By: Dr. Shacabi, California, USA — The Somali Temporary Charter or Temporary Constitution stipulates that we are Somalians first and then Muslims second. However, some Somali religious leaders are insisting that we are Muslims first and Somalians second and, therefore, are entitled to live by the sharia Islamic law.

The contradiction is these elected officials were elected through a secular constitution that is the supreme legal document of the land. Each official swore to uphold the constitution. After being elected, some elected officials now want that constitution subordinate to sharia law. Proponents of sharia argue that the constitution guarantees freedom of religion while opponents argue that freedom of religion does not mean that Islam will be the state religion and take precedence over the constitution.

When the Somali Parliament has passed to adopt Islamic Sharia Law , it in fact puts the country above the nation and its constitution. In other words, “freedom of religion” does not entitle Somali government to create an Islamic state within the secular state of Somalia. More specifically, the Somali constitution does not permit the adoption of Islam as the state religion but clearly indicates that Islamic Sharia is the only religion that country will be adminstering since Somalians are 100% Muslims.

Sharia Law is subordinate to the constitution and to impose it as the supreme law of a state is equivalent to violating and overthrowing the constitution. It is nonsensical for sharia to be superior to the constitution and to operate two sets of contradictory laws in any state, even if most of the state residents want sharia. An argument often made is that they should allow most of the people in a given state to adopt Islam as their state religion.

In practice, religious fanatics are selectively using sharia law to oppress the poor and women. For example, because the sharia law stipulates the amputation of the arms of those who stole, a Fulani cattle rearer had his hand amputated and, subsequently, bled to death. If we were to amputate the hands of corrupt Somalians, Morgan, Mohamed Ali Samatar,Gani and other known criminals will be amputees.

Sharia forbids prostitution and adultery. They will stone to death or behead adulterers. To avoid tempting men, women are required to cover their faces in public places. Male students are required to seat in the front rows of classrooms while female students sit in the back rows. Later, boys and girls will be required to attend separate schools. Men and women must use separate buses. Women are forbidden from playing soccer. Motorcyclists are arrested and jailed for carrying female passengers. Since soccer, motorcycles and buses were not invented at the time the Koran was written, religious fanatics are obviously using Islam as a pretext for oppressing women.

They will order all unmarried ladies to find a husband or lose their employments with the state government while they allow unmarried men to keep their jobs. Anybody caught drinking will be publicly flogged. They can award only men with beards government contracts.

The Somalian Muslim fanatics have become what the Igbos called “the outsider who cried more than the bereaved.” Sharia is not even enforced in most predominately Islamic nations such as Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Turkey.
Efforts to impose sharia law in Sudan lead to a four-decade civil war that started in 1955. Today, the Sudanese government is softening its stance on sharia.

Since its independence in 1961, the military have ruled Somalia for 20 years. The elected officials do not understand the rule of law, democratic constitution and even the unconstitutionality of the sharia law.
Governing a nation without understanding its constitution is analogous to playing soccer without understanding the rules of the game.
Because the elected officials do not understand the constitution they swore to uphold, Somalia is drifting like a ship without a captain.

The imposition of sharia law will leave Somalia with its left foot in the Stone Age and its right foot in the Information Age without carefully examining the comprehensive and totality of Sharia Law Principles. It also needs a cool-off time to prepare the Somali Citizens by teaching the Islamic Sharia Law and what it entails to govern the country.

In conclusion, I am totally agreed on passing the Sharia Law, but not without having a concrete analysis how and when it can be done without violating the Sharia Law usage simply because one group of the opponents to the elected Temporary government in Somalia wants to impose their own agenda by using the critical point or switch light of Islamic Sharia Law.

After all, the idea of governing the country is a great idea and it is the only cure the tribal disease that has destroyed the country and the prople for so long, but the silver question is how to implement without jeapoardizing the time-line and the best way of educating the population so that everyone is supporting the government desicion and moving forward now and to the future.

By: Dr. Shacabi, Ca, USA
email: [email protected]

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