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Somalis in Minnesota question counter-extremism program targeted at Muslims"
With a population of at least 30,000, the Somali people are a significant presence in the Twin Cities, home to more 3.5 million people. Because they have been coming toMinnesota since the 1980s, the people who come now have family and friends who have already established a life in the midwest. They love it – besides the cold winters.
Rooted as they are in Minnesota, many in the the Somali Muslim community are alarmed at a US attorney-led program that they believe singles them out as more blood thirsty than other ethnic or religious groups, and makes them vulnerable to surveillance.
Led by a taskforce of 15 Somali Americans and a traditional community grant-making organization, the Counter Violent Extremism (CVE) program is the brainchild of the chief federal prosecutor for Minnesota, Andrew Luger. Later this month, it will launch a number of yet-to-be-announced grants to programs aimed at creating educational and professional opportunities among the Somali Muslim community in Minnesota. The goal is to prevent youth recruitment by overseas extremist groups such as Isis or al-Shabaab.
But even before any specifics of the program have been announced, the program has engendered dramatic hostility and division within the Muslim Somali community. Those opposed to the premise of the program point out that 96% of domestic terrorism is committed by white men. The exact figure is disputed, but all statistics have it at more than 90%.
“The idea that this Muslim community needs help, itself for this issue is problematic,” says Jaylani Hussein the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN). “Because now you’re saying that countering violent extremism is only from one community. The threat comes from one community, the threat is only identified within one community, that community needs a program. The whole premise is wrong. This program, no matter how good it is, is flawed from its principle.”
Those who support the program are welcoming of new resources to their community, particularly if they will keep any brewing problem contained.
I read somewhere once, If you want more of something, subsidize it.
5 comments:
In just about any area the "helper class" has gone so far around the bend that they meet the corresponding "ist" on the other side.
"singles them out as more blood thirsty than other ethnic or religious groups"?
In the words of a great American criminal mastermind, "Who dun writ thet forgery?".
A Muslim, a Priest and a Rabbi walk into a bar.
K a b o o m !
Throwing money at problems is NEVER THE ANSWER.
It's never enough and it only serves to encourage continued bad behavior.
Here's the solution: Anybody who engages in terrorist activities in the U.S.: DEAD.
Leave the U.S. and engage in terrorist activities: DEAD TO US IF NOT ALREADY DEAD.
*Sigh!* No one reads Kipling any more!
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
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