SUNDAY EDITORIAL | The presence of foreign troops, i.e. African Union peacekeepers (AMISOM) in Mogadishu, cannot go hand-in-hand with Shari'ah law.

The "international community" – a convenient phrase often used to sugarcoat the West's global hegemony – is not ready for the genuine practice of Shari'ah, or Islamic law. Yet, in Somalia, a country torn apart by 18 years of civil strife, economic depression and natural disasters, the "international community" is willing to endorse the supposed introduction of Shari'ah as national law.

Not much proof is needed to showcase the double standards and ill-thought policies that direct the world's current trajectory towards global self-collapse and the much-feared 'clash of civilizations.' In 2006, Somalia's influential Islamist movement – the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) – rose to power after militarily defeating U.S.-backed warlords who had suddenly transformed into an unpopular "anti-terror" alliance. Not only did the U.S. government give tacit support to Ethiopia's subsequent invasion to oust the ICU and a two-year military occupation of Mogadishu, Somalia's capital and heartland, but U.S. warplanes routinely bombarded ICU hideouts in different parts of Somalia in a bid to target so-called Al Qaeda suspects.

In early 2009, UN-facilitated peace talks concluded in the neighboring Republic of Djibouti with the election of ex-ICU chief Sheikh Sharif Ahmed as President of Somalia for a two-year interim period. What a fast-changing world! Only yesterday, Sheikh Sharif's ICU was accused of being an Al Qaeda-inspired revolution intended to use Somalia as a springboard to organize terror attacks on the West. Today, he is the UN-recognized President of Somalia and the country's first leader to openly call for the introduction of Shari'ah as the law of the land.

Somalia's expanded parliament – 550 MPs for a population of about 8 million people – is expected to debate and ratify Shari'ah law soon. Sheikh Sharif's Cabinet has already passed Shari'ah law and clearly what is being sought is the introduction of a "moderate form" of the law; that is to say, a form that pleases the West while giving the Somali people only a portion of what they yearn for.

The upcoming and inevitable showdown over Islamic law will have major repercussions in Somalia and across the Horn of Africa as a whole. This is a region where a Muslim majority has been at best neglected, and where an all-Muslim country (Somalia) has been allowed to rot for so long that even the international community has now acceded to some form of Islamic law!

The presence of foreign troops, i.e. African Union peacekeepers (AMISOM) in Mogadishu, cannot go hand-in-hand with Shari'ah law, unless Sheikh Sharif's version of Shari'ah is exclusively unique to him. Thus far, the Somali President has not offered a national vision of how he intends to restore order in Somalia or what he intends to do about AMISOM in the near future.

In political circles, Sheikh Sharif is described as a power-hungry politician who enjoys the West's admiration of him as a "moderate" Islamist. He has surrounded himself with powerful elements of the Hawiye clan, while the Darod clan members of his government, including Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmake, are seen as puppets who are unrepresentative of their constituents. It is not a coincidence that Al Shabaab fighters are being attacked in central Somalia, home to the Hawiye clansmen, while Al Shabaab have full and orderly control of Darod and Rahaweyn homelands in southern Somalia, including Kismayo and Baidoa. Ultimately, the "international community" backs Sheikh Sharif's government insofar as it declares war on Al Shabaab. Still, the clan dynamics to Somalia's political structure cannot be ignored.

The recipe for a widespread and catastrophic clan and religious war is in the making.

Garowe Online Editorial, editorial@garoweonline.com