ICC Note:
Al-Shabaab, an Islamic extremist group that has vowed to make Somalia ‘purely Islamic,’ targeted a second lawmaker yesterday for allowing Christians and Christianity into the East African nation. Sentencing the man to extrajudicial death for his interaction with the ‘Christian West,’ Al-Shabaab continues to operate outside of the law, imposing its radically harsh interpreation of Sharia onto all Somalis: publicly beheading converts from Islam, removing hands from thieves, and fatally punishing those found guilty of blasphemy. More must be done to protect the small and extremely vulnerable population of Christians in Somalia and all those who stand for their rights.
04/23/2014 Somalia (YahooNews) – Islamist rebels shot dead a Somali lawmaker on Tuesday, a day after blowing up one of his colleagues in his car, and vowed to keep killing politicians and wreck efforts to secure the country.
Al Qaeda-linked group al Shabaab told Reuters the latest killing was meant to send a message to Western-backed President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who on Tuesday was due to wrap up a three-day conference on improving security in the capital.
“This proves that they cannot and will never do anything about security … More serious killings are on the way,” said al Shabaab’s military spokesman, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab.
Somalia’s two decades of civil war and lawlessness, triggered by the overthrow of President Siad Barre in 1991, has already spread to destabilize the region.
Western nations fear Somalia could sink further into chaos and provide a launchpad for Islamist militancy.
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