Note: Before I launch into the latest from Omar, I need to mention that I am again way behind on the Missing Somali youth story. More has been happening and I’ll try to catch you up tomorrow.
O.K. I honestly don’t know what to make of this guy Omar Jamal, the head of the one man organization called the Somali Justice Advocacy Center . We have been reporting on Jamal for a long time now. I called him the ‘Somali Jesse Jackson’ last summer because when any Somali got in trouble for rape, or being involved with gangs, Jamal was always there. He even blamed Bush and ‘no child left behind’ for the “community’s” troubles and dashed over to Denver to assure the FBI and the news media that the Somali who died with enough cyanide in his hotel room to kill a hundred people was just a nut from Canada, not a terrorist. (Search RRW for Omar Jamal and you will see what I mean). Oh gee, how could I have forgotten, he even hurried over to Manhattan for the Somali pirate’s arrival in court there with plans to help protect his rights, but the judge didn’t let him in the courtroom.
Most troublesome is that he was convicted of immigration fraud and should have been deported a long time ago. So why is he here and why is he in the middle of everything?
Yesterday the Minneapolis Star Tribune published an opinion piece by Jamal where he speaks out (for the hundreths time!) for the families of the missing youths, painting those who joined the Jihad as victims of unscrupulous Imams and other radical “deranged” indoctrinators twisting the faith.
Here are some segments of his opinion piece, see if you can figure out what he is up to.
Last winter, as I sat and talked with panic-stricken mothers whose sons had gone missing, each told a painful story about a boy for whom their families had great hopes. Their stories reflect the pain in the Somali community, which has been torn apart by a sheer twist of faith.
I had to laugh, did he mean ‘twist of fate’ which is a common phrase, or was it intentional to say ‘twist of faith’ which defintely applies in this case, but is his English that good to come up with such a clever play on words?
He tells us everything was going along just hunky-dory with the Somalis in Minnesota, the largest population of Somalis in North America he says and spreading out across the state, until the radicals got their hooks into the youth:
But at the same time, unemployment and stalled integration also led to an isolation and hopelessness for many young Somali men in Minnesota. The American dream became discouragingly far-fetched, and a gang lifestyle now is on the rise. The feelings of isolation, hopelessness and desolation have made the Somali community susceptible to deranged imams who can sway the opinion of the less-educated masses in any given direction with a single edict.
The call to a theocratic form of governance by a small group of radicals occupied a commanding voice in a community weary of a long civil war and mayhem. In order to bring an end to this ongoing, well-planned indoctrination and recruitment effort, not only in North America but also in Europe, we have to defeat this radical voice in the community, a voice that is manipulative, conniving, and bent on agitation and political madness.
O.K. already, we got the message, now just tell us who the well-funded evil doers are!
Somalia is now on the verge of collapse in the hands of Al-Shabaab, a terrorist wing of Al-Qaida in Somalia. What is more concerning is that Somali youths all over the world are still subject to more misleading indoctrination by an associated group well-funded to drive an already impoverished Somali community into more misery and suffering.
We must find a way to voice our opposition to the invasion and control of Somalis by outside forces, be it Al-Qaida or any other entity, in a way that does not permit our young men to be manipulated into becoming pawns to be killed in Somalia or to face prosecution for “material support for terrorism,” even when they are victims themselves from imams with long-term political ambitions.
Read the whole piece and let me know if you have any insight on what he is doing, besides stirring the pot. I’m guessing he is probably right on the Imams, I don’t mean to diminish that likelihood, but all of this doesn’t seem to fit his past role in the “community.” So what is he really up to?