Islamic Court Union

The Islamic Courts Union ( so, Midowga Maxkamadaha Islaamiga) was a legal and political organization formed to address the lawlessness that had been gripping Somalia since the fall of the Siad Barre regime in 1991 during the Somali Civil War.

The Islamic Courts Union was embraced by a plurality of Somalis, as Islam was viewed as one of the last credible institutions left in the wake of the collapse of the state. The courts were able to quickly gain the trust of war weary Somalis, as they had emerged at a grassroots level and claimed to rule under the neutrality of Islam, which was viewed as an attractive alternative to the country rife with heightened clan tensions.

The union was a diffuse organization, with rivaling leaders sending conflicting messages about the group's goals. Some members had national political ambitions, while others wanted to focus on resolving local disputes and bringing people closer to Islam.

In the summer of 2006, the ICU would expel an alliance of Somali warlords funded by the American Central Intelligence Agency and became the first organization to consolidate control over all of Mogadishu since the collapse of the state in 1991. The period that followed is commonly heralded as the most stable and productive era Somalia had seen since the outbreak of the civil war up to that point. Residents of Mogadishu were finally able to move around the city without fear of attack, the international airport and seaport would be opened for the first time in over a decade, a massive rubbish clean up campaign was started and there was a significant reduction of arms on the streets.

Six months into its reign, the Islamic Courts Union would be ended during the final days of 2006 by an Ethiopian-led intervention, supported by the United States, which brought the internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government to power. The organization would completely dissolve early in 2007 due to the invasion and internal disagreements.

Following the foreign intervention most of the moderates of the organization would flee Somalia. Consequently an obscure radical wing of the Islamic Courts, the now infamous Al-Shabaab, stayed behind and invoked jihad against the American backed Ethiopian invasion, greatly empowering themselves.

Many of the high ranking members of the Islamic Courts would later become members of the internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government, with former chairman of the ICU, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed becoming president of Somalia in 2009. In 2012 the country would adopt a new constitution that would go on to declare Somalia an Islamic state whose primary source of law was Shari‘a.

History

Origins

The Islamic courts were not the first attempt to use Islam in an attempt to quell the growing disorder in Somalia. Just before the dictatorship had been toppled in 1991, a group of sixty highly prominent members of Somali society, under the banner of ''"Islamic Call"'', published a public manifesto addressed to President Mohammed Siad Barre. The manifesto warned that he had committed serious transgressions against the laws of Islam and unsuccessfully called for him to peacefully step down from power.

The first attempts to use Islamic law ( Shari'a) to build local stability began sometime in 1992, in the northern part of the Somali capital Mogadishu, in attempt to address the spiraling chaos and lawlessness that was gripping the country following the toppling of the Barre regime and the brutal clan driven civil war.

The first Shari'a courts were started on a very small local neighbourhood level by Somali religious leaders as a way to address issues in their communities. Most problems they dealt with were related to petty crimes and family disputes. In the chaotic political context of war torn Mogadishu the religious leaders were considered by most Somalis as some of the only people who could be trusted to impartially resolve disputes. Importantly, the courts also did not take positions on national-political or clan affairs, lending significant credence to their purported impartiality.

The Sheikh Ali-Dhere court

In either 1993 or 1994 (the precise year is difficult to determine due to the chaos of the civil war) a Sheikh named Ali Dheere, living in one of the most dangerous regions of Mogadishu had become exhausted with the growing anarchy and decided to put his religious training to use and set up the first known Shar'ia court in Somalia. The infamous "Siisii Street" ran through his community, and was notorious for being one of the most dangerous roads in war torn Mogadishu.

Primarily his court focused on aiding merchants and store owners resolve their disputes, helping people arrange legal agreements for large purchases like homes, and trying people for crimes. Local scholars, elders, businessmen and political leaders cooperated with Dheere in a bid to end the spiraling chaos in their community. Soon Ali Dheere had a staff that would apprehend bandits and thieves in the area and bring them to be put on trial. His success in bringing order to his neighborhood in Mogadishu became well known through out the city and led to the establishment of another copycat Shar'ia court.

The court did not shy away from strict punishments and even carried out executions. Soon word began rapidly spreading that law and order was being established in Dheeres sector of the city and the crime rate in the area subsequently dropped dramatically.

Rise of the Mogadishu Islamic Courts

In 1993 or 1994, other Shari'a courthouses began opening up in Northern Mogadishu, operating independently in their own self contained jurisdictions in the city. The first Sharia court did not start in southern Mogadishu until 1998, as the de facto ruler of the territory, General Mohammed Farah Aidid opposed the Islamic courts, and no progress occurred until after his death. Ali Mahdi, Aidids prime rival controlling the northern part of the city, would issue a decree to dismantle Ali Dheeres Court after perceiving the Sheikhs rising popularity as a threat to his own authority. As the years passed, with nothing but warlords offering to replace its authority, the rule of the sharia courts began to cement.

By 1999 the multiple Islamic courts had jurisdiction over much of the south of the city as well and five active Shari'a courts were operating in the region. While the courts were not an organized movement or a government, they represented the closest thing Somalia had to either of those things. The Islamic Courts Union's influence was enhanced by financial donors abroad who sought to bring any semblance of stability to the country. In April 1999 the Shari'a courts came together for the first time and jointly seized control of Mogadishu's Bakara Market from the warlords and later that year made a successful united effort to push the warlords to the outskirts of Mogadishu, though they did not control the entire city.

Consolidation and formation of the Islamic Courts Union

In 2000, after clearing much of Mogadishu from control of the warlords, eleven separate Shari'a courts in the city would finally merge to form the Islamic Courts Union. Mark Fathi Massoud, a professor of politics at UC Santa Cruz, notes that the turn that Somalis made in the late '90s and early 2000s towards establishing local religious courts for self-governance and then linking them into a system mirrored the same patterns of early democratic Western Europe and colonial North America, where state-building relied upon courts, and judges invoking will of God. He also notes that, "In using religion to build stability, the Shari‘a courts bear striking parallels to those courts that played an influential role in the early development of democratic states."

While many Somalis voiced disapproval of the more fundamentalist ways of the original Shari'a courts, most felt that they were well organized and effective civil administrators.

Top UN officials have referred to this period as a '''Golden era in the history of Somali politics. The courts would go on to create a coast guard to combat the growing phenomena of piracy in Somalia, and were able to successfully curb its rise during their rule.

When the Transitional National Government of Somalia was established in Djibouti during the spring of 2000 the momentum of the ICU was slowed. It would not return until it was revived in 2004 by Sharif Sheikh Ahmed who was subsequently elected as chairman of the ICU.

Rise of the Transitional Federal Government

Following the failure of the Transitional National Government of Somalia established in 2000, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) led by Abdullahi Yusuf was formed in 2004. Yusuf was a previous close ally of the Ethiopia and the Ethiopian government in return strongly backed him his leadership. Its backing of Yusuf reported to be instrumental in his victory for the TFG leadership during the election held in Kenya.

The TFG operated entirely outside of Somalia due to instability in Mogadishu and consequently was criticized by Somali citizens and international community. At the time the TFG was only recognized by Kenya and Ethiopia, as the European Union, the United States and other members of the international community refused to fully recognize the TFG's legitimacy until it operated from Mogadishu. To counter this, the TFG moved into Somalia for the first time in 2005, eventually setting up its headquarters south west of Mogadishu in Baidoa.

The ICU becomes a target of the War on Terror

The Bush administration had become increasingly concerned with the growing power of the Islamic Courts Union, and feared that they would make Somalia a haven for Al-Qaeda to plan attacks from, like in Afghanistan. The Americans would go on to approve funding for the Somali warlords and actively encourage them to counter the ICU, a decision made by top officials in Washington which would be later reaffirmed by the U.S. National Security Council during meeting about Somalia in March 2006. At the time of the meeting there was fierce fighting in between the warlords and the Islamic Courts around Mogadishu, and the decision was taken to make counterterrorism the top policy priority for Somalia.

The warlords had united under the banner of the "Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism", and according by the International Crisis Group, had a notorious pattern of seizing innocent clerics with little or no intelligence value, which greatly feed into a growing perception among Somalis that the Americans and the warlords were waging a war against Islam under the guise of the War on Terrorism.

According to Mary Harper, a journalist with BBC Africa, the Islamic Courts Union was in reality more of a loose federation and only began to unite into a homogenous body with a clear authority when its existence was threatened by the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism.

The internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, being both in conflict with the Islamic Courts and backed by the Americans, openly opposed the Americans operation to fund the warlords. Nine of Mogadishu's most prominent community leaders that were opposed to the ICU claim they secretly flew to neighboring Djibouti in early March 2006 and pleaded with U.S. military officials there to stop funding the warlords who were devastating the city. They allege that they warned the Americans that backing the hated warlords would end up greatly empowering the Islamic Courts and inflame the radical elements within it.

American support for the warlords extended to the point where, on numerous occasions, Nairobi-based CIA officers would land on warlord-controlled airstrips in Mogadishu with large amounts of money for distribution to Somali militias. According to John Prendergast, CIA-operated flights into Somalia had been bringing in $100,000 to $150,000 USD per month for the warlords and he further claimed that the flights would remain in Somalia for the day so that CIA agents can confer with them. The CIA also gave its newfound allies surveillance equipment for "tracking al Qaeda suspects". A United Nations report on violations of the international arms embargo on Somalia claimed that the Ethiopian government had armed warlord Mohamed Dheere to fight the ICU.

According to multiple U.S. officials, the decision to use of the warlords as proxies was born from fears of once again committing large numbers of American soldiers to Somalia following the disastrous 1993 Battle of Mogadishu. Ironically, the warlords the Americans would fund to fight the Islamic Courts Union were many of the same ones that had fought directly against the Americans in Mogadishu during the bloody summer and fall of 1993.

Between May and July 2006 the warlord alliance went on the offensive against the Islamic Courts Union, and attempted to seize total control of Mogadishu.

Defeat of the warlord alliance and seizure of Mogadishu

On June 5, 2006, the Islamic Courts Union decisively defeated the warlord alliance in the Second Battle of Mogadishu, gained total authority over the capital and proceeded to establish a 65-mile radius of control around the city. This was a seminal moment in modern Somali history, as the ICU was now the first group to have consolidated control over all of Mogadishu since the collapse of the Somali state. According to Chatham House, "''The Courts achieved the unthinkable, uniting Mogadishu for the first time in 16 years, and re-establishing peace and security"''.

Over the next few months the Islamic Courts embarked on a campaign to stabilize the city. On 15 July 2006, Mogadishu International Airport, which had been closed since the withdrawal of the international forces in 1995, reopened.Mohamed Abdi Farah
Somalia: Reopening of Mogadishu's airport welcomed
'' SomaliNet'', July 15, 2006. The ICU organized a clean-up campaign for the streets of Mogadishu on 20 July 2006. This was the first time litter and rubbish had been collected in the entire city since it collapsed into chaos over a decade earlier. On the 25 August they also reopened the historic seaport of Mogadishu, which had been one of the busiest in ports in all of East Africa.First ship arrives in Mogadishu
'' BBC'', August 25, 2006. Another action that significantly increased the ICU's popularity was the restoration of proper ownership regarding land and homes that had been lost or stolen during the civil war.

The Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism soon collapsed, with the majority of its commanders publicly resigning or expressing support for the ICU. Two of the defeated warlords allegedly fled to an American naval vessel off the Somali coast according to witnesses in Mogadishu.

ICU offensive, deployment of Ethiopian troops and First Khartoum ICU/TFG talks

With its newfound position of authority, the ICU seized on its popularity and began pushing deep into the regions surrounding the city for the first time. Their offensive capability was greatly aided by new weaponry it had captured from the warlords – most of which had been bought with U.S. funds. During the summer of 2006, the ICU was allegedly being given support by Eritrea, Djibouti, Iran, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria.

First deployment of Ethiopian forces

On 17 June, ICU head Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed would claim that 300 Ethiopian troops had entered the country through the border town of Dolow in Gedo region that morning in support of the TFG, and that Ethiopian forces had also been probing Somali border towns. He would go on to threaten to fight Ethiopian troops if they continued intervening and further stated, ''“We want the whole world to know what’s going on. The United States is encouraging Ethiopia to take over the area. Ethiopia has crossed our borders and are heading for us.”'' The Ethiopian government would deny the deployment of its forces in Somalia and countered that the ICU was marching towards its borders. The TNG would also deny the deployment claiming the ICU was creating a pretext to assault Baidoa. Local Somali officials and residents in the region reported about 50 Ethiopian armored vehicles had passed through the border town of Dolow and pushed 50 km inland near the town of Luuq.

On June 24, Hassan Dahir Aweys would be named head of the ICUs newly formed 88 member parliament, the Council of the Islamic Courts.

Khartoum ICU/TFG conference

The TFG, overshadowed by the recent achievements of the ICU, was in dire need of the popularity and military capacity of the courts and the ICU in turn was in dire need of international recognition along with the political and administrative skills required to run a government that the TFG possessed. The obvious deficiencies of both organizations led many to perceive a possible complimentary ICU/TFG amalgamation. In light of this, the Arab League arranged a conference between the ICU and TFG in June 2006 to discuss merger proposals in Khartoum, Sudan. The talk initially began positively but rapidly collapsed over the issue of Ethiopian forces deployed to Somalia at the request of the TFG. The ICU insisted that the presence of Ethiopian forces was the priority and should be dealt with first, while the TFG insisted that an agreement on a unified government had to be made before removing the Ethiopian presence. Neither side was willing to compromise on the issue of Ethiopian troops, leading to the collapse of the talks. On 22 June, 2006 a communique was issued announcing that both parties recognized each others legitimacy and that neither would engage in hostile propaganda against the other.

Both parties agreed to renew talks and meet again on 17 July, 2006.

Second Khartoum ICU/TFG talks, intervention and Baidoa Bombing

The TFG was alarmed by the rapid territorial expansion of the ICU and feared that it was attempting to encircle its capital in Baidoa. Neither party was willing to go to Khartoum for the second planned conference. The TFG insisted that the ICU withdraw to the territory it had occupied during the June conference, while the ICU demanded the withdrawal of Ethiopian military contingents in Somalia before discussions resumed. The two primary mediators, the Arab League and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) were both viewed as biased by the ICU and TFG. The ICU accused the IGAD of being partial to the TFG, while the TFG accused the Arab League of complicity with the ICU.

The ICU continued to gain territory around Baidoa and lacking any troops of its own the TFG requested foreign support. On 20 July, 2006 Ethiopia deployed hundreds of troops to Baidoa. This prompted an immediate warning from Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed that the organization would invoke a jihad against Ethiopian forces if they did not withdraw. Numerous Somali witnesses and a BBC correspondent reported seeing Ethiopian Army trucks and hundreds of soldiers crossing the border and entering Baidoa. The TFG would publicly deny the existence of Ethiopian forces in Baidoa and argued the claims were ICU propaganda. TFG minister of information Mohammed Abdi Hayir, claimed that sightings of Ethiopian forces in Somalia were a result of confused identity as Ethiopia had merely provided 4,000 uniforms to TFG forces. Ethiopian minister of information, Berhan Hailu announced soon after the deployment, ''“We will use all means at our disposal to crush the Islamist group if they attempt to attack Baidoa, the seat of the Transitional Federal Government.”''

Eventually talks did resume, but in September instead of July 2006. Negotiations quickly broke down over the issues of Ethiopian forces and ICU expansion. According to former Somali diplomat and writer Ismail Ali Ismail, the failure of the second Khartoum talks stemmed from incompetent mediation, as he argues that the roadblock could have been resolved if the mediators had suggested and pushed for a simultaneous withdrawal of both ICU and Ethiopian forces under international supervision.

September 2006 Baidoa Suicide Bombing

On 18 September, 2006 the first suicide bombing in Somali history occurred in the TFG capital of Baidoa, when a truck loaded with explosives attempted to assassinate President Abdullahi Yusuf. Previous attacks on the TFG had been blamed on warlords, but the government would for the first time accuse radical elements within the ICU of the attack. The ICU would deny responsibility for the assassination attempt, instead pinning the blame on Ethiopian provocateurs. According to Professor Robert Pape of the University of Chicago, the decision to invite Ethiopian troops to invade Somalia created an ideal trigger for extremists to carry out Somalia's first ever suicide attack, as the deployment of foreign troops loyal to the Christian-dominated government in Ethiopia was viewed by the majority of ordinary Somali citizens as a threat to the nations sovereignty.

Criticism of Islamic Courts Union rule

Despite its significant achievements, the ICU would attract criticism for many of its actions.

Extremist elements in ICU, who viewed the TFG as an Ethiopian puppet, would engage in assassinations of TFG personnel.

Somalia's only popular drug, Khat, was outright banned. During the civil war many Somalis had relied the selling and distribution of the drug as one of their sole sources of income and consequently the ban had serious repercussions on people's ability to afford basic necessities.

Charcoal exports were banned, on account of the industry devastating Somalia's fragile environment. Once again many Somalis had relied on the practice to make ends meet.

There was serious ideological friction between the ‘moderate’ wing of the Islamic Courts led by the Chairman of the Islamic Courts’ "Executive Council", Sheikh Sharif, and the "radical" wing led by the Chairman of the Courts’ Shura (Consultative or Legislative Council), Sheikh Aweys. These ideological divisions became clear when various wings of the Islamic Courts started making policies and statements without reference to the collective leadership. Many of them – mostly "radically" conservative social policies – were not popular among the wider population.

December 2006 Ethiopian invasion of Somalia and the Fall of the Islamic Courts Union

To avoid turning Mogadishu into a warzone once again, the ICU peacefully withdrew from the city on December 26, 2006.

The top leaders of the Islamic Courts Union, including Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Sheikh Abdirahman Janaqow, resigned the next day.

On January 1, 2007, the ICU would abandon its last urban stronghold in the city of Kismayo, far south of Mogadishu and the remaining leadership would flee to Eritrea.

Following the Ethiopian invasion and subsequent occupation, the Islamic Courts Union disbanded and Somalia once again began slipping into a state of chaos. Between 2007 and 2008 approximately ''two-thirds'' of Mogadishu's residents would be forced to flee the growing violence in the city, and Somalia began to experience one of the worst humanitarian crises in its history.

Aftermath

Somalia after the ICU

The Islamic Courts Union had actively fought pirate activity on the Somali coast, and consequently piracy would thrive in their wake.Hiiraan.com
''Associated Press'', October 17, 2007"

Al Shabaab, an obscure organization at this point, would gain immense popularity as a resistance group fighting against the Ethiopians. Consequently much of Somalia south of Mogadishu would become Al Shabaab ruled territory.

See also

* African Union Mission to Somalia

Notes and references

{{Authority control

Factions in the Somali Civil War
Islamic Courts of Somalia
Law of Somalia
Islamic Courts of Somalia
Islam in Somalia
Islamic courts and tribunals