Somali’s in MN barred from getting on flight to go for Hajj.

by Nelima

The ‘affection’ for the Somali community by Minnesota’s mainstream media continues. Yesterday the Star Tribune did a story on some Somali’s who were barred from getting on a flight to go to Saudia Arabia to make a spiritual pilgrimage. Among the group were an Imam and youth co-ordinator of  Abubakar As-Saddique, which is a large mosque in the Cedar-Riverside area of Minneapolis.

The attorney (for the mosque) said it’s likely the men are on a federal “no fly” list because they and the mosque have been connected by rumor to a number of missing Somali men whose families fear have returned to their East African homeland to fight in that nation’s civil unrest or to receive terrorist training.

At least this time the Star Trib did talk to other Somali’s, relatives of the missing who said that they felt there was a link between their missing family members and the mosque.

An 18-year-old man disappeared Nov. 1 and called a relative a few days later saying he was somewhere in Somalia but didn’t know exactly what city, another relative said. “He used to sleep at the mosque … like he lived there,” the relative said through an interpreter in a West Bank apartment. The family was relieved he was going to the mosque instead of out to bars, the relative said. But they are convinced that someone, somewhere brainwashed him to go back to Somalia.

So was this mosque one of the the Al Qaeda cells Omar Jamal was talking about?

Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, said that on Monday, his organization will write a letter to the FBI asking for more information about why the men were not allowed to board their flight. Jamal acknowledged that many rumors are circulating, but he said: “We have nothing, no clear evidence connecting those kids to the mosque. That is why I am concerned.”

Seems like he knows everything and nothing at the same time. Read the story in its entirety here.