Islamic Courts Union

The Islamic Courts Union (Somali: Midowga Maxkamadaha Islaamiga) was a legal and political organization founded by Mogadishu-based Sharia courts during the early 2000s to combat the lawlessness stemming from the Somali Civil War. By mid-to-late 2006, the Islamic Courts had expanded their influence to become the de facto government in most of southern and central Somalia.^[2]

Immediately following the collapse of the Somali Democratic Republic in early 1991, a new phenomenon emerged — the establishment of Sharia courts to impose law and order on various volatile neighborhoods of Mogadishu.^[3] These independent courts often found their existence being threatened by warlords, which necessitated cooperation between them that eventually led to their unification into the entity known as the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) in 2000. Comprising many different courts, the union was a diffuse organization with differing leaders sending conflicting messages about the group's goals. Some members had national political ambitions, while others wanted to focus on resolving local disputes and bringing people closer to Islam.^[4] The ICU garnered widespread support among Somalis, who regarded Islam as one of the few remaining trustworthy institutions in the aftermath of the state's collapse. By originating from the grassroots level, asserting their governance under the mantle of religious impartiality and fighting the widely despised warlords controlling much of the city, the ICU rapidly gained the confidence of a populace exhausted by warfare.^[5][4][6]

In the summer of 2006, the ICU decisively defeated a Somali warlord alliance funded by the American Central Intelligence Agency and became the first entity to consolidate control over all of Mogadishu since the collapse of the state in 1991.^[7] The period that followed is widely heralded as the most stable and productive period Somalia had seen up to that point since the outbreak of the civil war.^[8][9][4] Residents of Mogadishu were finally able to move around the city without fear of attack, the international airport and seaport were opened for the first time in over a decade, a massive debris clean up campaign was started and there was a significant reduction of arms on the streets.^[10][11] Six months into their reign, the Islamic Courts Union was toppled during the final days of 2006 by a full scale Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, supported by the United States.^{[12][13][14][15]} Much of the organizational structure of the ICU disintegrated early on in 2007 due to the invasion as the ENDF/US forces brought the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) to power.^[16][17] Following the collapse of courts rule, much of the high ranking ICU leadership sought refuge in Eritrea. In the insurgency that followed the Ethiopian invasion, a radical youth militia within the military wing of the Islamic Courts, Al-Shabaab, stayed behind and broke away, initially greatly empowering themselves as a popular resistance movement against the occupation.

During 2007 and 2008, ICU forces participated in the insurgency against Ethiopian troops occupying Somalia.^[18] High-ranking members of the Islamic Courts later founded the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) in late 2007, which would merge with the TFG in late 2008. Former chairman of the Islamic Courts Union, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, became president of Somalia in 2009, replacing successfully the Transitional Government with the Federal Government of Somalia. In 2012, the country adopted a new constitution that declared Somalia an Islamic state with Sharia as its primary source of law.^[19]