Tag: Somali immigrants

Somalis lead the world in practice of female genital mutilation

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Cutting tools on display in a room in Lunsar, Sierra Leone [Grace Harmon/Plan International]
Isn’t diversity beautiful!  

Here is news of a new report on this disgusting, degrading, barbaric practice that you know they are not leaving behind when they migrate to the West.

From All Africa.  The UN does something useful here:

Mogadishu — Approximately 6.5 million Somali girls and women have undergone female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) — otherwise known as female circumcision — according to a new report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Although support for the practice is waning, the report indicates that 98% of Somali women between 15 and 49 have been cut or mutilated — the highest per capita percentage in the world.

In addition, the report states that female circumcision is higher among Somalis even in countries where the practice is less common.

Read it all.

We reported back in March that the practice was increasing in the US, here.

Photo:  The photo is from another report on FGM in June, here.  Looks like there is less and less interest in defending the procedure in a nod to ‘cultural relativism’ that seemed to be a trend gaining favor a few years ago.  And, from a practical standpoint, why should Westerners be expected to pay for the mental and physical health problems stemming from FGM when Somalis are resettled in the US.

Africans moving to Britain in large numbers, mosques are an attraction

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

…but not directly from Africa.

They are already citizens of other European countries and are moving to Britain for greater upward mobility they say.  Some others say it’s because there are more mosques in the UK.

Here is the story from The Guardian (via Islam vs. Europe a week ago):

A clear majority of British people think current immigration levels are too high, according to many polls. A major fear is that too many newcomers will stretch Britain’s already shrinking welfare state. According to some reports, Downing Street is considering negative advertising, to persuade Bulgarians and Romanians to stay away. It doesn’t help quell these fears when new migrants from poorer parts of the world, such as Somalia, show high rates of unemployment.

But what if we were told that thousands of people from Africa we’ve seen arriving here are not, in fact, fleeing poverty at all? Or that, legally speaking, they’re not even Africans, but rather nationals of such generous welfare utopias as Sweden, Denmark and Holland?

For BBC Radio 4, I’ve been searching for some idea of what the modern “British Dream” could be, through a series of frank interviews with some of the almost 3 million new arrivals to England and Wales since 2001 (the first of three programmes is broadcast at 8pm starting tonight). Time and again, our team uncovered Africans who were not any longer from Africa. They were EU citizens and actually giving up welfare rights in places like Scandinavia to come to the UK.

Indeed, we met so many Nigerians from Germany, or Somalis from Denmark, that we asked Oxford University’s Migration Observatory to crunch the numbers on how many EU migrants are not originally from Europe. They found that 141,000 people, 7% of those who came to the UK under EU rules were born outside the continent. Somalis are one of the biggest such groups, with an estimated 20,000 coming to the UK from the Netherlands alone. Studies show that between one third and a half of the entire Dutch Somali community has moved to the UK.  [I’m wondering if the political climate in the Netherlands has become less “welcoming.”—ed]

[….]

“I think the UK is more open than other European countries,” says Jibril, who is now a London bus driver. He and many other Somalis told me they admired the success of non-white people in Britain – which was conspicuously absent, they felt, on the continent. Jibril mentions the Asian community who came to the UK from Uganda. “They are landlords, they are businessmen, lawyers,” he enthuses. “It’s amazing.”

How should we feel about this admiration of Britain from non-white people across Europe? Some may find it uncomfortable that Jibril and other Somalis I met were partly attracted by the larger number of mosques in Britain.

Hint to America:  Build the mosques and they will come!

There is more and lots of links at The Guardian, here.

Trial begins in Portland for Somali “Christmas tree” bomber

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

More than two years after his arrest for attempting to bomb a square in Portland where thousands were gathering for the annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony, Mohamed Osman Mohamud’s trial opened last week.

Here is my report on the 2010 arrest.

The latest news on the former refugee’s trial that began Friday is here (Reuters at the Baltimore Sun of all places).   The defense will probably argue that the vulnerable “youth” was entrapped.

PORTLAND, Ore., Jan 11 (Reuters) – A jury was empanelled on
Friday to hear the trial of a Somali-born man charged with
trying to blow up a crowd of people at a Christmas tree-lighting
ceremony in Oregon two years ago with a fake bomb supplied by
undercover agents posing as militant Islamists.

Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was 19
when he was arrested, faces life in prison on a single charge of
attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction in a plot to blow
up the 2010 festivities at a public plaza in downtown Portland.

An FBI affidavit filed in the case said Mohamud was taken
into custody after he attempted to use a cell phone to trigger
what he believed was a car bomb but was actually a fake device
supplied by agents posing as operatives for Islamic extremists.

[…..]

Mohamud has pleaded not guilty and defense attorneys are
expected to mount an entrapment defense, arguing that the former
Oregon State University student would never had committed such
an act without the FBI’s grooming and urging.

You can bet CAIR is watching the case!   Crocodile tears for “genuine plots” that go undetected.

The Muslim community has been watching the case closely.

“We’re concerned about genuine plots to harm Americans and
we hope each and every one of them is foiled,” said Ibrahim
Hooper, national communications director for the Council on
American-Islamic Relations.

“But we are also concerned that they are focusing so many
resources on people who would never have committed a crime, that
they are diverting resources to foil actual lone wolf plots,” he
added.

You might also want to see the New York Times story on the trial and the suggestion that the liberal climate in Portland would produce a jury that might very well fall for the entrapment argument.

For new readers we have resettled more than 100,000 Somali refugees to cities large and small in the US over the last 25 years.  See one of the most widely read posts here at RRW.  In three years since 9/11 ( Bush years 2004, 2005, 2006) the number of Somalis arriving topped 10,000.  Those refugees then began bringing in the family (chain migration!) until 2008 when shock of shocks! the State Department discovered that as many as 30,000 Somalis had lied about their kinship and weren’t related at all.  The State Department then closed the “family reunification” program for Somalis.  It has recently been re-opened for new and legit family members, but they have no intention of finding and deporting the liars.

Creating global citizens! Minneapolis Public Schools to teach Somali language and culture

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

But can they speak English???

It’s too late.  We are lost!

From Insight News:

Minneapolis Public Schools may very well be the first school district in the nation to offer Somali language classes to high school students. At South High School, where MPS’ Somali classes are offered, nearly 60 students are registered in two class periods, one that focuses on Somali language and another on culture. “Somali language is an important element of one’s identity,” said Dahir Hassan, Somali language and heritage teacher at South. “If you don’t speak the language, it is hard to claim that identity.” [Uhhh!  Aren’t they Americans now?]

Heritage language and culture classes devote a portion of the school day to providing instruction in students’ home language and culture. The goals of the program are to maintain and expand students’ language resources and to strengthen immigrant students’ connection to their home culture and community. According to the Minnesota Historical Society, in 2010 there were an estimated 60,000 Somalis living in Minnesota, the largest Somali population of any state in the U.S. MPS has over 2,800 students who speak the language at home.

MPS leaders responded to parent requests to offer heritage language classes for Somali students. “When I met with Somali parents last year at community engagement events, they made it clear that heritage language instruction was a priority for them,” said Dr. Bernadeia Johnson, superintendent of schools. “The academic value is undeniable, so I was determined to see it become a reality for our students.”

Their culture and country is a wreck, isn’t that why they are living here?  Are they planning to teach them how their culture failed them and their people?

Students who learn heritage language and culture develop a broader world perspective, delving into cultural, historical and geographical knowledge of their home country and the world. “When I was my students’ age in Africa, I didn’t have any sense of value for my own culture,” said Hassan. “After going abroad I realized that in order to learn about other cultures, I had to first understand my own [what a bunch of PC mumbo-jumbo!—ed].  My hope for this class is that the students will learn the tools to not only be proud of where they came from, but to be successful global citizens.”

Sounds like Minnesota is right on target with The Hijra.