Beyond Piracy: Inside Somalia ‘s Religious Landscape

ICC Note

“Those who come to Christ in Somalia do so at a huge risk. Most of them are Muslim background believers who face unbelievable pressure and persecution, even death,”

By Robert Wayne

08/5/2009 Somalia (Crosswalk.com)-Sadly but not surprisingly, the seriousness of the situation in Somalia gets lost among Americanized images of bandana-wearing buccaneers seeking plunder on the open seas.

After all, if Johnny Depp is your biggest problem, how bad can it be?

Piracy certainly adds to Somalia ’s problems, but it is the savagery happening away from the water, especially toward Christians, that makes this east African nation one of the most brutal places on earth.

The reports are horrific. In one, Islamic extremists pulled three children from a mother and beheaded two of them. The third escaped, screaming all the way home.

“I watched my three boys dragged away helplessly. I knew they were going to be slaughtered,” said Batula Ali Arbow, whose husband, Musa Mohammed Yusuf, refused to provide the extremists with information about a Christian church leader.

Yusuf, himself a leader of an underground church, had already fled to a Kenyan refugee camp, where his wife and family later joined him. Even in the Kenyan camp, however, the persecution continues. The reach of the extremist group Al-Shabaab continues to expand far and wide.

Somalia is ranked No. 5 on this year’s Open Doors World Watch List, which ranks the top persecutors of Christians. The previous year Somalia was ranked No. 12, and next year it will likely jump closer to the top.

“Those who come to Christ in Somalia do so at a huge risk. Most of them are Muslim background believers who face unbelievable pressure and persecution, even death,” said Open Doors USA President/CEO Carl Moeller.

Paul Estabrooks, Open Doors Minister-At-Large, explained that while the majority of Somalis are moderate Muslims, they are drowned out by the militants who seek both religious and political rule. It’s not enough that the extremists want to influence what and how Somalis should believe. They also want to enforce it.

No wonder Al-Shabaab is being compared to Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden’s network of terror.

“Certainly if not linked to al Qaeda economically or politically, they have the same agendas and are willing to use the same kinds of tactics,” Estabrooks said.

Similarly, Estabrooks supposes a working arrangement exists between Al-Shabaab and the Somali pirates, who continue to cause trouble along major shipping routes.