Somali threat finally makes US front page

The Washington Post has decided to put the issue of Somali jihadists on its front page.

Somewhat belatedly – National Public Radio and ABC News were ahead of the Post, and this doesn’t take us that much further than a Jamestown Foundation report in January.

But in a way it is a bigger deal over in the US than here, because the security services here still see extremists within the British Pakistani community as a far bigger threat than the relatively small Somali community. In other words, we have far more on our plates to worry about.

What is strikingly missing from the Post’s report is any development of America’s own role in radicalising its Somalis, through Washington’s support for the Ethiopian invasion of 2006.

The Obama administration now has the opportunity to do what Washington should have done long ago – to engage with an openly Islamist Somali government.

President Sharif of Somalia told Reuters yesterday he wanted the country governed under Sharia law. This may be something London and Washington have to accept – on the grounds that it is far better to have a Somali leadership you can talk to, rather than attempting to bomb it out of office and ending up with something far worse.

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