 Islamists vowed to execute Muslims who skip prayers as they tightened their religious grip on the Somali capital Mogadishu and again Thursday rejected government calls for foreign peacekeepers. Under an edict issued by a leading Mogadishu cleric, the five-times daily prayer required by the Quran will be enforced under penalty of death, a move that appears to confirm the hardline nature of the city's Sharia courts. "He who does not perform prayers will be considered as infidel and Sharia law orders that that person be killed," said Sheikh Abdalla Ali, a founder and high-ranking official in the Supreme Islamic Council of Somalia (SICS). |