The historic Somali Religious Scholars Conference is underway in Mogadishu for the second day.The conference brought together reputable Somali scholars drawn from within & outside of the country to discuss countering the fraudulent extremist ideology of the Al shabaab militants.
Reknown scholar Sheikh Bashir Ahmed remarked that the meeting will elucidate the public about ongoing war between militants and the federal government of Somalia .
President Mohamud opened the conference with a remembrance of the events of January 23, 1975, when the government of President Siad Barre executed ten religious clerics in Somalia for protesting against a newly enacted Family Law.
The head of state opined that the religious clerics are instrumental in his plans to defeat the militant insurgency group Al Shabaab, which he labelled as Khawarij – an Arabic term used to describe religious deviants.
President Mohamud said that the government would establish a Somali Scholars Association, which would be a conduit for the government to Islamic leaders.
The conference comes as Somalia’s federal government has waged a military offensive against Al Shabaab, successfully ousting the group from most population centres in Hirshabelle. However, Al Shabaab has retaliated with several attacks against military and civilian targets in Mogadishu and some of the recently lost territory
