They were so decent, so kind and more practicing-Muslim than most of us. Their faces tell a lot: determination, courage, kindness, honesty and integrity. They gave all they can and more without reservation. It is easy to destroy and quite simple to denounce and condemn an evil, but impossible to comprehend the mind of evildoer. How a person of an iota of humanity can attend graduation ceremony to kill doctors, teachers and socio-economic mangers, wrapped with environment of happiness and hope, witnessing the glittering lights of the eyes of young graduates, the smiling faces of their parents, the shine over their professors, the delight of journalists and all that attended to share a moment of happiness and satisfaction. It is beyond imagination. How cruel, how satanic and how low one can act. It is the scum of the worst evildoers that killed and maimed the cream of the best in Shamo Hotel, Mogadihsu at Thursday morning 3/12/2009.
What is the objective? What is the benefit? Who gains what? These are questions that need to be addressed without quick and immediate answers. Do not massage the facts nor jump into conclusions, let the search start thorough and mercilessly. Fetch far and near, friend and foe and reach where the evil dwells. One can say a lot. Speculations will flare, so the accusations, denials will follow so the conspiracies. It is a knotty task to profile and digest the mind of this ugly criminal. One of my friends as usual pointed fingers at far and away and beyond seas. ..” I can swear it is not done by a Somali…it is an Israeli agents that want to discredit Islamic movements? It can be Ethiopia who wants to maintain state of lawlessness in Somalia, or even America to reason its critics that so called Islamic terror will spread if not defeated in Pakistan and Afghanistan if not to get an excuse for direct intervention? My friend´s theory usually gets a nod of acceptance from the audience. I am not convinced with these accusations. Somalis were killing one another over two decades and the longer it goes, its climax will be beyond belief. It has to end or more of the same and worse is on the way.
Who are those who are killed and maimed? In addition to the innocent youth that put on over twenty years of study and preparation in unenviable circumstances for this day and their parents, there are three Ministers and score of the elite medical doctors and professors. Let me high light what I learned of the Ministers, without demeaning the immense value of doctors and intellectuals to the community. On the contrary their value is known to all and without contradiction. It is the politicians that many doubt their contributions. That is the sole reason I picked them from a list of undistinguishable stars whose light is put off pre-maturely.
To start with summation, they were at the forefront of the few acceptable faces of the so called TFG. Dr.Qamar Adan Ali, Minister of Health, Dr. Prof. Ibrahim Hassan Addow Minister of Higher education, Mr. Ahmed Abdillahi Waayeel, Minister of Schools, and the Minister for Youth and Sports, Mr. Saleebaan Olaad Robleh were slaughtered in cold blood. They were of the same category in character and performance. I rarely know politics of Mogadishu, but from time to time my mind registers items of news I grasped from BBC and VOA Somali Services. Refreshing my brain-library, they were the best of them all. On top of her remarkable delivery of Health service in drastic situation, I remember Qamar with her sharp, courageous, and linguistic talent in debate, always wining convincingly.
I will never forget how straight she was when debating with ardent critic abroad. She gallantly said” You are not foreigner, you attend every conference to establish a functioning Somali government, you join committees, you have been invited to join the government, but declined and always sooner the conference ends you condemn and criticize. Do not be outsider come and join us, we need you….” It hurted so much the conscience of the Prof. That it made him silent for a while and couldn’t find suitable words to answer….” My sister you are one of the best Ministers and I hope many of them were like you.” That is his conclusion. What attribute from the hard-talk Professor.
As to Prof. Ibrahim Addow, books will be written about his contribution to improvement of Somali education. He was a professor over twenty years in USA, Saudi Arabia and Sudan, as well as an executive banker in Islamic Development Bank, Jeddah. Where ever he was he was active among Somalis, breaching good and endeavouring for the empowerment of the youth with education. He returned to the chaotic Mogadishu to share his people their burden of terror and mayhem. He single-handedly established one of the best universities in Mogadishu. He decided to suffer in order to improve their dire situation.
As to the Ahmed Abdullah on the contrary he never parted away from the burning Mogadishu, yet he contributed enormously to the unbelievable development we witness of educating the warring nation. He built the first charitable secondary school that mothers dozens through out Mogadishu. He is a hero and pioneer of the good cause.
Lately the Minister for Youth and Sports, Mr. Saleebaan Olaad Robleh has died of injuries sustained in Thursday’s suicide bombing, raising the death toll to 24. He was busy in filling the emptiness most Mogadishu youth suffer. Engage youth with sport will help them avoid the time to wander aimlessly between broken walls and rotten streets mapped with head-hunters for terror. There are football, basket and tennis ball clubs, and many more.
All in all they are of rare quality to replace. Their selfless sacrifice is recorded with golden ink and in perpetuity.
Let me remind you the rules and manners set by Islam, to conduct war even against the worst enemies. First Caliph Abu Bakr (Allah be pleased with him) gave clear cut instruction to fight with noble spirit and utter kindness. He said:
“Stop, O people, that I may give you ten rules for your guidance in the battlefield. Do not commit treachery or deviate from the right path. You must not mutilate dead bodies; neither kill a child, nor a woman nor an aged man. Bring no harm to the trees, nor burn them with fire, lest those which are fruitful. Slay not any of the enemy’s flocks. Take with you, food that you may need. You are likely to pass by people who have devoted their lives to monastic services; leave them alone, don´t harm them”
There is a need to address. Reconciliation of warring factions must be open and limitless. That doesn´t mean that the perpetrators of this disaster to be un-punished or leniently treated, on contrary it calls a parallel approach to bring in distorted outlaws back to the community, break their support, and help to emancipate those indoctrinated with false dogma. International community should help to fund a major rehabilitation programme addressed to the lost generations that saw nothing but killing and destruction. Evildoers take advantage of this off track youth. Serving their needs properly will deny devil agents, the fuel they need to burn the nation.Instability is like cancer if not cured at the point, it spreads outwards. Somaliland should double its efforts to cement its security and contribute to hunt those who commit heinous crimes in Somalia. There is a drastic need of a protocol of cooperation for the common enemy. Beyond frontier cooperation is a time tested successful approach to defeat an enemy that if unchecked will take us all down the drain.
From the deepest of my heart, I share with Somalis every where their shock and dismay. Equally I would like to pass my condolence to parents, brothers, sisters and other relatives far and near of the victims of the Shamo Hotel Massacre. I do know that these innocent victims have relatives and friends through and across the Somali inhabited territories. May Allah bestow them the best of heavens,Janatul fardows. May Allah cure all wounded physically and mentally.
I pray Allah to bless peace and harmony where there is war and to withhold terror and instability were there is order and tranquility in all Somali states.Ameen.
Ahmed Arwo
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