The Rise & Fall of Somalia's Islamic Courts: An Online History The Rise & Fall of Somalia's Islamic Courts: An Online History

The Fourth Rail: The Rise & Fall of Somalia's Islamic Courts: An Online History tells a story that the MSM here in the U.S. has ignored. A Taliban like Islamic Courts rose to power in Somalia with the help of al Qaeda and took over control of most of the country by late last summer. They consoldated power with the help of Gulf State financing, Iranian arms, and Hizb'Allah training. But then they overstepped, trying to extend their Greater Somalia to include Ethiopia, which was able to sucessfully defeat them early this year. While in power, the Islamic Courts implemented similar Sharia type laws throughout much of Somalia, going so far as to ban the chewing of Khat.

One thing that is interesting here how the Wahhabi Sunnis from al Qaeda and the Gulf States were able to work together with Shiite Iran and Hizb'Allah. It would make more sense if their common enemy were the U.S. here. But our involvement has been fairly minimal. The only other thing that comes to mind here is that the Iranians (and their Hizb'Allah surrogates) were involved in order to bolster their Islamic credentials.