Cairo AL-NUR in Arabic 23 Jun 93 p. 2

Unattributed article titled: “True Nature of What Goes on in Somalia: UN Forces and U.S. Plot Against Islamic Shari’ah; Christianization and Dissemination of Dissolution Are Main Missions of United Nations”

There is a fact, embodied in killing dozens of Somali Muslims, behind the ferocious assault launched by the United States against Muslim Somalia and behind the UN Security Council’s support for the U.S. position. So what is the true situation there?

Islamic movement sources in Somalia say that a state of stability prevailed in Somalia when an accord was developed among a number of Somali parties and when reconciliation was accomplished in Kismaayo. Afterward, peace developed among the four factions led by General Aideed and the National Salvation Front, led by Muhammed Abshir.

Several meetings were also arranged between Islamic Union representatives and General Abduallhi Yusuf, head of the military wing of the Democratic Somalia Salvation Front. This was the straw that broke the UN and U.S. forces’ back. In the eyes of the United States and the United Nations, led by Butrus Ghali, the meetings were concerned with more than just an alliance. Islamic Aid Agency sources in Somalia have noted this fact, stressing that there is in Somalia a suspicious scheme to stop Somalis from developing a constitutional accord derived from the Islamic Shari’ah.

As evidence of this scheme, the sources have cited the fact that Dr. Katanga, who heads the UN-sponsored committee to draft a constitution and who is from Zimbabwe, heid meetings which included a large number of ulema, wise men, and muftis to draft the articles of a new constitution for Somalia. When Katanga noticed that these men were determined to apply provisions of the Islamic Shari’ah, he began to put stumbling blocks in their way and brought in five women, as well as new members, in an endeavor to dissuade them from introducing Islamic Shari’ah provisions into the country’s constitution. But his efforts failed. So he resorted to obstructing the committee’s work with the pretext that the drafted constitution does not take human rights principles into consideration.

Meanwhile, the United Nations has appointed 18 European governors and 18 secular magistrates for Somalia. This has aroused the fear of Muslims. Mosque imams in all parts of Somalia have begun to warn in their sermons of the Western scheme being hatched against Somalia.

Moreover, UN forces have been openly distributing for the past two months Bibles and leaflets lauding the virtues of Christianity to Somali Muslims. On top of this, the Italians have started their own broadcasting station in which they promote practices incompatible with the Somali people’s principles. There is also a U.S. broadcasting station, at a time when the U.S. forces have destroyed Aidid’s station, which warned Somalis against the United States and the United Nations.

It seems from all of the aforementioned that Somalia is being subjected to a ferocious assault by the United Nations and the United States. When some people rose to oppose this assault, UN forces confronted them by sending their Muslim members to lead the ranks in the war against Somalia so they would not arouse the suspicion that Christians were killing Muslims, because in this case, both killer and victim are Muslims.