Somali rebels ban musical ring tones, say they are unIslamicIndia News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Hardline al Shabaab insurgents who seized the southern Somali port of Kismayu have banned "corrupt" musical ring tones. Al Shabaab, which America says is al Qaeda's proxy in Somalia, wants to topple the country's UN-backed government and impose its own strict version of Sharia law. According to a Sky News report, this heavily armed group controls much of the south and parts of the capital Mogadishu. Courts run by its clerics have ordered executions, floggings and amputations in recent months. Al Shabaab has also banned movies, dancing at wedding ceremonies and playing or watching football in the areas under its control. "We do not tolerate anything that may corrupt the people," al Shabaab's spokesman in Kismayu, Sheikh Hassan Yaqub, said. Fighting has killed 19,000 Somalis since the start of 2007.