The situation in Somalia has deteriorated since America sponsored the invasion over a year ago. A UN official summarized the situation “as the world's most urgent humanitarian crisis – worse even than Darfur”. More than 1 million people have been displaced and do not have access to basic necessities due to the ongoing violence. The situation in Somalia demonstrates the extent that the US and others are willing to go to undermine Islamic Rule.As reported by Reuters, a senior U.N. refugee official declared that Somalia is the “world's most urgent humanitarian crisis – worse even than Darfur”:
- 60% of the Mogadishu population has fled the city because of fighting
- Over 1 million people have been uprooted from their homes in Somalia.
- 15% suffer acute malnutrition while health services are very limited and while sanitation, water and shelters are extremely poor.
- Due to the ongoing fighting, it has been difficult for aid agencies to deliver food and other necessities.
The Muslim Rulers: Dutiful to Washington and London
As explained below, the US is behind the military invasion into Somalia. However, the US is only able to carry out its plans against the Ummah because of the Muslim rulers. They have silently watched the horrors in Somalia unfold. These rulers continue to prove to be an obstacle to the Ummah and have relegated themselves as pawns in the hands of the colonial powers.
What started the fighting?
The fighting began in 2007 when the Ethiopians invaded Somalia. The Americans backed the invasion to end the rule of the Islamic Courts, who had recently come to power. In contrast to the chaotic and criminal rule of the war lords, the Islamic Courts worked to bring some law and order based on the shariah of Allah (swt). Naturally, this was a welcome change to the Muslims of Somalia. The majority of the people in Somalia are Muslims who love their Deen and were happy to unite under the banner of Islam through the leadership of the Islamic Courts.
The US had Somalia within its clutches through the rule of Siad Berri. However, the British were able to gain control of the country through the tribal uprising of 1991. After that, the US attempted to regain its influence in 1992 through the so-called, ”Humanitarian” delegations under the auspices of the ‘Hope Again’ project. For this, they allocated some 28,000 soldiers. However, it backfired in 1995 resulting in a humiliating withdrawal for the US. This brings us to 2007 where the US used her proxy, Ethiopia, to subjugate Somalia to its will.
Why would the US care about Somalia?
The US, as any other imperial power, seeks to extend her tentacles of power all over the globe. Firstly, the US wants to eliminate any semblance of Islamic rule. The US fights any force or movement that gravitates towards Islam wherever it may be in the world. We saw this with the attack on Afghanistan. Prior to its fall in 2001, America was ready to work with the Taliban to control the area. However, once the Taliban decided to pursue an independent path, the US decided (in the words of Colin Powell) to “bomb them back to the stone age”. The Capitalist nations – America, Britain, and the other Western Powers – will not tolerate the emergence of Islam as an independent political force. They want complete domination of the Ummah.
The second reason pertains to Somalia’s geographic location. Somalia occupies a very strategic position along the Indian Ocean and has the longest coastline in Africa running 2,720 km (1700 miles). Somalia has two stretches of coastline, one running along the Indian Ocean to the east and another running to its northern side along the Gulf of Aden towards the Bab el Mandeb and the Red Sea. Thus, Somalia is vitally and strategically placed as the gateway to Southern Africa as well as the Arabian Peninsula – a location that can be used to control these territories.
Finally, America’s appetite for resources and wealth is insatiable. Somalia is very rich in resources. Based on geological studies conducted, Somalia is rich in resources including; uranium, natural gas, oil, and others. In the late 1980s (during the regime of Siad Berri), rights to over two-thirds of Somalia’s resources were given to American oil companies: Conco, Amoco, Chevron and Phillips for drilling. Oil was discovered in the first nine wells which have been confirmed by the World Bank geologists. But the revolution which toppled Siad Berri effectively ended the ability of the corporations from pillaging the resources of Somalia. The United States in now exerting great effort in order to get its grip back on this wealth.
The War on Islamic Rule
Now that Communism ceased to have any influence on world affairs, the capitalist elite have turned their sights on Islam. Some point to Islam as a threat due to its immense population or its proximity to strategic resources (e.g. oil). However, the real issue is the Islamic ideology.
Many elite personalities have referred to the threat of the Khilafah (Caliphate). The CIA has put out a memo predicting the rise of the Khilafah by the year 2020. Putin, Blair, Kissinger, and Bush, are all ringing the alarms bells regarding the threat of the Khilafah. For example, when Henry Kissinger (ex-security advisor to former US president Nixon) was asked, “What in your opinion are the principal threats of the age?” – he answered – “First, is what we call terrorism in the United States, but which is really the uprising of radical Islam against the secular world, and against the democratic world, on behalf of re-establishing a sort of Caliphate. That is directed as much against moderate Islam, than it is against non-Islamic societies.”
Why do they fear Islamic Rule? Because they want to ensure that the Muslims are unable to project the Islamic Aqeedah and Islamic systems in an organized and correct manner. Not only will the West lose its hold on the Muslim world, but there is also the fear that Muslims will start exposing how corrupt the rule of the West truly is. That is, once the people of the world can see the contrast between Islamic Rule and Capitalist rule, they will realize that Islam is the best system for humanity. This will ultimately undermine Western hegemony.
The treatment of prisoners of war (POWs) is a good example to illustrate this point. The West has the Geneva Convention to protect POWs. However, this is nothing but a man-made law. Therefore, the Bush administration had no problem side-stepping the law when dealing with the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, or in some other prison within their vast network of dungeons. From Bush’s point of view, the Bush administration and the author’s of the Geneva Convention are equal – as a result Bush and company can rewrite the legislation as they like. The horrifying and degrading conditions of these prisons is known world wide and yet they are kept open. In contrast, Islam affords POWs a much higher status. As Allah (swt) has revealed:
“And they feed, for the love of Allah, the indigent, the orphan, and the captive, (Saying),"We feed you for the sake of Allah alone: no reward do we desire from you, nor thanks.” [TMQ 76:9-10]
According to the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (saw), the Muslim armies were expected to feed the captives before they would feed themselves. Thus, the requirement to feed POWs before feeding the Muslim army is a practice that comes from the Creator of all things, the Supreme, Allah (swt) – no human being has the right to over turn this legislation based on whims, interests, or the “threat of terrorism”.
Once the nations of the world experience this type of impartial justice they will naturally desire it.
This is why the West is quick to mobilize their resources, armies, and agents to crush any semblance of Islamic rule – be it in Afghanistan or Somalia. This is the real reason why the elite in the West detest Islam – not because of violent acts of a handful of individuals. The resentment towards Islam has nothing to do with violence. It is the West that manufactures and profits from both weapons of minor destruction as well as weapons of mass destruction. The elite are well aware that their ideas have no chance of competing with Islam. They know how Islam was spread in the past by the Sahabah, how the nations eagerly embraced Islam, and how long it took them to defeat the Khilafah.
The failure of the West to acknowledge any kind of Islamic governance (i.e. the Khilafah) as an alternative – despite its resonance with tens of millions of Muslims – is not surprising. Western political leaders would rather compare their way of life to the record of the failed tyrannies that rule the Muslims (whom they prop up) instead of discussing whether the Khilafah or Capitalism would be better for the Muslim world. Some even refuse to acknowledge the Khilafah as a reality dismissing it as some kind of historical dream on the part of a small minority. However, Pat Buchanan exposes this intellectual dishonesty when he stated: “Fundamentalism is on the rise, even in Iraq. There is a deep sense that only by a return to the Islamic roots that once made their civilization the greatest on earth can the greatness of Arab peoples be restored. And there is both a revulsion in this region against what is perceived as a decadent and toxic American culture and a will to be rid of US political and military domination.”
Our responsibility
As part of the global Ummah, we must expose the reality of what is happening in Somalia, and support our brothers and sisters in any way that we can. Furthermore, we must work actively with our Ummah to support the establishment of Islamic rule within the Muslim lands. The only way the West was able to inflict the damage on Somalia, Iraq or Afghanistan, is due to the complacency of the Muslim governments. If the Muslim leaders worked for the sake of Allah (swt) and fulfilled their duty to the Ummah, they would have acted to defend the Muslims of Somalia and repelled the Ethiopian invasion.
May Allah (swt) establish a rightly-guided Khilafah that will obey the orders of Allah (swt) and bring justice to all of humanity.
“They plot and plan, and Allah too plans; but the best of planners is Allah.” [TMQ 8:30]
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