The total deterioration of Somalia continues – with plowshares turned into swords:

Their shrines were being destroyed. Their imams were being murdered. Their tolerant beliefs were under withering attack.

So the moderate Sufi scholars recently did what so many other men have chosen to do in anarchic Somalia: they picked up guns and entered the killing business, in this case to fight back against the Shabab, one of the most fearsome extremist Muslim groups in Africa.

“Clan wars, political wars, we were always careful to stay out of those,” said Sheik Omar Mohamed Farah, a Sufi leader. “But this time, it was religious.”

In the past few months, a new axis of conflict has opened up in Somalia, an essentially governmentless nation ripped apart by rival clans since 1991. Now, in a definitive shift, fighters from different clans are forming alliances and battling one another along religious lines, with deeply devout men on both sides charging into firefights with checkered head scarves, assault rifles and dusty Korans.

It is an Islamist versus Islamist war, and the Sufi scholars are part of a broader moderate Islamist movement that Western nations are counting on to repel Somalia’s increasingly powerful extremists. Whether Somalia becomes a terrorist incubator and a genuine regional threat – which is already beginning to happen, with hundreds of heavily armed foreign jihadists flocking here to fight for the Shabab – or whether this country finally steadies itself and ends the years of hunger, misery and bloodshed may hinge on who wins these battles in the next few months.

It’s interesting that the story refers to the Sufis as Islamists. That’s a good thing; being an Islamist doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a terrorist or a generic bad person. The whole point of democracy promotion is that the political process is a moderating influence on Islamism. Unfortunately, in Somalia, the reverse seems to be true…

It should also be noted that this story is not about “moderate Sufis” versus “extremist Sunnis” as some may be inclined to view it. One can actually be Sunni and “Sufi” at the same time, or Shi’a and Sufi alike; certainly many if not most Sufis also consider themselves to be in adherence to the Sunnah and often are as orthodox in their practice of religion as anyone else. It’s also a mistake to lump the Al Shabab in with Sunnis – they are really a hardcore extremists Salafi group, a sub-sect within a sect. Still, the general point is worth noting: violent repression by extremists is being met by armed resistance from unlikely warriors. This has short-term advantages but might pose long-term issues.

(We’ve been discussing Somalia in detail at Talk Islam)