Ironically no one seems more ignorant of his history today as the Somali Muslim. Somalis should certainly know that whoever controls the past controls the future. But what we don't seem to wake up to is the corollary, whoever controls the present, too often, controls the past.
This is not simply to explain why we remain ignorant of our own past but to make us appreciate the fact that those who control their present will not easily give up their past. As Somalis did (or are still doing) with our freedom and independence, we may have to do with our past, indeed our past is an important component of that freedom, for it gives us our identity and therefore the freedom to be what we are. For, as history itself testifies, freedom is never given on the platter of gold. But without it no nation, or indeed individual, makes any meaningful progress.
Our past gives us not only our identity and our worth, but also our bearings and our goals. It presents to us our role models and shows us the things worth fighting for. Our future therefore is in discovering our past.
RELIGION IS IMPORTANT
While a lot of debate centers around the role of religion of Islam in the making of Al-Shabaab and keeping Somalia unstable. But religion kept the sanity of Somali people through the worse days of famine, civil war and colonialism. It is a central part of Somali identity and value formations. Entire struggles have unified Somali people due to Islamic religious alliances. In the last 16th century a war took place against Christian imposition during times of Adal. I could go on if one actually studies history. In Somalia wars against Colonialism went on under the banner of "religion" (Dervish State). It was a religious cohesion during 15th century Ajuuran Sultunate that allowed the Imams to amass an Army at Barawa and Mogadishu and crush the Portugese. It was that same "religious identity" that ‘’Aw Barkhadle’’ used to create the might Adal Empire. It was the Islamic character of Western/Northern Somalia, under legends like Ahmed Gurey, and the campaigns of the late Emir Nuur (Futah Al habash) anti- imperialist and Western imposition galavanieshed people in the region in the late 16th century. In Somalia religion was the foundation of identity and resistance.
RELIGION AND AGENCY
In treating a prostate cancer it is usually a good idea not to cut out the bladder and leave the prostate. Mis- identifying religion is a detrimental to Somalia, it is only convenient for people who do not want to waddle through the complexities of Somali problems. And the language of "destruction and domination" is political language, not historical language. The script destroyed oral tradition, the car destroyed the donkey, the cd destroyed the record, and the turntable destroyed the musical instrument. It is no different with culture and religion anywhere.
Organized mainstream religions are spiritual technologies responsible for the backbone of civilized societies. Out of these organized rituals came vehicles for perpetuating culture, law, justice and morality. However, religion has been fingered time and time again as being the inspiration and agent of violence and brainwashing. Mass religion is a big soft target since most people are members of a religious group it is easy to say it was this religious factor, above all others, which is responsible for any and all negative behavior. Anti-religious Russia and China witnessed some of the most barbaric regimes, pure inhumanity and severe oppression-- Yet no religion. So the argument about religion as an agent for dividing people is equally true for politics, race, color, nationality if not more so.
More wars are caused over land and resources than God. The largest wars in human history had nothing to do with religion. Even during the crusades (which were supposed to be a Muslim-Christian conflict), the crusaders killed many non-Western Christians. However, far more emphasis has to be placed on greed, wealth disparity, and its effect on the human condition. In the absence of religion, violence would have taken place. In the absences of democracy, communism and clans, wars would have taken place. If we look at the most ruthless dictators most of them do not kill in the name of religion, (Mao for example said religion was poison). The problem with Mao et al was religion competed with him as a god-head. The biggest wars in history are not really in the name of religion; even the crusades were about Europeans acquisition of trade routes, which Muslims controlled. All arguments support that religion is not the primary agent in the oppression of Somalia, now or then.
Terms like "Islamic Invasion" and "foreign religion" are painted all over Somalia as if this was the only process by which Islam came into Somalia . Islam has been a native part of the Somali landscape for 1418 year. Yet history paints Christianity in Europe as if it was fundamentally a European institution. Europe Europeanized Christianity just like how they paint Buddhism in China as if its origins where Chinese. So the notion of Christianity being a European project needs to be challenged. They were Churches in Africa long before the Vatican.
Anthropologists seek to extract religion from reality and make Somalia the perpetual victim of invading Arabs. Afrocentric history on one page vilifies these religions but then on the next page tries to score racial points by claiming the glories of the Islamic contributions such as Dervish State, Ajuuran and Adal. However, Auvalites were not victim when they chose out of their own rights as a sovereign self-determined power to accept Islam as a state religion. Nor was Ancient Boon/Waaqoyi when it accepted Islam as the state religion. These were powers under Somali influences that made these choices, just as Rome did when it accepted Christianity. And in Somalias recent history some of the greatest minds of liberation were Muslim Saayid Abdille Mohamed Hassan, Ahmed Gurey and Garad WilWaal etc.
Before there was a Mosque of Ottoman there was a Somali Sufi state in Somalia, before Islam was ever heard of in Iran and Iraq or Syria or Medina it was being practiced on Somali Soil (Zeila) ; the religion of islam is a traditional Somali religion. The unique Somali expression within this faith is not homologous but in Somalia , the Somali traditions are distinctively Somali. This is because the process of acceptance had Somalis as agents of their destiny and hence Somalinized this religion as opposed to be victims of other people’s interpretations.
This does not mean that the alteration to culture was not destructive at times, but to use these terms are very loaded. The problem of undue cultural influence became an issue where to be Islamic meant taking on the cultural attributes of the dominant practitioners of this faith, may they be Arab or Asian. So this is a cultural challenge not serviced by throwing the baby out with the bath water. If Muslims are sensitive to this they will select Somali Muslim names, as opposed to Arab names, they will seek out Somali interpretations, which speak to their reality,
But religion is part of human globalize culture and cross-fertilization is an aspect of human history and it is in this context that religion should be looked at in Somalia and indeed world history.
Reality Check
The question to all those that seek to re-divide up Somalia by being anti-Islamic is what, in practical terms, do they want Somalis to do? Beyond the rhetoric, what is their plan to fix what they see as a conflict? Should the Ancient Mosques and Monuments in Zeila & Mogadishu and Ogaden be burnt? Are you going to rip Islam from the corpse of Saayid Abudllah Hassan and see what is left? Do they expect 20 million people to mass exit these two religions? In addition, what religion are they bringing as an alternative? Will this native Somali religion work in the 21st century? Today many so-called native faiths have very harmful practices such as the Muti in South Africa and other faiths which are highly superstitious.
It is not like removing European clothing and wearing Somali clothing. So practically, it is a futile endeavor to attempt to mass convert a country in which the people are 99.9% followers of Islam, It would be far better to Somalinize this Religion and make them service the people and the culture at the same time. It would be more sincere to unite the Somali poeple around a common moral core
https://somalihormariyo.wordpress.com/2015/11/02/somali-and-religion/
This is not simply to explain why we remain ignorant of our own past but to make us appreciate the fact that those who control their present will not easily give up their past. As Somalis did (or are still doing) with our freedom and independence, we may have to do with our past, indeed our past is an important component of that freedom, for it gives us our identity and therefore the freedom to be what we are. For, as history itself testifies, freedom is never given on the platter of gold. But without it no nation, or indeed individual, makes any meaningful progress.
Our past gives us not only our identity and our worth, but also our bearings and our goals. It presents to us our role models and shows us the things worth fighting for. Our future therefore is in discovering our past.
RELIGION IS IMPORTANT
While a lot of debate centers around the role of religion of Islam in the making of Al-Shabaab and keeping Somalia unstable. But religion kept the sanity of Somali people through the worse days of famine, civil war and colonialism. It is a central part of Somali identity and value formations. Entire struggles have unified Somali people due to Islamic religious alliances. In the last 16th century a war took place against Christian imposition during times of Adal. I could go on if one actually studies history. In Somalia wars against Colonialism went on under the banner of "religion" (Dervish State). It was a religious cohesion during 15th century Ajuuran Sultunate that allowed the Imams to amass an Army at Barawa and Mogadishu and crush the Portugese. It was that same "religious identity" that ‘’Aw Barkhadle’’ used to create the might Adal Empire. It was the Islamic character of Western/Northern Somalia, under legends like Ahmed Gurey, and the campaigns of the late Emir Nuur (Futah Al habash) anti- imperialist and Western imposition galavanieshed people in the region in the late 16th century. In Somalia religion was the foundation of identity and resistance.
RELIGION AND AGENCY
In treating a prostate cancer it is usually a good idea not to cut out the bladder and leave the prostate. Mis- identifying religion is a detrimental to Somalia, it is only convenient for people who do not want to waddle through the complexities of Somali problems. And the language of "destruction and domination" is political language, not historical language. The script destroyed oral tradition, the car destroyed the donkey, the cd destroyed the record, and the turntable destroyed the musical instrument. It is no different with culture and religion anywhere.
Organized mainstream religions are spiritual technologies responsible for the backbone of civilized societies. Out of these organized rituals came vehicles for perpetuating culture, law, justice and morality. However, religion has been fingered time and time again as being the inspiration and agent of violence and brainwashing. Mass religion is a big soft target since most people are members of a religious group it is easy to say it was this religious factor, above all others, which is responsible for any and all negative behavior. Anti-religious Russia and China witnessed some of the most barbaric regimes, pure inhumanity and severe oppression-- Yet no religion. So the argument about religion as an agent for dividing people is equally true for politics, race, color, nationality if not more so.
More wars are caused over land and resources than God. The largest wars in human history had nothing to do with religion. Even during the crusades (which were supposed to be a Muslim-Christian conflict), the crusaders killed many non-Western Christians. However, far more emphasis has to be placed on greed, wealth disparity, and its effect on the human condition. In the absence of religion, violence would have taken place. In the absences of democracy, communism and clans, wars would have taken place. If we look at the most ruthless dictators most of them do not kill in the name of religion, (Mao for example said religion was poison). The problem with Mao et al was religion competed with him as a god-head. The biggest wars in history are not really in the name of religion; even the crusades were about Europeans acquisition of trade routes, which Muslims controlled. All arguments support that religion is not the primary agent in the oppression of Somalia, now or then.
Terms like "Islamic Invasion" and "foreign religion" are painted all over Somalia as if this was the only process by which Islam came into Somalia . Islam has been a native part of the Somali landscape for 1418 year. Yet history paints Christianity in Europe as if it was fundamentally a European institution. Europe Europeanized Christianity just like how they paint Buddhism in China as if its origins where Chinese. So the notion of Christianity being a European project needs to be challenged. They were Churches in Africa long before the Vatican.
Anthropologists seek to extract religion from reality and make Somalia the perpetual victim of invading Arabs. Afrocentric history on one page vilifies these religions but then on the next page tries to score racial points by claiming the glories of the Islamic contributions such as Dervish State, Ajuuran and Adal. However, Auvalites were not victim when they chose out of their own rights as a sovereign self-determined power to accept Islam as a state religion. Nor was Ancient Boon/Waaqoyi when it accepted Islam as the state religion. These were powers under Somali influences that made these choices, just as Rome did when it accepted Christianity. And in Somalias recent history some of the greatest minds of liberation were Muslim Saayid Abdille Mohamed Hassan, Ahmed Gurey and Garad WilWaal etc.
Before there was a Mosque of Ottoman there was a Somali Sufi state in Somalia, before Islam was ever heard of in Iran and Iraq or Syria or Medina it was being practiced on Somali Soil (Zeila) ; the religion of islam is a traditional Somali religion. The unique Somali expression within this faith is not homologous but in Somalia , the Somali traditions are distinctively Somali. This is because the process of acceptance had Somalis as agents of their destiny and hence Somalinized this religion as opposed to be victims of other people’s interpretations.
This does not mean that the alteration to culture was not destructive at times, but to use these terms are very loaded. The problem of undue cultural influence became an issue where to be Islamic meant taking on the cultural attributes of the dominant practitioners of this faith, may they be Arab or Asian. So this is a cultural challenge not serviced by throwing the baby out with the bath water. If Muslims are sensitive to this they will select Somali Muslim names, as opposed to Arab names, they will seek out Somali interpretations, which speak to their reality,
But religion is part of human globalize culture and cross-fertilization is an aspect of human history and it is in this context that religion should be looked at in Somalia and indeed world history.
Reality Check
The question to all those that seek to re-divide up Somalia by being anti-Islamic is what, in practical terms, do they want Somalis to do? Beyond the rhetoric, what is their plan to fix what they see as a conflict? Should the Ancient Mosques and Monuments in Zeila & Mogadishu and Ogaden be burnt? Are you going to rip Islam from the corpse of Saayid Abudllah Hassan and see what is left? Do they expect 20 million people to mass exit these two religions? In addition, what religion are they bringing as an alternative? Will this native Somali religion work in the 21st century? Today many so-called native faiths have very harmful practices such as the Muti in South Africa and other faiths which are highly superstitious.
It is not like removing European clothing and wearing Somali clothing. So practically, it is a futile endeavor to attempt to mass convert a country in which the people are 99.9% followers of Islam, It would be far better to Somalinize this Religion and make them service the people and the culture at the same time. It would be more sincere to unite the Somali poeple around a common moral core
https://somalihormariyo.wordpress.com/2015/11/02/somali-and-religion/
its not my fault you are an IQ less Xalimo with short attention span. 
