HINTS ON THE RELIGIONS OF MASAANUU FAMILY BROTHERS

By Getachew Chemeda (Taken from ONA mailig list)

HINTS ON THE RELIGIONS OF MASAANUU FAMILY BROTHERS
" For the God of Israel is the God of Christiandom and the God of Islam and Judaism is the source of these two great Religion" According to the Old Testament, which is purely Jewish history and story, Abraham was the father of the revealed religion of Judaism. He was also the head of Mana Masaanuu family structure. Sarah is believed to be his first 'legal' wife. By the order of the Lord, Abraham and Sarah departed from their birth place, Ur, to Canaan, the land of honey and milk which was similar to the ancient land of Abbaa Muudaa Oromoo before masanaau religions colonised it.
However, Sarah and Abraham were not blessed with fertility, that means, they were not able to bear successor.According to the Old Testament, Sarah asked her husband to go to her maidservant, named Hagar, to try to beget a successor. He answered her question happily. Within days of contact,Hagar was blessed with a baby in her womb. She gave birth to a son whose Jewish name was Ishmael and Arabic name Ismael. After Ismael was born, Sarah became an envious woman against the fertility of her maidservant, Hagar. She was very regret of her initial command of urging her husband to go to Hagar in search for a successor.Now Hagar,as a mother of a son, is serving Abraham as a co-wife. It was by this time that the Lord intervened to mediate the envious Sarah by blessing her womb after she went over a childbearing age. She was rerwarded a baby in her womb when Abraham was 100 years old. A son, whose Jewish name was Isaac and Arabic name, Ishaq was born to Abraham and Sarah by the will of their Revealed God. According to this story, Abraham became the centre of two antagonstic masaanuu wives,the Mother of Ismael,Hagar and the mother of Isaac, Sarah. The hatred, jealousy and conflicts stared between the wives have been inherited by their children and grandchildren, and continued to crack the houses of Ismael's and Isaac's descendants to this very days. Two young men from the two houses, who claimed to be messengers of God,emerged and invented two masanuu religions one after another, using Judaism as the source of their own version of revelations. Jesus from the house of Isaac was responsible for the creation of what lastly came to be known as Christianity. After ca. 570 years of the birth of Jesus Christ, Muhammad was born from the house of Ishaq and launched a new version of Judaism, Islam, as a true religion of Ibrahim. Retaliation instead of reconciliation, violence instead of peace, jealousy instead of harmony etc.have become the precious values and civilised manner ofthese mana masaanuu families of nations. Part One Christianity: The Elder Masaanuu Brother of Islam Judaism is the father of Christianity and Islam. Christianity was born first, angafa and Islam was born later,qixisuu.Individuals who were causes for the creation of these two religions were born to different mothers of different social status status as indicated above. Gradually, after the death of Jesus Christ, Christianity developed as a doctrinal belief of those who have been following the Good News of the Christ as a salvation from their sin. Hence, Jesus's followers beared the collective name "Christian" to separate themselves from the 'heathens or pagans'. However, the first followers of Jesus Christ were claiming Christian being a 'God-given' name to them as a chosen people. Christianity owed its remarkable expansion around the world to old European colonialists of Portugal,Spain and Holland who planted into the soils of Africa, Latin America and the Far East. Ultimately, Christianity has come to serve as a soul father of the colonialists in building empires, expanding territories, extracting raw matrials and slaves from their colonies.Through the colonialists, it continued to stunt indigenous psychology of indigenous peoples of Africa, North and South Amercican natives, using the Holy Book of the Lord as a soundless sword.In Oromoland, Abyssinian colonialists are responsible for planting Orthodoxy as an ideological weapon to bedevil Oromo natural religion, Waqeffannaa, and to kill Oromo's indigenous democracy, the Gada Sytem. JESUS:- From Carpentry to Crucifixion In the Roman occupied country of Abraham's children, Jesus was born in a small town of Bethlehem near Jerusalem and grew up in Nazareth. The mother of Jesus, Mary, before she had been officially taken by Joseph, was betrothed to him as his wife. No socially approved marriage ceremony took place due to Mary's sudden conception of a baby in her womb. Her husband, Joseph had taken her as she was a pregnant. Then, she gave birth to a son who has come to be known as Jesus. Mary and Joseph had another four sons and more than two daughters. As the eldest son in the family, Jesus started to help his father. In the process of helping, he mastered his father's occupation, carpentry,and became a famous carpenter in the Nazareth area. After the death of his father, Jesus became the sole family provider in order to support his younger brothers, sisters and his mother. Since there were many Jesuses in those days, he was identified by the phrase " Jesus the Nazareth". The Belief of Being Born Virgin Both Christian and Muslims believe that Jesus (Isa) was born of virgin Mary (Mariyam). Such type of belief is neither the monopoly of the Christians nor the Muslims. It is also the belief of the Budhists who say that Budha was born of virgin.A small tribe, in the southern part of the Ethiopian Empire, known to the writer of this note, believe that the founder of the tribe was born of a virgin girl. Just like the Christians' belief of the 'Holy Spirit' being the father of Jesus, they also believe the father of their people being the 'Holy Ray of the Sun'. According to the their belief, a brilliant son was born, who has become their biological and spiritual father. This is the belief of the tribe; taken to be true, unquestionable, unchallengeable and absolute. However, the secret behind the myth that created, 'being born of virgin' is strictly limited to leading members of the tribe.They have kept the secret away from detective mechanisms and passed it to the nextconfidential generations and preserved to these days. Therefore, the birth of Jesus of Nazareth cannot be a different story from the secrets of other people's beliefs of 'being born virgin'. Jesus could be a different person among from his Jewish brothers and sisters by the unique character, unique humility, unique submissiveness,unique sympathy and generosity, trickery, magic and witchery works he was displaying to his people in his life time. As a living human being, however, he was born to a biological father, who could be Joseph or Mary's garrayyu .If the young Mary hadn't conceived for Joseph,he wouldn't have taken her to his house in that very conservative Jewish society. The other puzzling question is, if he had been the only beloved Son of God, why that God couldn't save him from execution? His death on a tranversed cross of wood testified that he was a mortal human being not the immortal God. Preconditions for Jesus's Christhood The word Christ has no original meaning in the mother tongue of Jesus. It is from the Greek root of khristos, meaning messiah in his mother tongue. It corresponds to the English, prophet or anointment.As common to other Jewish boys, Jesus was taught how to memorise by heart important parts of Jewish laws and verses. By the time he was 12 years old, his parent took him with them to Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish feast of Passover. In Jerusalem he saw what he hadn't seen in his town. He saw the Roman's domination of Jerusalem blocking the gates of the city. He saw the benighted remarks and un-ethical behaviours of the Sadducees. He heard the loudly talking and preaching of the Pharisees. Now,the young Jesus began to think what type of decision he should take to correct the 'incorrect' acts of his own people in his life time. The young son of Joseph and Mary, then, took a spiritual and political decision upon himself to help discover the lost path of God of Israel to hispeople. When the Passover fastval was over, Joseph and Mary began a long journey to Nazareth with caravan traders. After many hours' journey,they came to know that their young son was not with them. They returned to Jerusalem to find him. They found him in the temple listening to preachers and lecturers. When they asked him why he had done to them so sad, he answered," Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business?"( Luke 2 49). This is the beginning of juvenile deliquency in the name of God. When he was 30 years old he went to the River Jordan and asked John the baptist to baptise him. John submerged him in the water. Then, " a voice came from heaven saying, this is My beloved Son,in whom I am well pleased." (Matthew, 3:13-17) This divining voice could be a reminder of what he felt as a child when he was in the temple of Jerusalem.Hereafter, Jesus set off into wilderness to live alone in confinement, where he stayed 40 days and 40 nights before he returned to Nazareth. After he returned to the Nazareth area, he began preaching on repentance, baptisation, humility etc. In the mean time, the arrest of John the Baptist by the Romans gave him a good chance to take over his job. Jesus as a Christ of the Non-Jews Jesus's Christhood was rejected by his Jewish people, over whom he was divinely appointed as a Messiah.The Pharisees spied against him. When he clearly understood that the Jewish people rejected him, he turned his ministry to the non-Jewish people, the Gentiles. He began to sit and eat with them. He entered their tabooed houses by ignoring the established Jewish social and religious taboos including dietary, impurity and purity laws. He began to preach how Gentiles would enter the heaven before the Jewish could do.This radical preachings, now brought him in direct violent confrontation with the pharisees. Division occurred among his 12 disciples. One of the disciples, Judas, was beribed and facilitated his arrest by the Romans.
The Pharisees accused him of inciting Jewish against the Jewish in order for chaos to prevail in the Roman dominated Israel.Then, Jesus was arrested and produced infront of the Roman Judge and governor of Jerusalem, Pontius Pilate. Peaceful surrender to the enemy for death started by this paricular man and at this particular place. Though Pilate refused Jesus's death by hanging since he found no cases against him, the Pharisees insisted on his crucifixion. Finally, Pilate left the matter in to the Jewish, They hanged him between two thieves at the hill of Calvary in Jerusalem. The death of Jesus was neither a legal decision nor a religious sacrifice. He was politically charged, and that political decision was applied on him. Legally, he was not found guilty. No direct spiritual or religious issues were raised against him as a criminal man. The question is, why God of Israel went in favour of those who crucified him? Why he was accepted by non-Jewish peoples,the Greeko-Roman world of Europe with the tiltle of "Christ" which became a title by which Jesus has been addressed and worshiped as a Lord of the White Europeans,and through them by Black Africans as well? The Holy Book of the Lord There were conditions for the compilation of Jesus's main preachings as a "Holy Book of the Lord" for the Gentile peoples to worship. One of the conditions was, the rapid spread of Christianity in the Greeco-Roman world, the non-Jewish world.Secondly, there was a fear that one day Christianity would be suppressed by the Roman authorities who still preserved their own natural faiths. Thirdly, Christianity came in direct contact and conflict with different cultures and traditional beliefs. Fourthly, there was a great concern that the end of the world and the return of Jesus Christ was not as near as they believed to happen soon. Hence, the need to preserve the Gospel (Good News), his preachings, his personalities, his commitments etc.in written form was necessitated. It was written by different people like Matthew, Mark, Luke, Peter and others. The written book of the Gospel finally appeared under the title of The New Testament as a continuation of the Old Testament. The Old and the New Testaments together form "The Bible". It is so called "Bible", because it was written on pieces of the inner part of the papyrus plant which ancient Phonicians were very famous to make a crude form of paper out it, which later on, the Greeks called this paper bibilia. The Bible, as a Holy Scripture of the followers of Jesus Christ, is, therefore, a Book of Divinity and worship. It has been translated into different languages, edited and re-edited several times in the way it can sarve the ideology of the users. Part Two Islam:- The Younger Masaanuu Brother of Christianity "There is no god but Allah "Muhammad is the messenger of Allah" Islam is the younger masaanuu brother of Christianty. Judaism is the father of the two religions. Abraham is the father of judaism and the great-great grandfather of the prophets who were causes for the invention of Christianity and Islam. The word Islam corresponds to the Arabic word submission or obedience while a person who submits himself to Islamic faith is called Muslim. Islam owes its invention and expansion to one remarkable Arabian man called Muhammad.By virtue of its origin, unlike other religion of the world, Budhism, Hinduism, Waaqeffanna, Shintoism and even some sects of Christianity, Islam can not be a religion of an individual person which could set believers free to lead their private life, conscience and follow their own ethical standards. " It is a complete way of life governing dress, economics, buisness ethics, rate of taxation, justice and punishment, weight and measures, politics, war and peace, marriage and inheritance, family and domestic life, the care of animals and livestock, sexual relations----diet, forms of greeting and rules of hospitality." If we see this, why can't we say, Islam is nothing but simply the spiritual side of communism. It holds an uncompromising view that Allah had brought the universe into being bu here contrary to the communists who hold that, dialectical materialism is the sole force for the creation of the universe. If Allah wills, holds Islam, can destroy the universe right now. Muslims strongly believe in the coming of the end of the universe and how that end day will be followed by a Day of Judgement, a common psychological terror it shares with Judaism and Christianity.It is also the day of resurrection.On this day those who have deliberately chosen to be qafir, as defiants to the laws of Allah, shall be sent to eternal damnation. The obedient pious Muslims shall be sent to paradise for eternal rejoice and exultation. Therefore, Muslims preach Islam as the only salvation from eternal torture and agony. MUHAMMAD:- From Caravan Company to Islamic Infantry. Muhammad was born in Mecca, located in the Arabian desert, probably in the year 570 A.D. He was a son of merchant father, Abdullah and mother Amina. Muhammad's tribe, the Banu Kinana, is believed to be the best chosen tribe of Allah. Thus,Muhammad was born being the best chosen man of Allah in the best chosen tribe of the Arabs. His parents claim direct ancestory from Ismael and Ibrahim. Muhammad's father and mother died one after another, and the orphan boy was taken by his uncle for adoption. He grew up as camel driver for his uncle in Arabia desert. At the age of 25 Muhammad was asked by a 40 year old wealthy lady, Khadija, to marry him. He accepted her offer and happily married to her. They had begotten one surviving daughter named Fatuma who became a fanatic Muslim like her father. Though Muslims say that all nations had had their own prophets, their prophecies are imperfect and incomplete. Muhammad is believed to be the only perfect, the greatest and the last seal of all prophets sent by Allah to complete hitherto imperfect prophecies. Hence,rejection of Muhammad's prophecy shall incur unforgivable sin upon the infidels whose penalty is eternal damnations in the chamber of endless torture. Preconditions for Muhammad's prophethood It could be an unwise to deny the existence of monotheism in Arabia prior to the birth of Muhammad.If ancient Arabians had not known the existence of one Supreme Being,they wouldn't have developed ALLAH in their vocacularies to represent One supernatural force. They were worshipping and praying invoking the name Allah being under the Great Black stone,Kaaba though there are other stones used in different parts of Arabia to symbolise the invisible creator Allah. Since the desert climatic condition of Arabia cannot breed mangrove forest tree like the ones in the paradise land of Abbaa Muudaa Oromoo, Arabian people's choice of erected stones as a means to reach their Allah was not wrong. However, Muhammad being influenced by Jewish and Christian merchants, miscalculated his own people's natural religion and their belief in Allah through naturally available means as "idolators". In those days, Jewish and Christian merchants were coming to Arabia with the Jewish and Christian versions of monotheism. Muhammad was immensely swallowed by the merchants' new religion. In addition, they were telling stories of their great religious leaders. Perhaps, Muhammad could have developed a serious ambition of becoming a great leader after he learned the concept of One God from them that he started to compare his people's religion with the Jewish and Christian merchants. Just like Jesus Christ, Muhammad also decided to live alone in a cave on Mt.Hira. It was at this place that Allah revealed to him via the angel Jibril to preach the true religion originally revealed to Ibrahim in the ancient time. He Returned to Mecca and started to preach the idea of "no god but Allah." He was rejected and vehemently opposed by Quraish leaders. When he was not able to convince them he devised new tactics. To make an alliance with chieftains who would come to Mecca on pilgrimages was one of the tactics. He met six men in 620 A.D in Mecca who came from Medina. He preached them the concept of One Allah.The idea of one One God was not new to Medina people since they learned from the numerous jewish and Christain merchants living there.They agreed to spread his idea however. Then,contact between Muhammad and the Medina chietains secretly went on.The second tactic was to integrate himself into poor and weak Arabs who could be easily attracted by hisconsideration and generosity. In spite of the best tactics,Muhammad could not win the Mecca Quraish leaders. Then, he had to escape from Mecca to Medina accompanied by a man called Abu Beker. It is this scape, from Mecca to Medina, that has come to be known as Hejira. It marked the beginning of Muslim calendar. The Seed of 'Holy War' In Medina Muhammad had become very strong. He got many followers. Two years after hejira, Muhammad organised a squad of eight men under the leadership of Abdallah Ibn Jahsh and sent them to attack a Quraish caravan who were passing by Medina. They attacked the men, killed one man and captured another. This was the first bloodshed in the name of in the name of Allah for expanding Islam. (H.136) It usherd the root of Jihad war, which has been translated as a 'Holy War' by European sholars. After the first mission was , under Abdallah, was successfully completed, Muhammad decided to attack another Mecca caravan returnig from Syria, now led by Abu Sufian. However, the Quraish intelligence service had learned Muhammad's plan and the leaders decided to confront him. The two armies fought each other in year two of hejira on the 18th of Ramadan at Wadi Bedr. Muhammad won the war and his enemies fled in desperate and terror. This war was an "---abolute proof that Allah was on his( Muhammad) side, and it made him decide that the rest of the Arab world must be forced to obey Allah's words and commandments. This decision began an era in which the sword was the chief missionary instrument of Islam." How can war be praised as holy? If war is taken to be holy, regardless of its form as defenive or offensive, the human blood it has been sheding could have turned the desert barren lands of the birth places of Judaism, Christianity and Islam into prolific fertile holy lands. The rocky mountainous areas of central Asia could have been turned to hospitable plain lands. If it were holy, murderous Abyssinian dictators, emperors and their right hand orthodox clegymen woould be a meek dove. From true believers point of view, be it defensive or offensive, war is unholy. To defend one's own fatherland from agressive regimes should not be confused with the fanatists question of holy war. It is purely patriotism which can be escalated to an offensive just war. It requires art and science,in sharp contradiction to the "holy war" of the fanatists guided by dogmatic-religious beliefs. The 'Holy Muslims' Islam illustrates obedience to the will of Allah while those who accept the Islamic faith are called Muslims. Most people in Arabia, in Asia and north Africa in particular had been the direct product of the 'Holy war' of islamic sword conducted by Muhammad's successors,and later on by Ottoman Turkish Sultanets. Muhammad was the first person who declared himself as a Muslim. Thereafter, anybody who wants to be a Muslim must heartedly say the following recitation in the presence of two persons as witnesses. ' There is no god but Allah' ' Muhammad is the messenger of Allah' By saying these simple citation a person is entitled to be a member of world Muslim brotherhood. Thereafter, he has to follow the strict rules of Islamic laws and Quran as a source of the constitution of all laws. He has to observe dietary laws, marriage rules, form of greeting, five times pray a day facing to the direction of Mecca. He has to avoid untouchable relics of pre-Islamic ritual objects if he want to be a holy Muslim and wants to live in paradise after death. Since conversion to Islam is simpler than the beaurocratic-colonial Christian faith, most people particulary in the continent of high illiteracy rates of Africa, are running to Islam as if it is superior to their colonial or traditional religions without having understood the enigma behind the recitation they are obliged to loudly pronounce. The Holy Book of Allah Muhammad is said to have received a total of 114 revelations when he was in isolation on Mount Hira and in Mecca, as revealed to him directly from Allah via the angel Jibril. This Holy Book is called Quran.After the death of Muhammad, his revelations were assembled together by his special secretary called Zayd who was closely supervised by a committee assigned for this purpose. The compiled revelations, after their accuracies had been proved by Muhammad's closest friends, were released as the Holy Book of Allah for the Holy Muslims. For the Muslims, every word in the Quran is a divinely written obligation that must be accepted as Allah's order. To raise any logical explanation for or against the verses is a sin, which automatically turns the holiness of the believers to the unholy qafir world of damnation. With the completion of Quran, Islam has become the third important written religion of Ibrahim's (Abraham) children after the jewish Talmud and Torah and the Christian Bible. Quran also serves the Islamic states as a source of constitution. To sum up, there are Oromos, knowingly and deliberately, who evaluate Oromo natural religion,Waaqeffanna, negastively by using Judaism, Christianity and Islam as yardsticks for their measurements. However, the better we leanrn the origins and purposes of these religions, the better we understand and respect each other and the best we can measure.
Tufaa

How US forged an alliance with Ethiopia over invasion of Somalia

How US forged an alliance with Ethiopia over invasion
Xan Rice in Nairobi and Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington

(The Guardian - Saturday January 13, 2007) On December 4, General JohnAbizaid, the commander of US forces from the Middle East throughAfghanistan, arrived in Addis Ababa to meet the Ethiopian prime minister,Meles Zenawi. Officially, the trip was a courtesy call to an ally. Threeweeks later, however, Ethiopian forces crossed into Somalia in a war on itsIslamist rulers, and this week the US launched air strikes against suspectedal-Qaida operatives believed to be hiding among the fleeing Islamistfighters. "The meeting was just the final handshake," said a formerintelligence officer familiar with the region.Washington and Addis Ababa may deny it, but the air strikes this weekexposed close intelligence and military cooperation between Ethiopia andAmerica, fuelled by mutual concern about the rise of Islamists in the chaosof Somalia.Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that US military personnel enteredsouthern Somalia this week to verify who was killed in Monday's air strike.It was the first known instance of US boots on the ground in Somalia sincethe Black Hawk Down catastrophe, when 18 US soldiers were killed by Somalimilitiamen, the paper claimed. But Pentagon officials and intelligenceanalysts say a small number of US special forces were on the ground beforeEthiopia's intervention in an operation planned since last summer, soonafter the Islamic Courts Union took control of Mogadishu. Press reports havesaid US special forces also accompanied the Ethiopian troops crossing intoSomalia.The main cause of delay was the weather. Mark Schroeder, Africa analyst atthe intelligence consulting firm Stratfor, said the critical turning pointwas the end of the rain season. "While Ethiopia could move small numbers oftroops and trucks as a limited intervention into Somalia, they needed towait until the ground dried up." Once they did move in, the troops wereaccompanied by US special forces, analysts say. For America, therelationship with Ethiopia provides an extra pair of eyes in a region thatit fears could become an arena for al-Qaida. "The Ethiopians are the primarysuppliers of intelligence," said one analyst. However, he said, it wasalmost inconceivable that the US would not have sent its special forces intoSomalia ahead of the Ethiopian intervention. "You are going to want to haveyour own people on the ground." In return, the US is believed to haveprovided the Ethiopians with arms, fuel and other logistical support for amuch larger intervention than it has previously mounted in Somalia. It hasalso made available satellite information and intelligence from friendlySomali clans, a former intelligence officer said.America's renewed interest in the Horn of Africa dates to November 2002 whenthe US military established its joint taskforce in Djibouti, now the basefor 1,800 troops, including special operations forces. By then, the west hadgood reason to fear that Africa had become an arena for al-Qaida, and thatthe failed state of Somalia could become a haven for the organisation'soperatives. The bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998and the attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa gave cause for suchfears. So too did al-Qaida documents retrieved from Afghanistan that spokeof the organisation's ambitions in the region, says Bruce Hoffman, aterrorism expert at Georgetown University and the Council on GlobalTerrorism. "That this was a primary area of concern," he says. In fact, saysanother analyst, the US was closely considering a strike on suspectedal-Qaida cells in Somalia as early as 2002. That idea was abandoned. ButAmerica's concerns came to a head last year with the rise of the IslamicCourts Union. At first, Washington's response was relatively modest. Itmounted a small CIA operation, run from Nairobi, to stand up Somalia's hatedwarlords against the Islamists, a former intelligence official familiar withthe region says.The under-the-radar approach was necessitated by the state department'sopposition to any type of military intervention in Somalia. Until the middleof last year, diplomats remained hopeful of negotiations between the Somaligovernment and the Islamic Courts Union. That position, promoted by thestate department's top official for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, put diplomats ona collision course with the Pentagon. By last June, when the Islamistsseized Mogadishu, the Pentagon appeared to have won that bureaucraticstruggle. By then, the CIA operation was widely acknowledged as a disaster.Talks on peace and power-sharing between the Somali president AbdullahiYusuf's government and Islamic courts were foundering. A Somalia analyst inNairobi said the Islamists took most of the blame - unfairly, in his view,as the government had no intention of ever sharing power. "My guess is thata decision to wage war was taken sometime in October by Ethiopia andAmerica. That was when people close to Yusuf appeared dead convinced thatthe Seventh Cavalry was going to appear. We thought it was a pipedream. Itwasn't." As the build-up to war continued, with Ethiopia sending more troopsinto Somalia and the Islamists moving closer to the government base inBaidoa, experts say the cooperation between Addis and Washington increasedsharply.Help from the sea was also required. Landlocked Ethiopia has no navalcapacity, but the US could easily move warships from the Gulf to the Somalicoast - as happened once the conflict began. By mid-December Jendayi Frazer, the state department's top official forAfrica, was echoing the message from Addis Ababa about the dangers of theIslamic Courts Union. "The top layer of the courts are extremist to thecore," she said. "They are terrorists and they are in control." Days later, the Ethiopian forces were on the move. But many believe thatAmerica's support for Ethiopia's military intervention could come back tohaunt the US, and predict a flare-up of Somali nationalist feeling. Already,clan fighting is threatening to jeopardise attempts to restore stability.This week there have been at least three attacks on government forces. There is also concern that the precipitate flight of the ICU does notnecessarily signal its definitive defeat. Last night, the Ethiopian-backedSomali government forces said they had captured the last remainingstronghold at Ras Kamboni, just two miles from the Kenyan border. It may notbe the last confrontation between government forces and the Islamists. "The Islamists have not all gone away. Many we believe continue to be inMogadishu. They buried their weapons, and buried their uniforms, and theyare lying low and letting the dust settle," Mr Schroeder says (Source: The Guardian