Word: sharif
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...just as Ho Chi Minh was a Vietnamese nationalist before he was a communist, Sharif probably has a bigger goal than pursuing Islamic extremism for its own sake. He has consistently sought alliances with other non-Islamist leaders. A former teacher, he helped found the ICU to try to restore law and order after one of his students was kidnapped by one of Somalia's marauding militia. And he has broken with al Shabaab, formerly the militant wing of the ICU and the main Islamist force in Somalia. That last prompted more extreme ICU leaders, such as Sheikh Hassan Dahir...
Nobody wants a death threat from Osama bin Laden. Still, Thursday's release of an audio message from the al-Qaeda supremo calling for Somalis to overthrow their new President, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, may be taken as a compliment in the world's most failed state. In an 11-minute message focused entirely on Somalia and entitled "Fight on, champions of Somalia," bin Laden claimed Sheik Sharif's appointment, which came after he was elected by Somali lawmakers on Jan. 31, was "induced by the American envoy in Kenya," a reference to the U.S. ambassador in Nairobi, Michael Ranneberger...
...question of whether Sharif is a moderate is open to question. He was a founder of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) which took power in Mogadishu for a few months in 2006 after ejecting the city's long-sparring warlords. The ICU imposed strict Shari'a law and, unwisely, declared a jihad on Ethiopia, which subsequently invaded and overthrew it at the end of 2006. In addition, the ICU tolerated the presence of extreme Islamist militants, including the Somali-based al-Qaeda group that blew up U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, killing more than 200 people...
...many nations, the domestic front matters more to Iranians than the phantom menace of Israel and the U.S. Iran's economy is crippled by debt and inflation and a government that has grown moribund and ineffectual. That is the real situation with which Iranians contend. Soraya Sharif, Melbourne...
...Moment after Clinton's phone calls to the two squabbling politicians, the government held out a peace offering to Sharif. It said it will now file a "review petition" in the Supreme Court, asking that it reconsider its order disqualifying the Sharifs from public office. But the Sharif camp has thus far refused to back down from its hardline position. And so, Pakistan's political crisis continues...