Here is a lengthy article from NPR plus a link to a fascinating interview with the uncle of one of the Minneapolis Somali refugee young men—you know, the ones who have reportedly gone to become jihadists in Somalia.
I highly recommend listening to the interview with its discussion about who on earth could be “brainwashing the children?” Who indeed? It must have been some dastardly plot by the Jews, right? Wrong! It was the local mosque (although the Imam is now denying it), the place where the “children” congregated because there aren’t enough “resources for the youths” in this obviously closed Somali community.
At one point in the interview the reporter asks, ‘is there any common denominator,’ involving those who disappeared? Did they not transition well? In fact there are some common denominators. They lived in a closed Somali community. All were raised by single moms and all attended the mosque regularly (we know this from many other previous reports).
Hassan’s single-parent existence is mirrored by the other young men who have disappeared. All of them were reared by single mothers, and all of them were particularly devout Muslims. They all prayed and signed up for youth programs at two local mosques — one near The Towers and another across the river in St. Paul. The local mosque was Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center, the biggest mosque in Minneapolis and just a stone’s throw from The Towers. The Dawah Institute in St. Paul was the other.
Dawah is in a converted cinder block storefront in a deserted strip mall. There are rows of plywood shelves to store shoes at the front door. Masking tape marks off lanes on the carpet, so those who come here for prayers can line up in regimental rows. On a recent evening, Imam Hassan Mohamud is helping a small group of young men and women memorize the Koran. According to the missing boys’ parents, their sons spent a lot of time here. Many spent the night.
The imam said that the young men might have come for the occasional prayer, but he didn’t know them personally.
“We are not missing any single student who is connected to the mosque and the Dawah Islamic center,” he says. “And that has to be very clear.”
An identity crisis, of course that is it!
Nearly all of the young men who have disappeared lived in The Towers. Take an elevator up to any floor, and the doors open to reveal hallways that look 1970s public housing chic — all fluorescent lights and linoleum tile. The floors gleam, as if they have just been waxed. Women gossip at one end of the hallway. Their sons skip down the corridors.
This is where Burhan Hassan grew up. It was easy to imagine him running up and down the hallways of this complex, fully aware that he could knock on just about any door and expect to be greeted by a fellow Somali. Omar Jamal, who runs a local legal aid society for the community, says the children who came here have had to straddle two worlds.
“Most of those kids are going through an identity crisis,” says Jamal. “They don’t know who to belong to: ‘Who are they? Who am I? I am not American, I am not Somali.’ I see them as victims.”
Victims of fatherlessness, victims of ‘not enough resources,’ victims of not transitioning well, victims, always victims. Omar Jamal (mentioned in all these posts), who should have been deported years ago after his conviction for immigration fraud, has figured out very well how to play the victim card. What about victims of this ‘diversity is beautiful’ garbage promoted by resettlement agencies? What about victims of radical Islamic teachings by local MOSQUE leaders and other ADULTS?
Now, go back and read Judy’s post of earlier today, ‘Not everybody “is just like us.”‘