The Flag of Islam: An Alternate History of Somalia

Abc: Indeed they are. However, the ICU is also uniquely Somali, as it also follows the centuries-old concept of "xeer". Xeer is a kritocratic (ruled by judges) legal and governmental system that creates an incredibly decentralized and local-ruled state. The ICU combined Sharia law with xeer to create a nominally Islamic, but uniquely Somali and unauthoritarian state.

And don't make the mistake of assuming all Islamic fundamentalists are the same: Hamas', the Muslim Brotherhood's, Iran's, and other groups' goals and ideals are often, while set in a Muslim framework, fundamentally different and incompatible with each others'.

Strategos: Well, without revealing too much, let me just say that the conditions of al-Qaeda and the Taliban will be heavily affected by the butterflys, leading to a very different Muslim world.

Everyone else: Thanks for all the compliments and interest!
 
Since I don't have enough time to write a full update today, here's a sort of mini-update moving the war forward a bit.

"We had an opportunity, and we took it. No matter the results of that fateful decision, I still think we followed the right path and did well in our handling of the situation..."

--From a 2011 interview with exiled former Djiboutian President Ismail Omar Guelleh about his decision in 2007 to join Ethiopia's war against the Islamic Alliance

"It was our first real chance at victory in almost forty years, and I certainly wasn't going to pass it up. When American support became assured, I gathered my men and planned. Planned for that fateful day in February when we made our first move..."

--From an interview in the 2010 documentary The Second African Great War with Efrem Tekle, leader of the Somali resistance movement in northeastern Kenya

"When Djibouti launched a surprise attack north into Eritrea and the Somalis in Kenya rose up, that's when things really started to get heavy. That's when people started calling it the Second African Great War..."

--From an aforementioned interview with Colin Powell about his post-retirement involvement in the War of the Horn of Africa
 
very interesting a very different look at somalia.
Unfortunately this belongs in the ASB field because the probability of the US having a sane african policy is highly unlikely.

Africa is not that important to the US and somalia even less, so you will get some small time bureaucrat in the state department or in the CIA influencing major affairs in somalia and making these really damaging decisions.


The ICU was a homegrown somali movement, it was just as you said,
based on xeer the somali common law and sharia, but was non authoritarian.
Somalis are natural anarchists and this evolves naturally in the somali environment, while a dictatorship will be resisted so severely that it will destroy everything along with it..

ICU being a loose confederation of courts of various clans and regions, involved allot of people, and you had various people of different politcs amongst its leadership.

You had some that were open to dealing with the west, you had your jihadis who wanted international jihad, but most of the leadership had zero interest in
the west or international affairs and were solely focus on local issues.


Some one in the US government panicked,was given false information probably by Ethiopia which has influence in the state department, and the ICU was branded a dangerous group of fundamentalists and al-qaeda supporters.
The green light was given to Ethiopia and it was given US funding to pay for the invasion.

The result destruction of the ICU and the evolution of the al-shabaab.
Now the al-shabaab elements were always present but they were a small minority and overshadowed by more moderate groups.
When they were all destroyed the al-shabaab message appeared to be true to everyone, that the West is truley evil and is out to get islam and all muslim poeple.
The sl-shabab are weak but they are as extreme as al-qaeda and infact consider them to be too soft on west...

All this chaos and destruction because of the decisions of some unnamed bureaucrat in the state department, its really depressing isn't it.
 
Very interesting TL - while I find it somewhat implausible - that doesn't matter. Hitler meeting Germany and becoming BFFs with Chiang Kai-shek is also quite implausible but hey - people make timelines out of that!
 
The US government however quickly changed its mind about the ICU leadership and the circumstances are not well known, it hasn't been mentioned in the western media, although aljazeera mentioned some of the rumors.

An interesting incident occurred shortly after the Ethiopian invasion when the ICU was defeated and scattered, and the leadership running for their lives.
Shiekh sharif the current president of the Transitional Federal Government was one of those thats made it to the jungles near the border with Kenya.
While attempting to escape through Kenya in disguise he was captured by Kenyan security along with many others of the leadership with the involvement of the CIA.

Simultaneously as this was going on a blackhawk had a malfunction and crashed in the very same area the ICU remnants were regrouping.
It may have just dropped a special forces team because rumors started flying about the capture of only 2 white soldiers.

Nobody acknowledged these rumours but shiekh sharif along with several of the top leadership of the ICU that fell into CIA hands in Kenya, ended up free and in Saudi arabia..

What most people believe happened was that the Americans fell into the hands of a nearby ICU force that was regrouping in the area, the wanted al-qaeda that were being hunted were also in the same area..

Shiekh sharif negotiated and arranged for the safe transfer of the Americans and got himself free as well..
Someone in the US government must have realized that moderate islamists that are willing to deal with the west are valuable..

in the next few months a new transitional government is formed and everyone was surprised to see the US fully backing up Sharif and other moderate islamists..
 
MOHAMMED: Sir, we've just received confirmation of a Djiboutian invasion into Eritrea. Response, if any?

KAHIN: Don't rush me, general. You know well it is a difficult decision.

MOHAMMED: Apologies, sir.

KAHIN: Hmm....it is difficult. We must push into the Federal territory quickly if we are to gain victory, and Ethiopian invasion is a worry. However, we cannot let our allies collapse.

MOHAMMED: Sir, your decision? Excuse me, but our time window to make any real difference is closing quickly.

KAHIN: True. (sigh) Fine, do it.

MOHAMMED: Yes, sir.

(click)

--A transcript of a February 1, 2007 phone call between Somaliland's president Dahir Rayale Kahin and the commander-in-chief of Somaliland's armed forces Adan Mire Mohammed


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Somaliland Armed Forces men fighting in the streets of Ali Sabieh in Djibouti


"It was 2:00 in the morning when they came. I was in bed with my wife: our two children, both boys, lay on the floor next to our mosquito-netted bed. I awoke to the sounds of pounding on the front door. Putting on the pair of camoflauge pants, my best, that I always kept near the bed, I hurried to the front room of my two-room house and opened the door. There was Colonel Saare Michael, my commander in the Rapid Reaction Force. He was fully dressed for duty and carrying his worn FAMAS. For a moment, I simply stood there stupidly--when he cleared his throat, however, I remembered my manners and saluted. Nodding, he spoke, 'Good morning, private Aman. We are in the midst of an emergency and I am ordered to assemble the Force. Get your gear and let's go." Still exhausted, I simply nodded and gathered the rest of my clothes, putting them on quickly, and loaded my FAMAS before returning to the door. We set off into the night like ghosts, hurrying through the streets of Tadjourah.

At the airstrip, which was lit by ancient gaslights, we met the rest of the Rapid Reaction Force, who were standing uncomforably in the humid heat, fidgeting. A small plane stood nearby. As we arrived, the colonel began shouting orders. "Form....UP! Let's...GO!" We hurried onto the plane and, after a short drive along the runway, we were up. While we were in the plane, for less than fifteen minutes, we were briefed on the situation and our mission. Just an hour ago, forces from Somaliland had crossed the border and fired upon our guards, wiping them out. Then, they had quickly advanced towards Djibouti city, though they had not reached it yet. Our job was to parachute out of the plane over southern Arta (region) in the south and strike the advancing Somalilanders, hard and fast.(1) Just enough to knock them off their feet, since we were certainly not powerful enough to defeat them ourselves. After he finished, the rest of the trip--about seven or so minutes--was quiet as we all quietly accepted our mission and realized that many of us, perhaps all of us, would not survive this battle. And then we jumped.

It was comforting, falling. The wind whipping past my face cooled me after the hot plane, and I was a little reluctant to pull my cord and lose that wind. But I digress. When I landed, I was all alone, in a cluster of rocks. I quickly pulled off my parachute. Then, peeking over the rocks, I saw several of the Somalilanders traveling in a tight group, looking this way and that as they advanced. Cocking my FAMAS, I sighted down the barrel and began firing. The FAMAS made a dull roaring in my ear as I fired into the crowd of Somalis. At least three of them fell before the group scattered and began firing wildly in all directions. I saw a few of them even shoot each other, though a bullet did scrap a rock near me. I ducked down quickly and waited for them to calm down. After a few minutes, they did. Then, I heard the dull roaring of another FAMAS nearby and risked a look over the rocks. There, just a few meters away, I saw Colonel Michael, standing and firing at the Somalilanders, who fired back with incredibly inaccuracy. I lifted my own gun and fired along with him, easily dispatching the rest of the soldiers. After they were dead, I jumped over the rocks and walked over to him. He grinned at me, a bloodthirsty grin, and said, "Let's go get ourselves some blood." I was chilled, but nodded anyway.

We passed as shades into the night, shades hunting for the blood of those who had wronged them in life."

--From On The Other Side of Victory, a tell-all book about Djibouti's participation in the war by Abdul Aman, a former Djiboutian soldier


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Rapid Reaction Force members hurrying to the frontline in southern Djibouti


AHMED: Victory was rapid in coming in our war against the Federals, so when we learned that the Kenyans were using genocide and war crimes to suppress the rebels in the North Eastern Province, we were naturally upset.

AL-QASSEM: Upset enough to invade on their behalf.

AHMED: Indeed. Though it was a risk-...

AL-QASSEM: With a powerful African nation and a significant domestic contender already at war with you, it is abundantly obvious the kind of risk it was.

AHMED: If I may continue?

AL-QASSEM: Please.

AHMED: Thank you. As I was saying, though it was a risk, it was an acceptable risk to rescue our fellow Somalis. On February 9, we invaded the North Eastern Province and had great success against the Kenyans, and succeeding in freeing several hundred Somalis unlawfully imprisoned in hard-labor camps.

AL-QASSEM: What about the Kenyans who were later found in hard-labor camps? Evidence shows they were put there by your men.

AHMED: Those were merely refugee camps to protect them while we fought...

--From a 2011 airing of the Al-Jazeera talk show The Opposite Direction with Dr. Faisal al-Qassem, featuring an interview with Sharif Sheikh Ahmed


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Dr. Faisal al-Qassem during a later part of the interview with Sharif Sheikh Ahmed


(1) The Djiboutians have one of the most badass special forces groups, the Rapid Reaction Force, in the Horn.
 
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I really liked the update, but I didn't post because I felt I didn't have anything intelligent to say. Keep up the good work!
 
Ganesha, Strategos: Thanks, guys! I'll have another update up sometime this week. Unfortunately I have a lot to do today, so nothing today.

anon: Hi, dude. Camp Lemonnier is essentially an oasis of solitude in the nation at the moment: The US won't intervene against one of their new allies, though they're starting to think twice about all this "Africa" stuff. And as for Faina, it's going to get to South Sudan on schedule, what with most pirates being quickly eradicated, as are the causes of piracy.
 
"We were one of the first regiments of mujahideen to arrive in the Northwestern Province(, Kenya). There was no one at the border--all had been called back to suppress the revolution. We moved quickly, therefore, and so it was about 2:00 in the afternoon when we reached the first village. It was horrifying. The entire place had been burned, and the houses were as skeletons. The twisted and melted corpses of men, women, and in places, children and even babies were piled in the center of the village, surrounded by slaughtered sheep and cattle. A lone vulture sat on top of the pile, an avatar of some pagan death-god from ancient days come to remind us of his continuing power. The worst part? The stink of burned meat pervading the village. After we continued on, we all agreed to bathe in the nearby river.

The uncleanness of the act had stained even we devout Muslims."

--From Warriors of Islam, by Omar Kifle

. . .

Sorry, rather terrible and short update today, detailing the brutal, human-rights-violations-ridden war in Kenya. Below, a photo of a Kenyan internment camp for rebelling Somalis, taken by a Kenyan soldier with the old camera he had in his bag.

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This TL is really interesting. What are the ramifications like in the US right now? How's the public feeling? Keep up the great work!
 
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