Editor,

I heard on the news recently that most radio stations in Somalia had stopped playing music, on the orders of Islamist Hizbul-Islam insurgents, who said that songs were un-Islamic. The stations, sadly, said they had to comply with the ban because if they didn’t they would be putting their lives at risk.

This is tragic. This order has strong echoes of the Taliban in Afghanistan. I’m surprised that the broadcasters obeyed this diktat. Trying to appease people like this is meaningless.

They will demand more and more until peoples rights are trampled on. I won’t be surprised if they ban women walking in the streets as well; or if not, then not allowing them to show their faces in public. I feel as if this isn’t the worst that they have in store for their Somali compatriots.

There is an old saying that when you "give a mouse a cookie, it will demand a glass of milk”. I wonder what the milk will be in this case?

Hamza Ndugutse
Kiyovu