East Africa

Robert Lilligren's campaign accuses Somali challenger of using homophobic tactics

At Minneapolis's Sixth Ward DFL precinct caucus in April, Abdi Warsame won the party's endorsement over incumbent City Council member Robert Lilligren.SEE ALSO: Glenn Beck blames federal investigation into Bachmann on Minnesota's Somali population [VIDEO] But Lilligren's campaign contested the resul ... More >>

Champlin Park High School teacher headlocks Somali student [VIDEOS]

Champlin Park High School industrial arts teacher Joe Hall is in hot water after video of him headlocking a Somali student on May 3 made its way onto YouTube.SEE ALSO: South High brawl: Video captures student saying, "Somalis just be getting knocked out!" The footage, visible below the jump, has pro ... More >>

Former San Diego mayor blames Obama for Mpls South High School melee [AUDIO]

Last week's scary food fight-turned-brawl at Minneapolis South High School reportedly stemmed from racial tensions between the school's Somali and and African-American students.SEE ALSO: Teens allegedly steal cop radio, say "F**k the police"And who's to blame for those racial tensions? Well, if form ... More >>

South High brawl: Video captures student saying, "Somalis just be getting knocked out!"

Numerous reports -- including some from our own commenters who have children attending Minneapolis South High School or are alums themselves -- chalk up yesterday's scary lunchroom brawl to long-simmering tensions between the school's Somali and African American students.SEE ALSO: Brawl at Mpls Sout ... More >>

Toronto takes lessons from Minneapolis police's work in Cedar-Riverside

In Toronto, six men of Somali descent have been shot and killed since June. As the city searches for solutions, CBC News (Canada's version of the BBC) is suggesting that it might be able to find answers across the border, in the Minneapolis police's success reducing crime in Cedar-Riverside.See also ... More >>

Macalester professor takes sabbatical to run for president -- of Somalia

SEE ALSO:-- Somalis walk off job at Minnesota dessert factory in protest of company's new burqa ban-- Somali immigrant visa petitions stalling over identity paperwork-- Money-wiring shutdown worries local SomalisProfessors tend to go on sabbatical to write a book, conduct research, or just think dee ... More >>

Free hijabs: Islamic veils available tomorrow on Nicollet Avenue

SEE ALSO:-- Dianne's Fine Desserts harassed Somalis, used racial slurs, says CAIR-- Somalis walk off job at Minnesota dessert factory in protest of company's new burqa banThanks to a grant from the Minnesota Community Foundation totaling at least $5,000, free hijabs will be distributed Saturday afte ... More >>

South Mpls cross-cultural, anti-violence project wins $100,000 grant

After 368 applications and 5,200 votes, the Native American Somali Peacemakers Project is taking home $100,000.The project, which is part of The Family Partnership and based in the Phillips and Cedar-Riverside neighborhoods, found out Tuesday that it won the biggest slice of a $510,000 pie, furnishe ... More >>

Dianne's Fine Desserts harassed Somalis, used racial slurs, says CAIR

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is preparing to file discrimination charges against Dianne's Fine Desserts for allegedly mistreating Somali workers. About 45 Somali workers walked off their work site because they refused to follow a new dress code mandating that workers roll up their skir ... More >>

Somalis walk off job at Minnesota dessert factory in protest of company's new burqa ban

Somalis working at Dianne's Fine Desserts factory in Le Center aren't happy about their company's new burqa ban, and walked off the job Monday to signal their displeasure. Three weeks ago, Dianne's was purchased by Mike Knowles, a Massachusetts-based businessman. A week later, a Somali woman working ... More >>

Biracial Bemidji-area family finds burning cross in yard

Around 12:40 a.m. last Friday, a Bemidji-area woman was sitting in her rural Northern Township home when see saw the sky seemingly catch fire.She ran outside, and there was an 8-foot-tall burning cross propped against a tree. The woman, who has a black husband and two adult biracial children, saw so ... More >>

Rochester racists vandalize another Somali home with "KKK" and swastika tags

Last weekend, for the second time in just over a year, unknown vandals spray-painted "KKK" and a swastika onto the house of a Somali family in Rochester.Muslim civil rights leaders aren't taking the latest incident lying down. Lori Saroya, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relati ... More >>

Somali immigrant visa petitions stalling over identity paperwork

Local immigration attorneys are up in arms over the United States embassy in Nairobi's refusal to issue certain visas to Somali applicants. At issue are I-130 applications by Somalis in America, which are petitions to bring over family members. United States Customs and Immigration Services has to ... More >>

Money-wiring shutdown worries local Somalis

​The war on terrorism is making life difficult for local Somalis.Last month, owners of Somali money-lending businesses, called hawalas, were notified by St. Paul-based Sunrise Community Banks that they would no longer be able to wire money back home. Sunrise was the last bank in Minnesota to offer ... More >>

Former Sheriff Bob Fletcher's Somalia seminar called "anti-Muslim"

Bob Fletcher in his former post as Ramsey County sheriff.​After he lost the election for Ramsey County sheriff, Bob Fletcher declared a new passion: educating law enforcement about Somali culture and history. He dubbed the new venture the Center for Somalia History Studies, and its first event -- ... More >>

FBI wants DNA proof of third Minnesota Somali suicide bomber

This is the first message which has encouraged Somali-Americans to declare war at home.​Abdisalan Ali is thought to be the young man from Minneapolis who killed himself and at least 10 others in a Mogadishu suicide attack. But some who've listened to the recording which is supposedly Ali's last vi ... More >>

Somali suicide bomber from Minneapolis: "Do Jihad in America"

Somali's civil war claims another Minnesotan.​A suicide bomber who blew himself up in Mogadishu yesterday in an attack that killed 10 had traveled to Somalia from Minneapolis in 2008.Abdisalan Ali had emigrated to Minnesota with his family when he was 2 years old, but was among 20 local youths who ... More >>

St. Cloud School District admits anti-Somali discrimination, nears settlement with Department of Education

Owatonna Senior High School was the site of alleged discrimination.​The St. Cloud school district has almost completed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education to end an investigation into anti-Muslim behavior at Apollo High School. In March 2010, the Council on American Islamic Relati ... More >>

Former Sheriff Bob Fletcher launches Center for Somalia History Studies

​Former Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher has kept a pretty low profile since he lost the election back last November. He returned to his post as a watch commander with the St. Paul police, surfacing only occasionally to field criticism of how he ran the department as his successor settled in. N ... More >>

Talk of the Stacks: Nuruddin Farah

U2 releases crazy-detailed panoramic photo of the crowd from Saturday's show

​Sometime between meeting with Somali Minnesotans to help solve the famine crisis in Africa and performing under pummeling rain in front of thousands upon thousands of fans at Dinkytown's TCF Bank Stadium, U2 found time last weekend to go ahead and revolutionize the concert experience by snapping ... More >>

Bono, K'naan meet with Somali activists in Minnesota

Photo courtesy ONE​In addition to braving a downpour of rain to perform in front of nearly 60,000 fans on Saturday night at the University of Minnesota's TCF Bank Stadium, U2 frontman Bono took time on Saturday afternoon to meet with singer and rapper K'naan and several Somali activists from Minne ... More >>

Sambusa Cook-Off: Neighbors for Nations cooks up tasty challenge

Edsel Little/FlickrFive chefs battle to make the Twin Cities' best sambusas​What makes the perfect sambusa? Five Minnesota-based Somali chefs think they have the answer. Saturday July 9, Neighbors for Nations is staging an all-out Sambusa Cook-Off at the Lab Theater in Minneapolis's Warehouse ... More >>

Farah Mohamed Beledi confirmed by FBI as Somali suicide bomber

Farah Mohamed Beledi fled the Twin Cities in 2009​The FBI is confirming that 27-year-old Farah Mohamed Beledi of St. Paul was one of two men who died in a Mogadishu suicide attack last week. He fled Minnesota in 2009 to join the al-Shabaab terrorist group. Beledi was one of 13 Twin Cities me ... More >>

Minnesota Public Radio Somali series wins national SPJ award

MPRYuen's three-part series details the struggles of Somali immigrants in the Twin Cities.​Minnesota Public Radio just picked up a prestigious award for its in-depth coverage on the Somali community in Minneapolis. The Society of Professional Journalists announced yesterday that MPR's three-p ... More >>

Al-Shabaab claims Abdullahi Ahmed, of Minnesota, carried out Somalia suicide attack

WikipediaAl-Shabaab has been linked to Minnesota before.​Al-Shabaab, the Islamic terrorist group allied with al-Qaeda, is reporting on its website that a Somali American from Minnesota, 25-year-old Abdullahi Ahmed, blew himself up during a car bombing in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. Globa ... More >>

First look: Afro Deli & Coffee

Somali steak sandwich and AfroSteak dinner with basmati riceOver the last 20 years, Minnesota has welcomed the largest community of Somali-Americans in the country. Many of these immigrant families have located near the West Bank of the U of M campus. As a result, the area has seen its share of Afr ... More >>

Andrew Wakefield, anti-vaccine researcher, meets with Somali community amidst measles outbreak

Andrew Wakefield still finds an audience in the Somali community.​Last night, disgraced British researcher Andrew Wakefield met with parents from the Somali community to discuss the purported link between autism and childhood vaccinations. Although reporters were barred from the event, Wakefield' ... More >>

Keith Ellison breaks down in tears at Muslim hearings [VIDEO]

Ellison breaks down.​Rep. Keith Ellison spent weeks deriding the congressional hearings that opened today on radical Muslims, orchestrated by Rep. Peter King of New York, as little more than an attempt to spread fear and hatred of a religious minority. When it came his turn to testify and de ... More >>

Brian Coyle Center shooting leaves two Somali men wounded

Ahmednur Ali was shot and killed at the Brian Coyle Center in Sept. 2008​A drive-by shooting outside Brian Coyle Community Center last night left two Somali men wounded and rekindled fears about gang violence. Neither the victims nor the suspects have been named by police. One of the injured ... More >>

Andrew Wakefield faked autism study but told Somalis there's hope

Wakefield was invited to Minneapolis by Somalis families.​The now disgraced British doctor who scared the world with his theory linking childhood vaccines with autism, recently spread his debunked theories to Somali families in Minneapolis. Andrew Wakefield's 1994 research paper has just been ... More >>

Somali gangs in Minneapolis accused of running sex-traffic ring

​The Somali community, already dealing with some of its members' alleged links to the al-Shabaab terrorist group, now has some more bad news. More than twenty Somalis said to be members of one of a trio of gangs have been arrested in Minneapolis, St. Paul and the surrounding suburbs on inters ... More >>

Abdi Mahdi Hussein charged with terrorism for aiding Al-Shabaab

Somalis are waging war on themselves with money sent from here​Three more Somalis have been charged with funneling money to the Somali terrorist group Al-Shabaab. One of the men was arrested Monday in Minneapolis. Abdi Mahdi Hussein, who works for a remittance company, is accused of conspiring wi ... More >>

Mahdi Hassan Ali to be tried as adult in Seward triple homicide

Mahdi Hassan Ali's dental records proved key for prosecutors.​Mahdi Hassan Ali will be tried as an adult for his role in January's triple homicide at a Somali market on East Franklin Avenue. Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill set up that scenario when he ruled late yesterday that Ali ... More >>

Shirwa Ahmed, Somali jihadist from Twin Cities, in new terrorism report

U.S. officials consider Al-Shabab in Somalia a terrorist threat, even here​Just in time for the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, a bipartisan think tank has issued a report on how terrorism has changed since 2001. And the Somali men who disappeared from the Twin Cities to play a prominen ... More >>

Amina Ali and Hawo Hassan arrested in MN for al Shabaab link [VIDEO]

Photo: banspyAmina Ali and Hawo Hassan were taken into custody this afternoon.​Two naturalized American citizens living in Rochester, both originally from Somalia, have been arrested on charges that they conspired to provide material support to the Somali terrorist group al Shabaab. The FBI to ... More >>

CAIR-MN wants FBI's help on vandalism at Somali market

Photo: dmax3270Another day, another act of bigotry in St. Cloud?​The Minnesota Council on American Islamic Relations is calling yesterdays vandalism at a Somali-owned market in St. Cloud a hate crime, and it has asked the FBI to look into the matter. "Law enforcement officials must send a str ... More >>

Jihadi pop: offensive to the ears

​Sami Yusuf this shit is not.Ostensibly intended as a recruitment tool, these misguided attempts at accessible propaganda are so uniformly awful, unlistenable, and terrifying that you can't help but laugh, or be left in shivers. Sporting eerie appropriations of gangster rap tropes (gunshots-as-amb ... More >>

Anti-Muslim harassment draws Department of Education probe

Photo: Ranoush​The U.S. Department of Education has agreed to launch an investigation into anti-Muslim harassment at schools in St. Cloud and Owatonna, and the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said it welcomed the news. "Decades after the beginning of the civil r ... More >>

R.T. Rybak and Barack Obama discuss combating Somali radicals

Obama and Rybak discussed ways to combat radicalization of Somali youth​Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak joined Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker and Columbus, Ohio, Mayor Michael Coleman at a White House meeting on Tuesday to talk about coping with terrorist groups recruiting people on American soi ... More >>

Khat shipment for Minneapolis intercepted at O'Hare

Photo: DEA via WikipediaHere, chew on this​A 37-year-old Maryland man was arrested over the weekend at Chicago's O'Hare Airport after luggage inspectors discovered he was trying to smuggle about 80 pounds of khat that he later told interrogators was destined for the Somali community in Minneap ... More >>

Festival of Nations starts today

​What kind of food do you feel like eating this weekend? Chinese? Italian? How about Nepalese, Cambodian, Mexican, Somali, Dutch, Egyptian, Filipino, Turkish, Ukrainian, or Polish? Actually, you can sample all of the above and more at this weekend's Festival of Nations, the international food ... More >>

James Scott Miller admits terroristic Craigslist threat against Somalis

James Scott Miller​James Scott Miller, the 49-year-old New Hope man who said on Craigslist he'd be happy to use Somalis as target practice, pleaded guilty yesterday to making terroristic threats. Jailed since March, he worked out a deal in which he faces a faces a possible maximum 90 days behi ... More >>

CAIR MN unhappy with Muslims' treatment outstate, but what about Twin Cities?

So far, Muslim students in the Minneapolis and St. Paul schools have not come to CAIR with the kinds of complaints it hears from elsewhere in the state.

James Scott Miller charged with threatening to use Somalis as "target practice"

James Scott Miller said he'd be happy to use Somalis as "target practice."

Ahmed Ali's lawyer says prosecutor's Facebook post anti-Somali

Did Assistant Hennepin County attorney Gretchen Gray-Larson commit prosecutorial misconduct?

Mahamoud Wardere will challenge Rep. John Kline in District 2

Wardere found himself in hot water last Election Day when, while working as a translator, he was accused of interfering with voters.

K'Naan

National Public Health Week Film Festival: Sex Ed Night

Minneapolis Somali community facing dark web of murders

They came to escape civil war, so why are they killing each other in the streets?