Hardline cleric wants sharia law for Somalia

 March 06 2006 at 10:52AM 
 
Mogadishu - A hardline Somali cleric with influence here has said Muslims will oppose the Horn of Africa’s fledgling government because it is based on anti-Islamic principles.

"A government that does not rule by the book of God does not deserve support," Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweis, 61, said at his house in the city.

Aweis said the new interim administration cannot be supported because it was organised on secular lines and would clash with the Islamic sharia law that suits the largely Muslim nation of 10 million people.

Somalia has been without proper central government since warlords toppled former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.