NAIROBI - Somalia's main Sufi movement, Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa, on Thursday wrapped up an unprecedented conference in Nairobi to strategise its response to the rise of the Shebab group.
Dozens of the usually quiet religious movement's leaders have in recent days converged on Nairobi from Somalia and from Western exile to close ranks against what they see as a threat.
"The Shebab are misguided people who have misunderstood the true values of Islam," overall chairman Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Muhieddin said leaving Kenya Thursday.
Sufism is dominant in clannish Somalia, where Muslim saints are often also clan founders, but its leading clerics have voiced concern that groups such as the Shebab were slowly eradicating it.
It emphasises the mystical dimension of Islam.
A year ago, Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa ('The Companions of the Prophet') took up arms after the Shebab started hunting down Sufi faithful and desecrating their sites, notably in and around the southern Somali city of Kismayo.
"The Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa fighters are not a regular army who long for power, they are defending themselves and the lives of other Somalis whose way of life is threatened by the Shebab's madness," Sheikh Sharif said.
As Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa gathered in Nairobi for its inaugural "war council", a man sometimes described as the movement's political face was also in the Kenyan capital to seek support.
Recently appointed president of the semi-autonomous central state of Galmudug with Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa's blessing, Mohamed Ahmed Alin argued that his administration can help achieve what the central government in Mogadishu and its Western backers have failed to do.
"With some cooperation, I believe the Shebab could be eliminated from most of the country," he said. "We need infrastructure support, military support, training of our troops but so far, just words and no action."
The organisation's military strength remains unclear.
"In my region for example, Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa never used to be a political affiliation. Everybody is Ahlu Sunna, that's all," said Alin.
And despite the religious movement taking on a new and more political dimension as it seeks to beef up against the Shebab, its top leaders are quick to emphasise they have no further ambitions.
"We are not after power, what we are fighting for is a peaceful Somalia governed by its elected leaders," said Abdulkadir Mohamed Somow, a senior Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa leader from Mogadishu.
"Our movement is fighting the Shebab forces of anarchy but we will lay down our weapons as soon as they have been eliminated," he said.
Another senior Ahlu Sunna figure based in Garowe, the administrative capital of the northern semi-autonomous state of Puntland, was more circumspect.
"If it is God's will we may one day have a role to play in running the country, but it is too early to say more, there are consultations going on in Nairobi and elsewhere," Abdullahi Mohamoud Hassan said.
Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa is a Somali group which was founded in 1991 to protect the local Sufi brand of Islam.
Fighting alongside government troops in several areas of central and southern Somalia, it has inflicted serious defeats on the Shebab.
While its senior members stress that they do not fully endorse the transitional federal government led by President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, both have the same goal: rooting out the Shebab.
"We are fighting in the name of God to eliminate those who are propagating a misinterpretation of this religion in the country," Sheikh Omar Mohamed Farah, a leader for the organisation in central Somalia said.
Ahlu Sunna is described by its leaders as a non-partisan religious group.
"Groups like the Shebab are trying to erase every layer of Somali cultural identity, including Sufi Islam, which is the most representative of the country's traditions," according to one observer.
Many of its supporters say it is an army of volunteers rising up to protect the nation's heritage and culture.
The leadership structure of Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa, both as a religious and a military organisation, was long unclear.
The group's critics argue that Ahlu Sunna became Ethiopia's proxy in Somalia following Addis' troop withdrawal in January, following a ill-fated two-year occupation.
The Shebab have also accused the Sufi organisation of receiving Western support.
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