ICU - Firsthand information

[James Dahl]

There is a LOT of misinformation both for and against the ICU, especially in the western media who have utterly failed to maintain their objectivity in regards to the ICU. Does anyone who actually lived under the ICU or spent time in their administration of southern Somalia have any stories, good or bad, about the ICU and whether what is said about them is true?

In particular:

1: Many reports talked of restricting women's rights in Somalia, though noone ever provided any details in the news articles.

2: The famous banning of soccer, which when I investigated it turned out to be a hoax (they closed cinemas which played particularily lewd Bollywood movies until they stopped playing them, and these cinemas happened to also show soccer games). This isn't any worse than 1950s USA and their censorship laws. Was it worse than this?

3: Morality police. Many accusations in the media portrayed the ICU as Saudi style morality police. How true was this really?

[Karbaash_killa]

James let me tell you my conceptions on UIC..

Last Summer When Somalia's Capital City was labeled Safest place in Somalia.. it came as a great surprise to me and my family..And since we have lived in the west for soo long you can imagine how home sick one can be

So my family moved back and i went with them but only stayed for a shot period of time..

i have had regular contact with my family and other relatives and the banning of football on t TV is almost unheard of there while the rumors where quickly spreading here.

... Having said that...there would be times where the main restaurants of xamar would show live football and the restaurant would be booming with people..catching the attention of some UIC militia and in rare occasion the militia men have issued warnings to Screening of football during prayer times....

The other thing which i can confirm is that UIC have shut down several Cinemas in the capital which where reportedly screening pornography at nights and it was a central attraction for youngsters threw out the city...

The rest of the stories about them coming into peoples houses removing TV was a TFG propaganda and was simply not true ....just a weak attempt to make the UIC look bad...

[abwaan1]

I thought you will say something new, not the same old crocodiles cry. The west hate as, they don’t understand, they are misinformed and so on. The reality is the entire world understood who UIC were. Inhuman, savage cult. I am gland the TNG destroy them and if they still have terrorist supporter they should be decimate. All peace loving Somali should be happy on fact that those dadcun thugs are ether dead or homeless refugee.

[James Dahl]

[quote="abwaan1"]I thought you will say something new, not the same old crocodiles cry. The west hate as, they don’t understand, they are misinformed and so on. The reality is the entire world understood who UIC were. Inhuman, savage cult. I am gland the TNG destroy them and if they still have terrorist supporter they should be decimate. All peace loving Somali should be happy on fact that those dadcun thugs are ether dead or homeless refugee.[/quote]

What made them inhuman and savage? The rest of the world was actually willing to give the ICU a chance to prove their critics wrong, just as the rest of the world is prepared to give the TFG a chance to prove their critics wrong. It was only the United States that reacted with drawn weapons to the ICU, and even then the USA tried to get the two sides to sit down together and make a deal. Primarily this is due to the fact that the USA does not trust either side, but for different reasons. The USA trusts that the ICU could unify the country, but did not trust their motives or ideology, whereas the USA agreed with the TFG's ideology, and was merely suspicious of their motives, they did not trust them to unify the country and bring peace and stability.

The irony of this whole situation is that the Qabiilist warlords who returned to Mogadishu were the good winners, preaching reconciliation and national solidarity, and that they should reach out to the defeated waddads, and found themselves protecting said waddads against the government who's job it is to reach out and bring unity to warring factions. The TFG is being a bad winner, gloating and strutting about, and more concerned with their own internal power struggles than bringing the country together.

What a world we live in.

[Steeler [Crawler2]]

James
Actually it was the Ethiopians who were extremely concerned about the UIC. Not just the Americans.

But the issue of the ICU (or whatever trigragh you wish to use) was not how well it did or did not rule in Somalia, it was for us where it's position was in GWOT. And that was quite clear. The ICU had leadership that were anti-American. So it was not going to be allowed to get too much momentum, no matter how great its local leadership was.

[James Dahl]

The ICU wasn't even anti-American though, weren't they inviting American leaders to come visit them in Mogadishu and see what they'd done there for months and months?

Fundamentally it came down to the fact that the USA didn't like them for what they stood for, and that their strategic ally in the area (Ethiopia) wanted them gone for what they stood for as well.

The rationale for the invasion was basically the tenuous ties between the ICU and al-Qaeda and Iran. The thing you have to ask yourself is: If they're such crazy Sunni zealots, what are they doing working hand in hand with Iran? Iran's Shi'i, and al-Qaeda enemies themselves. And Eritrea! Eritrea is not only just as Christian as Ethiopia is, but is actually more anti-Muslim than Ethiopia is as well.

It was all baloney.