Category: Greeley/Swift/Somali controversy

Further thoughts on the Saudi strategy(!) I wrote about this morning

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update September 25th:  See Judy’s excellent post today on more of the Saudi strategy at work in the US here.

 

Go back to this post, if you didn’t read it this morning.  I’m kind of slow sometimes and it just dawned on me hours after writing that post, with my first cup of coffee, what that Saudi author was saying.  I wondered why she so readily chastised the Somalis.  How could I be so obtuse. 

I just wrote a post a couple of days ago about how the Somalis of Greeley, CO and Grand Island, NE had overplayed their hand.   The quiet Jihad is just that, it’s supposed to be quiet and with the beligerant and angry (ham-handed!) way the Somalis made their religious demands and ticked off every other group (Hispanics, American Blacks, Vietnamese and even Sudanese) among the workers they undercut the Saudi- funded plan to quietly bring Sharia to America.

This woman was distancing herself and Saudi Arabia from those strident, out of control, Somalis:

But some Muslims take their beliefs to the extreme.

By making them look like whackos, the Saudis (and other Arab intelligentsia), by contrast, are reasonable and moderate.   Now, don’t get me wrong, I think the Somalis had handlers and that their demands were part of the plan, but the plan went awry and now this Saudi author is making lemonade from the Somali lemons.

On a tiny scale, what the Somalis have done in Grand Island and Greeley is wake up a segment of America, one that Saudi Arabia preferred to see snoozing.    It’s kind of like 9/11, you can bet those Saudi-funded-sharia-promoting infiltrators into American society went ballistic when Osama bin Laden overplayed his hand killing thousands of Americans.

African American Publication says Blacks joined protest against Muslims in Grand Island

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

There is just a brief mention in a publication called AFRO (thanks to Blulitespecial for sending it along) that says Black Americans joined Hispanic, White and Vietnamese workers at the Swift meatpacking plant to protest special treatment demanded by Somali Muslims in Grand Island, NE over the last week.  Check out the story here.

We have told you before that American Blacks have been having problems with Somalis in various cities in the US.

And for about the millionth time, I want to emphasize that these conflicts are cultural and have nothing to do with the color of anyone’s skin!  The Somalis expect and demand special treatment and that just won’t fly in America—or at least in the part of America where people are still brave enough to fight back.

The Somali/Swift controversy as seen by a Saudi writer

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A further note:  Author Jawher refers to a religious battle going on in the midwest, here is a discussion of the escalating battle from an ex-Muslim.

This supercilious article in the Saudi Gazette* made me laugh.  Imagine someone in Saudi Arabia lecturing us about religious freedom.    This is the country where your Bible is confiscated upon landing, or if you are a Jew you can’t even set foot there.   (Hat tip: Blulitespecial)

Author, Sabria S. Jawher, begins with this to set the tone:

A religious battle – nothing to do with terrorism or the invasion of American troops in a Muslim country – is going on in the heartland of the United States. Central Nebraska to be specific. The land of corn, pickup trucks and evangelical Christians.

Then she (I am assuming it’s a ‘she’) discusses past problems with Somalis (small cultural eruptions) and implies the Swift/Somali issue will eventually blow over as these other incidentts have,  but ends with another whack at us:

These immigrants have been at the center of controversy before. Somali taxi drivers have refused to take passengers possessing or being under the influence of alcohol or have a dog with them. With the exception of rather loud opinions of American conservative extremists, these small cultural and religious eruptions settled down quietly.

We are all just a bunch of yahoo nutjobs who are imagining things:

The problem in the United States is two-fold: Islam has become so politicized that many people can no longer view the duties of a Muslim as a religious issue, but one of Muslims attempting to change the landscape of a Christian nation through force. Many conservatives have gone so far as to label the wants and needs of Muslims as some sort of silent jihad.

She then appears to sound reasonable but when you consider the complete lack of any religious freedom in the Kingdom, you can only shake your head, laugh, and ask who is she kidding!   This is the good cop/bad cop strategy to attempt to show us that they, enlightened Saudis, are reasonable and modern, unlike us conservative, pick-up truck driving, evangelical Christians.

The other problem is the refusal of some Muslim immigrants to assimilate into Western society. We in Saudi Arabia ask our expatriate workers to respect our customs, traditions and religion while they are guests here. The same could be said for Muslims choosing to live in the United States. That doesn’t mean they are not entitled to praying five times a day. Of course they have that right. And every employer who respects freedom of religion should find a compromise to accommodate Muslims during work hours. But some Muslims take their beliefs to the extreme. What works in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan or Somalia doesn’t necessarily work in the West, and special considerations must be addressed. If you choose to be a taxi driver, then you have to take passengers under the influence of alcohol safely home.

You might have the urge to slap her silly, but just laugh!

* The Saudi Gazette says of itself:

The Saudi Gazette is one of the largest, and most read newspapers in Saudi Arabia. For more than 30 years, The Gazette has been committed to delivering readers the news and information they rely on in a format they enjoy. 

For all of our coverage of the Somali/Swift controversy go here.

Violence increases in Grand Island between Somali and Sudanese refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update:  Here is another story about the violence in the apartment complex housing African immigrants in Grand Island.

The apartments may look quiet during the day, but residents say come dark, they’re a dangerous place to be.

 

Now, before you read this post, please go back and first read about what is happening in Greece (here) where these two longtime African enemies are slaughtering each other with machetes on the streets of Athens.    And, just think about what we have imported.

Apparently the mostly Christian (according to news accounts) Sudanese are in an apartment complex just across a parking lot from the building housing the Muslim Somalis and violence has been on the rise ever since the tensions escalated at the Swift & Co plant in that town.  From the Grand Island Independent:

Two group attacks were reported in the past week in two neighboring east Grand Island apartment complexes in what appears to be a case of retaliatory violence.

In the first, a Somali man reported being beaten Thursday morning by a group of Sudanese men outside his apartment on Yund Street.

In the second, a Sudanese man reported being beaten Sunday morning by a group of Somali men on the stairs leading up to his apartment on Sutherland Street.

The two assaults were part of more than two dozen calls to those two apartment complexes over the past several days, said Capt. Robert Falldorf of the Grand Island Police Department.

“It’s pretty much been an every-night deal,” Falldorf said.

Falldorf said he doesn’t believe the incidents were related to the ongoing dispute over time for prayer at the JBS Swift & Co. plant in Grand Island.

Kind of coincidental then isn’t it, that the violence is on the rise in the time since the Sudanese refused to go along with the Somalis in their demand for special religious accommodations at Swift.

A report from the local TV station says violence is on the rise since the protests at Swift.

Grand Island police say altercations have increased between Somalians and Sudanese at a G.I. apartment complex since protests began at JBS Swift.

[……] 

Authorities say before the protests, fights between the two groups were much less frequent.

I wish I could find one of those do-gooder speeches at this moment—you know the speeches where we are lectured about how diversity enriches our lives and our communities, and anyone who doesn’t know that is a racist xenophobic hatemonger.    The do-gooders must think that America has some magical power—one step on American soil and a meatpacking job is like a magic wand that will erase centuries of African hatred.

This story thanks to our chief research associate, Blulitespecial, who must be up from his siesta.

Are we hearing veiled threats from Somali community organizers?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We told you yesterday that fired Somali workers in Grand Island, NE were meeting to discuss their options.  It seems they have decided to seek a compromise with Swift management, but they still want to pray.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. – Local Muslim leaders will seek a compromise with officials at a Grand Island meatpacking plant in hopes of resolving a prayer dispute.

More than two dozen representatives from the local Somali community and a Muslim group from Omaha met Sunday to discuss the protests and firings that stemmed from an ongoing confrontation at the JBS Swift & Co. plant.

“The company is asking people to be loyal to God or their employer,” said Mohamed Rage, who leads the Omaha Somali-American Community Organization. “That is not a position (the workers) should be put in.”

I don’t know where the link is now (maybe Blulitespecial knows), but one news account I read said that readers comments to several newspapers were coming in at about 100 to one saying generally that if their religion was more important then their job, they needed to find another job.   So, Rage’s argument doesn’t seem like it will get much traction.

However, Rage and fellow big city organizers are now making a threat or two.   First, they are saying that if they don’t get satisfaction they will bring in the EEOC (CAIRS handmaiden in Washington).  This isn’t a veiled threat, it’s real and they have done it before.

The Muslim group that gathered Sunday decided that their first course of action is to negotiate with company officials to ensure workers’ constitutional rights aren’t violated. If that doesn’t work, they’ll seek help from the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission and its federal counterpart.

But, in case the general public and their co-workers didn’t get how big a deal this is to Somali Muslim fundamentalists and to hammer home the point about how multicultural opposition to them could get ugly, here is what one Omaha Somali community organizer said (veiled threat?):

Khadar Ducaale of the Omaha Somali-American Community Organization said Sunday that tension has been building between the Muslim employees and their co-workers.

“This is a place where people are holding knives, and they can kill each other. They can finish each other, and at the end of the day it would be up to the plant to pay for whatever happened,” he said.

Wait, I thought these were peace-loving folks who just want to work?

New readers, I know this may be getting hard to follow, but check our archives here and see all of our posts on this topic spanning over two weeks now.  They are arranged in chronological order from the newest to the oldest.

The Somalis (in large numbers) got to the US through the State Department’s Refugee Resettlement Program.