and a Somali website named Maandoon.com.
By singling them out the five as soldiers of Satan, Shibli declared them
as individuals—or entities—that have committed kufr (disbelief). He warned
the public of associating with these heretics.
In several videos, Jibreel responded to
Shibli rather tepidly. Instead of defending what he wrote in his book, he talked
about his good character, his strong faith in Islam, and then highlighted the
extremist views of Shibli and his Salafi colleagues. To some observers,
Jibreel’s reaction reflected a staggering naiveté. Then, there was an issue of
Jibreel’s command of English. His pronunciation raised a red flag as his book
was written in beautiful English. Moreover, there was no indication in the
book’s preface that it was translated from another language. Rumors arose as to
whether Jibreel himself was the actual author of the book as he lacked grasp of
the issues at hand, not to mention his poor mastery of English. Then, the
surprise came when Jibreel issued a video apologizing for writing his book and
asking for forgiveness. In a bizarre announcement, he recanted what was written
in his book, but came short of withdrawing it from circulation.
If Shibli went after Jibreel vigorously as
though he had smelled blood, his lashing out on Abdulkadir Kishki, a
Canada-based Somali cleric, was equally relentless and ruthless. Kishki was one
of the “soldiers of Satan” that Shibli had denounced. In what Shibli called “Kufriyaat Kishki” (Kishki’s disbeliefs),
the Somali-Canadian cleric was accused of criticizing the companions of Prophet
Mohamed, denying the capital punishments of “ar-Rajm” (Stoning) and ar-Riddah
(Apostacy), hobnobbing with Shiites, and permitting Muslims to celebrate
non-Muslim holidays. Shibli’s narrative was all but set in stone: Kishki is an ignorant
man who uses cut-and-paste research. Finally, to add insult to injury, Shibli
posted an image of Kishki attending a religious event with known Shiites in
Canada.
Unlike Jibreel, Kishki was not a pushover.
He fought back vigorously and called Shibli many names: From “Leonardo da
Shibli” (as of Leonardo da Vinci), “Dajaal”
(antichrist), sadist, and someone suffering from Alzheimer’s. Kishki denied the
accusation that he was a Shia. And regarding that photo Shibli had posted of
him with Shiites, he was merely attending an interfaith dialogue in Canada. Kishki
called for an open debate with Shibli—a request that has gone unanswered. In a
series of videos, Kishki portrayed Shibli as a Salafi extremist with tenuous
relations with the truth, who excommunicates innocent people from the realm of
Islam.
Shibli has authored several books in
Arabic and is a frequent guest in Somali TV channels and lecture circuits. His
lectures are popular and his demeanor is relaxed and easygoing. At times, his
speeches can lull you to sleep. He has a reputation for unhinged hyperbole. Several
years ago, he said in a lecture that he had seen 700 young Somali girls, ages 14
and 19, sequestered in a medical facility in London and suffering from AIDS. That
shocking revelation landed like a bomb among Somalis in the diaspora,
especially those living in Britain. Fortunately, a capable Somali journalist
named Abdulhafid Mohamoud with Universal TV in London did a superb
investigation on the matter. He contacted the British health ministry officials,
who called Shibli’s assertion “baseless.” There were only four known Somali
patients suffering from AIDS in London at the time and none was hospitalized. It
remains a mystery as to why Shibli would peddle such outrageous fake news.
The war of words among Somali clerics is
not yet finished. So far, Shibli has given four out of six lectures on social
media denouncing the “soldiers of Satan.” Kishki, on his part, has responded to
Shibli several times. There is no prospect of this war ending soon as each camp
sees itself as self-righteous. Dr. Khadar Jama, a wise cleric in Southern
California, has lamented on Facebook about the escalation of excommunication
charges among clerics. He said, “There are some clerics who have placed Isbaarooyin (checkpoints) in front of
paradise.” That metaphor reminds me of Somalia’s vicious civil war when
checkpoints ruled the day.
