Skip to main content

Twin City Terrorists: Who Are They and is it a Significant Problem



Ian Tuttle, in his article “Twin City Terrorists: A Community Reacts to Its Jihadi Sons and Daughters” published in the Nation Review on November 3, 2014, discusses about terrorists in the Somali community in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Sometimes he could not talk to local Somalis because he was white.  They thought he might be a spy. But even with this problem he was able to talk to Somali’s with many different ideas about the “terrorist” problem in Minnesota.
The author research goes back to 2007 when 23 Somali Minnesotans joined al-Sahbaab, an al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist group.  And recently 18 Somali Minnesotan’s joined ISIS and went to fight in Syria. Tuttle said that ISIS borrowed some of al-Shabaab’s recruiting ideas by using social media to glorify terrorism. Tuttle thinks few jobs and how Somalis are treated in Minnesota help ISIS recruit.  He quoted a Somali member of the Minneapolis School Board “For instance “What does the future look for me [Somali youth]?  Who cares for me?”  Many local Somali leaders believe improving helping programs can stop this.  Tuttle repeat Amano Dube, director of the Brian Coyle Community Center …” If we have … programs like that, no one will choose negativity.” However, there are different ideas of how significant terrorist recruiting local Somalis is.  He also quotes Sheikh Ahmad who heads a local mosque in an article in the Tusmo Times “If you are radical, go somewhere else.  Don’t come to the masjid [mosque] …” But others like Abdirizak Bihi was made an outcast because he accused a local Somali group of not helping the FBI. And last, whether they are liberal or conservative, Somalis in Minneapolis are serious Muslims.  Tuttle cites two examples of Somali’s refusing to perform certain work because it involved something against Islam.  
Tuttle ends with a good question:  Ayaan Hirsi a local Somali recently asked a panel “How do you extend your social solidarity to people who don’t want it?”  The panel dodged the question, but can Minnesota and America afford to dodge the question?
Worshipers attend evening prayers during an open house
at the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center in Minneapolis.
My opinion about the last question is these Somalis should be able to keep their culture and not be forced to Americanize (see right photo). Except they should not be allowed to hurt Americans or go to another county to hurt other people. And I feel more important problem could be hard to fix in the future whether Somalis become more Americanized or they keep their culture.  America was built on immigrants becoming Americans, not by staying what they were when they came here. Anyway, I believe every immigrant group who came to America kept some of their good traditions to join the new culture, but at same time they should respect and appreciate who gave them help. Because we are a family.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Microhome Assignment – Unflattening Heroism

Microhome Assignment – Unflattening Heroism Zeno Franco and Philip Zimbardo in their article “A Prisoner in the House” show how we are all capable of everyday heroism. They argued many heroes are like evildoers.   They acted that way because of the situation they were in.   They explain different way to show what is heroism; what makes a hero and how to nurture the heroic imagination. The prison and student-teacher experiments showed how a situation can change peoples’ behaviors, Thesis that some people believe is that people act “good” only because they have never been coerced or seduced to do “bad”. What about the observers of evil but who do nothing to stop it. We focus on the evil doers, and not on the silent majority who observe or who are aware of the evil. heroism could have the same theory. That it is the situation, and not the person, that creates the hero.   And like the silent majority to evil, there is a silent majority to heroism, since they assume oth...
Post a Comment
Read more

Splash: Mermaids and Monsters

English 1108 July 19, 2018 Splash :   Mermaids and Monsters             Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s “ Monster Culture (Seven Theses)” describes seven different views of monsters and how these views reflect society’s culture and fear. Cohen’s theses state that: monsters are symbols of the current culture; can never be killed or caught permanently; are neither human or a known animal; are considered not normal; often are warnings of some pending doom; demonstrate society’s or people’s hidden desires; and force us to look at our assumptions about other cultures. This essay examines the movie Splash (1984) in the context of Cohen’s seven theses. Splash is a romantic comedy starring Tom Hanks as Allen, a man who cannot find a woman to love him.   And Daryl Hannah, plays Madison the mermaid. Allen runs a family produce business, and Madison comes to New York to be with him.   In the film, Allen does not know Madis...
Post a Comment
Read more

Native American Boarding School: DESTROYING a Culture

Bickford-Duane, Pauline , in his article “ DESTROYING a Culture ” published in the magazine Cobblestone on Jan 2015, discusses about how US Government took land and broke treaties with Native Americans.  Then they tried to make them like white people, But later US Government learned that was a bad idea.  So, they gave Native Americans back a lot of rights such as the ability to governed themselves, attend their own schools, and learn their language. Photographs from the Carlisle Indian School show a group of Sioux boys shortly after their arrival at the school (ABOVE) and a group of “assimilated” Sioux students (OPPOSITE). The author first wrote a short history of how the United States government tried to take over Native American culture. She said the government had tried for almost 100 years and over 400 agreements to find a “solution” to the Native American “problem”. But most of them were not successful. then in the late 1800s, Senator Dawes prop...
1 comment
Read more