DAILY LIFE IN ISLAMIST NORTHERN MALI: The Islamists better enjoy this while it lasts, because it’s not going to:

A checkpoint set up by the Islamist police on the road to Gao marks the beginning of the region controlled by the new rulers of northern Mali. Adolescents wielding Kalashnikovs stand at the barrier with their legs apart. The oldest one keeps repeating the same instructions through a megaphone: “No cigarettes, no CDs, no radios, no cameras, no jewelry,” an endless loop of prohibitions, a list of everything that’s haram, or impure, with which this journey to the north begins. The men stand guard in the name of the Prophet Muhammad.

With arrogant gestures, they stop the few long-distance buses still coming from southern Mali. One of the men, holding his weapon at the ready, inspects the busses by walking down the aisle and checking to make sure everyone is in compliance with the Islamists’ rules: Are women and men sitting in separate areas? Are the women wearing the hijab? And are the men wearing trousers that reach to their ankles, the kind of trousers that radical Muslims believe the Prophet favored? They are now obligatory in Gao.

The driver and the passengers submit to the procedure in silence. When it’s over, the inspector jumps out of the back door, still wielding his Kalashnikov, and calls out “Salam alaikum,” the greeting commonly used in the Muslim world. The bus has now been cleared to pass through the checkpoint.