Talk about keeping cool under fire – in September, Somalia’s just-elected president continued his speech to the media and foreign visitors while those around him dived under the tables to avoid al-Shabab’s bombs exploding outside. The fundamentalist group is just one of a mountain of problems facing the Somali educator and welfare advocate who surprisingly emerged as the country’s new leader in the elections. Sheikh soundly defeated such old guard politicians as the former president and prime minister, and is considered unbeholden to any of the old factions or international powerbrokers that have failed so miserably to establish popular governance in what has become the iconic example of a ‘failed state’.
Hassan has a reputation as a peace activist and has gained popularity in the capital, Mogadishu, for philanthropic projects that aided local residents. As a former leader of the Islamic Courts Party, he maintains good relationships with the Muslim Brotherhood movement and other groupings of political Islam. These may in the long run allow him to pull Islamic insurgents (such as al-Shabab) into a political dialogue on the future of Somalia. In the meantime he must weave his way through a maze of issues including chronic food shortages, widespread corruption and clan-based warlordism. No small task.
