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By Tom Lyden
MINNEAPOLIS, Dec 08, 2008 -- For weeks, many in the Somali community
refused to believe there were missing young men who had returned to
Somalia to fight a war, and they just couldn’t accept the idea of a
local suicide bomber.
Now, the community is no longer denying it, they’re simply blaming the
messenger. That messenger is Omar Jamal, who for years has been the
media’s go-to talking head for all thing Somali.
Jamal was also the only one willing to talk about the dozen missing
Somali men and Shirwa Ahmed, 27, of Minneapolis, who was buried last
week after becoming a suspecting suicide bomber in Somalia.
Jamal has also questioned the role played by local religious leaders.
For that, some say there may be hell to pay.
Rumors have circulated the Abubakar Islamic Center in south Minneapolis
was somehow recruiting young men to return to Somalia and fight in a
holy war. As Jamal spoke to the media, leaders of the Abubakar As-Saddique
mosque remained silent, mounting suspicion.
Monday, the mosque held a massive prayer service on Eid al-Adha, and
used it as a forum to denounce allegations they have any role in a local
terror network.
“The media is the problem,” mosque attorney Mahir Sherif said. “Our
mosque should not be talked about bad things. Suicide and other acts of
terrorism are forbidden in the Islamic faith.”
"He don't represent our community,” Mohammed Kali, attending the Eid
service, said. “Omar Jamal call him Somali advocate. He doesn't
represent us.”
There’s history here. Omar Jamal belongs to a tribe associated with the
secular government in Somalia, which is on the verge of total collapse.
Islamists are set to take over the country and impose Islamic law.
Jamal says the same exists here in Minnesota.
“They think they are the religious sect of the community, and they think
it's a threat to the mosque, which is bull----, really bull----,” Jamal
said.
It comes down to who speaks for the 60,000 Somalis who call the Twin
Cities home -- a community of seven tribes and more than a dozen clans.
Is it a religious leader, someone like Jamal, or both? It’s a question
not unlike the one that plagues their homeland.
While the Abubakar As-Saddique mosque denied any involvement or
connection with the missing Somali men on Monday, an FBI investigation
is ongoing and expanding. The investigation now includes missing Somali
men from across the U.S. and Canada who are all suspected of returning
to Somalia to fight in the jihad.
Source: FOX 9
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