To New York Times, Islam is draconian

But over the past three months, the Islamists in control here have defied international expectations- in many ways.

Islamic leaders are operating almost in campaign mode, organizing street cleanups, visiting hospitals, overseeing a mini building boom and recruiting elderly policemen to don faded uniforms they have not worn for years and return to work.

“The world was so quick to label us,” said Ibrahim Hassan Addou, the Foreign Minister for the Islamic administration in Mogadishu. “All we are asking is to be judged on our deeds.”

But the darkest fears of a draconian Islam on Africa’s east coast have not come true, at least not yet. Boys are allowed to play soccer, and girls are allowed to go to schools, despite rumors to the contrary.

“Nobody knows where we are headed,” said Ahmed Mohammad Ali, chairman of a Mogadishu human rights organization. But, he added, the Islamists “pacified this place and brought the clans together.”... “Whatever you think about them,” he said, “you can not overlook that.”

The courts are now focusing on civil administration, with committees on sanitation, reconstructing education and justice. Investment money is already flowing back. The streets around Mogadishu’s main market are clogged with trucks hauling logs and cement. To oversee all this, the Islamists have appointed university professors, including many educated abroad, to crucial posts.

(Islamists Calm Somali Capital with Restraint

By Jeffrey Gettleman

Extracted from New York Times, September 24, 2006; p.1)