Tag: St. Cloud

Study: Not a huge number of Somalis in St. Cloud

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Then why did they need a large mosque/school complex, and who was paying for it?

We wrote a post here in February where we quoted a blogger who estimated the Somali population in St. Cloud at 25,000!

Somali ‘patriots’ in St. Cloud, Minnesota!

Now some economists at St. Cloud State University say that number is way off—that the population is much much smaller.

So, if the economists are correct, it begs the question—-why do the Somalis need the expensive mosque complex that roiled the city in controversy here last fall, for so few people who surely couldn’t have the millions of dollars needed to build such a massive project?

From WJON.com:

ST. CLOUD – Two economists at St. Cloud State University released a study on immigration in St. Cloud on Friday, with a focus on immigrants from Eastern Africa.

The School of Public Affairs Research Institute released the “St. Cloud Immigration Fact Sheet”. The report was written by King Banaian, the director of the institute and economics professor, and Monica Garcia-Perez, assistant professor of economics and member of the Faculty Research Group on Immigration in Minnesota. The study reviews U.S. Census data and records from human service officials in Stearns County.

The report shows that 4,484 foreign-born individuals live in the City of St. Cloud, 6.8 percent of its estimated population.

Ethiopia was the birthplace of 195 of those in the city, compared to 469 from Kenya and 888 from “other Eastern Africa” which includes Somalia.

Now this next paragraph indicates there is a rapid increase in refugee numbers in the county as a whole  coinciding with the opening of Lutheran Social Services office there:

Separate information from Stearns County as a whole showed that 2,532 individuals receiving some human services spoke an east African language. That’s an increase from 1,243 people from 2010.

Banaian says there are many claims made in St. Cloud about the size of the East Africa immigrant population, but that most of the numbers in this study indicated otherwise.

“We read several stories in the press that had officials and citizens saying there were more than 10,000 Somali immigrants in the St. Cloud area,” Banaian says, “The data does’t support that claim and we felt it important to call attention to what the official data said.”

You can read the entire report by clicking here.

Dr. Luke Tripp a community organizer/agitator a’la Saul Alinsky/Obama!

Dr. Luke Tripp race baiter and Somali community agitator!

While researching this post I came across an opinion piece by Dr. Luke Tripp also from St. Cloud State.

I wrote about Tripp here in 2010 when it was clear he was politically organizing the Somalis and wanted to be sure to run Rep. Michele Bachmann out of office.

In his (October 2013) screed supporting the Somali Islamic Center he says opposition to the Mosque complex (it was to have residential housing and stores in addition to a school and mosque) was all about “white Christian hegemony.”

Opposition to the project demonstrated ‘deep-seated American racism!’ blah! blah! blah! said Tripp:

The city officials should enthusiastically support the proposal for the Islamic Center of St. Cloud. It will empower the Somali community to provide its members with social, economic, and psychological assets to support their integration into the city. By providing youth services and supporting families seeking guidance for solving problems, the center would serve as an agent to spawn solutions to pressing social needs.

It can also help dismantle racism in the city. The reality of the growing Somali population and the accompanying racial tensions will eventually compel some accommodation. However, without progressive political leadership, racial tensions will continue to fester, thus undermining the vision of a vibrant multicultural city. Will the city officials work to change the image of the city from “White Cloud” to “Rainbow Community?”

The White Council member’s opposition to the Islamic Center was strong and rigid. They and some White residents contended that the project would cause parking problems, traffic congestion, and lower property values. They were also critical of the size and location of the proposed Islamic Center of St. Cloud; the project is too large for the site.

Their argument was used to obscure, confuse and mislead the public. And it worked to a great extent because the predicted impact of the project on the area seemed reasonable. Thus their concerns seemed legitimate and unbiased. But their underlying opposition to the project reflects the deep-seated racism endemic to U.S. society.

See our complete archive on St. Cloud by clicking here.  We have been following the city’s troubles ever since some Somali ‘kids’ tormented a fellow student’s service dog here in 2008.

St. Cloud, MN: Somali population grows rapidly since 2009, Lutherans help make it happen

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update February 20th:  Just thought you might be interested in a comment this post received on Facebook, edit of F-word is mine:

Liban Abdullahi Well done, more muslims must go to united states we will invade back as you invaded our muslim countries, killing innocent and torturing guantanamo bay and you are sayind democratic.. F*** Off Democracy.. F*** Off United Nation..

A Somali blogger from St. Cloud says in his giddy report, here, that the population has expanded rapidly in last 5 years and is changing the face of St. Cloud.  Emphasis below is mine:

In 2010, St. Cloud students protest “systemic racism!” Professor and community organizer Luke Tripp said, the same “conservative white” mind-set led to the election of U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Stillwater.
http://wardheernews.com/News_10/Jan/23_Somali_students_protest_against_systemic_racism.html

The number of Somalia living in St. Cloud, MN, is growing. There is no official number of how many Somalis are living in the city now, but the unofficial estimate could be as high as 25,000 Somalis living in St. Cloud and the surrounding cities, like Waite Park, St. Joseph, Sartell and Sauk Rapids.

First Somalis moved to St Cloud in 2000, but about 50 percent of Somalis moved to the city in the recent years, from 2009 to 2013.  [Lutheran Family Services opened its satellite resettlement office there!—ed]

In the streets of St. Cloud, Somalis are visible and can be easily seen, especially Somali women with their colorful traditional clothing.

[….]

Many Somalis work in assembly line jobs [meatpacking—ed], but a great number of Somalis got educated and they work in white collar jobs. Others opened their own businesses: medical transportation companies, homecare companies and daycare centers.  [Home health and medical transport are companies rife with healthcare fraud as we have reported on many occasions—ed]

About 15 percent of the local school district are Somali, and a huge segment of Somalis are in the pipeline of the education process: in high schools, in colleges and in universities.

The biggest challenge facing Somalis in St. Cloud is housing, especially for families whose size is more than eight: there are families who consist of about 10 or 12 family members, there is no housing structures in the city designed for this kind of family sizes.

We have a huge archive, going back to at least 2008, on St. Cloud Somalis, here.

In 2010, Lutheran Social Services began resettling Somalis in St. Cloud directly from camps in Africa, here.

And, then I found this (below) at Friends of Refugees from 2010 (the St. Cloud Times link has disappeared, but blogger Chris Coen quoted the story):

Lutheran Social Services:  Let’s put the Muslims together in St. Cloud!

Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota has worked with refugees in St. Cloud since 2002, when it opened a refugee employment office. [I’ve told you these supposedly religious groups are headhunters for big business in need of cheap immigrant laborers!—ed] This year, the agency ratcheted up its efforts by establishing a refugee resettlement office in St. Cloud.

The office has contracted to resettle 100 refugees — mostly Somalis and a few Iraqis — in the St. Cloud area this year and in each of the next two years.

Jennifer Jimenez-Wheatley heads the new office, helping refugees find places to live, work, shop and worship. She helps them learn to speak and write English. She coordinates the resettlement process with local school, government and nonprofit agencies.

Iraqis too!  One big happy Muslim melting pot!

Somalis have established a presence in St. Cloud, but the handful of Iraqis she’s helping settle here won’t be joining such a large community from their home country. Jimenez-Wheatley says St. Cloud’s refugee advisory committee — composed of city, school district and nonprofit officials — decided resettling Iraqis here made sense in part because they share the Muslim faith with the Somali community.

For fun, be sure to check out how rich the leaders of Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota become while bringing the joys of diversity to your cities and towns!

Hey, Wyoming, isn’t it the Lutherans who want to bring change to Casper and Gillette?

St. Cloud meeting: Opportunity for all to ask questions

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a simple notice in the St. Cloud Times that alerts citizens that there is an opportunity to ask questions and learn more about how St. Cloud now ‘finds itself’ as a primary resettlement site for refugees.

Community Organizer Mohamoud Mohamed of SASSO helped make St. Cloud a primary resettlement site for Somalis. He was also involved in the Gold n’ Plump lawsuit.

When we first began writing RRW, St. Cloud was a city that secondary migrants (initially resettled somewhere else in the US) went to looking for meatpacker employment, but along the way the contractors and the US State Department began resettling refugees in St. Cloud directly from the third world.  See this 2010 post.

I know it’s difficult because when you ask questions (even polite questions!) the Lutherans and others will say you sound racist, but if you live in the area and can get there, it is important for citizens with concerns to not stay silent.   Make them answer questions that you have researched in advance so that you know basically what the answer is.  It is the best way to expose the veracity of their answers.***

From the St. Cloud Times:

Lutheran Social Service will discuss issues affecting the refugee community in St. Cloud in the first of a quarterly event.

The consultation is a chance for the agency to provide updates and to receive feedback regarding the refugee resettlement process.

Refugees, churches, local government, community agencies, schools, employers, landlords and anyone else who would like to attend are invited.

The event will take place from 1:30-3 p.m. Dec. 11 at the St. Cloud Public Library in downtown St. Cloud.

*** Now, if you plan to attend the meeting, go to our extensive archive on St. Cloud and read from our earliest post in May of 2008.  It is a wonderful history of how community organizers are reshaping St. Cloud (and Minnesota generally).

Learn about Mohamoud Mohamed at RRW and search for his activities on the net.  The photo is from this story.

Check out the news last week that Somalis want their own radio station in St. Cloud to broadcast to their people, here, in Somali!  Will Minnesota be the first Muslim state in America, some are making that prediction.

And, be sure to read about the money bags running Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota on the taxpayer dime!

St. Cloud, MN: Battle resumes today in zoning dispute over Somali mosque

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update October 8th:  Contentious hearing ends with Somali Islamic Center withdrawing its plan, here.

Update:  I have just heard from the editor of the St. Cloud Times who asked me to remove their copyrighted story.  I am therefore honoring his request.

St. Cloud is a city on the Mississippi River in central Minnesota with a population of about 66,000.  Although no one seems to have the definitive answer (a published number that I could find!), I’m told the Somali population has grown to over 10,000.  Now the Somalis want a mosque, a school and an entire Islamic complex in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

St. Cloud City Hall where citizens can speak up this evening about the Somali mosque and school planned for a residential community.

Organized opposition (see below for their website) has grown and tonight the City Council could vote (after hearing from residents) to support their Planning Commission’s recommendation for the Mosque and School portion of the proposed plan.

This is the news we have removed from the St. Cloud Times  (please follow the link to the story).

Were they planning a city within a city for THEIR people?

One of the first questions I have is where is all the money coming from for this ambitious project?  Saudi Arabia? The city’s Somali population has grown rapidly in only a few years and is largely made up of ‘poor’ “refugees,”  right?  Primary employment for Somalis in the area is in meatpacking.  They can’t possibly be getting rich doing that!

How did the population grow?

And, if you are wondering how so many Somalis got there—thank the US State Department and their contractors, specifically Lutheran Social Service!  St. Cloud had originally been a secondary migration site, but in 2010 the US State Department made it a primary resettlement city, meaning Somalis were being settled there directly from Africa rather than having migrated to St. Cloud from another US city.  See our December 2010 post on the change.

Note the involvement of SASSO (an ECBO like the one in Seattle we told you about yesterday) in St. Cloud.

We have an extensive archive on St. Cloud, click here.  Be sure to take a few minutes to visit this 2010 post about how the Somalis have joined forces with the hard Left to destabilize the community with one of several aims—-to get rid of Rep. Michele Bachmann whose district includes St. Cloud.  She has recently announced her retirement from Congress.

If you want to do something, visit the website for the group (St. Cloud Citizens for Responsible Zoning) opposing the zoning change, here. 

Note they have a petition you can sign.

But, if you really want to do something more permanent—someone needs to thoroughly research how St. Cloud is being changed by Muslim migrants and write a book about it and get as much media attention as possible for its release.  

A friend asked me in an e-mail this morning about how one reaches Members of Congress on what is happening and how they are funding community organizing by Muslim groups, and I told her that they aren’t going to listen until the issue gets to the national stage.  A book would help get it there.  And, hey, the book could include several other small cities being transformed—Lewiston, ME comes to mind!  Update!  how about Ft. Morgan, CO too!

One more thing!  Read this post from 2008 about the stages of the Quiet Jihad in Minnesota.

Just because there aren’t planes flying into buildings doesn’t mean it isn’t jihad.