Somalia
Africans and Cannots
‘It may be premature to celebrate the fall of Gaddafi, especially since the National Transitional Council has introduced sharia’
Mogadishu: Armageddon on Steroids
‘The fighting in Somalia can no longer be dismissed as an obscure domestic struggle in an unimportant country of no wider relevance to the world. The crackle of machinegun fire in Mogadishu, the regular thwump of mortars, the ground-shaking shelling by Amisom tanks and the sporadic suicide attacks by delusional youths represent the frontline in the international fight against al-Qaeda.’
al Shabaab Release New Video in Support of International Jihad
A week after British intelligence officials confirmed the growing international jihadist threat emanating from Somalia, the media wing of the al-Shabaab militia have released a video re affirming their support for bin Laden and the al-Qaeda cause.
Somalia and the Two Faces of Islamism
In my first fortnightly column for New York’s Hudson Institute, I describe how the current conflict in Somalia can be framed as a struggle between the two predominant strains of Islamism. It is also reproduced below, in full.
The US Gets Homegrown Jihadis
This important investigation by the New York Times has many implications for Britain, which is now a half-way home to a quarter of a million Somalis.
Will the green agenda be killed off by the pandemic?
‘Will the green agenda be killed off by the longer-term coronavirus recovery? Or might the closure of so much business, and the cleaner air that results from planes not flying and factories not working, give us extra years to gain control of our environment?’
Why T.S. Eliot still matters
His contemporaries’ reputations have diminished. But Eliot’s has grown: he is the poet who shows us what can be saved from the ruins
Music’s in the house
Rappers have found a role in lockdown: chronicling coronavirus with topical tunes. Most people, though, are rushing to the safety of the past