Warsame’s song about Dahabshiil’s blood money

Singer and Somali politician Saado Ali Warsame, slain by al-Shabaab gunmen last week, debuted a protest song in 2011 entitled, “Dhiigshiil ha dhigan” (“Don’t Deposit with Dahabshiil” or “Don’t send your money through Dahabshiil“). The song was a rebuke of the remittance company Dahabshiil, and asserted that the money Dahabshiil makes off of Somalis “is destroying our land” and “will kill our children.”  Unlike Warsame’s typically upbeat, jaunty numbers, “Diighshiil ha dhigan” opens with a world-weary, almost mournful tone that gives way to a Reggae sound throughout the rest of the song.

The 13-minute music video itself, apparently produced by Xildhiban Publications, shows scenes of armed Somali men and the victims of their violence spliced with scenes of Warsame performing and a graphic of a Kalashnikov firing across two blood-soaked words, “Dahabshiil” and “Dhiigshiil.” In Somali, “shiil” means “to smelt,” fry, or melt; “dahab” means “gold;” and “dhiig” means blood. The play on words suggests that rather than being a “gold-smelting” financial company, Dahabshiil is a actually blood-smelter.

Graphic from Warsame’s 2011 music video

Ahmed Yassin, a Somali in Canada, provided Money Jihad with a translation of the lyrics for “Dhiigshiil ha dhigan”:

They call him “Melting Blood” to manipulate the public,
He has lot of money to make sure Mogadishu will never be at peace,
He is the enemy of Somalia,
Somalis, do not deposit your money to his banks.
He is real tribalism; he is destroying our land,
The money he is making from us will kill our children,
Somalis, do not deposit your money to his banks.

Clearly, the lyrics pull no punches.  After the song first came out, the website Microkhan reviewed it here, editorializing that “If I was an executive at Dahabshiil, I would be very nervous right about now.” Additional descriptions of the song appear here and here.

Here is a written version of the (Latin alphabet) Somali lyrics according to Youtube video descriptions. Money Jihad is copying them here for the record because statements that put Dahabshiil in a negative light have a tendency to vanish or be suppressed in Internet searches.

“Dhiigshiil ha dhigan”

Candho iyo dhugatoow qabaa,
dhukaanbaa ku raagayoo,
dhilmaayaa daashatoo,
Cagaarshoow baa ku dhacay.
indha caseeyaa ku dhacay.
Ha dhigan Dhiigshiil ha dhigan
Dhiigshiil waxaa loo dhahaa,
Xaaraan buu ku dhisanyoo,
wuxuu dhagrayaa bulshada,
midnimaduu dhantaalayaa!!
Ha dhigan ,Dhiigshiil ha dhigan
Ibliisbaa dhaansadoo,
kolkuu dhergeybuu ka daray,
wuxuu kibirkii u dhalay,
inuu dhex fariisto qurun.

Publishers, editors profit from Taliban poems

London’s C. Hurst & Co. Publishers Ltd. and co-editors Felix Kuehn, Faisal Devji, and Alex Strick van Linschoten are profiting from the publication of a new anthology of poetry by the Taliban.  Kuehn says the poems provide “a different window” to “understand the Taliban better,” van Linschoten says “the poetry shows that the Taliban are people just like we are,” and the co-editors say that the poems “provide a fascinating insight into the minds and hearts of these deeply emotional people.”

True, it’s worth examining all the statements of Taliban members, but their poems should not be embraced for showing the supposed humanity of the Taliban.  The Taliban are not people just like we are—they are people very far different from what we are.

Here’s one of the great “human” poems from a Taliban soldier, as read aloud during a BBC 4 broadcast:

The editors and publishers should do nothing less than donate 100 percent of the profits to British war veterans.

Said the Alligator King to His Muslim Friends

Remember this Sesame Street classic?

(Keep that tune in mind as you read the below.)

Said the mayor of New York
To his seven friends
I’m feeling kinda lost
Whatever you can do to cheer me up
I’ll defend you at any cost.

Imam Rauf proposed a mosque
At Ground Zero’s coat factory
John Liu offered special financing
To make it all tax-free.

Sharif el-Gamal never met a tax
That he didn’t try to dodge
So Rauf knew that he’d found his match
To build the site for a New World hajj

Barzinji said, “I like Rauf’s style
And how he covers for Hamas,
So stick with me and I’ll show you how
I built Al-Hijrah mosque.”

Hisham Elzanaty said “Count me in
Holy Land Foundation’s gone
So I’ve got some extra cash to burn
To show the triumph of Islam”

Speaker Pelosi woke up one day
With an idea in her head
To skip Rauf & investigate
Families of the 9/11 dead.

Barack Obama called his Muslim pals
For a fancy iftar feast
It’s time to Islamize New York
So we can all bow to the East.

Bloomberg said to old Barack,
“Do me one more favor please
Call off the dogs who want to know
Where this dog gets its fleas.”