Update August 25th: More on this from Jerry Gordon at New English Review’s The Iconoclast here.
The Tennessean, the BIG city newspaper out of Nashville, TN has a “culture clash” story today on Shelbyville. I guess it finally took the Tyson’s Labor Day fiasco to bring their attention to the unhappy goings on in Shelbyville since hundreds (thousands!) of Somalis have arrived there since 2002. (Reliable sources tell us that The Tennessean may not have done its homework, depending only on the Imam’s word for extremely high numbers of Somalis).
Tyson’s 1,000 unionized employees include about 250 Somalis by Tyson’s count. That is a fraction of the town’s total Somalian population. By Yousuf’s [local Imam] count, between 2,000 and 3,500 of Shelbyville’s residents — or roughly 20 percent — are Somalian.
The article puts a great deal of focus on how nice the Imam is and how much the Somalis love Shelbyville and how the locals think the Somalis don’t use toilet paper, but only a few lines on what jumped out at me— The FBI has been to town:
But there were suspicions, including those of the person who called the FBI.
About a year ago, residents reported seeing Somalis taking pictures of the town’s water treatment facility, bridges around Bedford County and the home of a state legislator. The FBI came to town for two days, asking questions but ultimately making no arrests, Sheriff Randall Boyce said.
“I guess by them being Muslim, maybe there was some concern,” Boyce said. “And with how ugly things got after the stuff about the holiday come out, I think there are just a lot of people around that aren’t too happy that they’re here. Folks just don’t trust them.”
The FBI does not generally confirm or deny that it has opened or closed an investigation or responded to a citizen report, said Stacy Bohanan, a Chattanooga-based FBI spokeswoman.
“I can say that we are aware of the Somalis in Shelbyville,” Bohanan said.
Why would Somalis need photos of facilities and bridges? Maybe just sending them home to Somalia for the relatives to see?
Also, the reporter is quick to say that a mosque has been burned in Tennessee, but not one word in this article about the Somali who committed a hate crime by going on a rampage near Shelbyville and attacking a woman in a Baptist church—after leaving the nice Imam Yousef’s mosque. Hmmm!
Because the article is written in a way to ridicule local folks (too many lines devoted to toilet paper), here is the sort of comment the Tennessean is receiving:
I’ve said it a million times before and I’ll say it again…
The issue of immigrants with you rednecks has nothing to do with them being legally in the country or not. (as you constantly preach “if they come here legally, I wouldn’t have a problem with them”) that’s complete BS as you are proving right now. It has to do with COLOR. You hate them because they’re not white, whether they are here legally or not.
Why don’t you white-trash, trailer park rednecks just admit it? Why don’t you retards admit that you hate anyone that isn’t white? That’s what this is… it’s racism, pure and simple.
I read some really, REALLY stupid comments from you idiots everyday on this forum. It’s pretty sad that you rednecks are soooo afraid of another culture. That’s what racism really is… you’re SCARED of others cultures.
LOL@you white trash, trailer park rednecks constantly talking like keyboard commandos when in actuality you’re not more than little chicken-shts….
Don’t you just love these guys, while calling others racists he (she?) sounds bigoted as hell. Guess he/she didn’t know that the Bedford County Mayor Eugene Ray is the first African American elected as a county mayor in Tennessee and he called for the Shelbyville Somalis to assimilate here. And, notably the Tennessean has NOT quoted him, I suspect because it is counter to their notion that this is all about race and rednecks.
Guess Mr. or Ms. commenter also doesn’t know that Somalis are clashing with black Americans in many cities in the US. This is not about the COLOR of anyone’s skin.