Al-Shabab Changes Name to 'Somali Islamic Emirate'

Via barigaafrika.com (Dec 7, 2011) -

A major conference to discuss the future of Al-Shabab which has been ongoing in Baydhabo, Bay Regions [south western Somalia] in the last five days has now been concluded after which a statement was issued.

The conference was attended by clerics from areas under Al-Shabab control as well as senior Al-Shabab officials among them Sheikh Hasan Dahir Aweys, Shaykh Muqtar Robow and other prominent figures of the extremists group.

Towards the end of the conference, religious clerics attending the conference addressed the gathering in which they all expressed their excitement in the participation of the conference dubbed "the future of Al-Shabab".

The statement issued at the end of the conference comprised of seven major points some of which the Somali public are already quite familiar with while others are new and are to effect major changes in Al-Shabab.

[...]

The name 'Movement for the Al-Shabab Mujahidin' is to be replaced with 'Somali Islamic Emirate'. It has been said that as from the time of the release of the statement, the official name for the men used to be known as Al-Shabab will be 'Somali Islamic Emirate'.

Some of the new points in the statement include the formation of a new organization for Somali religious scholars that is to be under Al-Shabab which has been renamed as Islamic Emirate. It is believed that the whole point of this conference was to change Al-Shabab's name given that the rest of the points in the statement are issues which have already been implemented in areas under the group's control.