Tag: Ohio

Ohio University program geared to get the kids’ minds right on refugees…

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….presents “harrowing” tale about the “multinational nature of the refugee experience” as a Somali illegal alien arrives in America.

That story about the Somali arriving in the US illegally across our southern border is most interesting to me.

Ethnographer Tariq Tarey will tell harrowing story about illegal alien Somali sneaking into America. http://tariqtarey.com/about/

If you happen to live anywhere near Ohio University Lancaster, you might want to check out the program next week.

From Logan Daily:

LANCASTER – November is a month where many remember to be thankful for what they have. During International Education Week, Lancaster campus students, faculty and staff will have an opportunity to hear from refugees in Central Ohio who are very thankful to be living here.

The campuses at Ohio University have different themes during International Week to examine issues of cultural tolerance and understanding.

“The theme for Ohio University Lancaster’s International Education Week is Safe Haven: Refuge in Ohio,” said OUL development director Mandi Custer. “We will be looking at the different cultures that have come into Central Ohio from places like Rwanda and Somalia.”

On Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 7 p.m., a panel discussion will be held (“Voices of Refuge”) in the Raymond S. Wilkes Gallery for the Visual Arts. The panel will be made up of refugees from around the globe talking about how they came to the United States and Central Ohio.

[….]

On Wednesday, Nov. 19 at 6:30 p.m., conflict in another country will take center stage at OUL. Somali Refugee and Documentarian Tariq Tarey will speak in the Wagner Theatre.

Then isn’t this interesting, presented as if there is nothing wrong with Somalis (or anyone) arriving illegally across our southern border, Tariq Tarey will talk about an illegal alien Somali.

So where did the poor struggling Somali illegal alien get the money to travel half way across the world to Colombia, and up through Panama, Central America and across all of Mexico with no one stopping him along the way? Will anyone dare ask that question of presenter Tariq Tarey?

And, while you are asking, ask why the star of his documentary needed to come illegally when we have resettled over one hundred thousand Somalis over a couple of decades—there is a legal line for Somalis!

The Logan Daily continues:

According to the Somali Community Association of Ohio***, Somali refugees started arriving in the U.S. in 1991. Since 1995, Columbus, Ohio, has proven to be a popular destination for refugees, and today Ohio has the second largest Somali population in the U.S. It is estimated that there are at least 38,000 Somali immigrants and refugees living in the Columbus metropolitan area.

Tarey will talk about how and why refugees from Somalia end up in Central Ohio. He’ll also show clips from his documentaries, which focus on the stories of refugees.

“One of the stories is of a man who literally walked from South America to California to get into the states,” said Custer.

“Tarey’s documentary on the Darién Gap is harrowing, but also interesting,” said Ohio University Lancaster English Assistant Professor Matt Wanat. “It uses the journey of one man through a stretch of dense forest and swamp between Colombia and Panama to document both the multinational nature of the refugee experience and the hardships so many face. I look forward to Mr. Tarey’s talk.”

***The Somali Community Association of Ohio has one of the strangest Form 990’s I’ve ever looked at.

Note on page 9 of its most recent form, here.  Total revenue was $354,331 and $353,761 came from government grants.  They received $570 from non-cash contributions so they are 99% funded by taxpayers.

Then go to page 10 where they have listed:

$4,104 for compensation to officers, but no other salaries and yet they spent $2,206 for payroll taxes.

$27,254 was spent for occupancy and $6,000 for accounting (for this tiny outfit?).  But zero office expenses are listed.  See some of the other misc. expenses as well.

Most of their money, a whopping $298,289 went for a summer food program which I see they do have in Ohio for poor kids to eat over the summer.  I don’t have time to look for their government grant for this food program, but since they had no other income that year the food grant (was it halal food?) also covered a few of their other expenses…like the $27,254 occupancy expense…to the tune of over $55,000 for the year.  Hmmmm!  Audit needed here?

For more information, I typed “Somali Community Association of Ohio” into our search window and get all of these previous posts.  Typing in “Somalis Ohio” we get a whole lot more, here.

Columbus, Ohio mosques mushrooming thanks to refugee population growth

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Abubakar Asiddiq Islamic Center. When you look around for more photos, there were building plans for this mosque that included a gold dome and minarets, wonder where they are? Photo: Columbus Dispatch

Related (update): More mosque problems in Boston, here.

Yesterday we mentioned Columbus as it relates to Somali Islamists recruiting jihadists in Columbus, here.

Demographics! Demographics! Demographics!

And, today I see that Columbus saw another grand opening of a mosque on Saturday to accommodate the growing Muslim population there of mostly Somalis, Iraqis and other Arabs (secondary migrants) who the article in the Columbus Dispatch actually says are moving to Columbus because of the mosques.

Read the article about the mosques here .  And, then any of you Ohioans who want to dig down into the Refugee Resettlement program of the US State Department should visit Ohio Refugees Services in the Ohio Dept. of Job and Family Services.

Get to know the resettlement agencies (contractors) which include at least three of the big nine:  World Relief (Evangelicals), Catholic Charities (USCCB) and subcontractors for the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.  They are every year bringing more Muslim refugees to Columbus.

And, I was interested to see that Ohio has a published Refugee Resettlement Plan.

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of pulling the facts together wherever you live.

We have a lot on Ohio, click here to learn more.

Somali example of why federal ‘countering violent extremism’ theory is all wet (and dangerous)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

One of the country’s preeminent experts on the Islamist agenda in America, Patrick Poole, in a recent PJ Media post tells us why the federal “lone wolf” extremist concept is bogus and highlights a case he was personally familiar with involving Somali Dahir Gurey in Columbus, Ohio during the height of the Al-Shabaab recruitment of Somali refugees in America.

Poole: Feds are counting on the “good Islamists” to report on and counter the “bad Islamists.” Photo: http://theunitedwest.org/learning-center/security-briefing-overview/

For background see at least this post from 2008, here at RRW where you will see that the recruitment issue was covered fairly widely but never really broke into the national consciousness as has the recent ISIS recruitment in the US.

I think the final number of Somali refugees who joined Al-Shabaab, thumbing their noses at the good life in America you gave them, was in the 20s (or at least that is the number the feds actually found evidence of).

Here is Poole at PJ Media (hat tip: Richard at Blue Ridge Forum).  ‘Lone Wolf,’ or ‘Known Wolf’? The Ongoing Counter-Terrorism Failure:

CVE (countering violent extremism) has been a colossal disaster because it has no roots in reality. It was always intended as a convenient fiction for politicians, bureaucrats, media and academics to avoid talking about the problem of the ideology that supports Islamic terrorism.

There has never once been a recorded case of anyone on the planet swearing their allegiance to the ideology of “violent extremism” and their willingness to kill others and die in the cause of “violent extremism.” It is a null set. There is nothing to counter, which is the whole point. And yet there are academics and institutions who are the beneficiaries of mountains of taxpayer cash to pursue the elusive CVE unicorn.

[….]

One crackpot theory has been that there are good Islamists that we can use against the bad Islamists. This was the keystone of the Obama administration’s Arab Spring policies. And this theory put into practice in Egypt, Libya, Syria and other places has left the Middle East in even worse shape than Obama found it.

Poole’s personal report from Columbus, Ohio about Somali refugee Dahir Gurey:

I’ve seen this “known wolf” problem work first-hand.

When the problem of terror recruitment amongst the U.S. Somali community by al-Shabaab became an issue in 2008 and 2009, there were reports in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio, which has the second largest Somali population in the country, that al-Shabaab operative Dahir Gurey was fundraising and recruiting for the terrorist group in the area. He later showed up in Minneapolis.

When we told the FBI about it, the response was that our information couldn’t be accurate, because if it were true they would have heard about it from their local Muslim outreach partners.

Fast forward 18 months: Dahir Gurey was killed in a firefight in Mogadishu operating as a senior al-Shabaab commander. As I reported at the time, local FBI officials had publicly said that there was no known terrorist recruitment in the Columbus area just a week before Gurey’s death. He was featured last year in a recent al-Shabaab recruitment video targeting American recruits. But it’s doubtful our FBI office subsequently asked their Muslim outreach “partners” about it.

Read it all.

In 2009 we attended a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on the recruitment issue and were shocked at the naivety demonstrated by Senators Lieberman and Collins.

And for your information: We have admitted 9,000 Somalis to the US in FY2014 which ended on September 30th. 

That makes this year one of the ‘best’ years for Somalis since the Bush years of 2004, 2005 and 2006, here.

Update October 27th:  See also Columbus, Ohio mosques mushrooming, here.

Columbus, OH: Somalis complain about housing conditions; but there is more to this story!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

To set the stage, we have your basic story—‘legal aid’ lawyers whip up Somali tenants to complain about their landowner.  It begins as follows at The Columbus Dispatch:

Cockroaches and mice scurry across the carpeted floor where Luul Botan’s three young children play.

The bathroom and kitchen faucets leak a steady stream of water. Some of the kitchen cabinets are broken. The drawers stick. And the front door doesn’t close easily, leaving the 32-year-old mother fearful that someone might break into their North Side apartment at night.

Remember this story from 2012 where police had to break up crowds of Somalis fighting for subsidized housing in Columbus. http://www.barenakedislam.com/2012/12/10/columbus-ohio-muslim-crowd-of-2000-turns-violent-waiting-to-apply-for-subsidized-apartments/

“The conditions are horrible, and the management at Capital Park apartments doesn’t care how bad it gets,” she said last week through a Somali interpreter.

Botan said she fears that her children, who are 5 years, 1 year and 4 months old, are being sickened by the insects and mouse droppings. She said she asked the manager five times to replace a missing screen in the living-room window of her second-floor apartment in the complex on Agler Road.

“I’m so afraid my daughter will fall out when she runs over to watch children playing outside. It’s so dangerous,” she said.

During the past several weeks, dozens of Capital Park residents have called the city of Columbus about what they say is a worsening problem. With the help of Legal Aid attorneys and other volunteers, the mostly low-income Somali refugees have also begun sending letters to the management of the 314-unit complex owned by Volunteers of America, requesting repairs that many have already asked for.

“The tenants in this case are stepping up, asking the landlord merely to do what Ohio law requires: Keep the rental property fit, habitable and up to code,” said Benjamin D. Horne, a managing attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Columbus.

Most of the residents were resettled by the federal government from refugee camps in Kenya, he said. They have little knowledge of their rights. [Nor little knowledge of how to care for a home and appliances, according to this story—ed]

I would like to know which refugee resettlement contractor resettled them in this building.  And, what connection they have to Volunteers of America.

Who the heck is this Volunteers of America which owns the Capital Park building?  

Is this one more example of how the whole refugee business has turned into one more get-rich scheme by people tapping into the federal treasury?   I’ve been for a long time referring to refugee resettlement as an industry (driven by companies looking for cheap labor) and here is a whole new angle to the mess.

The Columbus Dispatch goes on to tell us this:

David Burch, a spokesman for the national office of the Volunteers of America in Alexandria, Va., said some complaints went directly to the city, which has sent 32 code-violation notices in the past three weeks.

[….]

Volunteers of America bought the complex in 2000 and did a $4.5 million renovation two years later, Burch said. Government sources, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, provided the funds for the renovation.

The 45-year-old complex is slated for another makeover in three years, he said, when it is eligible for more federal funding.

“Our primary goal is taking care of our people and making sure they have decent housing so they can build a successful life,” he said.

Now, check out a recent Form990 for Volunteers of America’s office in Alexandria, Virginia (just one branch of VOA):

It is a NON-PROFIT ‘holding company’ with $62 million in assets and although its employees are apparently paid nothing from the organization, its CEO makes nearly a half million dollars a year in salary and benefits! from related organizations (page 7) and there are seven other employees in the 6-figure range.  What related organizations?

These financial machinations are all way beyond my ability to understand, but it sure confirms for me that there are some big players with big money (much of it your tax dollars) helping to drive the importation of “refugees” into America, while hiding under the white hat of humanitarianism.

What is up with Ohio—it sure is being targeted as a “welcoming” state for refugees? Making sure Ohio is blue?  See our Ohio archive here and see especially this post where “Welcoming America” came to town in Cleveland over a year ago to be sure the community there is ready to welcome more immigrants.  Apparently, Columbus is vying with Minneapolis in building a Somali enclave.

Cleveland Health and Human Services to be challenged this next year with more refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It looks like Cleveland, Ohio will join the Triad of North Carolina and get some of the thousands of Syrian refugees the UN has chosen for America.

Is it because Welcoming America came to town (to soften them up!)?

From Cleveland.com (Hat tip: ‘pungentpeppers’):

City Councilman Joe Cimperman: “Why can’t Cleveland be that welcoming place.”

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Lead poisoning, women’s reproductive health issues and the hardships of immigrant refugees top the priorities of Cleveland City Council’s Health and Human Services Committee this legislative session.

In an interview Wednesday, city councilman Joe Cimperman said that the committee he chairs is “both perspirational and aspirational,” and while it must oversee the function of the city’s Health Department, it must also set the agenda to meet the needs of Cleveland’s changing social landscape.

This year, Cimperman said, that means anticipating a flood of refugees from Iraq, Syria and other war-torn countries, helping them settle in their new environment and connecting them with healthcare and social services.

“In the next 24 months, we are going to feel the effects of the conflicts in Syria and Iraq for sure,” Cimperman said. “I’m sad that they’re forced to flee their countries, but why can’t Cleveland be that welcoming place?”

Cimperman said the city will hold a Refugee Summit and luncheon on Oct. 30 in the City Hall Rotunda, where city leaders will explore ways to attract and accommodate an immigrant population.

Readers in the Cleveland area should plan to attend the “Refugee Summit.”

There are three preferred communities in Ohio—Cleveland, Columbus and Akron.  To see who is running the refugee program for the federal government in Cleveland go here.

See all of our posts on Syrian refugees by clicking here.