One strike and you’re out: Facing the criminal justice system

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Somali immigrants came to the US as refugees and asylees over the past 10 years. Children that arrived here in 1990s know Minnesota as their home. But if they get convicted of a crime – even a minor theft, they could lose their immigration status and get deportation ordered for Somalia. Whether they get orders for deportation or not depends on the legal help they get from public defenders and immigration law clinics. Some immigrants lose their way navigating the maze of immigration law and criminal law. Continue Reading

Deciding the future of the Somali community

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In the span of a year six young Somali men died from gun shot wounds in gang-related violence. Less than a year later, another controversy spun the Somali community: federal authorities and media reports link one of the largest Somali mosques in Minnesota to the alleged disappearance of young Somali men. The community continues to react in shock and disbelief as their most sacred leaders and house of worship are denigrated. The Somali community realizes that some of the problems that they are grappling with go beyond perception of the larger Minnesotan community, and media reports. Enter the Beat, an organization started by a group of young Somalis who are interested in addressing head on the critical issues impacting their community. Continue Reading

“Preaching peace” at Somali mosque

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The February 25 open house at the Somali Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center was intended to invite the surrounding community in, but it also gave members of the mosque and greater Somali community an opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns about the way their place of worship and the Somali diaspora are seen by the local media and greater community. “It seems the media only focuses on the negative perspective of the Somali community,” Aqiya Mohamed, a University of Minnesota and mosque member said. “They tend to focus on more of the dramatic or more of the interesting news.”
Mohamed said that instead of focusing on only the “newsworthy” stories, the media should show the greater community all aspects of the Somali Diaspora. The Abubakar mosque has been under increased scrutiny in the past few months, after the news broke that several Somali men from Minneapolis who returned to Somalia to fight in the country’s civil war attended the mosque. Abdirahman Ahmed, the Imam of the mosque, said the open house was an attempt at transparency and to show the mosque had a place in the greater community. Continue Reading

The Somali community and the Twin Cities mainstream media: Towards a more perfect union?

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Frustrations and suggestions were exchanged at a panel discussion on the portrayal of the Somali community by the media. The accusations in the media that the Abubakar mosque was connected to the missing Somali men, seemed to be the cause of the community’s resentment towards and mistrust of the media. MinneAfrica is a blog partner of the TC Daily Planet. Nelima Kerré is a blogger on MinneAfrica, and also a freelance contributor to the TC Daily Planet. This article is republished from the MinneAfrica blog. Continue Reading

Somali, Muslim leaders denounce accusations against religious center

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Leaders of the Somali and Muslim communities came out in a united front February 10 to address what they called “the inaccurate and unfair portrayal of our mosques and Imams.” Mid last year, about 20 Somali men were reported to have gone back home to fight a holy war. The Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center was rumored to be connected to their disappearance. “It is unfortunate that some individuals in the Somali community unfairly accused the Abubakar Center to have links to the disappearance of the Somali young men,” said Adbirashid Abdi, one the board of directors for the center. “We strongly deny these unsubstantiated allegations. Abubakar Center didn’t recruit, finance or otherwise facilitate in any way shape of form the travel of those youth.” Continue Reading

Are jihadist groups luring Minnesota Somalis back to fight?

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Burhaan Hassan was a fairly typical kid, the kind who asked his mother for $20 when he wanted to go see a movie on weekends. But on Election Day, while much of the world — including his single mother — was consumed by the historic election, he and a handful of Somali-American teenagers quietly boarded a plane to Kenya, en route to the front lines of a Jihad in Somalia. Hassan, 17, wasn’t working and couldn’t afford the expensive airfare, said his uncle, Hussein Samatar, an immigrant from Somalia who now runs the African Development Group of Minnesota. “We believe someone — some group — has paid for his ticket,” he said. Law enforcement agencies and community leaders fear that up to a dozen local boys have been conscripted by a radical group to fight a Jihad in Somalia, a lawless country in the Horn of Africa. Continue Reading

Reaching out to African immigrants in rural Minnesota

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Over 20,000 Africans live in rural Minnesota. Many of them are refugees who are grappling with adjusting to a new society culturally and socially. The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy reached out to these new Minnesotans in its first annual Summit for Africa in St. Cloud.The last weekend of October, 2008, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) held what’s hoped to become an annual conference, the first of its kind in Minnesota and possibly the entire country. Founded in 1986 by an international board of directors who shared a common vision for farmers the world over IATP works to ensure fair and sustainable food, farm, and trade systems both in policy as well as practice. Continue Reading

VOICES | A Somali Perspective: Brian Coyle Center Controversy

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As America celebrates President-Elect Barack Obama’s historic win, the Somali community in Minnesota is forced to deal with negative press brought about by one of their own. On Election Day, November 4th, stories about Somali volunteers allegedly influencing voters at the polling stations began to appear in the press. Shortly after polls opened at Brian Coyle Center, a precinct inhabited mostly by Somalis, GOP challengers alleged that some voters were instructed to vote for Al Franken by translators. However, two news stories, one by Mshale, and another by the Minnesota Independent reported that witnesses claimed that a translator at the center was instructing people to vote for Coleman. Following these reports, Omar Jamal, a self-described community leader, accused the Somali Action Alliance, a non-partisan grassroots organization, and its volunteers, for pointing voters towards Al Franken. Continue Reading

Somali voters at Brian Coyle Center: Claims, clans, controversies

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A mixture of first-time voters, translators, competing community leaders, political issues in Somalia, and clan-based allegiances in the Minnesota Somali community boiled over at the Brian Coyle Center on Election Day.The controversy began November 5, when Omar Jamal held a press conference in which he asserted that translators were telling Somali elderly men and women to vote for Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken. Jamal, a self-proclaimed leader of the Somali community, is executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul. On Election Day, translators had told me that Mohamud Wardere, a staffer in Republican Senator Norm Coleman’s office, was influencing voters. On November 5, KSTP reported “[Jamal] said that at the polling place set up inside the Brian Coyle Community Center in south Minneapolis, Coleman and Franken workers tried to illegally influence a ‘few dozen’ Somali voters.” Continue Reading