By Ibrahim Afghani-Al-Shabaab Chief

Harakat Al-Shabab Al-Mujahideen
Department of Politics and Wilaayaat

Statement Regarding the Closure of Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) Service in Somalia

Indeed, all praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings upon the commander of the Mujahideen, Muhammad, and upon his family and companions. As for what follows:

In the era that we live in, financial transactions have greatly been expanded, communities and states have opened up to each other, faith and religious commitments have deteriorated, fraud surfaced and economic issues have re-emerged; stock markets, banking transactions, economic principles, such as capitalism, materialized and usury became widespread.

In contrast to all this, the Muslims have turned away from the application of the Shari'ah of Allah, including the Islamic economic system and began to emulate the West in their financial transactions. The Islamic law, however, is there to safeguard the interests of the people and regulate their transactions for the preservation of their rights and the removal of injustice. Therefore, the Prophet ??? ???? ???? ???? prohibited dishonesty in dealing with transactions, inflation of prices, ambiguous deals and monopoly – just as the Prophet ??? ???? ???? ???? has also forbidden consuming people's wealth unlawfully and the exploitation of their needs.

The control that the Jews have over the financial system in the West and the spread of the so-called economic globalization is not hidden to anyone. It is well known that this system was set up in order to serve the Jewish state and Western interests in all parts of the world; to enrich western nations at the expense of vulnerable, oppressed and the poor people; to implement the policy of having a hand in the global economy and controlling it for their own benefit; and to execute plans and projects to get out of the successive crises witnessed by their economy. Falling under the category of the projects that were spread under economic globalization is the launching of the Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) service in hopes of finding an outlet from the current economic crisis experienced by the infidel West.

The MMT service entered Somalia under the trademark "Zaad/Sahal" on the basis of enabling the Muslim Somali people to transfer money through mobile phones for purchasing, payment of bills, purchase of calltime, and other financial transactions in a fast, cheap and easy manner. This service was launched by three companies; Hormud in Mogadishu, Golis in Bossaaso, and Telesom in Hargeisa.

The MMT service has spread at an enormous pace due to the efforts of the Western nations which are being led by the United States of America. It has worked to support this service in various ways and to spread it outside its territory and amongst the Somali expatriates in order for them to rely on it in sending money back to their home countries. Private financial transfers sent by expatriates to their countries of origin is the second largest source of external financing for so-called developing countries after direct foreign investment. Based on that, their target in spreading the MMT service should be considered as a very calculated and planned way to control the wealth of the Muslims and their economy. Thus, this service is significantly prominent in developing countries while it is virtually non-existent in the United States of America.

After studying, analyzing and investigating the effects of this service upon the Muslim Somali community since its inception, the seriousness and level of impact of this service upon the wealth of the Muslims became very clear. The hidden ambitions and objectives of this service serve the interests of the Zionist Crusader movement throughout the world against the Muslims and the poor nations. The research noted the following evils:

• Control over the economy of poor peoples and its depletion and exploitation: The companies that sponsor this service concentrate their efforts on developing countries in Africa and Asia, whereupon they introduce their easy and express services to the people in those countries in order to enable them to facilitate money transfers. This, in turn, makes them hostages to this service in all their financial activity and it exploits the needs of the middle class and the poor.

• Enforcing economic dependency and monopolization: The MMT service was the result of an agreement between telecom companies and international banks with the mediation of MasterCard’s financial transactions. They all worked together in the spirit of monopoliziation to make sure that the market, with all of its various transactions, is controlled by their regulations. This diminishes the liquidity of funds and spreads subordination and the entire society becomes a prisoner of the infidel West.

• Threatening the economic security of the Muslims: This service stands against the security of Muslims, especially the Mujahideen in that it takes part in the so-called fight against financing terrorism which is taken as a pretext to infringe upon the rights of Muslims and their freedoms; to interfere in all their financial movements; to closely monitor these movements and thereby tighten their grip on them; and to threaten them whenever those behind this service choose and however they choose.

• Presenting the risk of the collapse, or suspension, of the corporate sponsors for this service: This service could be stopped by order of the Western politicians based upon one argument or another, as occurred previously with the bank, "Barakat." They could also face bankruptcy because of the global financial crisis, which would cost the Muslim people enormous losses.

• Presenting the risk of hackers: The vulnerability of mobile phones for breaches by the so-called "hacker" has dire consequences, and makes people easy prey.

• Withdrawing liquid funds from the market: The risk of removing liquid funds from the market is one of the most serious implications for the use of service (MMT). It is designed primarily to provide liquidity and absorb the funds to invest in projects which will turn the Western wheel of economy, which now lies in ruins because of erroneous and oppressive Western policies.

• Destroying the hawala system in the target countries: The spread of this service disrupts the hawala system which people commonly use in their dealings. This service will gradually eliminate the hawala system in its entirety, making it easy to limit financial transfers to the MMT service alone.

• Linking the people completely with the corporate sponsor of the service: As the scope of the spread of the MMT service expands, the fate of the funds of thousands of people will become integrally linked to the company sponsors. The fate of this money will become affected by any changes made by these sponsors and it will become subservient to their offers and policies.

After affirming the existence of the clear risks of dealing with the MMT service, the Department of Politics & Wilaayaat of Harakat Al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen has decided the following:

• The use of the MMT service will be discontinued in all parts of Somalia - and the companies that offer these services, specifically Hormuud, Telesom and Golis, must stop dealing with this service. And we expect that all companies, agents and customers who are using the service (ZAAD/SAHAL) in all parts of Somalia will comply with the decision.

• The companies that deal with this service have an opportunity until 24-02-1432 Hijri corresponding to 31.01.2011 in order to discharge what they have of obligations relating to this service, whether the obligations are for them or against them.
• We warn all companies that intend to introduce similar services to Somalia to refrain from such actions.
• This decision is valid from the date of the announcement of this statement.
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In conclusion, we emphasize upon the Muslims in Somalia to liberate themselves from the dependency and subjugation to the West and to search for other legal and safer alternatives, such as factories, exporting local produce, etc. or any other such projects that benefit the Muslim economy. We also reassure them that we will not relent in protecting them and their wealth from any danger that surrounds them by the help and grace of Allah.

By Ibrahim Hajji Jama Mecaad "Afghani"

Al-Shabaab Wilaayat Chief

Press release

Al-Shabaab Office