Back in October 2007, while he was living in Minnesota, he said he met “some guys,” as he put it, who were talking about going back to Somalia to fight the Ethiopian soldiers who invaded Somalia. From October to December, they met secretly in Minneapolis.

Ahmed said he knew he would be fighting with Al-Shabaab. That’s the hard-line Islamic group that is creating much of the violence we’re seeing in Somalia today. But back in 2007, the group had some popular support because the fighters were taking on the Ethiopian occupation, and some people saw their cause as nationalistic.

…

After the hearing, Ostgard told me Ahmed stayed in Somalia from December 2007 until April 2008, but Ahmed left the camp before the U.S. officially declared Al-Shabaab a terrorist group in March of 2008. Ostgard said the fact that Ahmed left Al-Shabaab before the designation helped Ostgard negotiate the deal with prosecutors. “He would have faced more serious charges” if Ahmed left after March 2008, Ostgard said.

This next story just makes me shake my head.  People are looking for insediousness everywhere.  To me, it just looks like they’re making a mountain out of a mole hill.   The right wing blogs I read are like oooo, let’s play 6 degrees of seperation, Ellison to TIZA to MAS to the Muslim Brotherhood, zmog, terrorism! 

Rep. Ellison’s trip under increasing scrutiny

Islamic nonprofit paid for Rep. Ellison’s pilgrimage to Mecca

Ellison fires back over Strib story on Mecca trip

For those not from around these parts, TIZA has been the target of much scrutiny over the years, which has crested now with lawsuits and countersuits.

Inver Grove Heights charter school sues Education Department

Charter school countersues over ACLU religion claims

I can mention one little tidbit – as I’ve mentioned before, I occasionally attend a masjid that was mentioned in connection with the missing men.  According to AbuS, the imam has now taken a strong stance supporting the current somali government and against the insurgents.

The indictment against 2 somali men, one currently of the twin cities, another a former resident, has been unsealed.

According to the indictment, federal investigators allege the men “provided material support and resources, namely personnel, including themselves, knowing and intending that the material support and resources were to be used in preparation for and to carry out a conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure persons in a foreign country” from September 2007 through December 2008.

Also, AbuS and I watched this video piece that was in the NYT article I linked toyesterday.  In it, one of the interviewees made a good point – al Shabab was/is something that transcends clan lines and united it’s participants towards the common goal of achieving some kind of peace.  As an outsider, I can’t even begin to understand the importance of clans and clan divisions in the somali community.  I know they exist, but I cannot wrap my head around the concept that the clan is more important than your fellow muslim brothers and sisters, and the peace and stability of your home.

It would seem to me that what needs to be done now is to find another organization that transcends the clan culture and that will work for peace, without using terrorism.  Does that exist?  Allahu Alem.

We made the New York Times yesterday – A Call to Jihad, Answered in America:

Most of the men are Somali refugees who left the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in two waves, starting in late 2007. While religious devotion may have predisposed them to sympathize with the Islamist cause in Somalia, it took a major geopolitical event — the Ethiopian invasion of their homeland in 2006 — to spur them to join what they saw as a legitimate resistance movement, said friends of the men.

For many of the men, the path to Somalia offered something personal as well — a sense of adventure, purpose and even renewal. In the first wave of Somalis who left were men whose uprooted lives resembled those of immigrants in Europe who have joined the jihad. They faced barriers of race and class, religion and language. Mr. Ahmed, the 26-year-old suicide bomber, struggled at community colleges before dropping out. His friend Zakaria Maruf, 30, fell in with a violent street gang and later stocked shelves at a Wal-Mart.

If failure had shadowed this first group of men, the young Minnesotans who followed them to Somalia were succeeding in America. Mr. Hassan, the engineering student, was a rising star in his college community. Another of the men was a pre-med student who had once set his sights on an internship at the Mayo Clinic. They did not leave the United States for a lack of opportunity, their friends said; if anything, they seemed driven by unfulfilled ambition.

Just to be a bit glib, what kind of minnesotans are these guys?  Starbucks?  Pshhh, if they were really minnesotans, it would be all about Caribou.  Imposters!

Even among the world’s jihadists, the young men from Minneapolis are something of an exception: in their instant messages and cellphone calls, they seem caught between inner-city America and the badlands of Africa, pining for Starbucks one day, extolling the virtues of camel’s milk and Islamic fundamentalism the next.

This however is a good question we should all be asking ourselves.  But, did they need to go to fight?  These boys had the potential to bring their education back to Somalia and rebuild a shattered society.  Instead, they’re helping to destroy it. 

“Allah will never change the situation of a people unless they change themselves,” Mr. Hassan, the engineering student, wrote in a Facebook message he posted on April 15. “Take a sec and think about your situation deeply. What change do you need to make?”

And from our local papers, we find 2 more Minnesota muslims have died in Somali recently -  Relative confirms death of fourth young man from Minnesota in Somalia.

‘Run Hadji Run’ fireworks at Wis. store not so patriotic after all

Nothing says patriotism like lighting off racially and religiously insensitive fireworks!  Proud to be an american bigot!

Ah well, at least they have some of the sessions from last year up on the web.   Still waiting for this years.

New Muslim Cool on P.O.V.

It’s on at 9 pm here, which is my bedtime (after maghrib), but I think I’ll make an exception and stay up late tonight

St. Paul, Minn. – People who know Abia Ali say she is a voice of conscience in her community.

At a rally last week against Minneapolis street violence, she held a bullhorn on the steps of City Hall, urging her fellow Somalis to help police solve a fatal shooting that took place in front of a popular community center.
Proud graduatesA sturdy woman wearing a blue hijab that drapes over her head and body, Ali used her faith to make the case for putting the killer behind bars.

“If you get away with this — in front of Allah, you will not get away,” Ali said to the crowd. “Come forward, and please tell what you saw right there.”

…

But lately, she has felt the spotlight of a federal investigation. The FBI is looking into whether the young men were recruited to fight with an Islamic militia that the U.S government considers a terrorist group. The disappearances have also triggered secret grand jury proceedings.

Ali has heard that FBI agents, working on what she says are false leads, have been asking about her in connection to the case. Agents have been showing Ali’s photograph while conducting interviews as part of their probe, according to some of the young people who attend Abubakar.

Ali said she’s even heard talk in her community that she was the one who sent the boys to fight in their homeland, a country where anarchy and violence are the rule. She denies the accusation.

“It’s very sad,” she said, pausing to dab away tears with the hem of her skirt. “It’s hurting me so much. I’ll be the last person on earth encouraging violence. I’m against violence.”

The truth, Ali said, is that she tried to prevent the boys’ trips to Somalia, even before the disappearances began to garner headlines.

 Click on the link above to read it all.  May Allah (swt) continue to protect this sister’s good work.

Other recent Minnesota Muslim news:

• Charges dropped in shooting of Augsburg student
• Young Somali men escape homeland, but not violence
• Somali students from Augsburg College refused visas by Egyptian government
• CAIR – Somalis take to the street to protest group’s actions vs. Demonstrators support area Muslim group
• Burnsville mosque fills gap for Islamic community - this is a branch of the masjid near our home.  In fact, I think Amin Kader is the imam who married us.

1st – the deeny books are totally awesome mashaAllah.  Agenda to Change our condition gives me motivation and direction to continue to improve my taqwa.  T he Difference of the Imams makes me want to become a muhaddith.  Love for Allah (swt) always gives me a boost in my relationship with the Beloved.  And Muslim Character makes me happy and sad.  It makes me happy because it clearly lays out what a beautiful character our beloved Prophet (saws) had.  And it makes me sad because I realize how far the muslim community falls short of the ideal.  If we muslims embodied the beautiful behavior of the Prophet (saws), people would be clamouring to embrace the deen.

Oh yeah, the Star Wars books.  In 1992, Timothy Zahn created the first in a huge number of novels that expanded and continued the universe created in the Star Wars movies.  Throughout the 90s, my sister and I avidly collected and read ever new addition. 

Then in 2000, I went away to college and my disposable income was sucked up by textbooks.  Coupled with my severe disappointment with the prequels, I stopped reading the novels.  A short while ago, I happened upon the Star Wars section of a used bookstore and found dozens of books I hadn’t read.  Inexplicably, I was compelled to pick up the series where I left off.

I’m still ambivalent about the books surrounding the prequel time frame, so for now, I’m concentrating on the post RoJ universe.  Yes, I am well aware of my dorkiness.

Because we know blowing up a synagogue in NYis really exactly what the Prophet (saws) would have done had he lived in america.  Or not.

Please pick up a book of seerah and learn how a real man acts.

(not) sincerely,

UmmSqueakster