Day: February 19, 2014

Somalis want to govern Minneapolis, but is this how to gain the confidence of the electorate?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Political “consultant” in the Twin Cities and in Somalia, Ilhan Omar, was hospitalized after caucus brawl shut down by police.
http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/profiles/ilhanomar

Allegations of threats, bullying, and paid agitators in the wake of Minneapolis Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party caucus earlier this month (see our original post on the blow-out here).

I warned you this was Somali day at RRW (see here, here, and here)!

From the MinnPost (hat tip: Michael). Emphasis below is mine:

The DFL caucus that ended in a brawl and sent a woman to the hospital earlier this month is at the center of allegations that threats and bullying were used to disrupt the political process and that some people were paid to attend the caucus.

Further, Minneapolis City Council Member Abdi Warsame’s involvement in a contentious state House race that prompted the caucus fight has swept up City Hall and fractured the East African political community.

MinnPost has learned that the day before the Cedar-Riverside caucus, Warsame told another council member, Andrew Johnson, that he should warn his aide to stay away from the caucus or there could be trouble for her.

Warsame is supporting longtime incumbent DFL Rep. Phyllis Kahn; Johnson’s aide, Somali activist Ilhan Omar, is widely believed to be supporting the challenger, fellow Somali Mohamud Noor, though she says she’s neutral in the race.

Omar did attend the caucus, and ended up in the hospital with a concussion.

Two caucuses were marred by violence!

The simmering divisions were on open display at two DFL precinct caucus meetings in Somali neighborhoods of Minneapolis. Both caucuses erupted in chaos and violence.

One caucus, in the Seward neighborhood, was able to finish its work. But the other caucus, in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, abruptly ended after Omar, Johnson’s aide who was allegedly warned not to attend, was injured during a fight and Minneapolis police shut down the scene.

No truer words could have been said!

“That’s not a good reason you should be beaten up … just [for] supporting somebody,” Abdi Mohamed, a Noor supporter who worked at the event, later said during an interview. “That’s un-American. That’s not why we came here. If we wanted violence, we could have stayed in Somalia. There’s plenty of violence every day.”

Officials in the city of Minneapolis human resources department are investigating possible workplace misconduct over actions that occurred in City Hall during the runup to the caucus. A city spokesman confirmed there is an open complaint against Warsame, but couldn’t provide additional details including whether the complaint and investigation are related.

The article goes on and on and on, read it all here.

For new readers:  This 2011 post—Why so many Somalis in Minneapolis—is almost every day one of our top most-read posts.  Thank the US State Department and its contractors—Lutheran Social Services, Catholic Charities and World Relief MN—and the generous welfare supplied by Minnesota taxpayers!

St. Cloud, MN: Somali population grows rapidly since 2009, Lutherans help make it happen

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update February 20th:  Just thought you might be interested in a comment this post received on Facebook, edit of F-word is mine:

Liban Abdullahi Well done, more muslims must go to united states we will invade back as you invaded our muslim countries, killing innocent and torturing guantanamo bay and you are sayind democratic.. F*** Off Democracy.. F*** Off United Nation..

A Somali blogger from St. Cloud says in his giddy report, here, that the population has expanded rapidly in last 5 years and is changing the face of St. Cloud.  Emphasis below is mine:

In 2010, St. Cloud students protest “systemic racism!” Professor and community organizer Luke Tripp said, the same “conservative white” mind-set led to the election of U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Stillwater.
http://wardheernews.com/News_10/Jan/23_Somali_students_protest_against_systemic_racism.html

The number of Somalia living in St. Cloud, MN, is growing. There is no official number of how many Somalis are living in the city now, but the unofficial estimate could be as high as 25,000 Somalis living in St. Cloud and the surrounding cities, like Waite Park, St. Joseph, Sartell and Sauk Rapids.

First Somalis moved to St Cloud in 2000, but about 50 percent of Somalis moved to the city in the recent years, from 2009 to 2013.  [Lutheran Family Services opened its satellite resettlement office there!—ed]

In the streets of St. Cloud, Somalis are visible and can be easily seen, especially Somali women with their colorful traditional clothing.

[….]

Many Somalis work in assembly line jobs [meatpacking—ed], but a great number of Somalis got educated and they work in white collar jobs. Others opened their own businesses: medical transportation companies, homecare companies and daycare centers.  [Home health and medical transport are companies rife with healthcare fraud as we have reported on many occasions—ed]

About 15 percent of the local school district are Somali, and a huge segment of Somalis are in the pipeline of the education process: in high schools, in colleges and in universities.

The biggest challenge facing Somalis in St. Cloud is housing, especially for families whose size is more than eight: there are families who consist of about 10 or 12 family members, there is no housing structures in the city designed for this kind of family sizes.

We have a huge archive, going back to at least 2008, on St. Cloud Somalis, here.

In 2010, Lutheran Social Services began resettling Somalis in St. Cloud directly from camps in Africa, here.

And, then I found this (below) at Friends of Refugees from 2010 (the St. Cloud Times link has disappeared, but blogger Chris Coen quoted the story):

Lutheran Social Services:  Let’s put the Muslims together in St. Cloud!

Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota has worked with refugees in St. Cloud since 2002, when it opened a refugee employment office. [I’ve told you these supposedly religious groups are headhunters for big business in need of cheap immigrant laborers!—ed] This year, the agency ratcheted up its efforts by establishing a refugee resettlement office in St. Cloud.

The office has contracted to resettle 100 refugees — mostly Somalis and a few Iraqis — in the St. Cloud area this year and in each of the next two years.

Jennifer Jimenez-Wheatley heads the new office, helping refugees find places to live, work, shop and worship. She helps them learn to speak and write English. She coordinates the resettlement process with local school, government and nonprofit agencies.

Iraqis too!  One big happy Muslim melting pot!

Somalis have established a presence in St. Cloud, but the handful of Iraqis she’s helping settle here won’t be joining such a large community from their home country. Jimenez-Wheatley says St. Cloud’s refugee advisory committee — composed of city, school district and nonprofit officials — decided resettling Iraqis here made sense in part because they share the Muslim faith with the Somali community.

For fun, be sure to check out how rich the leaders of Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota become while bringing the joys of diversity to your cities and towns!

Hey, Wyoming, isn’t it the Lutherans who want to bring change to Casper and Gillette?

More on that mysterious fire in Minneapolis Somali neighborhood

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

If yesterday was Hmong day at RRW, it looks like today is shaping up to be Somali day!

Authorities destroyed evidence immediately following the blast and fire.

Bloggers and researchers at Gates of Vienna have produced further documentation that the government has not fully investigated the New Years Day explosion and fire in a Somali apartment building that took several lives.  For new readers, our previous posts are here.

Below is blogger Baron Bodissey introducing the latest portion of their investigation which leads to a connection between the building and the Somali terror group al-Shabaab.

The day after last month’s explosion and fire at 514 Cedar Avenue South in Minneapolis, an FBI agent named Greg Boosalis reassured Minnesotans that there was no evidence of terrorist activity in connection with the devastating explosion.

I wondered at the time — and still wonder — how the FBI could be so certain less than forty-eight hours after the blast that no terrorism was involved. The immediate neighborhood of the demolished building is a known hotbed of terrorist activity, and is especially notorious for the recruitment of mujahideen and funds for the jihad being waged by al-Shabaab in Somalia.

As it turns out, the FBI was absolutely derelict in ruling out a terrorist connection with 514 Cedar Avenue South. Our Minnesota correspondent Henrietta has examined property and business license records for the city of Minneapolis, and found a clear trail leading from the Dar al-Hijrah Mosque to the destroyed building, and from there to a pair of convicted money-launderers for al-Shabaab.

Go to GOV for the paper trail which demonstrates the kind of work that investigative reporters used to do, but now is being done by diligent citizens!

Also for new readers, this 2011 post—Why so many Somalis in Minneapolis—is almost every day one of our top most-read posts.  Thank the US State Department and its contractors—Lutheran Social Services, Catholic Charities and World Relief MN—and the generous welfare supplied by Minnesota taxpayers!

Now they have moved on to bringing the same to St. Cloud—next!

Saudi Arabia deported 12,000 Somalis since the first of the year, says Human Rights Watch!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Farhia, deported from Saudi Arabia last month, says she was a domestic worker there for ten years.

I gotta hand it to ‘Human Rights Watch’ which seems to be the only private or public sector organization with the nerve to call-out Saudi Arabia.

The UN (where S.A. sits on the Human Rights Council) has been silent while it has been busy blasting Israel for its supposed mistreatment (“warehousing”) of Africans.   Israel is not deporting thousands weekly and detention in Israel is in a new cushy facility where the would-be asylum seekers can leave for a portion of the day.

Saudi Arabia is clearing out its ethnic diversity!  I guess they aren’t buying that multiculturalism is beautiful PR, or that they need to be charitable to their Muslim coreligionists.

Saudi Arabia for Saudis!

From Human Rights Watch:

(Nairobi) – Saudi authorities have deported more than 12,000 people to Somalia since January 1, 2014, including hundreds of women and children, without allowing any to make refugee claims. Saudi Arabia should end the summary deportations, which risk violating its international obligations not to return anyone to a place where their life or freedom is threatened or where they face other serious harm.

Seven Somalis recently deported from Saudi Arabia told Human Rights Watch researchers in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, that the Saudi authorities had detained them for weeks in appalling conditions and some said Saudi security personnel beat them. None had been allowed to speak with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to discuss possible refugee claims before being deported. UNHCR said in mid-January that “south central Somalia is a very dangerous place.” UNHCR also said the Saudi authorities have denied its staff access to detained Somalis in the country.

They don’t want those undocumented foreign workers!  Are there jobs Saudis won’t do?  Maybe not!

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says the Somali Interior Ministry expects Saudi Arabia to deport another 30,000 in the coming weeks. The deportations are part of a Saudi campaign to remove undocumented foreign workers.

We will be anxiously waiting for the Obama Administration and the UN to blast those racist unwelcoming Saudis!

Saudi Arabia has not ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention and does not have an asylum system.

[….]

Major donors to UNHCR, including the European Union and the United States, should press Saudi Arabia to end its deportations of Somalis.

Meanwhile, another boat load of Somalis was rescued at sea this week and taken to Italy where you know all hell would break loose and the UN would blast those Mediterranean countries if they dared deport even one of the Somali illegal aliens.