‘A Measure Of Law To A Lawless Country’?

CQ reader LS Mope sends this interesting look at the AP, which has had its share of credibility problems of late in reporting on Islamist terrorism. I missed this passage in the AP report:

The Islamic militia, which grew out of a network of ad hoc Muslim courts, has brought a measure of law to a lawless country: The international airport reopened in July after being closed for a decade.

This passage by Salad Duhul did not leap out at me at first — and LS told me the reason why: the AP deleted it from its report after its first publication. The original can be found at the Washington Post, which ran the original content of Duhul’s reporting.
Kudos to the AP for editing this out, but one has to wonder about the supposed journalistic objectivity of anyone who would write that passage. No one doubts that Somalia has been chaotic, but to describe the imposition of shari’a-by-decree as “a measure of law” is to set the bar rather low. After all, this is the same UIC which insisted in Bulo Barde that anyone not praying sufficiently would get summarily executed. That may be Duhul’s idea of law, but it hardly sounds any different than the previous rule of the warlords.
And as for heralding the operation of the Mogadishu airport, that sounds a lot like congratulating a group of thugs for having the trains run on time … a reference that should serve as a warning, not a mitigation.
In the future, watch out for anything run under Duhul’s by-line. His reporting appears to be a measure of Islamist bias in a biased organization.

One thought on “‘A Measure Of Law To A Lawless Country’?”

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