Mogadishu(SONNA)-Al-Shabaab militants changed worshiping places mainly mosques into either training bases or storages in which they keep their own belongings while forcing Imams and the religous students at those mosques to leave during their control in the past decade according to eyewitnesses and evidences revealed when liberated.
“The Mosques were turned into training bases, garbage and dustbin, storages and where the terrorists collect extortion money, they even chased religous men keeping the mosques and learning Islamic studies here out. We are going to clean and repair the mosques destroyed by Al-Shabaab”, Army officer said, while standing at a mosque in Middle Shabelle region that the group was using as a base and storage with a lot of garbages around.
Group of religous scholars visited Masjid Ali Gudud, a location in which the Somali National Army liberated from Al-Shabaab. The Scholars observed the impacts of terrorists on worshiping places, in particular, Mosques and Madrasas there recenty.
” The Situation of mosques and Madrasses were very bad, they were not working properly because they were used as training base where children are misguided and others were closed. We have learned that Masjid imams and Madrasa teachers were forced to leave these areas and whole cities in which they lived during Al-Shabaab control”, Sheikh Alinur told SONNA.
Al-Shabaab did not only commit mass killings, suicide bomb attacks and create threaful environments in all areas under their control, but also dig out graves to bring out dead bodies and scatter them without respecting Islamic principles and the one for the dead bodies.
