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Monday, February 09, 2009
A Somali cleric has urged his country to fully support the newly-elected president, while calling for an end to attacks on foreign troops.
"President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed is a pure Muslim man… We ask all the people of Somalia, men, women and even children to support our new leader," The chairman of the Somali Clerics Council, Sheikh Nur Barood Gurhan, said in a statement on Monday.
The country's Islamic Council welcomes and fully supports the newly-elected president, who has promised to bring the nation under Islamic law, Gurhan said, a Press TV correspondent reported.
The top cleric also condemned the recent attacks on AMISOM soldiers in the chaotic Horn of Africa nation and called on all armed groups to lay down their weapons and join the new government.
"Before Sheik Sharif's election you were all fighting for an Islamic leader, but now you have no excuse," the Clerics Council chief said.
He also accused the rebels of killing innocent civilians and causing further instability in the war-wracked country.
"If you die during battle, you die as rebels and not as martyrs," Gurhan said.
Sheik Sharif, a cleric and former opposition leader was elected as Somali's new president on January 31 by lawmakers who had gathered in Djibouti, after a number of their fellow lawmakers were targeted in Baidoa - the seat of the Somali parliament.
The president is expected to name a new prime minister in the coming days and the new premier will in turn form a Government of National Unity.
Source: PressTV, Feb 09, 2009