this month executed a young Christian they accused of trying to convert a
15-year-old Muslim to Christianity.
Members of the
Islamic extremist group al Shabaab had taken 23-year-old Mumin Abdikarim
Yusuf into custody on Oct. 28 after the 15-year-old boy reported him to the
militants, an area source told Compass Direct News. Yusuf’s body was found on Nov. 14 on an
empty residential street in Mogadishu, with sources saying the convert from
Islam was shot to death, probably some hours before dawn.
“Our brother
Yusuf has been murdered,” the source told Compass. “His body was dumped in
Yaqshid district of Mogadishu, and his body is said to be on an empty
residential street.”
Al
Shabaab, said to have
links with al Qaeda terrorists, controls parts of Mogadishu and much of southern
parts of Somalia, as well as other areas of the nation.
Their
accusations against Yusuf had led the extremist group to raid Yusuf’s home in
Holwadag district, Mogadishu, sources said. After searching his home, militia
didn’t find anything relating to Christianity but still took him into custody.
Before Yusuf was
executed by two shots to the head, reports filtered in to the Compass source
that he had been badly beaten and his fingers broken as the Islamists tried to
extract incriminating evidence against him and information about other
Christians. The source later learned that Yusuf’s body showed signs of torture;
all of his front teeth were gone, and some of his fingers were broken, he
said.
“We don’t know
the time he was murdered, but his freshly killed body was dumped in Yaqshid
district at around 4:30 in the morning of Nov. 14, and due to the will of the
family we have buried the body at around 3 p.m. on Nov. 14,” the source
said.
The clandestine
Christians could not safely identify themselves to Yusuf’s Muslim family, but
they were able to indirectly assist the parents in burying him with dignity, the
source said.
It is not known
whether under torture Yusuf revealed information about area members of the
hidden church, but underground church leaders have been relocating local
Christians who knew him, the source said.
“We still don’t
know if the Shabaab did find any new evidence from Yusuf,” he said.
Yusuf’s Muslim
parents did not know that their son was a Christian, and they had insisted to
the al Shabaab militants that he was still a Muslim, the source said. The
extremists accused the family of not reporting that their son had converted to
Christianity, and they ordered his mother and father to appear before an al
Shabaab court.
Although the
Compass source could not confirm whether the parents heeded the command, he said
they most likely did as it is not uncommon for the militants to behead those who
defy their orders.
“I cannot
confirm if they appeared before the Islamist court, but that is highly
possible,” he said. “Who can dare defy them?”
The extremists
have demonstrated they have no qualms about killing those they perceive to be
sympathetic to any “foreign” religion, the source said. He added that the
Islamic extremists did not execute Yusuf quickly only because they had no
evidence against him except the testimony of the teenage boy.
“In Islam, to
execute someone you need to have evidence of three witnesses, and they didn’t
have it,” he said. “Al Shabaab is known to do whatever they like, and
they don’t even follow the rules of their religion they claim adherence
to.”
The discovery of
Yusuf’s body brought an end to a strenuous attempt by his family to secure his
release, but they are now living in fear since al Shabaab has accused
them of concealing their son’s new faith.
The source said
Yusuf’s death was typical of the Islamic extremist group, which often pumps
bullets into their victims before dumping their bodies in public places to serve
as a warning to those who dare to resist its orders.
Since the ouster
of dictator Siad Barre in 1991, Somalia has been without a strong central
government and has been at the mercy of vicious clan-based militants. Some, such
as al Shabaab, are seeking to establish a strict version of sharia
(Islamic law) as they fight to oust the Transitional Federal Government of
President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed that is backed by the Africa Union and
Western nations.
Cheri Fuller and Cindy Lamb Curry 
Marilyn Hickey 
Charisma Staff