the fourth place

Sky News are worried that an Islamic state might be created in Government-free Somalia.

"Until we get the Islamic state, we will continue with the Islamic struggle in Somalia," Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, chairman of Mogadishu Islamic courts, told a rally of hundreds.

Meanwhile the BBC think the nice militants are just adorable:

The Union of Islamic Courts does not want to impose a Taleban-style Islamic state in Somalia, says their leader.

Sharif Shaikh Ahmed told the BBC they had no political aims beyond enabling the people to decide their own future.

Are the aims of creating an Islamic state and letting the people decide what they want compatible? I guess that depends on the people who get to decide and the reasonableness of those facilitating that decision.

The quote is covered in over 800 places including Associated Press and Reuters reports. I can't find the quote on the BBC website anywhere, which I think is wrong. If the quote is disputed they should report that dispute.

I'm sure there is a lot of rot spoken about Sharia Law but the posibility of another Taliban worries me. Those guys had rules for everything and many of them were downright wrong.

Meanwhile, it seems the Islamic Courts have proven the Anarchists point of view that there need not be a state monopoly on the execution of justice to produce justice. You may not be happy with the kind of justice of they give out though:

There are 11 autonomous courts in Mogadishu, some of which have periodically tried to clamp down on robbery, drugs and what they say are pornographic films being shown in local video houses.

At first they concentrated on petty crime but by the mid 1990s they had progressed to dealing with major crimes in north Mogadishu.

Thieves had their limbs amputated and murderers were executed.

Editor of the BBC Somali Service Yusuf Garaad Omar says that despite protests from human rights bodies, north Mogadishu residents were pleased to enjoy law and order - in stark contrast to south Mogadishu, where crime was rampant.

If you ask me, I'd prefer to pay a little tax for a court system representative of wider (and more liberal) points of view.