Somalis living in the capital,
Mogadishu are expressing optimism that ongoing talks among different Islamic
groups in the country about the future of the country would yield positive
results. The conference, which was instigated by new President Sheikh Sharif
Sheikh Ahmed and is being attended by both moderate and hardliner Islamic
groups operating in the country ends Monday. Discussions
are largely focused, among other topics, on the new government and the
implementation of Sharia law. The conference also condemned ongoing insurgent
attacks on ordinary Somalis by Islamic hardliner al-Shabaab. But al-Shabaab,
which has been excluded from the ongoing talks, denounced the meeting and
promised more attacks. Described by Washington as a terrorist organization,
al-Shabaab has vowed never to recognize the new Somali president and his chosen
prime minister.
Djibril
Ahmed is a political analyst. He told reporter Peter Clottey there are strong
indications that Somalia might be tilting towards an Iranian-style government.
"The
ongoing conference has a lot of scholars from overseas as well as scholars from
this country. And they are trying to interpret the current situation we are in
now, and the conference will end on Monday. As you know the new President
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed appointed this group to come out and discuss the
situation in the country. But we don't know if we are going to have a system
like the one they have in Iran. As you know in Iran there are three powers: the
government and then the Islamic powers," Ahmed noted.
He
said the conference has condemned some of the activities of Islamic insurgents,
including the dreaded al-Shabaab.
"This
group that is meeting here denounced some of what al-Shabaab has been doing but
at the same time they gave some suggestions to the government to change a lot
of things like the United Nations or the African Union have to go. So, we don't
know if we are going to have the same style of Iran that there would be a
Council of Islamists. So that could be another power that we would have to
face," he said.
Ahmed
said the new president has a lot of challenges to contend with in the coming
years.
"The
question we are facing here is that Sheikh Sharif himself came to power with
four point five (constitutional provision) but this group wants a change to the
constitution. They don't believe in the constitution so the president has big,
big challenges ahead of him," Ahmed pointed out.
He
said the ongoing Islamic conference is proposing an imposition of the Sharia
law across Somalia.
"That
is the big question everybody has been asking because there seems to be too
many things going on that I don't know how it is going to be possible. But this
group wants the country to be ruled by the Sharia law. So that means the
constitution has to go out of the window, but we are yet to know whether
Somalis would accept it," he said.
Ahmed
said it seems most Somalis are not against the full implementation of the
Sharia law.
"Most
of the Somalis or a 100 percent are Moslems and don't seem to have problems
with the Sharia law. But the problem is the government itself is based on the
four point five (provision in the constitution) and the constitution which
brought the TFG (Transitional Federal Government). So, the question that arises
here is those two would not go on the same page," Ahmed pointed out.