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 NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Islamic militiamen have consolidated their power in the Somali capital, but their leaders now have to navigate treacherous clan politics, the source of the country's 15 years of anarchy.
The clerics have so far cleverly used religious and nationalist rhetoric to win public support, but the transitional government will try to divide the Islamic leadership using rivalries among the dozens of clans and subclans, experts and average Somalis said. And pushing religion too hard as an antidote could backfire in a country unused to the hard line on Islam espoused by some of the new leaders.
Somali society is broadly split between nomads and farmers, who then define themselves by clan. Each clan fits within a larger "family of clans" and can also be subdivided into subclans, or even sub-subclans. Since 99 percent of Somalis are Muslim, a Somali's clan affiliation defines life and identity much more than Islam.
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