Abdi Kadir Ali and I think alike. Who knew?

In a Wash Post article today on the brain drain in Somalia, there is a section on discussions exiled Somalis are having in Eastleigh, Kenya.

Abdi Kadir Ali, who earned a political science degree in London and returned to Somalia to start a think tank (ambitious) to promote dialogue, states in the article "People became so suspicious, --they'd say [to him] maybe you're a spy or you're promoting Western ideologies...So I started taking about bottom-up economics instead of of globalization. Instead of human rights I'd say 'Islamic human rights.'"


Go Abdi! You rock. And you're a smart man.

I've written posts now and again about the importance of placing the word Islam in front of democracy or feminism in the region. People are suspicious of these movements not because they see them as western, but as ideas that were forced upon them over the past half century. (Like in Somalia - when US backed Ethiopian troops came in and overthrew the Islamist government and said they were establishing a 'democracy.' Please.) See, for example, my post below on Karen Armstrong on Bill Moyers. Better yet please please please (I'm begging) watch the interview here on the website, it is the most enlightening 15 minutes ever.)

Islam is the most revered respected institution in the region. Just as extremists have used it to justify their radicalism (and it clearly has been effective), moderates and reformists should - many already are - use it to justify their struggle for peace and democracy and women's and human rights.