http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21030571-5006785,00.html Somalis fear more youths plan to fight jihad * Richard Kerbaj * January 09, 2007 AUSTRALIAN Somali community leaders fear that more young men are planning a return to their war-ravaged homeland to join Islamic jihadis in their fight against Ethiopian-backed forces. The leaders are also concerned that an increasing number of young Somali migrants are turning to Wahhabism, the fundamentalist form of Islam espoused by 25-year-old Ahmed Ali, killed last month fighting alongside jihadis in Somalia. The Australian revealed yesterday that Mr Ali was killed three days into his jihadi mission, after travelling from Melbourne to the Horn of Africa with his child and pregnant wife. It is understood that Mr Ali's father - senior militia member Said Haji Ali - died while fighting in Somalia in 1991. Somali Community of Victoria president Abdurahman Jama Osman told The Australian yesterday that while only a minority of his community followed Wahhabism, it was very difficult to reach those who had converted. "Our problem is that young people are in touch with Wahhabis," he said, in an interview conducted in Arabic and English. "There are very few, but you cannot change their mind. Nobody can change their mind." Mr Osman said his group was also warning young men against returning to Somalia to fight with the Islamic Courts movement. "We don't want our children to die for nothing," he said. "We are worried that it will happen." Victorian police are concerned that young Somali migrants caught up in gang violence in Melbourne's inner north could be captured by radical Islam. Community sources have told The Australian Mr Ali's wife, a Muslim convert, was either in the capital, Mogadishu, or had fled to the Somalia-Kenya border with the Islamic Courts movement. The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed yesterday that Mr Ali had been killed fighting in Somalia, but that the circumstances were unclear. But his relatives said he was merely missing and had travelled to Mogadishu to visit family. A man at Mr Ali's family home in Melbourne's west told The Australian yesterday that the young father may have been killed accidently. "There's bullets flying everywhere in Somalia," said the man, who would not be named. "So it doesn't mean he was doing jihad." [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
