There must be people getting nervous in the Sioux Falls, SD area about the large number of Somalis resettled there mostly with the help of the Lutherans (again!) and the possibility that ISIS will infiltrate their youth, or else we wouldn’t be seeing a story like this one.
Something is fishy about the African Community Center of Sioux Falls.*** The AP story here mentions them at the end.
From the Daily Republic (emphasis is mine):
SIOUX FALLS (AP) — Nearly 2,000 Somalis live in Sioux Falls, yet members of the city’s large immigrant community say they aren’t nearly as concerned about potential recruiting for the so-called Islamic State group as those in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
That may be because the smaller numbers make it harder for those immigrants to be isolated, according to one expert. Much of the Somali population in Minneapolis never fully assimilates, partly because Somalis tend to congregate in closed communities, Justin Heinz, who co-authored a recent report exploring the ongoing terrorist recruitment and radicalization in the Twin Cities’ Somali community, told the Argus Leader. [I’m guessing the message hasn’t reached South Dakota that the Obama Administration has banished the word ‘assimilate.’—ed]
A lack of assimilation probably is less likely in Sioux Falls because there aren’t any charter schools solely for Somali students, isolated Somali neighborhoods or replica malls, Heinz said.
Many of the Somali children in Sioux Falls are younger than those in the Twin Cities, according to Said Yusuf, a local businessman who’s originally from Somalia. [So could we have a problem when the youngsters grow up?—ed]
“We’re a small community. Everyone knows each other. That is the difference here,” Yusuf’s wife, Sofia Mohamed, said.
“They were Muslim. They were interested in pushing back against Kenya and Ethiopia’s influence in their country. So there was this nationalistic pull,” he said. [This has been a standard talking point, but it is all wet—they go back and fight for Islam (radicalized in local American mosques) not for their homeland of Somalia against the Ethiopians. The fighting-for-their-country theory falls apart when you consider their attraction to ISIS.–ed]
At least a dozen Somali-Americans have left Minnesota for Syria, where al-Shabaab has shifted its focus after developing a relationship with ISIL, in the past 17 months, according to law enforcement officials.
“Once they stopped going to Somalia, parents and friends (in the Twin Cities) couldn’t understand the draw,” Hienz said. “Why go to Syria, where they have no ethnic or cultural ties? Why was there this shift in destination?” [Can you say jihad!—ed]
See more here.
*** The African Community Center of Sioux Falls says on its website that it is a non-profit ‘advocacy’ group and that there are 20,000 African immigrants in Sioux Falls! The organization is collecting money and applying for government grants yet they have apparently never filed a federal Form 990 tax return (or none is available for some unexplained reason).
Here they describe their “vision:”
African Community Center of Sioux Falls, INC provides advocacy, information, culturally specific support, and social services for the approximately 20,000 African immigrants currently living in Sioux Falls SD. Upon resettling in the US, Immigrants often suffer from poverty, lack of education, high unemployment, the inability to speak English, and difficulty integrating into American society. ACCS’s goal is to provide the support and guidance that immigrants need to overcome their barriers to stability & prosperity. [Suffering from poverty? High unemployment? I thought the resettlement contractors brag about how self-sufficient the refugees quickly become?—ed]
No Form 990? Are they even a legal non-profit, has anyone checked?
Looking for something to do? If you live in South Dakota, please investigate this group as well as the local resettlement contractor there which is Lutheran Social Services of South Dakota. What a surprise! We just wrote about them yesterday, here.
By the way, Barbara Day, the State Department person in charge of resettling refugees in your towns and cities came from LSS (revolving door?).