Reports are surfacing that the U.S. conducted raids over the weekend with the aim to take terrorists connected to al-Qaida into custody.
In the wake of the recent al-Shabaab attack on a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, officials sought a high-profile member of al-Shabab, a group linked to al-Qaida.
There are conflicting reports concerning whether American citizens were involved in the planning and execution of the Nairobi incident. Many believe some of the Americans who allegedly participated were recruited from Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota and its thriving Somali community.
This tragedy has reignited the world’s interest in a group still struggling to find its footing in a cultural landscape radically different from its origins. Over 8,000 miles separate the Twin Cities of Minnesota and the Horn of Africa. Yet, since the onset of Somalia’s bloody civil war in 1991, Minneapolis-St. Paul has become the unlikely home of the largest population of Somali refugees and immigrants in North America.
Somali-American youth: Facing tough challenges
Throughout the years Somalis have solidified themselves as a vibrant and indispensable part of Minnesotan society, but issues of poverty, profiling, gang violence and al-Shabaab recruitment still loom over the area, putting some Somali-American youth at risk.
“The first thing that happens is the culture shock,” says Mohamud Noor, executive director of the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota (CSCM). “But then it depends on you as an individual, if you are able to outgrow the culture shock, if you are able to adjust immediately, if you are able to integrate, if you are able to find a job.
“The first group that came here,” he adds, “that was the dream we were all trying to chase. To become successful in our lives.”
At 36, Noor has lived in Minnesota for more than 14 years. With the aid of local Catholic charities he was able to arrive in the area in 1999, immigration papers in hand, but little else to help him begin a new life. On Noor’s second day in America he came to the CSCM – sitting quietly in the same office he now runs – looking for advice on how he might obtain a driver’s license, a social security number, and a place to live. In the years that followed he graduated from college, started a family, and even ran for State Senate in 2011, finishing second in the primary with 26 percent of the votes.
Somali success stories, yet struggles continue
There have, indeed, been Somali success stories in Minnesota. Even in the last few months a Somali man named Abdi Warsame has emerged as a serious contender for a Minneapolis City Council seat. But Noor acknowledges that life for many of his neighbors continues to be mired by poverty and limited opportunity.
“We’ve been received very well. The main reason why Somalis come to Minnesota is because of the way we’ve been received by the community,” Noor further explains. “But at the same time, you’ve got individuals with a lack of skills, limited English, they haven’t had a good structure of education, and they end up staying in low poverty. That’s just the tradition in any immigrant community.”
It’s estimated that as many as 90,000 Somalis currently live in Minnesota, with roughly 35,000 inhabiting the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. For an outsider, a place like the Twin Cities – consistently one of the coldest major metropolitan areas in the U.S. during winter – might seem like an odd place for a booming Somali diaspora community. The idea of dozens of mosques and Somali restaurants sitting not far from the banks of the Mississippi River somehow doesn’t quite register with preconceived notions of Midwestern life. When war erupted in Somalia in the ’90s, however, Minnesotans were among the most aggressive in welcoming asylum-seekers to their state.
Minnesotans embrace Somali refugees
At first this emigration was a result of joint efforts between local church congregations, refugee resettlement agencies and the U.S. government, but over time Somalis have come to find their way to Minnesota on their own. The state has one of the highest “secondary resettlement” rates of anywhere in the country, meaning that if a Somali man or woman immigrates to a city like New York, it’s thought to only be a matter of time before he or she relocates to Minnesota. The impetus may be family reunification, or simply the desire to belong to a community that more closely resembles home.
“It’s by what I call the ‘cold hands, warm heart’ theory,” says Kim Dettmer, director of refugee services at Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota (LSSMN), one of the organizations most instrumental in bringing Somali refugees to the state. “Of course, there’s some tension in the community, but I think Minnesota is exceptional in terms of being a welcoming place for refugees. We’ve done it for a long time.”
The LSSMN has been helping refugees resettle in Minnesota since World War II. In addition to its Somali presence, the state is also home to one of America’s largest Hmong populations, an ethnic group native to China and Southeast Asia. Still, Dettmer says when the LSSMN decided to open up a new office in nearby St. Cloud, the organization received angry phone calls from citizens expressing their displeasure with the growing Somali community.
Some hostility towards immigrants persists
As accepting as Minnesota may be, there will always be those who exhibit hostility towards immigrants. Now, with the media attention surrounding al-Shabaab, and reports that some 12 to 20 young Somali men from Minnesota are among their ranks, the community is fearful of strained tensions and added profiling.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) has already started to see some of the backlash take shape. “Are there concerns about [Somalis] being profiled and being blamed by people who don’t really understand the dynamic? You know, the reality is, that does come up. It’s been preached lately, implying that the whole community is somehow to blame,” he says. “The bottom line is that al-Shabaab has a predatory relationship with the Somali community. The Somali community doesn’t apologize for these people and doesn’t accept them — they reject them.”
Al-Shabaab, which means “The Youth” in Arabic, is a Somalia-based Islamist terrorist cell. With confirmed ties to al-Qaeda, in recent years, the group has been successful in recruiting young Somali-American men fresh out of high school by preaching a dogma of national identity, ethnic responsibility, and religious extremism.
“There are some people who kind of look upon [al-Shabaab] with some admiration, because these guys are hardcore and they have military experience, and there’s a certain appeal in that,” says Evan Kohlmann, NBC News terror analyst and expert witness on several al-Shabaab cases, including that concerning the Minneapolis al-Shabaab cell. “They have a certain charisma. And I suppose it’s probably the same charisma that makes some Somali young men also join gangs — Somali gangs — in Minneapolis.”
Terrorists preying on Somali youth
Kohlmann and community leaders, however, believe al-Shabaab is simply preying on the vulnerability of alienated young men for their own political and military gains.
“You might not be able to guarantee that there will never be another recruitment effort, but you can certainly put a lot of pressure on it and reduce the likelihood,” says Rep. Ellison, who visited Somalia in February to meet with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud and the mayor of Mogadishu.
“The number one thing you can do is invest in youth. We shouldn’t have a bunch of Somali kids hanging out on the corner with nothing to do, and no jobs, and nowhere to go.”
American problem of male alienation
In this way, the issue of al-Shabaab recruitment is not necessarily just a Somali problem, or a Muslim problem, or even a Minnesotan problem. This is an American problem, experts say, a parallel to the mass shootings and gang violence that plague our society as expressions of alienated young men.
According to a report by the Associated Press, the FBI confirmed that “at least 22 young men have traveled to Somalia since 2007 to join al-Shabab.”
“It’s not that Somalis are a danger to America, it’s that al-Shabaab is a hateful, pernicious terrorist organization that tries to recruit on the basis of young people feeling alienated and distanced,” says Rep. Ellison. “We’ve got to have institutions that make young people feel connected.”
Follow Jackson Connor on Twitter @JacksonMConnor