I told you about this on-going conflict between two Somali Bantu factions in Manchester NH, here in January, in a diversity is strength alert. They are still at it. Here is the update on the ongoing rift between Mohammed and Idhow. Mohammed claims Idhow’s “homework club” is really a madrassa. Idhow says Mohammed is getting too cozy with those Somalis down in Boston who are putting ideas into his head.
From WBUR:
Mohammed says if he were in Somalia he would take more wives. He complains that some Somali Bantus continue the practice here in secret [We have heard this on several previous occasions—ed]. But he’s interested in following the rules: anything to fit it and help his kids become American.
These two men — Mohammed and Idhow — have known each other for years. They’re both Somali Bantus and both spent 15 years in the same refugee camp in Kenya. So it’s a little surprising to hear that Mohammed thinks Idhow’s program for kids promotes hatred toward Americans.
“I’m telling the people in Manchester to investigate this,” Mohammed says through an interpreter. “But they are not investigating this. I think the FBI has to investigate this.”
Essentially, Mohammed is accusing Idhow of running a “madrassa.” In Arabic, the word “madrassa” simply means a Muslim religious school, but often in this country the term scares up images of a training ground for terrorists. So for someone like Mohammed Osman Mohammed to use it to describe a program on U.S. soil — and in public property — it gets a lot of attention.
It’s all those dang Boston Somalis fault!
They both accuse the other of undercutting their role as a community leader. Idhow is disturbed by Mohammed’s association with Somalis from a dominant clan living in Boston. He says the claim that he’s running a madrassa must have come from those Boston-based Somalis.
“That was the only allegation they thought would create a tension between the Americans and the Bantus,” Idhow says.
Idhow insists this is typical of the “tricks” he says Somalis play on each other. But he says he doesn’t blame Mohammed. “It hurts him, too,” he says. “It hurts every single Somali Bantu in Manchester.”
Those who work with the Somali Bantus in Manchester worry how this dispute, and accusations of extremism, will affect their standing here.
There is already tension in Manchester over a refugee overload, this continued Somali squabbling can’t possibly improve that situation one bit.