MOGADISHU - Hardline Islamic
courts shut cinema halls and barred residents in the Somali capital from
watching the World Cup, prompting scores of civilians to protest the ban in
which two people were killed, court officials and residents said.
The gunmen loyal to the Joint Islamic Courts (JIC), cut electricity, cleared
cinema halls and warned residents against watching the football tournament in
areas they control, forcing a violent protest late on Saturday in which two
people were killed, residents said.
The JIC deputy chairman AbdulKadir Ali Omar said the Islamic tribunals would
crackdown on halls that defy the order to show western films and video,
including the World Cup.
"This is war against all people who show films that promote pornography, drug
dealing and all forms of evil," Omar told AFP.
"We shall not even allow the showing of the World Cup because they corrupt
the morals of our children whom we endeavour to teach the Islamic way of life."
Islamic courts officials said they were against some elements of World Cup,
notably the advertisements for alcohol.
On Sunday, residents said Islamic gunmen were roaming in Sukahola and Huriwa
neighbourhoods in northern Mogadishu to ensure that the ban was enforced.
"I had spent a lot of money on the equipment, which I intended to help me
show the World Cup, but just an hour before the kick-off of the first game of
the World Cup, two gunmen from the Islamists came to me and ordered me to close
down my cinema," said Ali Mohamed Nuur, who owns a cinema hall.
"I thought that I was only suffering from this Islamic court order, but next
morning I realized that all the cinema halls had been closed down," said Nuur
added.
A strict interpretation of Islamic teachings often bans Western films and
television as immoral.
"The Islamic courts have ordered the closure of three cinema halls," said
Sukahola resident Abdulaziz Hanad told AFP. "They want to make sure that nobody
in Mogadishu watches the World Cup."
"Since the Islamic courts took control of Mogadishu, we knew they would not
allow us to watch football," said a dejected Dahir Abubakar Hassan, a resident
of northern Mogadishu.
"I wanted to entertain myself from the trials and tribulations of the
monotonous life in Mogadishu by watching the World Cup, but now I am not
allowed," complained Halan Ahmed Mohamed, one of the protestors.
"It is too silly to oppress people like this."
Last year, the courts started to forcefully close cinema halls, arguing that
they were showing steamy Bollywood and Hollywood films.
Last Monday, the Islamists defeated the warlords and seized control of most
of Mogadishu, sparking fears of a Taliban-like takeover, with the forcible
imposition of Sharia law, but the court's leader Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said
he would not impose the laws unless civilians called for them.
Somalia pulled out of international sporting events after the country plunged
into anarchy following the violent ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in
1991.
But residents in other pockets of Mogadishu still under control of the
warlords gathered in makeshift cinema halls and watched the tournament that was
being relayed from Germany through satellite dishes.
In the remaining warlords' stronghold of Jowhar, about 90 kilometres (55
miles) north of Mogadishu, residents gathered in public cinema halls to watch
the 32-nation tournament, an AFP correspondent said.
"If only they can hold the peace for one month and allow us to watch
football," Hassan Omar, a teenager in Jowhar told AFP.
In the seat of the impotent and fractured Somali government in Baidoa, about
250 kilometres (155) miles northwest of the capital, residents were not allowed
to watch the 10.00 pm (1900 GMT) World Cup match because of a curfew.
Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayir said anybody who violates the curfew
-- which runs from 9:00 PM (1800 GMT) to 5:00 am (0200 GMT), shall be sentenced
to one to three months in jail with a fine of between 1,500,000 Somali shillings
(1,080 dollars) and 3,000,000 shillings (2,160 dollars).
