Day: July 21, 2008

Brian Mosely, Shelbyville reporter, receives award for Somali series

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Congratulations to Brian Mosely who took a lot of heat this past December for his hardhitting investigative report on the Somali refugee inlux to this small Tennessee city.   

NASHVILLE — Times-Gazette staff writer Brian Mosely received the state’s top award for investigative reporting by The Associated Press Saturday night, highlighting a total of 18 awards won by the paper in the state’s two major press competitions held this weekend.

Mosely was honored with the Malcolm Law Memorial Award for Investigative Reporting for his five-part series published in December of last year chronicling the influx of Somali refugees to Bedford County.

The Law award for investigative reporting was established by the Tennessee Associated Press Managing Editors in 1973 to honor Malcolm Law, associate editor of The Jackson Sun, who died in December 1972. The award is recognized as one of the most prestigious awards given for journalistic accomplishment in Tennessee. 

Read the rest of the article here.

We followed this story at Refugee Resettlement Watch as it unfolded.   By just discussing the issue of the conflict between citizens of small towns and cities and the refugees from very foreign cultures, especially a culture that resists assimilation,  Mosely was accused of being a racist.       Mosely and his editor at the Times-Gazette must be feeling some sense of having been vindicated by receiving such an important journalistic prize.

Italy tackles the Muslim polygamy problem—will we be next?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Thanks to some very brave Muslim women, Italy is now beginning to face up to the problem of polygamy among Muslim immigrants.    Everytime I see an article like this one in the Los Angeles Times which has this lead-in: 

A boom in the illegal marriages is a byproduct of voluminous immigration by Muslims. Authorities largely ignore the unions, leaving the women in a murky world with no recourse when things go wrong.

I am reminded that we are seeing the advance warnings for us— the United States.  Already there are stories of such abuses of women among refugee communities here.  See our previous posts on polygamy.

Also, I’ll bet some of those so-called family members, sisters(?), that have been found to not be related to the applicant through DNA testing are actually extra wives (or would-be wives) the refugee wants to bring to the US through the family reunification program.