Rejoinder to Clerics Vs Young Guns

Greetings to all my blog readers and well wishers,
This is not an entry I was planning on writing but I have been forced to after several unflattering e-mails and the numerous "need-to-talk-to-you" calls I have received since writing the previous one.
First, let it be understood that I'm not writing these things to offend anyone. On the contrary, I do it so that we  can all help each other make sense of what the priorities for our city are. Would you prefer that no one challenge authority and our incipient civil discourse. Would you prefer that clanism and its role in the Pre-2012 political posturing be left 'undebated'?

There is no need to take an opponent's ideas to the very extreme and debate them as though they were the equivalent of "Colonial Northern Frontier District Policy" re-incarnate. Don't let your passions cloud your sense of good judgement and bar you from participating in a civil exchange of ideas grounded on respect and mutual want for our Garissa to be the Kenyan City of the 21st century.

Occasionally I came across some positive reaction to the now infamous entry that make me think as Garissians, we are on the right track. The circus that is the current debate on what the devolution of power (actually devolution of corruption) to local counties means for not only Garissa but the larger Nep is a definite reminder that we Kenyan Somalis have a long way to go. But things are starting to look better. For one, our inchoate civic movements and community activists are getting into the polemic clanism debate more vigorously and the youth are getting inundated with anti-clanism messages so that they don't get pulled into a vortex of political supremacy battles.

The Ulamaa need to use their bully pulpits to promote these implacable advances in eradicating clanism in our region. I am not an Ulamaa basher, never been, never will be but I'll point out when their priorities are misplaced. I want our religious leaders to be more proactive when it comes to holding our elected leaders to account. I'll stand by those who stick their necks out to defend the common person's interest. Lets remember in 2007, Farah Maalim rode to power because of the endorsement (rightly or wrongly) of Eastleigh's Sheikhs. Certainly, the public has a right to demand that the same sheikhs hold Mr. Farah accountable for his actions or inactions. Religious leaders can be a force for far greater good if they choose to use their power and deploy it in areas such as the eradication of drug abuse, clanism and corruption. We Somalis are a religious lot and our ulamaa can root out these problems if they pay attention to them.
Finally on the issue of vices; Clubs, Khat and other hard or soft drugs are bigger evils and pose a bigger threat to our culture and religion that any "un-Islamic" comedy sketches from teenage comics.

PS: For those that had a beef with the picture on the previous post, it was just too charming to not use.

Peace & Love all.