The decision of the Somali people

ANN: Are your fighters all Somalis? Some reports say that they include some foreign elements. And if they are all Somalis do they all belong to Mogadishu or do they include Somalis hailing from Somaliland, Puntland, Ethiopia and Kenya?

Sh. Sherif: All our fighters are Somalis. There may be people who arrived here during the battles and joined the fighting. I am not sure of that because all the fighters are volunteers. There may also include people who are residents of Mogadishu but originally came from the other regions, but the fighters who are officially enlisted for us are all from Mogadishu. They are all natives of the city; they are known people and they are the people who established the Islamic courts.

ANN: Some reports from the West say that your courts comprise people from various Islamic schools of thought such as Al Ittihad Al Islami, Al Takfiir Wal Hijra, Al Islah and Al Tabliq and that they are all against the moderate Sunni, Shafi'i and Sufi schools of Islam. If this is true don't you think this could lead to a clash between them?

Sh. Sherif: There is no truth in this. The people are ordinary people who organised themselves. Each one of them has been selected on individual basis to lead a court. They could be from Sufi orders or Al Ittihad or others. But as you know Al Ittihad doesn't exist anymore. It has ceased to exist a long time ago.

ANN: Where do you get support in terms of arms and finance?

Sh. Sherif: The support comes from the people who have established these courts.

ANN: You told a crowd of people recently that you are going to establish a state based on Islamic sharia? Does that mean that you will not allow democratic systems such as that existing in Somaliland?

Sh. Sherif: That report is not true. I have never made such a statement at all.

ANN: Somaliland has a well-established government that has seceded from the rest of the country with the people's support. How do you see it? Do you think that you will spread the sharia to it as well?

Sh. Sherif: I congratulate the Somaliland people, they have worked hard. They are people we love; they are Somali people. Somaliland's secession was due to mistakes that happened in the past. For our part, we would like these mistakes to be addressed. We believe they are the first people concerned because their property, their wealth and their blood are in the soil.

ANN: Some reports claim that you are Wahhabists and that you are trying to impose Wahhabsim on the Somali people who had no experience of Wahhabism. What will you say about it?

Sh. Sherif: I myself I don't know Wahhabism at all. I am from a family that followed a Sufi order. I have no idea about Wahhabiya, I only heard about the name.