Mogadishu  07 April  2009 Waagacusub Media

There is no doubt to many Muslims that the armed Islamist group called Al-Shabaab of Somalia is indeed the number one enemy of Islam. The primary objective of Al-Shabaab is not to fight the enemy of Islam or reunite the Somali people but rather destroy the culture of compassion, tolerance, and knowledge that is the trademark of many Muslims around the world including Somalians. Consequently, if this so called Islamist group is against everything Islam stands for, then who is the real enemy of Islam? Is killing Muslims including innocent children and women in relation to fighting the enemy of Islam?

Somalia is the only nation in Africa where 100% of their citizens are Sunni Muslims. This was major achievement that was accomplished without any blood shed hundreds of years prior to Al-Shabaab. May Allah reward scholars such us Sheikh Aweis Mohammed Baraawi, Sheikh Ibrahim Hassan Gebro, Sheikh Abdirahmaan Zeilawi, Sheikh Ali Maye Durogba, Sheikh Mohammed Guled Al Rashidi, and Sheikh Abdirahman Abdulah who made this possible. These scholars devoted their entire lives for the sake of Allah traveling from place to place to teach Islam to the nomadic and endogenous Somalians who often new nothing or very little about Islam. The teachings of these scholars gave many Somali people the academic resources needed to become and stay a faithful Muslims. The enormity of their success did not come from AK47 or intimidation but from a Dikr such as Qadiriyyah, Idrisiyyah, or Salihiyyah, a religious orders Al-Shabaab is seeking to eradicate from the daily lives of many faithful Muslims in Somalia.

Since taking control of Bay, Juba, and Shabelle regions of Somalia, Al-Shabaab has imposed a Taliban-style restrictions and destroyed many historic grave sites belonging to some of these well-respected scholars who helped spread the religion of Islam in Somalia. Among the graves destroyed and the remains removed include those of Sheikh Nureni Ahmed Sabir, Sheikh Kassim Baraawi, and Sheikh Mohamoud Wa’ays who were all buried in Brava city. In addition, the group also removed the remains of Sharif Mubiidi and Sharifah Daada Maasiti both the descendants of the prophet SCW who were also buried in Brava. Furthermore, Al-Shabaab has as well removed the remains of Sheikh Aweis Mohammed Baraawi from his grave site. Does Islam permit to disturb, destroy, and disseminate any grave site regardless of religious affiliations whether Jew, Christian, Muslim, or even atheists?

As recent as March 30, 2009 information received from the coastal city of Brava reports the arrests of several religious scholars, leaders, and Imams of Ahlu-Sunnah Waljamaa’a of Brava city. These scholars remain jailed without committing any crimes or wrong doings, and no one knows the motive behind the impulsive arrests of these scholars. Then again, these scholars were present when Al-Shabaab destroyed the grave sites of the beloved scholars and witnessed several foreign individuals removing and hauling away the remains. Perhaps this is an attempt to eliminate and extinguish any reference of religion order that does not share Al-Shabaab’s interpretations of the Quran. Additionally, this extremist group is trying to discredit, humiliate, and character assassinate any Muslim scholar or leader dead or alive who fails to share their philosophy, while creating Fitna (upheaval) and deceiving other Muslims with a profoundly tinted religious exteriors that are in opposition to the teachings and religious orders of Islam.

The historians indisputably confirmed that Brava City was the center of Islamic Studies for the whole Juba and lower Shabelle regions and many Somalians traveled to the city to study Islam. The city was home to number of Muslim Scholars and their knowledge reached beyond the limits of Brava. Many native scholars including Sheikh Aweis Al-Qadiri the great Islamic Scholar, Sheikh Nureni Ahmed Sabir, Sheik Kassim Al-Barawi, Sheikh Hajji Sadiq, Sheikh Moalin Nur Hajji Abdulkadir, Sharif Mubiidi, Akhwaan Abdow Munye, Sheikh Omar Hiraale, and Sheikh Mohamed Gaduudow have taught others the Islamic practices and the following of the Shari’a. These scholars demonstrated and advocated for patience, kindness, reconciliation of differences, and dialogue instead of bloodshed, these are virtues that Al-Shabaab unquestionably lacking. Regrettably, the grave sites and the remains Al-Shabaab destroyed belonged to those same scholars who taught and spread Islam to many parts of Somalia.

For the past eighteen years the people who are claiming to be Islamist group were the very same people behind the hideous crimes of looting, killing, raping, and torturing of innocent Muslims, and now they are twisting and misinterpreting the Quran. This group has absolutely no reasoning, and not a single ounce of evidence from Islam to why they must destroy and remove the remains of the beloved scholars who have sacrificed a great deal for the sake of Allah. Al-Shabaab has adopted Khawaarij ideology that makes them the only ones on the true and the righteous path, and considers anyone else who does not share their radical extremist views to be an atheist, infidel, hypocrite, and evil.