Posted on 09/30/2013 10:18:10 AM PDT by MN.Gruber06
With the horrendous terrorist attack at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Somali al Qaeda affiliate al Shabab is back in the news. We still don’t know the identity of the perpetrators, or whether any of them had made their way to al Shabab from Minnesota or points elsewhere in the United States. I trust that time will. For now we have the New York Times visit to Minneapolis to pass on the fears of Somali residents that they will be stigmatized and (good grief!) and scrutinized. And the Star Tribune is on the case to transmit the avowals of local Somali leaders that they are good Americans, or at least that they want no truck with al Shabab.
As I have noted here several times, Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the United States. We know amazingly little about the them, probably because we are afraid to ask the relevant questions. We know they are mostly Muslim — we can see the hijabs, we are familiar with the many local controversies to which their faith has given rise over the past 10 years — but are they loyal residents or citizens of the United States? In the conflict between the United States and the Islamist forces with which are contending, whose side are they on?
Neither the Times nor the Star Tribune digs even an inch below the surface to examine the relevant questions or render the appropriate findings. As only Peter Bergen recalls in the current context, it is a proven fact that al Shabab has received financial support in addition to manpower from Minnesota Somalis. Only two years ago a terror trial in Minneapolis concluded with a raft of guilty verdicts that raised serious questions of loyalty. The two defendants (pictured in the photo above) were women convicted of charges including conspiracy to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization, of providing support, and of lying to the FBI. The “terrorist organization” was al Shabab.
The ringleader was not exactly remorseful after the jury returned its guilty verdicts. According to the AP, she stood before the judge and stated through an interpreter: “I am very happy.” She added that she knew she was going to heaven. As I noted here at the time, she may be going to heaven, but she’ll be stopping off in prison first. As for the rest of us, she advised: “You will go to hell.” Well, the feeling was mutual.
The investigation that resulted in the charges involved here has consumed the local FBI office for the past six years. The investigation has previously resulted in a string of guilty pleas involving local Somali men supporting al Shabab. Investigators believe at least 21 Somali men have left Minnesota to join al Shabab. We’re a little concerned they might choose to return to Minnesota to continue the jihad.
So much for the two defendants and their buddies over in Somalia. What about the rest of the local Somali community? Members of the local Somali community materialized at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis to support the women at trial, but not because they held the charges to be unfounded. The members of the local Somali community appearing at the courthouse never bothered to cite any evidence of innocence. The question was beside the point. No voice expressly spoke up on behalf of law-abidingness or loyalty to the United States.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune provided a glimpse of the scene outside the courthouse after the verdicts in “Rochester women guilty of aiding Somali terror group,” including an excellent video. There isn’t much in the article or video to set minds at ease. Couldn’t the Star Tribune be bothered to revisit the defendants’ supporters to ask their views on al Shabab and the Nairobi mall massacre?
Two years ago, in the National Affairs essay “The Muslim-American muddle,” Peter Skerry expressly raised the question of loyalty in the context of America’s Muslim population in general. The essay is by turns infuriating and illuminating, but at least it licensed inquiry into the question.
Indeed, Skerry took the question seriously and provided evidence supporting the concerns of “alarmists,” noting the striking absence of any acknowledged tie to the United States on the part of important Muslim organizations. Skerry contrasted “complacent elites” with “alarmist populists.” I would place Skerry on the complacent side of the divide and myself on the alarmist side, although Skerry placed himself (of course) in the middle as the voice of reason mediating between the two camps. But Skerry concludes the essay on what I would characterize as an alarmist (i.e., realistic) note.
Along the way, Skerry seemed to me to treat several basic issues (including assimilation) in a conclusory and question-begging fashion. He cited the naturalization of Muslim immigrants and their involvement in American politics, supporting Democrats, as factors supporting (I will say) complacency. Yet the two defendants in the Minneapolis terror trial were both naturalized citizens. And CAIR has formed a fruitful alliance with Democrats going back to its days as a Hamas front group (Skerry suggests that those days are behind it). Skerry rightly observed: “It is astonishing, given th[e history of CAIR], that the mainstream American media should routinely describe CAIR as ‘a Muslim civil rights organization.’”
Skerry failed to raise the question whether the immigration spigot should remain open while we sort out the serious issues that he addressed in his essay. The question didn’t even seem to cross his mind. In any event, Skerry’s essay badly needs to be updated, but we will, not surprisingly, have to look for help from places other than the New York Times or the Star Tribune.
I skimmed the article, didn’t see mention of the two terrorists at the Narrobi mall that were from the Twin Cities. Odd.
There should be no question about it.
They are NOT here to assimilate into American culture. They are here to infiltrate it.
Their loyalty is to nothing but the desert moon-god Allah (piss be upon him). And they are commanded to kill you.
The local school district had to open a special school to teach "lifestyle" skills to recent immigrants from East Africa. There they are literally teaching 40-50 year old men how to count currency and use flush toilets.
of course they are not loyal to the USA. They are moslems. They are here only to kill steal and destroy. Truly they are sons of their father
None of them should be in this country.
Sorry, we were told they have skills we need and western European home schoolers do not.
How do thousands of Somalis turn up in a relatively small cold-weather city and support themselves? Who hires them?
Of course, that same question can be asked of all muslims who move into small towns like Jonesville, Louisianna.
Some reports from Kenya indicated that two Somali terrorists leading the mall attack were from Minnesota. Was this attack in Kenya a dress rehearsal for an attack on a US shopping mall? Note the world’s largest shopping mall, the Mall of America, just happens to be in Minnesota.
Islam fails Jefferson’s test of what a religion is from Federalist Papers:
“It neither breaks my back, nor picks my pocket what another man believes.”
Islam is an enemy government, and should be dealt with accordingly.
The Minneapolis airport is staffed with a huge number of Somalis.
What could possibly go wrong?
I imagine the liberals who run Minneapolis went out of their way to bring the Somalis in as a way to assuage their "white guilt." They do dumb-ass things like that. It's good they ruin their own cities that way, but it's bad they ruin any cities at all that way.
“How do thousands of Somalis turn up in a relatively small cold-weather city and support themselves? Who hires them?”
Chances are many if not most are on the government (read, your money)dole. Housing allowances, EBT, SNAP, stipends etc
“How do thousands of Somalis turn up in a relatively small cold-weather city and support themselves? Who hires them?”
Chances are many if not most are on the government (read, your money)dole. Housing allowances, EBT, SNAP, stipends etc
My sister lives in a small town about 20 miles south of St. Paul. They are invading the small towns in Minnesota. One of them was peeing on her neighbor’s lawn!
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