Somali Canadian Diaspora Alliance

Professor Abdi Samatar & The Deputy Chair of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia Mr. Zakaria Mohamud spoke to the Somali Community in Toronto, Canada

Saturday, October 27, 2007

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Following professor Samatar and Mr. Zakaria were the guest speakers at an event organized by the Somali canadian Diaspora alliance. About one thousand Somalis came to listen to Zakaria and professor samatar in a gathering intended for education, information sharing and creating awareness about the Somali crises, Ethiopian occupation, the war on terror, reviving nationalism and how to re-liberate the country from the occupying forces. The event started with a youth session that covered many aspects including eradicating tribalism, Ethiopian occupation and how the youth can be an effective force

Mr. Zakaria

in the campaign to reliberate the country and Professor Samatar was the main speaker at this session and answered questions from the youth. Amina Yassin asked how can we fight against tribalism when at home the youth are told about his/her tribe and that they are are in a state of of confusion, Professor Samatar's response to that question was that you should all respect your parents at home yet challenge them and express your opinion when and if their views are wrong and contradicts to the teachings of Islam and when their opinions are questionable. Furthermore, Professor samatar stated that you cannot be neutral to a situation of injustice, and obviously occupation and oppression are forms of injustice and you should speak out against Ethiopian occupations and atrocities they have committed against innocent civilians. He also talked about what contribution they can make in terms of humanitarian aid to at least alleviate the suffering of the people affected by this occupation.

Similarly, in his speech Mr. Zakaria put the Ethiopian aggression and its imperialistic ambitions into a historical context, starting pre-independence struggles through post-independence wars between Somalia and Ethiopia to the current illegal occupation of Ethiopia in Somalia, and the internal and external players that accommodated and made the occupation possible. In addition, he articulated well the role of the current inept leadership of the TFG played in advancing Ethiopia's imperialistic agenda of divide and conquer. Mr. Zakaria also spoke about the humanitarian crises created as a result of the occupation and atrocities committed against innocent civilians including the killing of thousands of civilians, rape and uprooting 700, 000.00 civilians from their homes in Mogadishu. 

Community members

Mr. Zakaria similarly spoke about the recently formed Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, its stated objectives and goals, the challenges and sacrifices we all have to make to reliberate our country from Ethiopia and further emphasized that every Somali is morally obliged to take this  responsibility very serious in realizing a free, democratic and just Somalia. Our struggle is based on legitimate and basic human rights afforded to every society in this world and our resistance will go unabated until realized our god-given right to be free. And in the end warned the audiences about the imminent perils associated with tribalism as in any form or shape it is a catalyst for societal degeneration and poses a threat to our existence as a people and society, and he used as an example how Ethiopia used tribalism as a means to achieve its imperialistic agenda of occupying Somalia.

The atmosphere of this gathering was very tense and both speaker got a warm reception and standing ovation every time the speakers challenged the audiences to do more for their country as this inept TFG failed miserably to serve its own people.

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