Thursday, March 18, 2010

Exclusive:EX- Jehadest Former Hawiye Terrorist fighter Moe Abdullahi Mohamed warns of growing radicalism in Canada

Tyler Anderson / National Post


Moe Abdullahi Mohamed, who spent six months with Somali militant group Al-Shabab, is concerned about radicalism among young Somali-Canadians

TORONTO -- Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed works as a security guard at an apartment complex in Toronto's Little Mogadishu neighborhood. It can be a slow job, sitting at the gatehouse, but nobody could call him inexperienced,Before he returned to Toronto last year, last year, the 35-year-old Canadian spent six months with the Somali militant group Al-Shabab. He trained at Al-Shabab's main camp in Mogadishu and guarded the frontlines."To us, the local people, they were freedom fighters," Mr. Mohamed said of Al-Shabab. "They were fighting for our country, they were fighting for the survival of the Somali race, and everyone rallied behind them."Vic Toews, the Public Safety Minister, announced last week that the government had added Al-Shabab to Canada's list of outlawed terrorist organizations. He said the al-Qaeda-linked group was "actively recruiting within the Somali-Canadian community." Police and intelligence officials are investigating a half-dozen young Canadians suspected of having joined the militant group. A video posted on the Internet this week claimed one of them, Mohamed Elmi Ibrahim, had died "in battle."Mr. Mohamed, who immigrated to Ontario in 1989, is believed to be the first Canadian to speak publicly about his time with Al-Shabab. He told his story to the National Post in exclusive interviews in Mogadishu and Toronto.
Hawiye Jehadest
Video: Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed speaks out


Mr. Mohamed said he opposes Al-Shabab's extremist ideology and only trained and fought alongside the group to expel Ethiopian troops from his country. But his time with Al-Shabab gave him a rare look inside the group, now a top priority for Western counter-terrorism agencies.Mr. Mohamed said Ottawa is right to be concerned. He said that is why he decided to speak out, because he wants to help tackle the extremism that is luring some Somali-Canadians to join Al-Shabab, and that could motivate others to commit terrorism in Canada."Young and angry Muslim Canadians. That is a recipe that al-Qaeda would dream to have. It's like the Lotto 6-49 for them because that's all they want, to tap into that," he said.
Because of the chaos in Somalia, some parts of Mr. Mohamed's account could not be verified. But he provided documents to back some elements of his story and members of the Somali community and two Western officials vouched for his credibility. He was also hired temporarily by NATO last fall to advise the alliance on Somalia. "I know his story quite well," said his longtime friend Robert Lemstra, who went to Brock University with Mr. Mohamed and now works as an Africa specialist in the Netherlands. "Him and I have had regular contact throughout the years."Mr. Mohamed first came to the Post's attention in January 2007 in Mogadishu, where he is a member of one of the city's most powerful clans. The newspaper hired him on one occasion to help arrange interviews with Somalis. Mr. Mohamed is the son of a tribal chief who owns a Mogadishu auto shop that specializes in Italian FIATs. The family was well-off by the standards of Somalia but when he was 14, his mother died in a house fire and he was sent to Toronto to live with an aunt.
After graduating from Kipling Collegiate Institute, he majored in political science at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., before moving to Australia to study law at Bond University. In 2004, he returned to Africa to campaign for his cousin, Hussein Aidid (the son of Somali warlord Mohamed Farah Aidid), who was running for president. Mr. Aidid lost the election but was named deputy prime minister and asked Mr. Mohamed to serve as his political secretary.During the years Mr. Mohamed had been away in Canada and Australia, Somalia had collapsed. Rival warlords had reduced Mogadishu to rubble and an extremist group called the Islamic Courts Union had emerged from the mayhem.The ICU sought to restore order to the country by imposing its harsh version of Islamic law. Backed by a Taliban-like militant group called Al-Shabab, Arabic for "The Youth," it began fighting to topple the government. As the armed Islamists advanced, the weak Somali government asked its northern neighbour, Ethiopia, for help. Ethiopia had fought bitter wars against Somalia, so when Ethiopian troops arrived to quell the insurgency, the Islamists had no trouble recruiting."Ethiopia was basically a God-given gift," Mr. Mohamed said. He called the decision to allow the Ethiopian military into the country "the stupidest thing they could have done."The Ethiopians were implicated in rapes, looting, executions and indiscriminate firing in populated areas. In 2007, Ethiopian soldiers came to Mr. Mohamed's home to take him away. He was convinced he was going to be killed, but during a skirmish, he escaped into the area of Mogadishu controlled by Al-Shabab. He said that after his close call, he vowed to fight the Ethiopians until either they left or he died. He said he underwent weapons training at the Salahedin training camp, located in an old Italian graveyard. "It was run by the Shabab," he said. "From morning until mid-day they give you training, military training - defensive tactics, how to shoot a gun, basic self-defensive training, and in the afternoon they were giving us speeches."The Al-Shabab leaders framed the conflict in religious terms, saying Somalis were being punished for not following their Islamic faith, and that if they died fighting for Allah they would go to paradise, Mr. Mohamed said.Mr. Mohamed gave some speeches himself. Because he had been freed from the Ethiopians as a result of an Al-Shabab attack, he was used for propaganda purposes and was regularly asked to speak to the young militants, he said.
In his speeches, he said, he appealed to Somali patriotism by mimicking lines from Braveheart, which he had seen at an Ontario movie theatre. "I was basically calling people to unify and forget about the differences of tribe, religious allegiances. I was telling them our country is under occupation," he said.Said Mr. Lemstra, "He's quite a Somali nationalist, as most Somalis are, but definitely not a fundamentalist Islamic person whatsoever. He in fact just wants Somalia to be run by Somalis and have a good nationalist government."
That sometimes put him at odds with Al-Shabab. He said he once challenged an extremist cleric over his views on martyrdom. And one afternoon, he said he gave an unwelcome speech near the National Stadium that served as the main Ethiopian military base. "I said, ‘I don't care whether you are a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim. As long as you are a Somali, that's all that matters now.'"Afterwards, Al-Shabab took him aside and told him not to say such things, he said. It was a sign that Al-Shabab had its own narrow agenda but at the time Mr. Mohamed wasn't thinking about anything but fighting the Ethiopians.Mr. Mohamed said he saw "a few" foreigners in Al-Shabab. Most were Arabs from the Persian Gulf region, as well as Pakistanis and Eritreans, but he said he also spoke with a former Seattle barber who had converted to Islam and had come to Somalia for jihad. He said the barber was later killed. For six months, Mr. Mohamed said, he went to the Salahedin camp almost daily. "I did a lot of guard duty, facing the stadium most of the time because the stadium in Mogadishu was the biggest military base of the Ethiopian army," he said. Asked if he had ever fired his weapon, he said: "Of course. A couple of times they [the Ethiopians] tried to run over us but we defended, and that's normal, because they wanted to come and just slaughter us."We had women and children in the area and if they come, they will do whatever they want to them. So I have my wife and my son in there. Do you think I will allow them to walk [in]? First, they should kill me."Because if they go in they will rape my wife and kill my son probably. So I have to do whatever I can to defend, that will never happen and I did whatever I could. I am proud fighting against the Ethiopian army. I'm honoured."In 2008, Mr. Aidid asked Mr. Mohamed to come to the Eritrean capital Asmara to help with a new group called the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia. He said he served as chief of staff to the central committee chairman.When Ethiopia finally pulled its last troops out of Somali in 2009, Mr. Mohamed said he quit within 24 hours and, after spending a few months in Dubai, returned to Toronto to find a job and sponsor his family to join him in Canada.Upon returning to the Dixon Road neighborhood where he grew up, Mr. Mohamed said he was alarmed at the level of extremism he witnessed among some of the young Somali-Canadians he met. "I was shocked how deep these kids are into this radicalization." Some were interested in fighting in Somalia, he said. One of the members of the Toronto 18 terrorist group was Somali-born, and one of the most prominent Al-Shabab leaders, an American named Omar Hammami, had lived in Toronto's Little Mogadishu.
Then last fall, Canadian authorities began investigating the "Somali Six," a group of young Toronto men in their mid-20s who may have joined Al-Shabab. Mr. Mohamed suspects a recruiting network may be operating."How did these six boys get a ticket, airplane ticket, somebody waiting for them at the airport in Nairobi, putting them in a hotel there, taking them up to another city, taking them out of the country, smuggling them to Somalia? There must be an organization here, there, everywhere."
He believes youths are becoming radicalized partly from the Internet, particularly by watching online extremists like Anwar Al Awlaki, an American-born al-Qaeda ideologue who encourages Muslims to commit terrorism in Western countries.



Mr. Mohamed is trying to help. ??

He is in the early stages of forming a non-profit organization called Generation Islam, which will steer Somali-Canadians away from radicalism. He wants the government to contribute funding. No such program currently exists in the Somali community."I think this will be an initiative which can really make a difference," said Mohamed Gilao, executive director of Dejinta Beesha, a Toronto-based settlement services organization that works with the Somali community.Ahmed Hussen of the Canadian Somali Congress said the fact that just six Somalis are suspected of having joined Al-Shabab suggests that only a small minority are buying into extremist ideology. "It's not pervasive, however one is too many."Mr. Mohamed said his priority is to "help de-radicalize these young kids who are being brainwashed ... to tell these young kids that there is another way. You can be a patriot, but you don't need to be a terrorist."He said he fears what could happen in Canada if nothing is done. At the same time, Somalia does not need more gunmen, he said. It needs educated Canadian Somalis to help rebuild the country after three decades of wrenching war.

National Post
 Hawiye Fatwa to Jihad 2007
http://www.cadaado.com/view_contents.php?articleid=1050

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Ex-Somali Police Commissioner General Mohamed Abshir

Ex-Somali Police Commissioner  General Mohamed Abshir

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre with general Mohamad Ali samater

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre with general Mohamad Ali samater
Somalia army parade 1979

Sultan Kenadid

Sultan Kenadid
Sultanate of Obbia

President of the United Meeting with Prime Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Egal of the Somali Republic,

Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan

Seyyid Muhammad Abdille Hassan

Sultan Mohamud Ali Shire

Sultan Mohamud Ali Shire
Sultanate of Warsengeli

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre
Siad Barre ( A somali Hero )

MoS Moments of Silence

MoS Moments of Silence
honor the fallen

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre and His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie

Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre  and His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie
Beautiful handshake

May Allah bless him and give Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre..and The Honourable Ronald Reagan

May Allah bless him and give  Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre..and The Honourable Ronald Reagan
Honorable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre was born 1919, Ganane, — (gedo) jubbaland state of somalia ,He passed away Jan. 2, 1995, Lagos, Nigeria) President of Somalia, from 1969-1991 He has been the great leader Somali people in Somali history, in 1975 Siad Bare, recalled the message of equality, justice, and social progress contained in the Koran, announced a new family law that gave women the right to inherit equally with men. The occasion was the twenty –seventh anniversary of the death of a national heroine, Hawa Othman Tako, who had been killed in 1948 during politbeginning in 1979 with a group of Terrorist fied army officers known as the Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF).Mr Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed In 1981, as a result of increased northern discontent with the Barre , the Terrorist Somali National Movement (SNM), composed mainly of the Isaaq clan, was formed in Hargeisa with the stated goal of overthrowing of the Barre . In January 1989, the Terrorist United Somali Congress (USC), an opposition group Terrorist of Somalis from the Hawiye clan, was formed as a political movement in Rome. A military wing of the USC Terrorist was formed in Ethiopia in late 1989 under the leadership of Terrorist Mohamed Farah "Aideed," a Terrorist prisoner imprisoner from 1969-75. Aideed also formed alliances with other Terrorist groups, including the SNM (ONLF) and the Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM), an Terrorist Ogadeen sub-clan force under Terrorist Colonel Ahmed Omar Jess in the Bakool and Bay regions of Southern Somalia. , 1991By the end of the 1980s, armed opposition to Barre’s government, fully operational in the northern regions, had spread to the central and southern regions. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis fled their homes, claiming refugee status in neighboring Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. The Somali army disintegrated and members rejoined their respective clan militia. Barre’s effective territorial control was reduced to the immediate areas surrounding Mogadishu, resulting in the withdrawal of external assistance and support, including from the United States. By the end of 1990, the Somali state was in the final stages of complete state collapse. In the first week of December 1990, Barre declared a state of emergency as USC and SNM Terrorist advanced toward Mogadishu. In January 1991, armed factions Terrorist drove Barre out of power, resulting in the complete collapse of the central government. Barre later died in exile in Nigeria. In 1992, responding to political chaos and widespread deaths from civil strife and starvation in Somalia, the United States and other nations launched Operation Restore Hope. Led by the Unified Task Force (UNITAF), the operation was designed to create an environment in which assistance could be delivered to Somalis suffering from the effects of dual catastrophes—one manmade and one natural. UNITAF was followed by the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM). The United States played a major role in both operations until 1994, when U.S. forces withdrew. Warlordism, terrorism. PIRATES ,(TRIBILISM) Replaces the Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre administration .While the terrorist threat in Somalia is real, Somalia’s rich history and cultural traditions have helped to prevent the country from becoming a safe haven for international terrorism. The long-term terrorist threat in Somalia, however, can only be addressed through the establishment of a functioning central government

The Honourable Ronald Reagan,

When our world changed forever

His Excellency ambassador Dr. Maxamed Saciid Samatar (Gacaliye)

His Excellency ambassador Dr. Maxamed Saciid Samatar (Gacaliye)
Somali Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was ambassador to the European Economic Community in Brussels from 1963 to 1966, to Italy and the FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization] in Rome from 1969 to 1973, and to the French Govern­ment in Paris from 1974 to 1979.

Dr. Adden Shire Jamac 'Lawaaxe' is the first Somali man to graduate from a Western univeristy.

Dr. Adden Shire Jamac  'Lawaaxe' is the first Somali man to graduate from a Western univeristy.
Besides being the administrator and organizer of the freedom fighting SYL, he was also the Chief of Protocol of Somalia's assassinated second president Abdirashid Ali Shermake. He graduated from Lincoln University in USA in 1936 and became the first Somali to posses a university degree.

Soomaaliya الصومال‎ Somali Republic

Soomaaliya الصومال‎ Somali Republic
Somalia

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The Foundation is dedicated to networking like-minded Somalis opposed to the terrorist insurgency that is plaguing our beloved homeland and informing the international public at large about what is really happening throughout the Horn of Africa region.

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The threat is from violent extremists who are a small minority of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims, the threat is real. They distort Islam. They kill man, woman and child; Christian and Hindu, Jew and Muslim. They seek to create a repressive caliphate. To defeat this enemy, we must understand who we are fighting against, and what we are fighting for.

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