At least two people were killed when Islamic gunmen opened fire on scores of young demonstrators protesting a ban on World Cup viewing at a cinema in central Somalia, witnesses said on Wednesday.
The pair were shot and killed late on Tuesday when soccer fans, barred by Islamists from watching the semifinal match between Germany and Italy, complained noisily at the prohibition, they said.
Militia loyal to Somalia’s increasingly powerful Sharia courts fired first into the air to break up the crowd watching the game on satellite television at the cinema in central Galgadud region, the witnesses said.
”They closed the hall and forced viewers to go home but this angered everybody and prompted a demonstration,” one witness told Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity.
Witnesses said the gunmen then opened fire on the crowd to quell the protest in Galgadud’s Dhusomareb district, killing cinema owner Mohamed Hirsi Dhore and a young girl identified as Sahro Indhoweyne.
”They said they will not allow any cinema to operate,” another witness said.
Islamists who seized Mogadishu and several provincial towns last month from United States-backed warlords have begun enforcing strict Sharia law in parts of areas under their control, including bans on cinemas and television.
World Cup broadcasts, in particular, have drawn their ire with clerics arguing that some elements, notably advertisements for alcoholic beverages, are evil.
At least two people were killed in the capital last month during a protest similar to Tuesday’s in Galgadud, where the Islamists’ hard-line supreme leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, is now setting up new Sharia courts.
After that incident, the Islamists partially repealed the ban in Mogadishu and have allowed residents in some areas of the city to watch the World Cup.
The Islamic courts first began to close down cinema halls showing Hollywood and Bollywood films last year as their influence expanded, arguing that the presentations contravened their strict interpretation of Islam.
Somalia has lacked a functioning central authority since the country was plunged into anarchy with the 1991 ousting of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. — Sapa-AFP