Relations With The Islamic Courts Union
Members of the Cayr have been leaders or supporters of the Islamic Courts Union which rose to power over much of Somalia in 2006, and were defeated in December 2006 by the forces of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and Ethiopia.
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys helped establish the Islamic Courts Union and is one of its most influential and fundamentalist leaders, strenuously advocating for an Islamic government to end the chaos in Somalia. However, the U.S. government maintains he has ties to terrorist activities.
Ayr clan elders met June 15, 2006 with the former U.S. Ambassador to Kenya, William Bellamy, in Nairobi, Kenya. Ayr clan elders made an agreement with the US ambassador to capture Al-Qaeda terrorists in their ranks if the U.S. could "tell us exactly where these men are in Somalia.".
Since the defeat of the Islamic Courts in December 2006 and January 2007, the government remains wary of the ties and sympathies of the Ayr to the Islamic Courts. On January 15, 2007, the TFG closed the radio stations for Shabelle Radio, Horn Afrik, Holy Koran Radio (Idaa'ada Qur'aanka Kariimka - IQK), and the Al Jazeera television station in Mogadishu, without issuing a reason why. Later, it was said the radio stations had ties to the Ayr clan, which supported the Islamic Courts, and, according to government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari, had broadcast reports about government soldiers: "They said our soldiers were looting the markets and harassing people, which was totally untrue... They are using the media to undermine the government. They have been doing this for months."
Read more about this topic: Ayr (clan)
Famous quotes containing the words relations with the, relations with, relations, courts and/or union:
“Major [William] McKinley visited me. He is on a stumping tour.... I criticized the bloody-shirt course of the canvass. It seems to me to be bad “politics,” and of no use.... It is a stale issue. An increasing number of people are interested in good relations with the South.... Two ways are open to succeed in the South: 1. A division of the white voters. 2. Education of the ignorant. Bloody-shirt utterances prevent division.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“If one could be friendly with women, what a pleasure—the relationship so secret and private compared with relations with men. Why not write about it truthfully?”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“In the relations of a weak Government and a rebellious people there comes a time when every act of the authorities exasperates the masses, and every refusal to act excites their contempt.”
—John Reed (1887–1920)
“Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.
For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory:”
—Bible: Hebrew Psalm LXXXIV (l. LXXXIV, 9–11)
“The monk in hiding himself from the world becomes not less than himself, not less of a person, but more of a person, more truly and perfectly himself: for his personality and individuality are perfected in their true order, the spiritual, interior order, of union with God, the principle of all perfection.”
—Thomas Merton (1915–1968)