Somalia: an Islamic State

I often get into arguements with persons about how Islam came into Africa. I usually site that in some places Islam was introduced by Jihad, and I don't mean the internal type. There are those who refuse to believe that Islam could have been introduced by force of arms nor that after the conversion of the rulers, that forced conversion or "cruel and unusual punishment" would be used against those who refused to be converted. I present the current case of Somalia where we find:

Somalia is officially an Islamic state and conversion is prohibited.

The country has a population of approximately 8.3 million, nearly all of them Sunni Muslims. There is a small, extremely low-profile Christian community.

According to the International Religious Freedom Report 2006 issued by the US State Department last Friday, proselytizing for any religion except Islam is prohibited in Puntland and Somaliland and effectively blocked by informal social consensus elsewhere in the country.

Mind you Somalia was a defacto Muslim country since the majority of it's population is Sunni Muslim. While President Mushariff and other Muslim leaders denounce the Pope for defaming Islam, I'm sure that they don't have much words for the blatant discrimination of non-Islamic religions in Somalia (and which occurs elsewhere in the Middle East). I'm not a fan of proselytization from any religion but I recognize that people have the right to practice and discuss with whomever they want their own religious beliefs. They also have the right to critique their own as well as other religions. This blatant affront to human rights has no place in the world or in Africa. It is unfortunate that at a time that Africa is in need of unity (not uniformity) that certain states would take steps towards greater disunity.

Technorati Tags: Africa, critique, Culture, governance, Islam, Pan-Africanism, Somalia