Heroes, Terrorists and Osama

Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, branded a terrorist by the U.S. government, recently became the leader of the Majlis al-Shura Council, a policy-making body that oversees the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia. The Courts have subdued the warlords in Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia, bringing peace to those areas for the first time in 15 years. But the internationally backed Transitional Federal Government, which controls little more than the small rural city of Baidoa, accuses them of being terrorists who want to impose a Taliban style of government in Somalia. In an interview with NEWSWEEK this week, Sheik Aweys was calm and even good-natured in response to the criticism, chuckling frequently at the questions put to him.

NEWSWEEK: U.S. government sources describe you as a supporter of Al Qaeda, and a terrorist suspect yourself. What do you say?

Hassan Dahir Aweys: The Americans are targeting us and there is no power that can protect us from them except Allah. Whatever we say, even if we deny everything, they don't accept it.

But do you have any connection with Al Qaeda, or with international terrorist organizations?

If the Americans or Westerners know terrorism as Islam and terrorists as Muslims, I am a Muslim; if they know the terrorists as people who want to install an Islamic government, I am that. But if they know terrorists as those who kill people or create problems and tensions, I am not that.

Is it true that you were a leader of Al Itihad al-Islamiya, which the U.S. State Department describes as a terrorist organization?