Last winter, as I sat and talked with panic-stricken mothers whose sons had gone missing, each told a painful story about a boy for whom their families had great hopes. Their stories reflect the pain in the Somali community, which has been torn apart by a sheer twist of faith.
My inability to console the parents by helping them understand what had happened to their sons was deeply frustrating. I had no clue what I could have said to the grieving mothers that might have helped them feel better.
Four of these young men are now confirmed dead in Somalia. One of them carried out a suicide bombing, while the other three were shot and killed “execution style” in Mogadishu, presumably by other Somalis.
The media feeding-frenzy began when the first naturalized U.S. citizen carried out a suicide bombing, while the status of a handful of others who are missing added to the mystery and to the questions on the minds of most of the Somali community.
Somalis in Minnesota were shocked by the disclosure of the missing men from Minneapolis. But a minority of them have come out to utterly deny that anyone was missing and have construed the stories as interclan Somali politics.
The Somali Justice Advocacy Center believed the mothers.
Most in Minnesota’s Somali community are law-abiding and vibrant contributing members. In 1993, Somalis began to trickle into the Twin Cities, so small in number that most Minnesotans did not take notice. But the Minnesota Somali community has grown tremendously, and now the state is home to the largest Somali community in any urban area in North America.
Within a short period of time, the Somali community has spread into the suburbs and small towns across the state. For those who had been through one of the most horrible civil wars in Africa, life here seemed promising and stable. Somalis worked in factories and meatpacking plants and opened businesses and coffee shops. A Somali even ran for mayor in Minneapolis.
But at the same time, unemployment and stalled integration also led to an isolation and hopelessness for many young Somali men in Minnesota. The American dream became discouragingly far-fetched, and a gang lifestyle now is on the rise. The feelings of isolation, hopelessness and desolation have made the Somali community susceptible to deranged imams who can sway the opinion of the less-educated masses in any given direction with a single edict.
The call to a theocratic form of governance by a small group of radicals occupied a commanding voice in a community weary of a long civil war and mayhem. In order to bring an end to this ongoing, well-planned indoctrination and recruitment effort, not only in North America but also in Europe, we have to defeat this radical voice in the community, a voice that is manipulative, conniving, and bent on agitation and political madness.
The U.S. nonengagement policy toward Somalia after “Black Hawk Down” shifted Al-Qaida’s focus to that region and allowed it to establish a foothold in Somalia. The apparent U.S. failure and recent Ethiopian intrusion into Somalia made it easy for the radical views to become popular in the community and to be used as a rallying tool to mobilize the populace around seemingly legitimate grievances against U.S. policy.
Somalia is now on the verge of collapse in the hands of Al-Shabaab, a terrorist wing of Al-Qaida in Somalia. What is more concerning is that Somali youths all over the world are still subject to more misleading indoctrination by an associated group well-funded to drive an already impoverished Somali community into more misery and suffering.
We must find a way to voice our opposition to the invasion and control of Somalis by outside forces, be it Al-Qaida or any other entity, in a way that does not permit our young men to be manipulated into becoming pawns to be killed in Somalia or to face prosecution for “material support for terrorism,” even when they are victims themselves from imams with long-term political ambitions.
Omar Jamal is executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, based in St. Paul.
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Source:Â Star Tribune
