Manchester, NH has been struggling with a huge overload of refugees for some time now. Today I see it isn’t just tension between New Hampshire residents and the newcomers, it’s one Somali group in conflict with another. Seems one group is claiming that the other is teaching Islam with your tax dollars.
From the Union Leader:
MANCHESTER – A federally funded weekend education program for Somali refugee children has been put on hold after allegations it was teaching Muslim doctrine.
Police Chief David Mara, Mayor Ted Gatsas and Superintendant of Schools Tom Brennan recently received a letter saying the Somali Bantu Community Association is teaching from the Quran during its weekend youth program.
Mukhtar Idhow, director of the group, said the program is not a religious school, but is a tutoring program for Somali children. The program is run through Southern New Hampshire Services and is housed at the city’s Multicultural Center on Maple Street.
The goal, Idhow said, is to raise graduation rates in the Somali community. The program will not meet this weekend and will be on hold until after the group speaks with city officials and decides whether to continue, he said.
Idhow and other local officials say the letter is part of an ongoing feud between the leaders of the Somali Bantu organization and the Somali Development Center, another nonprofit group that provides aid to local Somali refugees.
“There’s been a lot of rumors about bad blood between the different factions, said Dan Calegari of Southern New Hampshire Services. “I work with these people daily. There’s never even been any hint of religious activity. … It really comes down to animosity between different segments of the Somali population.”
Mara said he also heard the letter was part of a feud and is working with the groups to address the rift within the Somali community.
Read the rest of the story and don’t skip the comments!
For new readers:
The US State Department has admitted over 80,000 Somali refugees to the US (this linked post continues to be one of the most widely read posts we have ever written) in the last 25 years and then last year had to suspend family reunification because widespread immigration fraud was revealed through DNA testing. That specific program has not yet been reopened (that we know of), but will be soon.
Nevertheless, thousands of Somali Muslims continue to be resettled as I write this. We recently learned that we will be taking 6000 Somalis this year from one camp in Uganda and as many as 11,000-13,000 total from around the world.
Update: Another blogger takes on this Manchester Somali story here and a commenter (Jake Jacobsen) had this hilarious thing to say:
Somehow the modern Liberal world has become a Monty Python episode. I’m imagining two cross dressing old ladies sitting on a park bench debating the merits of diversity as Bantu and Somali immigrants fight to the death and burn the town down behind them!
I need to put the blog View from the Right in our blogroll.
Another update: Check out the comments to this post and note I discuss one of Thomas’s comments in a Comment worth noting, here.