If you've been reading this, you saw that I posted about the election of the first president of Somalia on Somali soil since 1991, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Overall, he seems like a good guy, started some schools, worked as an education officer for UNICEF, stayed in the country throughout its twenty-something years of civil war when many other Somali intellectuals fled, etc. Seemingly happily married to two wives and with a handful of kids, he is a moderate Muslim and firmly against Al-Shabaab, the militant Islamic group tied to Al-Qaeda that currently terrorizes much of the country.
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| President Mohamud, if you forgot what he looks like |
Just days after his election as president, Al-Shabaab sent in twin suicide bombers in an attempt to kill the new president, releasing a statement saying that they wanted to "take Somalia back." Al-Shabaab has been mostly kicked out of Mogadishu in recent months, but it is clear that some militants remain. AU forces have been doing their best to protect the new president and three soldiers (two Somalis and a Ugandan) were killed in the blasts.
Random Kate Thoughts: While my post about the assassination of the US Ambassador to Libya might have put a lot of blame on the filmmaker, it is clear that extremist Islam is a dangerous force in the world. While they feel justified and righteous in what they do, to the rest of the world they look, to put it bluntly, like insane suicidal psychopaths. Boko Harem in Nigeria, Al-Shabaab in Somalia, and random mobs in Libya and Egypt, none of this is good. These groups are anti-women, anti-democracy, and anti-religious freedom, among other things. My Muslim students strongly denounce everything these groups do, as do moderates the world round of all religions (and the non-religious as well). May Mohamud stay safe enough to try to reunite his country. It certainly needs it.
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