The Mad Mullah of Somalia and His Children in Minnesota Today
Who was the “The Mad Mullah” of Somalia and does this have anything to do with his “children” in Minnesota today?
A picture of “The Mad Mullah”, as the British used to call him in the 19th century. I know, very friendly looking fella, right?
Considered “The Father of Somali Nationalism”, Mohammed Abdullah Hassan (April 7, 1856 – December 21, 1920) had already memorized the Quran at age 11 and performed a trip to Mecca. After this pilgrimage, his entire life became dedicated to Islam. For over a decade he studied Islam from as many as 70 different scholars. The final result? He became a mujahideen, a jihad Muslim warlord, who pillaged and killed as a way of fighting for Islam.
The event that triggered his jihad was the conversion of some Somali children to Christianity. He organized the Dervish resistance – Muslim jihadists and fought against the British for 20 years. He brought a lot of anarchy to Somalia.
The story and the message of the “father” of Somali nationalism is a key to understand the entire identity and culture of the Somalis. It’s about hating Christianity, being ready to follow the clan and the sub-clan leaders blindly, robbing, stealing, killing and especially killing Christians.
While America was busy inventing the telephone, the telegraph, the steam engine and countless other great 19th century inventions, the “Mad Mullah” of Somalia was chopping heads off the infidels in Somalia. He had several women and some 30 children from all these women.
Hassan’s jihad caused “universal perdition,” with an estimated 200,000 deaths over twenty years in a territory of three million people. [Source: Said S. Samatar, Oral Poetry and Somali Nationalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), pp. 199–200.]
To Somalis, this butcher is the ideal of their struggle for national independence. Never mind that he terrorized and killed many Somalis whom he considered not enough committed to Islam. British contemporaries of the Mad Mullah report that he was a “cruel despot who engaged in torture, mutilation, and widespread atrocities that destroyed the lives of ordinary Somalis and his followers alike.”
British Major H. A. Rayne, in his judicial capacity as District Commissioner at Zeila, encountered “wrecks of women and children,” who asked for relief. Apparently, their plight was due to Hassan: “their villages had been destroyed, their property looted, their men-folk killed, by the murdering gang of thieves who carried out incessantly the merciless policy of this awful man.”
Swayne described the “gruesome sight” at Medishe fort after the British captured it, “typical of the methods of the Mad Mullah.” There, a soldier saw the remains of one of Hassan’s followers, “at the end of a rope, suspended from the roof over a slow fire, hung by the waist ”as punishment for some transgression.” Hamilton wrote that as a result of setbacks against the British in 1903, some Somalis attempted to desert. Consequently, “It was ‘heads off’ just then in the camp of the Mullah upon the smallest pretext, for the Holy Man had recourse to the sternest measures to enforce obedience.”
This apparently caused “dissensions in his council” and “little cohesion among his followers.”
An official British intelligence report describes the terrifying picture of a mass-murderer out of control: “atrocities…have recently been practiced by the Mullah to an unprecedented extent. Wholesale executions are carried out on the slightest pretexts, and men, women, and children go in fear of their lives.” The report appears to be an attempt to show that Hassan relied upon tyranny and misinformation in order to keep his followers, who otherwise would “surely” desert but for “the belief that we torture and kill captives…fostered by the Mullah.”
These accounts implied that the results of Hassan’s jihad fell most heavily on Somalis as opposed to the British.
Douglas Jardine, another Somaliland official from the same era, who wrote a book on Hassan, summed up the negative views of him as follows: “Tyrant and cut-throat, slayer of innocent women and children.”
Some quotes from this “Founding Father” of Somalia:
“Unbelieving men of religion have assaulted our country from their remote homelands. They wish to corrupt our religion…Our aim is to cleanse the land of unbelievers.”
“We fight by Allah’s order…We ask for Allah’s blessing. Allah is with me when I write this.”
Hassan’s poetry castigated the Somalis’ lack of Islamic fervor in struggling against their imperial overlords:
Somalis, rise from sleep!
Catastrophe has fallen on the land
The Unbelievers have deceived you Since you failed to continue the jihad!
Historian B. G. Martin has recovered one of Hassan’s few written texts, the Risala, written in 1905. The text attacked those Somalis who attributed the country’s peace and prosperity to the British presence. Such thinking was full of “lies and falsehood” because of Christianity’s “fundamental hostility to Muslims.” Justice could not come from Christians, only from the Qur’an. Any Somali employed by Christians, or who “consorted” with them, or who lived in Christian countries faced “contamination and degeneration.” They were “dubious Muslims” and “undesirables.” Hassan quoted the Qur’an (IV, 140): “if you persist in keeping company with unbelievers, you will become like them.” He justified attacks against his fellow Somali Muslims who associated with Christians because they were “unbelievers pure and simple.” This rationale extended to incorrect beliefs or actions, such as not appearing at Friday prayers.
His last poem, The Will, in 1920, is perhaps the best summary of Hassan’s reasons for jihad:
I, on my own volition, chose to fight the infidels
It was I who said to the filthy unbelievers—this land is not yours
It was I who sought and found the Prophet’s guidance.
After the end of World War I, the British government planned and executed a military operation that used the RAF to bomb Hassan’s forts, which ultimately broke his movement. Hassan fled from Somaliland into Ethiopia after his defeat and died there from influenza in December 1920.
As we begin to understand the genesis of Somali nationalism, a question emerges – how would it be possible for anyone to be a “good Somali” and a good American, all at the same time?
“If Islam is your religion, why do you submit to infidel overlords?”, is one of the teachings of the Mad Mullah.
These kinds of messages were the essence of the doctrine of the “Mad Mullah”, the founder of modern Somali nationalism. How can someone who is carrying such hatred and disdain for the “infidel”, i.e. the westerner and in our case, Americans, become assimilated in our society?
Of course, similar patterns can be observed in other Muslim cultures as well. Islam’s hatred for the “infidel” transcends race and culture. It’s the exact opposite of the Judeo-Christian heritage of love and respect – values enshrined in the teachings of Moses and Jesus. The very idea of becoming civilized today stems from these Judeo-Christian values, not Islam. Islam has mostly produced backwardness, ignorance, and violence in the last 1,400 years of history.
Not surprisingly, Somalia is one of the top 5 worst persecutors of Christians – to this day!
According to the Department of State website, there are 0% Christians in Somalia. Also according to their website, the current travel advisory is for people to avoid visiting Somalia at all cost or if they have to visit, basically – to prepare to die!
This not a joke! It’s true! Check out the screenshot below:
So how would it be possible for someone coming from such a degenerate culture based on hatred for the infidel, the non-Muslim, to ever become assimilated in American life? One would have to denounce the teachings of Islam and by extension the Mad Mulla, and accept the wisdom of the Founding Fathers of the United States, and the Constitution, to become an American.
This is why I refuse to call the Somalis “Somali-American”. They can either be Somali or American, but they can’t be both. Not with a jihadi warlord for a “founding father”! Not with such terrible worldview and a culture of hatred for everything America and the West stand for!
Check out this video from Ami Horowitz to get acquainted with the views many (most?) Somalis in Minnesota have today when it comes to choosing between the Islamic Sharia Law and the US Constitution.
And as always, let us know what your thoughts are on this subjects and help us make Third Rail Talk your media!
GP is the Co-Producer and the all-out geek responsible for the technical delivery here at ThirdRailTalk.com. In the last two decades, he has helped various authors and organizations produce and bring to market books, video, audio, podcasts and other digital media. In other words, if something doesn’t work around here, it’s not Bob’s fault. Best way to contact – Telegram!
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