Somali Religious Rebels Reject Ceasefire

Jesse Morales
6 March 2009
12:00 pm

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2009/03/20093117498433881.html

The African country of Somalia has a new president, Sharif Ahmed, who assumed the duties of office on January 31. He is affiliated with the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, a political group that formed to fight Ethiopian occupation in Somalia. Upon taking office, President Ahmed was quick to realize the necessity of making a truce with the rebel group Hizbul Islam. The President offered this group a truce that would have instituted Sharia, or Islamic law, as the standard in Somalia. Hizbul Islam rejected the truce, saying that it wanted African Union peacekeepers out of the country.

Recently, Somalia's capital (along with the rest of the country) has been embroiled in violent conflict between opposition fighters like Hizbul Islam and the African Union in conjunction with the Somali government. Opposition fighters want a Muslim country that is self-determined, without any outside peacekeeping forces. Any less is unacceptable, as evidenced by the rejection by Hizbul Islam of a truce that would institute Sharia but still leave some AU peacekeeping forces in-country.

Fundamentalist groups are often concerned with the preservation of tradition and religious purity. Hizbul Islam is no exception. The movement displays a kind of all-or-nothing behavior: either Somalia will be a Muslim country controlled by Muslims (not outsiders), or they will keep fighting. And to them, this likely seems right. Their beliefs in a God of a certain kind who has revealed Himself in a certain way, and their concern with observing the traditions of their religious heritage, cause them to desire their country to be in a certain fashion. Though this may be expressed in a very violent way, it is nevertheless very consistent.

As people think, so do they do.