Islamic Courts Union - Social Policies

Social Policies

The Islamic Courts' claimed mission was to bring social justice and combat iniquity thus after capturing Mogadishu it brought Sharia law back to Somalia and re instituted the constitution.

In the year 2000, the courts formed a union of Islamic courts, partly to consolidate resources and power and partly to aid in handing down decisions across, rather than within, clan lines.

In an interview featured in the BBC Online Somali section in June 2006, Sheik Sharif Shaykh Ahmed said "the union of Islamic courts was established to ensure that Somali people suffering for 15 years would gain peace and full justice and freedom from the anarchic rule of warlords who refuted their people to no direction."

• On October 5, 2006, the Islamic Courts had declared the formation of the supreme Islamic Sharia court of Banadir province. The announcement ceremony was attended by all Islamic officials; both consultative and executive councils, intellectuals and civil society members and took place in the former Somalian presidential palace in central Mogadishu. That announcement from the central Islamic Court was destined to end all tribal Islamic Courts in the capital.

• On November 17, 2006, the ICU had banned the use, sale and transportation of khat altogether and the Islamic Court of Kismayo banned the sale of cigarettes. This was a controversial move as it was the main source of income for many war widows and orphans and a huge import-export business.

• The ICU fought pirate activity at the Somali coast, which subsequently declined during its rule.