EXCLUSIVE - There has been a mixed response to a claim that independent Somali mosques in South Africa were going unchecked as they allegedly spread militant messages, along with news from their homeland. While the leadership of the Somali community has vehemently denied such claims, VOC's investigation over the last two days found that individual Somali musallees shared the concerns raised by an anonymous source who forwarded an opinion piece to VOC this week to expose the issue.

In the letter which VOC received on Monday from a Somali national who identified himself as Jundub bin Junada or Abu Raas, he identified three independent Somali mosques in Bellville, Port Elizabeth and Mayfair. He said the messages spread at these mosques bought into the hatred and factionalism that has torn Somalia apart and scattered millions of its people across the globe. Central to the conflict was the extremist Al Shabbaab organisation in Somalia.

VOC's Somali journalist, Hasan Isilow, reported on Tuesday that some musallees who attend the Bellville mosques agreed that some of the information provided in these mosques was extremist in nature. "I have been gathering information from local Somali worshipers in Bellville and it seems there is some truth to claims made by Abu Raas. Most worshipers I spoke to claimed that Sheikh Abdullahi, the Imam of the Bellville mosque, was too radical in his preaching. But a few others thought he had a point in his preaching since Muslims were being oppressed," Isilow reported.

Denial

However, Abdullahi strongly denied that he was preaching hatred. "He said this was just a plot to undermine his imamat, but would not elaborate," Isilow reported. Abdullahi said: "It is not true that our mosque preaches hatred. We have always preached harmony, unity and peace." Both Abdullahi and the Bellville mosque committee have declared themselves willing to explain the matter on VOC.

One Somali businessman in Bellville, Hadith Mohammed, also denied the allegation, claiming that it was baseless and unfounded. "Somali ulema are moderate in their preaching. This is a lie. No Somali mosque preaches terrorism or hate for the west," he stressed.

In Johannesburg, the chairperson of the Somali Community Board, Abdul Hakim, also denied that such claims were true. "It's not true that our Imams preach hate or tell the congregation to fight authorities. These are baseless and unfounded rumours aimed at tarnishing the good name of our Somali ulema," he told VOC, speaking from Johannesburg.

Hakim now fears that these latest allegations could create a huge rift in the Somali community which numbers approximately 30,000 in South Africa. VOC is also following up with the other mosques mentioned by Abu Raas.

Meanwhile, VOC has received information of two raids that were conducted on a Somali organisation in Johannesburg by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) last week. Sources say as a result, the organisation has been closed down. However, NIA spokesperson Lorna Daniels would not confirm the raid and referred VOC to the SAPS.

In a second report, VOC received confirmation of a raid on a Somali shop in Mfuleni last week, allegedly in search of arms. But the SAPS in the Western Cape said they were unaware of such a raid. Isilow continues to follow up leads on the story.

Al Shabbaab

The new claim comes two weeks after the leadership of the Cape's Muslim community and the Somali community vehemently denied claims made by Prof Hussein Solomon of a terror threat to the 2010 World Cup that lurked in the Somali community. Reference was made of a telephone call from Khayelitsha to Somalia which raised the alarm and led to the closure of the US embassy after an alleged threat by Somali extremists to attack US targets in South Africa. It is believed that this stems from a threat made by the Somali extremist group Al Shabbaab earlier this year to attack US targets.

Sources within the Somali community have expressed concern that large numbers of young Somalis, some as young as 15, were fleeing their country in droves to escape Al Shabbaab and have made their way to South Africa. In keeping a close eye on these new arrivals who fled on their own and arrive here without family, the Somali leadership has prioritised the need for them to return to school in an attempt to undo the damage done to them in Somalia.

Over the past several years, an ongoing lack of internal order has left Somalia vulnerable to the rise of hard-line Islamist groups, of which the latest is al Shabbaab ("the youth"), which has risen from obscurity to international prominence in less than two years. Their commitment to global jihadism, its connections to Al-Qaeda, its military capabilities, and its ability to capture and control territory suggest that it will continue to pose a strategic challenge to both the US and Somalia's neighbors, writes Daveed Gartenstein-Ross.

Writing in the Middle East Quarterly last month, Ross stated that Al Shabbaab was a capable fighting force that implements a strict version of Sharia in key areas of Somalia. Its range is enhanced by training camps from which many Western Muslims have graduated. This has made al Shabbaab a significant security concern to several countries, including the United States.

Al Qaeda

Given the relationship between Al-Shabbaab and Al-Qaeda, which includes ideological affinity and interlocking leadership, there are worries about Al-Shabbaab's connections to trans-national terrorism. These concerns are bolstered by their operation of terrorist training camps, successors to the Islamic Courts Union camps, Ross wrote.

One of the clearest signs that training camps have reopened in Somalia is an exodus of young Somali men from the United States. There are further reports of young Somali men going missing from Canada, Europe, Australia, and Saudi Arabia. A senior US military intelligence officer reports that simultaneous disappearances in several countries are best explained by the reopening of Somali training facilities such as those in Ras Kamboni.

"The biggest concern is not what these individuals do while in Somalia, but what happens when they return to the countries from which they came. It is a concern not only for the United States but also Britain. The Times of London reports that the British security services believe that ‘dozens of Islamic extremists have returned to Britain from terror training camps in Somalia'. British intelligence analysts are concerned about possible terror attacks in the UK, and British television has reported that an October 2007 suicide bombing in Somalia was thought to have been carried out by a UK-raised bomber," Ross wrote.

Al-Shabbaab's training is both military and ideological. In 2006, Frederick Nzwili, a Nairobi-based journalist, reported that training camps run by Aweys and Al-Shabbaab founder Aden Hashi Ayro "included indoctrination into fundamentalist ideology aimed at advocating jihad in Islamic states." The Economist noted the fundamentalist environment in which Al-Shabaab's training occurs, wherein recruits "are expected to disavow music, videos, cigarettes and qat, the leaf Somali men chew most afternoons to get mildly high."

Stay tuned for more on this story on Open Lines on Thursday at 12pm. VOC (Munadia Karaan, Hasan Isilow, Dorianne Arendse)