Since 11 September 2001, Somalia has become a significant focus in the United States-led 'war on terrorism'. The U.S. government has listed a number of local and foreign actors in Somalia as terrorist groups and terrorist sponsors, including the militant Islamist movement Al Itihad, the Al Barakat group of companies, and the Al Haramain Charitable Foundation. Al Qaeda cells are active in the country and have used Somalia as a rear base for attacks in Kenya, most recently near Mombasa, in November 2002. Other actors, including shari'a courts, the Transitional National Government, the moderate Al Isiah movement, and other Islamic charities, are additional sources of interest and concern. In response, the US continues to mount increasingly invasive military and intelligence operations in the country, including the establishment of the Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA), based in Djibouti. This dissertation provides the first in-depth analysis of political Islamic movements that exist in Somalia today. It separates out the hyperbole surrounding the 'global war on terrorism' from the historical development, current organization and ideological affiliations of Somalia's political Islamic movements, as well as detailing their evolving relations with other Islamic and secular actors in the country. This is grounded in an analysis of the current political situation in Somalia as a 'failed state', and the historical role of Islam in Somali society and politics. The dissertation concludes with an assessment of the global threat they pose in terms of terrorism, and the wider implications of the rise of political Islamic ideologies in Somalia, as well as the extent to which they are being accounted for and addressed by U. S. counter-terrorism operations. This dissertation is based primarily on field research in Mogadishu, Somalia, where a wide range of interviews were conducted with leaders of Somali Islamist movements, 'warlords' who command Somalia's competing militiafactions, traditional clan elders and religious scholars, as well as 'civil society' activists. Given the limited number of existing academic sources on this subject, additional material is drawn from official United Nations documents, statements by US government officials, policy literature published by Western non-governmental organizations and think tanks, as well as journalistic sources.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:421577 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Le Sage, AndreĢ Louis |
| Publisher | University of Cambridge |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/273389 |
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