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Islamic rule 'from Alaska and Chile to South Africa'
Radical Muslims in Somalia are promising Islamic rule from Alaska and Chile to South Africa and from Japan to Russia, issuing the warning "Beware, we are coming," according to a media monitor
The Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI, cites excerpts from television reports on the Somali terror organization Shabab al-Mujahideen that aired on Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya in recent weeks.
MEMRI monitors, translates and interprets media reports from the Middle East on critical issues including religion, terror and war.
The report said Islamic leaders spoke of their world plans in a pre-Christmas broadcast on the Middle East satellite channel Al-Jazeera.
"We are defending ourselves against those who attacked us," Abu Mansour said in the report. "Once we succeed, we will fight to end oppression in other places in the world."
Added Ibrahim Al-Maqdasi, "We want to inform Bush and our rivals about our real intentions. We will establish Islamic rule from Alaska and Chile to South Africa, and from Japan to Russia. Beware, we are coming."
Somalia's move toward radical Islam has raised concern internationally. Officials in the U.S. fear American youth are being recruiting into jihad in the African nation and believe at least one already has carried out at suicide attack.
Said Mansour, "We welcome any Muslim from anywhere in the world who wants to join us. We will allow him to marry our daughters and share our crops. Many have died fighting for our cause, and others are here with us."
A separate Al-Jazeera report had a reporter describing the work of the Shabab Al-Mujahideen in Somalia, implementing Islamic Shariah law by reducing a Catholic church to rubble.
"We are a people chosen by Allah to spread the Islamic Shariah throughout Somalia," Hassan Ya'Qoub said in the report.
It cited three drug dealers who were sentenced to 40 lashes.
A report on Al-Arabiya TV shortly said Somali Islamists resemble al-Qaida "in everything, except for swearing allegiance to al-Qaida's leader, Osama bin Laden."
An unidentified man said, "I'll tell you one thing. I'll put a bullet in the head of the infidels, and I'm ready to do it. Allah willing, the 'saved sect' will lie in wait for each and every dog the infidels bring. … We will put bullets in their heads."
On Al-Jazeera, Muqtar Robow, identified as a spokesman for Shabab al-Mujahideen, said his group intends "to implement Shariah completely – every single element of it."
"Our objectives, by the grace of God, are to see the return of the Islamic Caliphate, the last of which was the Ottoman empire that collapsed in the 1920s. We want to bring that system back and govern the world with God's law," he said.
Somalia has been in turmoil for decades, and the U.S. has contributed more than half a billion dollars in aid, mostly food, in recent years. The transitional government in recent months has begun to organize.
However, the report said Robow considers the new leaders as "war criminals."
"We urge them to just repent and seek forgiveness from the Lord, and then return to the people, take up their guns, and fight the enemy they brought into the country, because the enemy forces will not listen if we ask them to leave today," he said.
