Somali rebels ban musical ringtones

NAIROBI, Tuesday

Sacdiyo Sheeq used to love listening to Bollywood movie songs on her mobile telephone.

But since hardline al Shabaab insurgents seized the southern Somali port of Kismayu, the 25-year-old’s life has changed.

“Al Shabaab wants our ringtones to be only a Muslim cleric reading the Hadith or Koranic verse,” she told Reuters.

“I used to listen to my favourite Indian songs on my cell phone, but now I have just thrown that memory away.” Al Shabaab, which Washington says is al Qaeda’s proxy in the failed Horn of Africa state, wants to topple the UN-backed government and impose its own strict version of Sharia law.

The heavily armed group controls much of the south and parts of the capital Mogadishu, and courts run by its clerics have ordered executions, floggings and amputations in recent months.

It has also banned movies, dancing at wedding ceremonies and playing or watching soccer in the areas under it control.

“We do not tolerate anything that may corrupt the people,” al Shabaab’s spokesman in Kismayu, Sheikh Hassan Yaqub, told Reuters by telephone. “We don’t allow anything that goes against our religion, especially music and sexy videos.”

Ali Mahamud Yusuf, 19, fled his home in Kismayu after he was whipped in public last week by al Shabaab gunmen who had caught him listening to music and watching videos on his phone.

“I am still suffering from the 25 lashes,” Yusuf said. “They accused me of rejecting religion. I don’t want to tell you where I am now for security reasons. I am scared.”

In another development, al Shabaab insurgents closed three grassroots women’s organisations in the rebel-held town of Balad Hawa yesterday to stop women from going to work, a rebel leader said.

The group wants to impose its own version of Islamic law on areas it controls, and Washington says it is al Qaeda’s proxy in the Horn of African nation.

“We have taken this step after we recognised that women need to stay in their homes and take care of their children ... Islam does not allow women to go to offices,” Maalim Daaud Mohmed, the chairman of Balad Hawa, told Reuters by telephone.

Balad Hawa is located on the Somali border with Kenya, near the Kenyan town of Mandera. The organisations closed by al Shabaab are the Halgan Businesswomen’s Organisation, the Sed Huro Human Rights Organisation and Farhan Woman for Peace, he said.

In the capital Mogadishu, the UN-backed government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed sentenced six soldiers to death for the murder of a fellow soldier.