I'm not referring to you Macalinka, but you should be cautious with these sort of comparisons, they only serve to create a 'fake' link with the Ancient Egyptians, that the African Americans, and Europeans in the past and present have tried to do in the form of dress, literature, film, cuisine, etc. Our ancestors traded with the Ancient Egyptians, but we aren't them, nor did we come from Ancient Egypt.

Bluelicious;859145 wrote: Chimera I think you just made that up I will pass I don't know. Blue, I put you on a wild-goose chase LOL

Crap, crap, crap. Somalis have their own ancient heritage, no need to steal that of others. You guys need to stay clear from all these race forums, full of afrocentrists and deluded supremacists. These language comparisons could be made with the Rendille tribesmen, but I guess they're not as majestic to the ears as the Pharoahs, eh? Instead of solidifying the presence of Punt, Macrobia, Opone, Malao, Mosylon, etc in Somalia through archaeology and heritage studies, we have people running after a non-Somali Kingdom to the west, smh.

Bluelicious;859057 wrote: Good example of a Brain Study: If you can read this you have a strong mind: THIS MESSAGE SERVES TO PROVE HOW OUR MINDS CAN DO AMAZING THINGS! IMPRESSIVE THINGS! IN THE BEGINNING IT WAS HARD BUT NOW ON THIS LINE Y0UR MIND IS READING IT AUTOMATICALLY WITHOUT EVEN THINKING ABOUT IT BE PROUD! ONLY CERTAIN PEOPLE CAN READ THIS. PLEASE FORWARD IF YOU CAN READ THIS. I have a challenge for you Blue, only two people in the world can read the following: () ---- /| ){{}}( /| ---- () *^^^^^/ ______ /^^^^^* Let me know when you get it.

ElPunto;859100 wrote: Gaining and maintaing power at what expense - massacres, mayhem, mass displacement, suicide bombings, beheadings, fighting a US backed and funded army in your already ruined capital? What sort of organization are you and what sort of leadership do you have that makes that sort of sacrifice to 'gain and maintain power'? Can you claim moral superiority, Islamic character, justice and peace, working of the interest of the people etc.? Come on. I No brother, which is why support for them today is next to nothing and they have to resort to heavy-handed taxation, international extremist support and forced recruitment to stay afloat. However you keep missing my point about the societal body that supported the ICU version that gave them legitimacy in the eyes of many Somalis. They do not enjoy that same legitimacy today for a good reason. Similarly I did not support the TFG for inviting foreigners to rampage an already ruined capital, which are responsible for masacres and mass displacement. Only with the insertion of Somali technocrats with no blood on their hands did people consider the TFG as an alternative, and this did not happen until Farmaajo's tenure, followed by Abdiweli. These two administrations have given us a clear alternative to Al-Shabaab, much the same way the ICU gave Somalis an alternative to the 15 years long reigning warlords, which everyone here seems to have conveniently forgotten. This is not 'flip-flopping' nor 'hypocritical', unless I and the people maintained this position when a completely clean Somali organisation with a strong armed forces and no international support was available to us, but there isn't and this is the best chance Somalia has at peace since the ICU, so one has to swallow their dislike for foreign troops and interference and hope Somali institutions are revived and beefed up.

ElPunto;859083 wrote: ^With all due respect to a valued poster - your arguments are hogwash. One's Islamic character and wish to do good for one's people doesn't change regardless of circumstances ie Ethiopian invasion. And as someone mentioned - ICU staged the first suicide bombing in Somali history. If that doesn't condemn them - nothing will. You aren't getting my point, the ICU as an organisation can't be compared to Al-Shabaab, just like you can't compare the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt with Al-Qaeda. However if this Egyptian organisation were to be dislodged through an illegal invasion forcing their leaders to resort to more draconian and extreme methods to gain and maintain power, would that render their previous history of providing stability and having a national agenda as irrelevant? You would be basically brushing thousands of members of Egyptian society with the same paint because of the shady paths their leaders took in the face of a transgression. All this to justify an illegal invasion? I will always condemn suicide bombings of any kind, but prior to the presence of Ethiopian troops, the concept was non-existent in Somalia.

^The old saying: 'Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people' seems to apply to you Elpunto. The opening of all those derelict economic assets is a historic fact, it doesn't matter how filthy Indocadde's laundry was, the aforementioned precedents still happened. I cannot dismiss the current TFG just because dubious individuals like Sakin, and others are still clinging on to power. The structure itself - filled with competent patriotic Somalis trying to revive the country - is what I support and this sentiment was the same with the ICU, but not Al-Shabaab, who are unredeemable. Somalia;859066 wrote: ICU's most pre-eminent leaders are Al-Shabaab. Hassan Dahir Aweys - Head of Advisory Committee (Today Al-Shabaab) Fuad Shangole - Head of Education (Today Head of Puntland branch) Mukhtar Robow - Security Branch (former Emir, Spokesman, Deputy Leader of Al-Shabaab) Hassan Turki - Head of Ras Kamboni Brigade (Aligned with Al-Shabaab) Only Sheikh Shariif, Indhacade and an Addow left. You think the ICU was an organic group that didn't have foreign support? Lol What they became post-invasion has no bearing on the fact that they weren't so in 2006. The ICU was a movement with thousands of members, majority of the courts consisted of various individuals from Somali society, be it teachers, scholars, businessmen, community leaders that are non-existent in the structure of the current Al-Shabaab that is a demonic plague legitimizing its rule through brutal taxation and forced recruitment. A person that disagrees with the invasion that brought Al-Shabaab to the foreground in 2006 and discredited the entire aforementioned societal body is not a 'hypocrite'. One could negiotate with the ICU, but one can't with Al-Shabaab as various attempts have shown. The situation in 2006 could have been resolved peacefully through better statesmanship and a visionary approach, but all of that was rendered obsolete the moment those foreign troops entered the country. Now their presence is a reality, and one we have to deal with, but when I point out that the ICU was a thousand times better than Al-Shabaab, I'm closer to the truth than those that parrot the idea that Abdullahi Yusuf was a nationalist with Somali interests at heart. The dubious histories of the leaders aside, the organisation itself was similar to those currently in power in Egypt and Libya, and if Israel or Algeria were to dislodge those groups and more extreme versions were to replace them, would the Libyans and Egyptians be hypocrites for opposing those invasions and then accepting reality as it is? No, but they will keep pointing out the differences between the Muslim brotherhoods and the extremists each time someone tries to paint them as one and the same.

Gefeliciteerd zus, hope the wedding will be one to remember, and may the marriage be a prosperous and happy one, insha-allah!

The Islamic Courts Union WAS NOT Al-Shabaab! The ICU were 13-15 courts, with Al-Shabaab constituting only one court, with little to no power. The ICU was what the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt is today, the Somali Spring predated the Arab Spring by five years, only to be squashed by a paranoid America. The situation of today where Al-Shabaab is a filthy anti-Somali organisation filled with foreigners, and one of the 5th richest terrorist group as a result of the illegal invasion can't be compared to the ICU period, who were pro-Somali and whose rule is majoritely characterised as a popular grassroots movement providing stability, opening various derelict economic outlets such as the seaports, airports and the destruction of the bloodsucking warlords. However in hindsight, I believe they should have never risen to power, because they had no friends internationally in the Bush era and the consequences of their removal would have extreme dire effects on the country for years to come. But let's not rewrite history!

Qarnaqsi, your point registered, but you fail to see mine. Ancient science was modern science until medieval science bloomed, medieval science was modern science until what is known in our era as 'early modern and modern science' replaced it, in two hundred years time what is known as 'modern science' will be classified under a different category, it's a human thing. In the 7th century, Greek science was not thought in schools or universities, not even in modern Greece. Whatever the Byzantines had managed to gather was not enough to have a geographic influence that the previous Hellenistic civilizations had. The widespread view at the time was that the Earth was flat, a contemporary book transmitted by an illiterate man in the form of Prophet Muhammed(pbuh) however contained a verse referring to the earth as being the shape of an Ostrich egg. The likes of Ibn Rustu, Ibn Kordathyah, and other Abbassid scholars based their writing on that verse, and the digging up of old literate of the Greeks. I failed to see why you would find it difficult to understand that Muslims would consider such a verse and book full of anthropological and scientifically confirmed hints to be a miracle from their creator? It doesn't matter that it would take centuries later for that verse to be actually confirmed scientifically by a scholar, the concept was still there. The fact that ancient civilizations are mentioned, but whose physical presence had eroded beyond the simple gaze of man in the 7th century, does not mean a Muslim archaeologist of today can't feel pride in digging up through modern methods those same civilizations in the form of a modern discipline like 'archaeology', and consider their reference in the Quran as a 'miracle'. Your stand on this matter is that Muslims cannot 'take pride' or 'reinterpret' those verses through the work of this archaeologist, because he is 'modern science' and their book is early medieval literature, that IMO is a silly stand.

Definitely a positive thing for Somalia/Somalis whichever way you look at it. Meles Zenawi was a ward of Siad Barre, the man enjoyed our pristine beaches when Somalia was a US ally and a tourist gem while Ethiopia was highlighted for all the wrong reasons by the likes of Bob Geldoff and Michael Jackson. The man spend years amongst Somalis of the upper-echelon and learned all of our strengths and weaknesses. The latter he used to devastating effect, then replaced Somalia in Western diplomacy and finance, from being a US ally, to having Ethiopian Airlines fly the old routes of Somali Airlines. A weakened and disunited Ethiopia is always good for Somalia, this has historically been a fact. The death of Zenawi will be a major loss of confidence for the TPLF and they will be forced to focus their attention on the growing bubble within, which will result in dubious characters within Somalia losing support, and the strengthening of legitimate Somali politicians that want to bring back a strong republic.

Garnaqsi;858103 wrote: But of course we would be skeptical of their claim if they had tweaked their translation after the actual discovery of the planet. Go and read Ibn Kathir or any other old commentary/translation of the Koran. You will find they say no such a thing. Forming a religious position (or providing a translation/interpretation yielding as such) to claim a credit for something after it's been established by some other means is not only wrong scientifically but it's morally pathetic as well. You can't just tweak the Koran's 'meaning' like that just to make it match modern science and then claim it as a miracle of sorts that demonstrates the Koran's validity as divine work! No! That's illogical, its tantamount to dismissing Hero's early steam engine because two thousand years ago the world didn't understand the complexities of steam-power that was perfected by the British. Hero had no idea he was messing with the concept of 'steam' as we know it, instead his understanding was limited as was his device. In the Quranic verse, the revelation is direct to the point but at the same time limited, anymore than that was not necessary, because the followers of Islam - inspired by their religious literature - in their own right would make ground-breaking discoveries, the almost perfect circumference of the earth is a good example. What you and Apophis demand however is an entire green board explanation about the sphere of the earth in that same verse, which is silly, because the literature in the end is a guideline on how to best worship your Lord, not a science class. Yet, a simple description of the shape of the earth in an ancient book will most certainly have ramifications on 'modern science', and this isn't something you can just dismiss as 'nothing'. You say no one has met your challenge, but can you read Arabic? or Latin? Many early medieval Islamic geographical works have not yet been translated but are referenced only in name. The likes of Ibn Rustu (10th century), did refer to the world as being spherical or egg-shaped, when most thought it was flat. Is it a coincidence that he would come to that conclusion? Not at all, the Quran inspired him along with ancient literature, the same way eventually early modern scholars would pick up Islamic literature and the preserved Greco-Roman sources that ushered in the renaissance and enlightenment periods. Nothing morally wrong about a religious group feeling proud about their concrete contribution to human civilization.

^Our ancestors were badazz mofos, how can you exert your linguistic, political, military, economic dominance over an area the size of western Europe with a population of 1 million and only 500 thousand of them being men? Not to mention the best prime-real estate in Africa, with the greatest beaches! If we had stuck together as a single people, then we would be looking at around 200 billion barrels of Oil, from the O-gaden, to Somalia proper, and to NFD. Would have been interesting to see what could have happened had the Europeans never intervened in our monopoly. Today we are less than a shadow of our ancestors.

^How do you even purchase land or property in Somalia? What would happen if I settled in area where nobody lives, far from any town or city, but nicely by the sea, would I still need a permit? Somalia is a gigantic country and sparsely populated, but everybody is very territorial.

Eid buffets, can't wait!!

Barty tyme!!!!

Mr McGill?

I wonder as well, beachfront was prime real-estate.(which is strange because Mogadishu and Somalia has thousands of miles of free beachfront) If the war hadn't happened you'd be looking at multi-million dollar villas and appartments. There is no major capital in East Africa situated at the sea, only Mogadishu.

You're employing verbal acrobatics, Apophis. If the Torah or Bible had a specific verse about a distant planet with an intelligent life-form (including descriptions of their phenotype and culture), and let's say in two hundred years time this planet and population was found by humans when space-travel has matured. The Jews and the Christians would have every right to refer to this discovery - mentioned thousands of years before the landing on the moon - as a miracle. You're superimposing your own 'non-religious' view upon others.

I hope the sister finishes her education and finds a good man. The civil-war clearly has made some of us re-invent ourselves with alien customs, and practices. This type of publicity used to bother me, because it will reflect badly on the entire community, but I don't care anymore. I can dismiss one retarded parent/thug, but 4,12, 200 negative stories seem to pop up every day, week and year, wtf? Brand Somalia is going to need alot of money and ideas, better to just wait until this dumb conflict about nothing ends before a PR damage repair campaign is initiated.

^Apophis, without the conservation projects by the early Muslims most of these so-called discoveries would have disappeared with their civilizations, only a tiny fraction was preserved in Byzantium, so your statement is highly ironic. Secondly they are acknowledged in that same article: This may contribute to the formulation of a judgment for the inquiring minds, probing whether the Quran is God’s revelation or not. We have, on the one hand, Muhammad in the desert, neither a philosopher nor a physicist, and, on the other hand, the assumptions of great thinkers and philosophers such as Aristotle, Ptolemy,Giordano Bruno, Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton, to name but a few. The greatest minds in history, basing their arguments on observations and formulas they had ingeniously devised, claimed either that the universe had its confines or that it was an endless space, but it occurred to none of them to think of a dynamic expanding universe, until the 20th century when Edwin Hubble, by means of a telescope, demonstrated that the universe was expanding. The theory of expansion of the universe was first advanced in the 1920s. Until the descent of the Quran no other source had made such an assertion! Do you have an example of a pre-Hubble scholar with the theory of an dynamic expanding universe?

It's a good show, I always ignored it because of the name, but its impressive, despite the sexism. (it was the 60s!)

The Ideal situation would be an Abdiweli & Farmaajo Alliance. I bet the country would be back in order within two years with a functioning administration, loyal armed forces and one of the least corrupt track-records in Africa, not to mention the complete purging of all foreign forces, terrorist and peacekeepers alike, because these two men are patriots with competent teams. Sorry to say, but the likes of Sakin and Sheikh Ahmed is what's wrong with today's Somalia. The country will never recover fully, but stay dependent as it today, unless their powers are demoted significantly, but of course this is all about clans. It reminds me of Bill Connolly's character in the 'Last Samurai' when he mocked the rebels for still wearing medieval 'armour' in the age of machine guns. Somalis are still using clans in the age of ethnicities, countries and major trading blocks, smh. Be honest with yourselves, regardless of whether these candidates come from your clans or not, focus instead on whether they're capable of providing electricity to Somali homes, if they can rebuild the armed forces, establish 'child infrastructure' in the form of playgrounds, schools and nurseries, whether they can root out corruption, establish total food-security, expand our trading markets, create equality in equity amongst the genders, construct major infrastructural projects, defend our interests on the international stage, etc. Only then will you realise how little 'clan' should mean to you if you actually care about the superstructure that is a State i.e the Somali Republic, the only natural champion of the Somali people on this planet, to corrupt this superstructure with trivial matters is to seal your own fate in a endless downwards spiral of DOOM!

B2B Jedi mind trick!