Sharif Sheikh Ahmed

Ahmed was born near Mahaday in the Middle Shabelle region, memorised the Qur'an as a child, and attended the al-Sufi secondary school in Mogadishu.{cite:source/wikipedia-sharif-sheikh-ahmed-en}{cite:source/wikipedia-sharif-sheikh-ahmed-ar} He studied at universities in Sudan and Libya in the mid-1990s, earning a bachelor's degree in law and Islamic Shariah, and worked as a secondary-school teacher in Mogadishu, teaching geography, Arabic and Islamic subjects.{cite:source/wikipedia-sharif-sheikh-ahmed-en}{cite:source/wikipedia-sharif-sheikh-ahmed-ar}

In 2004 Ahmed became chairman of the Islamic Courts Union, and was widely seen as its moderate face; by mid-2006 the Union had taken Mogadishu from the warlords and extended its control across much of southern Somalia.{cite:source/wikipedia-sharif-sheikh-ahmed-en} Ethiopia's invasion in late 2006 collapsed the Union's governing body; Ahmed went into exile and in September 2007 became chairman of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, formed at Asmara.{cite:source/wikipedia-sharif-sheikh-ahmed-en}

Following Ethiopia's withdrawal, the transitional parliament, meeting in Djibouti, elected Ahmed president of the Transitional Federal Government on 31 January 2009.{cite:source/wikipedia-sharif-sheikh-ahmed-en} His government nearly fell to an insurgent offensive in early 2009, but with African Union support it drove al-Shabaab out of Mogadishu in August 2011; his term ended on 20 August 2012 as the transitional period closed.{cite:source/wikipedia-sharif-sheikh-ahmed-en} He later founded the Himilo Qaran party and remained a leading opposition figure and presidential contender.{cite:source/wikipedia-sharif-sheikh-ahmed-en}

The sources disagree on his birth year: the Arabic article and Wikidata give 25 July 1964, the English article 25 July 1965; the record follows 1964 and keeps the variant in its notes.{cite:source/wikipedia-sharif-sheikh-ahmed-ar}{cite:source/wikidata-sharif-sheikh-ahmed}{cite:source/wikipedia-sharif-sheikh-ahmed-en}

On faith, what the sources give is office, movement and family: he chaired the Islamic Courts Union and holds a degree in Shariah, the Arabic infobox gives his religion generically as Muslim, the Sunni label appears only in category filings, Wikidata carries no religion value, and the Arabic lead places him in a Sufi family — his father a follower of the Idrisiyya order.{cite:source/wikipedia-sharif-sheikh-ahmed-en}{cite:source/wikipedia-sharif-sheikh-ahmed-ar}{cite:source/wikidata-sharif-sheikh-ahmed} None of that names his own school, so his faith is entered as unknown, with the Sunni reading preserved in the record.

• {cite:source/wikipedia-sharif-sheikh-ahmed-en}
• {cite:source/wikipedia-sharif-sheikh-ahmed-ar}
• {cite:source/wikipedia-sharif-sheikh-ahmed-so}
• {cite:source/wikidata-sharif-sheikh-ahmed}