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KLMNO THE WORLD Across Somalia’s border, an incubator for jihad Influenced by al-Qaeda-linked militia, schools and mosques in Nairobi immigrant neighborhood spread extremist message Ali Jama’a, a Koranic teacher


by Sudarsan Raghavan in nairobi


Behind the blue gates of his Is- lamic school in Nairobi’s East- leigh neighborhood, Ahmed Awil cannot escape his country’s civil war.


Schools and mosques where


extremist views are taught are re- shaping this Somali immigrant community that for years has lived peacefully in the capital of this predominantly Christian country. Moderate imams now compete with hard-line preach- ers pushing a strict interpreta- tion of Islam. Bookstores sell an- ti-Western literature. Residents speak fearfully of militant spies, and children like Ahmed are taught to praise al-Shabab, an al- Qaeda-linked militia, for waging jihad in Somalia against the U.S.- backed government. “My teachers tell us al-Shabab


is fighting for our religion and for our country,” said Ahmed, a skinny 11-year-old who fled So- malia after al-Shabab fighters slaughtered his neighbor and tried to recruit him. “Sometimes they ask us if we would like to go there and fight.”


Eastleigh, a run-down enclave


where tens of thousands of So- malis live, has become an in- cubator for Islamic extremism, Kenyan officials and community leaders say. It has also emerged as a micro-battlefield in the war on terrorism, attracting Amer- ican funds. “What most worries me is that


this extremist ideology will con- tinue to grow,” said Dualle Abdi Malik, the director of Fathu Rah- man, a moderate Islamic school. “We have to confront it before it is too late.”


Somali immigrant communi- ties across the Horn of Africa and Yemen have come under greater scrutiny since twin bombings last month targeted World Cup soccer fans in the Ugandan cap- ital of Kampala. Al-Shabab as- serted responsibility for the at- tacks, its first major interna- tional operation since it rose to power several years ago in Soma- lia.


Members of al-Shabab, which


in Arabic means “The Youth,” and other Somali militants freely travel to Nairobi to raise funds, recruit and treat wounded fight- ers, according to U.N. and Ken- yan security officials. Somali- American jihadists have met con-


SUDARSAN RAGHAVAN/THE WASHINGTON POST


Worshipers gathered at Eastleigh’s Masjid Sahabi mosque, where clerics preach a moderate message. Imams at other neighborhood mosques, however, have become increasingly radicalized, praising and recruiting supporters for Somalia’s al-Shabab militia.


tacts in Eastleigh before heading to Somalia to fight with al-Sha- bab.


“Eastleigh is a copy of Mogadi-


shu,” said Mohamed Omar Dal- ha, Somalia’s social affairs min- ister, referring to the Somali cap- ital. “Everything that happens in Mogadishu happens in Eastleigh, except the fighting.”


Fertile ground for radicals


At the al-Huda Islamic book- shop, a closet-sized stall nestled near one of Eastleigh’s radical mosques, several youths browsed the fare on a recent day. Koranic tomes pack the shelves. Record- ings of lectures and debates that glorify the neighborhood’s radi- cal Somali preachers are sold openly.


“Our religion calls on us to kill


everyone who does not believe in Allah and his Prophet Mu- hammed deeply,” Abdulrahman Abdullahi, a black-clad imam, declares in one DVD. Al-Shabab has long threatened to attack Kenya, which has been


“Eastleigh is a copy of Mogadishu. Everything that happens in Mogadishu happens in Eastleigh,


except the fighting.” — Mohamed Omar Dalha, Somalia’s social affairs minister


targeted by extremists over the years. In 1998, al-Qaeda opera- tives bombed the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and in Tanzania; in 2002, an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa was bombed. Earlier this year, protests erupted in downtown Nairobi over the ar- rest of a radical Islamic preacher from Jamaica.


Eastleigh, community leaders


say, is an ideal breeding ground for radicalism. The neighbor- hood is poor and isolated; few Kenyans enter it. Local author- ities have ignored it: Roads are unpaved, muddy and covered with trash. The smell of raw sew- age wafts across the terrain. Kenyan police have long ha-


rassed Somalis, demanding bribes under threat of arrest or


deportation, generating resent- ment. Since the Kampala attacks, police have rounded up hun- dreds of people in Eastleigh and other areas, including four Ken- yan Muslims who human rights activists say were illegally ex- tradited to Uganda for interroga- tion. “The community is suffering,” said Abdufatah Ali, an Eastleigh representative on the Nairobi City Council. “The police stop you and take your phone, and say ‘You are al-Shabab.’ They enter your house and rape you, and say ‘You are al-Shabab.’ ” Radical preachers are filling the void, playing a key role in re- cruiting and fundraising for al- Shabab. They operate the largest mosques in the neighborhood,


providing ideological leadership and a resource base for militants, according to a U.N. report on So- malia in April. “They have a very big influence in terms of radicalization,” said Nicholas Kamwende, Kenya’s an- ti-terrorism police chief. “East- leigh provides the best grounds for recruitment.”


Influencing young minds


At the Ansaaru primary school, where Awil attends class- es, boys and girls study biology, chemistry and geography. In reli- gion class, they are taught that it is every Muslim’s duty to “liber- ate” Jerusalem and its sacred al- Aqsa mosque, Awil and three other students said. Sometimes, the students said, the teachers show them video clips of jihadists fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. “They tell us that al-Shabab


hates Western countries like America,” said Zakeria Omar, 11, a student. “And that it is all right to cut the throats of every citizen of these countries.”


at the school, asserted that the teachers do not discuss jihad or al-Shabab. “Those classes may happen in the mosques, but not here,” Jama’a said. Moments later, the imam of al-


Hidaya mosque, which U.N. in- vestigators and community lead- ers describe as among the most radical in Eastleigh, arrived at the school. He was there to teach a class. He declined to be interviewed


by a Washington Post journalist. Moderate clerics fear what will happen to their community. One well-known imam tells young people not to be enticed by mil- itancy and speaks out against suicide bombings as un-Islamic. “We have a war on our hands to stop our youth from being taken to the battlefield,” said the imam, who asked that his name not be published because he had been threatened.


Moderates raise voices Shine Abdullahi’s hip-hop


group, Waayaha Cusub, or “The New Generation,” is fighting back. The artists — both men and women, all Somalis, most of whom once lived in Eastleigh — released a CD in February with the help of funding from the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi. This year, the United States has allocated $96,000 for job creation, education and toler- ance programs, mostly directed at youth, to bolster moderate views of Islam in Eastleigh. Waayaha Cusub’s song “No to al-Shabab” has become a hit in Somali communities, including those in Minnesota, Ohio and Virginia. The group has handed out 7,000 free copies in Eastleigh. “Our goal is to show that al- Shabab has neither a Somali nor an Islamic agenda,” Abdullahi said. “They are nothing but a mi- litia run by al-Qaeda’s chiefs.” In June, Abdullahi received


the first of many death threats in the form of a text message from a Kenyan cellphone number: “You work with the infidels and Amer- icans. You are a spy for them. Do you want to stop that work or do you want to die?” Today, the group does not play


large shows, fearing an attack by suicide bombers. None of the members live in their old neigh- borhood anymore. “It’s very easy for them to kill us in Eastleigh,” Abdullahi said. raghavans@washpost.com


Russia helps Iran load fuel into its first nuclear power plant


Peaceful intent pledged; move not widely regarded as a danger


by Thomas Erdbrink and Janine Zacharia


tehran — Iranian and Russian engineers began loading nuclear fuel into Iran’s first atomic power plant Saturday amid interna- tional concern that the Islamic Republic is seeking a nuclear weapon. State television showed what appeared to be fuel rods being loaded into the core of the re- actor, which is on the shores of the Persian Gulf near Bushehr. The plant is one of the first tangi- ble results of Iran’s controversial nuclear program, which has been the target of increasingly tough


international sanctions. Overseen by Russia and the


International Atomic Energy Agency, the plant is not widely regarded a dangerous expansion of Iran’s nuclear program. Russia is also supplying the uranium fuel for the plant, for 10 years, at an enrichment level well below what is needed for a nuclear weapon. The plant has taken more than 35 years to build, with construc- tion disrupted by the 1979 revo- lution, the war with Iraq in the 1980s and a decision by the origi- nal German contractor, Siemens, to pull out of the project. “When a nation decides to live with freedom, it will finally reach its goal,” Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organi- zation, told state media. Rosatom, a Russian state nu- clear corporation, helped finish the plant, which has cost Iran nearly $1 billion.


fuel program, possibly to build a nuclear weapon, which Iran de- nies. Iranian officials say they fear


ATTA KENARE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES


Security guards stand outside the Bushehr nuclear plant, which cost Iran nearly $1 billion to build over a tumultuous 35-year span.


The Iranian government says its nuclear development is for peaceful purposes, such as elec- tricity production and medical


research. Although Iran says it has been open, the United States and its allies say the country has concealed parts of its nuclear


DIGEST CHINA


50,000 evacuated in flood-hit north The Yalu River, which marks


the Chinese-North Korean border, breached its banks on both sides Saturday after torrential rains, forcing the evacuation of more than 50,000 people in China. Flood waters punctured a dike


between the river and an eco- nomic development zone in a low- lying part of the Chinese port city of Dandong, Chinese state media reported. The rain and flooding cut rail


service out of the city, destroyed more than 200 houses and left at least three people missing, offi- cials said. North Korea’s official Korean


Central News Agency said that about a foot of rain had fallen since midnight and the Yalu — or


Amnok as it is known in Korean — swamped houses, public build- ings and farmland in more than five villages near Sinuiju, the city opposite Dandong. Much of North Korea’s trade with the world passes through Sinuiju, forming a lifeline for the isolated, economically struggling country.


Flooding in previous years has destroyed crops and pushed the North deeper into poverty, in- creasing its dependence on inter- national food aid. For China, the Dandong flood- ing is the latest disaster in the country’s worst flood season in more than a decade. Landslides caused by heavy


rains have inundated several communities in western China and accounted for most of the more than 2,500 people killed. —Associated Press


SWEDEN


Warrant rescinded for WikiLeaks founder


Judicial authorities in Sweden said Saturday they have with- drawn an ar- rest warrant for WikiLeaks founder Ju- lian Assange over allega- tions of rape. The war-


Julian Assange


rant was is- sued on Friday evening after two women


went to police after having sex with the 39-year-old Australian information activist during his visit to Sweden last week. “There are no longer any grounds to suspect that he com- mitted rape,” judicial affairs


spokeswoman Eva Finne said. Assange had rejected the accu-


sations by e-mail, citing “dirty tricks” by those who disapprove of WikiLeaks’ online publication of thousands of classified U.S. documents relating to the con- duct of the war in Afghanistan. —Associated Press


Alleged bomb plotter killed in Russia’s North Caucasus: Rus- sian security forces killed a major organizer of suicide bombings in a raid in the North Caucasus prov- ince of Dagestan, an official said. Russian authorities say Ma- gomed-Ali Vagabov orchestrated twin suicide attacks in Moscow’s subway system in March that killed 40 people.


More towns submerged in Paki- stan flooding: About 150,000 Pa- kistanis were forced to move to higher ground as flood waters


from the swollen Indus River sub- merged dozens more towns and villages in the south. Officials ex- pect the flood waters to recede na- tionwide in the next few days as the last river torrents empty into the Arabian Sea.


Foreign militants killed prepar- ing bombs in Somalia: Eleven in- surgents were killed by their own bombs when they went off prema- turely in Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital. The mostly foreign mili- tiamen died in two separate in- cidents, 10 while preparing a car bomb and another as he planted a roadside bomb, officials said.


Dutch teen sets sail on solo world trip: A 14-year-old Dutch sailor departed in secrecy from Portugal on her quest to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world. Laura Dekker said goodbye to her father and


friends at an undisclosed Portu- guese port and set sail.


Van Gogh painting stolen from Egyptian museum: A painting by Vincent van Gogh was stolen Sat- urday from Cairo’s Mahmoud Khalil Museum. After initially re- porting that it had been recov- ered, the state news agency said authorities were still searching for the painting, which is valued at $50 million and goes by two names, “Poppy Flowers” and “Vase With Flowers.”


TB patients jailed in Kenya for not taking drugs: A court in west- ern Kenya has sentenced two tu- berculosis patients who skipped their medications to spend eight months in prison to avoid spread- ing the deadly disease among the public, a senior health official said.


—From news services


that outside pressure could ulti- mately force Russia to stop sup- plying nuclear fuel. “We are looking for assurance of supply of fuel to the reactors,” Salehi told reporters. He said Iran has had bad experiences with Germany and France, which had committed to starting up the reactor but later reneged. The U.S. State Department said it did not view the plant as a proliferation risk but stressed its continued concerns about Iran’s nuclear program. “Russia’s sup- port for Bushehr underscores that Iran does not need an indig- enous enrichment capability if its intentions are purely peace- ful,” State Department spokes- man Mark Toner said in a state- ment. Israeli officials also said they


were not particularly worried about the fuel being loaded into Bushehr. “Our problem is with the other facilities that they have, where they enrich uranium,” Uzi Landau, Israel’s minister of na- tional infrastructure, said in an interview Thursday in Tel Aviv. Unlike other nuclear success-


es, Iranian officials and state television refrained from huge celebrations Saturday. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was not at the opening of the plant. “Faced with international pressure, they are keeping a low profile,” said Masallah Shamsol- va’ezin, an analyst critical of the government. “Maybe they will need to make some kind of com- promise in the future, so now might not be the time for nation- alistic celebrations.” erdbrinkt@washpost.com zachariaj@washpost.com


Zacharia reported from Jerusalem.


SUNDAY, AUGUST 22, 2010


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