Somalia: Jihadists ban all movies

Even in Muslim majority countries, the most rabid Islamists continue to harass and suppress their less "pure" brothers. This latest suppression of human freedom is almost certainly due to the influx of al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists into Somalia and the horn of Africa.

FROM JIHADWATCH.ORG:

Somalia: Jihadists ban all movies

Sharia: Where "Government knows best" meets "Allah knows best." The lack of separation of religion and state and the lack of meaningful checks and balances, combined with a brutal set of laws and the presumption of divine endorsement for it all set the stage for a corrupt, capricious and vicious government. And governments like that issue decrees like this. "Somali Islamists issue blanket ban on movies," from Agence France-Presse, June 13:

MOGADISHU (AFP) — Islamists controlling southern Somalia on Saturday banned watching DVDs or movies on television and said raids would be conducted to catch offenders, who would then be severely punished.
"Watching films is totally banned, even indoors," Sheikh Mowlid Ahmed, a security forces commander in the port city of Kismayo said in a statement.
"People are allowed to use their home televisions only to watch news on such channels such as Al-Jazeera," he added.
The Islamists have already shut down cinemas in 2006 in areas under their control.

"Raids will be carried out on homes of people suspected of illegally watching films and if found guilty, they will face punishment," Ahmed said. [...]
Residents say Islamist security forces in the town recently started inspecting mobile phones to prevent them from being used for watching movies.
"Security forces nowadays check our mobile phones and if you have a movie in memory you get punished," said a resident Mohamed Adan.
The punishment normally meted out on offenders is flogging.
Somalia's Islamists want to oust the moderate and western-backed transitional administration in Mogadishu so they can impose a tough form of Sharia law...

Here, "moderate" translates as "assumed not to be as bad as the other guys": After all, the prime minister dodged the question last November when asked if the administration's implementation of Sharia would include stonings.
As for "tough" and less-tough Sharia law, tragically, the writers of articles like this always seem to run out of time and space before they tell us where the benign and equitable brand of Sharia lives.