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| Africa Horn |
| Somali-American teens disappearing to Somalia as jihadis? |
| 2008-12-12 |
| MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota--Last month, 17-year-old Burhan Hassan told his family he was catching a ride to school with a friend. He then vanished.His mother spoke to her son just a few days ago over the phone. To her shock, she says, he told her he was no longer in the United States. "Mom, I'm in Somalia! Don't worry about me; I'm OK," the mother quoted her son as saying. Details of how he got there and what has transpired in his life since his November disappearance are sketchy. His mother, who agreed to be identified only as Amina, says her son has clearly changed. "He was different," she said of his attitude on the phone. Hassan is one of more than a dozen young men of Somali descent -- many U.S. citizens -- to have disappeared from Minneapolis over the past six months, according to federal law enforcement authorities. Authorities say young men have also disappeared in Boston, Massachusetts; Portland, Maine; and Columbus, Ohio. "A number of young Somali men have traveled from throughout the United States to include Minneapolis to Somalia, potentially to fight," said FBI Special Agent E.K. Wilson. The fear among the Somali community in Minneapolis is that their young men are being preyed upon and recruited to fight jihad, or holy war, in Somalia. Some have even called to tell their parents not to look for them. "Those I talked to were completely shocked and dismayed as to what happened. They were completely in disbelief," said Omar Jamal of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, based in St. Paul, Minnesota. The shock is magnified by what happened to one of them: Authorities say a 27-year-old named Shirwa Ahmed blew himself up in an apparent suicide bombing in northern Somalia in October. Other local Somalis have voiced concern that, because a large number of the men missing attended the same Islamic center after school, it could have played a role. Amina does not believe the center itself played a role but thinks there are certain people associated with it who may be involved. On Monday, representatives of the mosque, Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center, held a news conference to address the issue. The mosque's attorney, Mahir Sherif, strongly denied any allegations that it is connected to the men's disappearance, saying the center "has not and will not recruit for any political cause." "I haven't talked to any of them [since the stories came out]. I haven't seen any of them fighting," Sherif said. "I mean, I would be speculating. I'm hearing what everybody else hears." Sherif continued, "It must be the Boy Scouts. I know those boys were all considering scouting, and you know how violent the Scouts are. They may be off earning their jihad merit badges. By the way, didya know we're the Religion of Peace™?" |
| Posted by:Dar |