Somalia Prominent Sufi cleric killed outside Mogadishu family blames Al-Shabab

A prominent Sufi cleric named Sheikh Muhammad Elbur was last night killed in the locality of Elasha Biyaha [on Mogadishu outskirts]. The killing was carried out by two pistol-wielding masked men who stormed into the house where the cleric was and shot him four times as he sat on a prayer rug, having finished performing his sunset prayer.

Sheikh Elbur, may God have mercy on him, had gone to Elasha Biyaha to visit his mother who lives there. He was with his blind mother when he was killed. The family of Sheikh Muhammad Elbur said the armed Al-Shabab Wahhabi group was behind his killing.

Latest reports reaching us Mareeg from Elasha Biyaha say that the cleric will be buried today and the burial will be attended by a large number of religious leaders, prominent personalities, and ordinary people.

Sheikh Muhammad Elbur, may God have mercy on him, was a member of Ahlu Sunna wal Jama'a.

His killing is a clear indication that the Al-Shabab Wahhabi group is engaged in a campaign of targeted killings against clerics of Ahlu Sunna wal Jama'a, who are renowned for dissemination of Islamic teachings. Most Somalis graduated from Koranic schools dotting across Somalia.

In 2008, gunmen killed Sheikh Muhammad Kashka in Bulo Hubey neighborhood [in Mogadishu].

He was a renowned scholar in various Islamic disciplines and a disseminator of Islam. The family of the cleric said that the cleric had described the fighting, the so-called jihad, raging in Somalia as unjust.
Al-Shabab spokesman Sheikh Mukhtar Robow Abu Mansur had said that they were not fighting Ahlu Sunna wal Jama'ah. The revelation made by the family of the cleric that Al-Shabab was behind his killing undercuts Abu Mansur's assertion.