A tentative assessment of the Somali Harakat Al-Shabaab

Abstract

Al-Shabaab appears today as an offspring of al-Qaidah: a Jihadist organization that is|articulating a project beyond Somalia to fight Western interests and set up Islamic States|in the region. Its growth has pushed Somalia again into the headlines to the extent that Western states and their allies in the region have been developing security policies to|contain and eradicate it. Those policies for the last three years seem to have been dysfunctional and have fostered rather than hindered the influence of this organization|within Somali society, contributing to its fame among the global Jihadist trend. A study|of political Islam in the civil war period offers a different view; this organization is made up of Islamists who had fought in Afghanistan in the 1980s and 1990s and others who|always gave priority to military struggle against da'wa.