Somalia Gets a Tourist, Mogadishu Officials Are Baffled – TIME NewsFeed

It’s no wonder Somali immigration officials in Mogadishu thought a 41-year-old man who described himself as a tourist was insane; they hadn’t seen a tourist in the Somali capital since, well, ever.

Canadian citizen Mike Spencer Bown is a seasoned traveler having visited more than 150 countries. But when he arrived in Mogadishu as a tourist, he was met with disbelief.

“We have never seen people like this man,” Omar Mohamed, one of the officials, told the AFP. “He said he was a tourist, we couldn’t believe him. But later on we found he was serious. That makes him the first person to come to Mogadishu only for tourism.”

Turkey: Army chiefs protest against headscarf

ANKARA: Turkish army chiefs boycotted an official ceremony at the presidential palace because the President’s wife wore an Islamic headscarf, it was reported yesterday.

The army’s top brass were conspicuous by their absence late on Friday at a banquet thrown by President Abdullah Gul to commemorate the creation of the modern, secular Turkey in 1923.

The military organised a separate reception at the same time to give the generals an excuse not to accept the President’s invitation, reports said.

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The secularist main opposition Republican People’s Party also declined Mr Gul’s invitation.

Turkey’s first lady, Hayrunnisa Gul, has worn the hijab, which covers the head and neck, since adolescence.

The boycott was criticised by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose wife also wears the headscarf.

The army’s generals, who see themselves as custodians of the Turkish republic, regard the headscarf as a threat to the state’s secular traditions and are against any relaxation of the ban on wearing them in schools and government buildings.

Mr Erdogan, who has led the Islamist-rooted government since 2002, reproached the generals, saying ”the armed forces should have been present” at the presidential palace.

In the past, generals have attended the banquet to celebrate the founding of the Turkish republic, but this year the President extended the invitation to wives, meaning that women wearing the veil would be present.

Army chiefs protest against headscarf.

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Girls killed by Islamist firing squad in Somalia | World news | The Guardian

An Islamist militia in Somalia has publicly shot dead two teenage girls by firing squad after accusing them of spying for the government, it emerged today.

The victims – reported to be 18 or younger – were killed in front of hundreds of residents in Beledweyne, near the border with Ethiopia.

The town is controlled by the hardline al-Shabaab rebel movement, which has become notorious for its extreme form of punishment, including stonings and cross-amputations, for various crimes, usually adultery and theft.

The killings, which happened on Wednesday, are believed to the first instance of any females in Somalia being executed for spying. The girls’ relatives denied they were guilty of the charge.

According to eyewitnesses accounts, a Shabaab “judge” sentenced the girls to death shortly before they were executed. No evidence was presented, and the two were not allowed legal representation.

Militiamen then used pickup tricks with loudspeakers on the back to summon residents to attend the ceremony at the Islamists’ headquarters. They were warned not to take mobile phone pictures.

The girls – named by the Associated Press as Ayan Mohamed Jama, 18, and Huriyo Ibrahim, 15 – were brought to the site blindfolded, with their hands bound. They were made to sit on the ground. About 10 masked men then shot them.

“Two very young girls were shot … and no one could help,” Dahir Casowe, a local elder, said.

After the execution, the local Shabaab commander, Sheikh Yusuf Ali Ugas, told the crowd that Islamist fighters had arrested the girls last week. He claimed hey had confessed to the crime, and said dozens of other people in custody faced a similar fate.

The girls reportedly came from poor families, and had not been attending school due to a lack of funds.

Ayan’s father, Mohamed Jama, confirmed that his daughter had been in custody for a week, and said he had been refused permission to visit her.

“Al-Shabaab officials … told me that she was captured during fighting between the militants and the government soldiers outside the town and that she would be brought before court,” he said. “As I waited for good news, she was killed on Wednesday. I am shocked and cannot say more.”

The public punishments have a duel purpose for the Shabaab – to restore security in areas under their control by deterring would-be criminals, and to create a climate of fear so locals are too terrified to show dissent or offer support to the government.

Together with another Ismalist militia, Hizbul Islam, Shabaab fighters are trying to overthrow President Sheik Sharif Ahmed‘s weak administration, which is protected in Mogadishu by 8,000 African Union peacekeepers.

Infighting among ministers and the inability to provide even basic services on the ground has lost the government the sympathy of most Somalis and allowed insurgents to take over much of south and central Somalia since early 2009.

But the Islamists’ extreme version of the their religion, which runs counter to Somali tradition, has seen their own support whittled away.

In a statement condemning the executions, Somalia’s information ministry said: “This act of killing innocent children does not have Islamic and humanitarian justifications.”

Girls killed by Islamist firing squad in Somalia | World news | The Guardian.

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Arab elections: Not much of a choice | The Economist

EGYPT, Jordan and Bahrain (see article), three of the West’s closest Arab allies, are all poised to hold general elections. No big surprises are expected, largely because the rulers of each have found ways to keep loyalists in charge and critics at bay. None of their parliaments has much say, in any case. Even so, the contests provide a rare platform for organised dissent and, just as important, for testing the regimes’ skill at boxing in challengers, particularly Islamists, without provoking too strong a backlash from their supporters.

With its 85m people, its strategic position, its cultural influence among Arabs and an ageing leader with no obvious successor, Egypt’s poll, in late November (the precise date is yet to be announced) will have much the biggest impact. After more than three decades in power, President Hosni Mubarak’s National Democratic Party (NDP) conducts the political game to his liking. Its friends run the police, the security service, the courts and official boards that do such things as license other parties and oversee elections. NDP people have the deepest pockets, so the party can hand out favours at election time. Best of all, the NDP can count on the opposition to split into bickering factions, assuring itself of another smooth return to office.

The score of recognised opposition parties preparing for next month’s poll are all small. The most powerful, the Muslim Brotherhood, is technically illegal, so its candidates run as “independents”. Earlier this year it joined three of the largest secular parties in a united front to demand guarantees that the voting would be fair. The government ignored them, as it has ignored pleas from Western governments to admit independent election monitors. But this united front has been crumbling, as the Brothers have joined a rush by most of Egypt’s smaller parties, including some that are suspected of concluding back-room deals with the NDP for token seats, to register candidates.

via Arab elections: Not much of a choice | The Economist.

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