AP just can’t figure out why Abdirizak Mohamed Warsame tried to join the Islamic State, and neither can anyone in Minneapolis. “Local leaders have launched a major effort to stop the flow by building up positive influences on the thousands of young Somalis in the area. And in many ways, Warsame seemed to embody the key points: hopeful attitude, engaged in the community, with strong family support.” Yet he still tried to join the Islamic State, after having been radicalized on the Internet. No one involved is stopping to ponder why the non-violent Islam that he supposedly learned in Minneapolis, and that he even preached, was not able to withstand the appeal of the Internet hijackers of Islam. No one ever ponders that question, and yet it is the key and central question in this case and all such cases.
“Surrounded by positives, young Somali chose Islamic State,” by Amy Forliti, Associated Press, April 9, 2016 (thanks to Thomas):
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — As a spoken word artist, Abdirizak Mohamed Warsame liked to talk to other young Somalis about following their dreams. In a video posted online in 2011, the teenager stands at a microphone and encourages teens to stay focused on their goals in life.
“You guys are tomorrow. And all you have to have, to get anywhere you want, is determination,” said Warsame, who was active in a local arts group, was a regular at a neighborhood center, and whose mother and cousin were leading voices against radical recruitment in Minneapolis’ large Somali community.
In recent years, about three dozen young men from Somali neighborhoods in Minnesota have tried to leave to join militant groups fighting in Somalia and Syria, making the area one of the leading sources of U.S. recruits for radical Islam. Local leaders have launched a major effort to stop the flow by building up positive influences on the thousands of young Somalis in the area. And in many ways, Warsame seemed to embody the key points: hopeful attitude, engaged in the community, with strong family support.
But Warsame’s case, rather than a positive example, has become a cautionary tale. Standing in jail-issue clothing before a federal judge in Minneapolis earlier this year, the tall young man, who is now 21, hung his head as he admitted to secretly planning with friends in 2014 to go to Syria to fight with the Islamic State group. He now faces up to 15 years in prison.
Despite everyone’s best efforts, “I was always listening to one side,” he said at a court hearing, referring to radical messages he saw online. “I didn’t see the other side of it, that innocent people were being killed.”
It’s clear that by his teen years, “it was too late,” said Farhio Khalif, a leader of a community task force that is working with the U.S. attorney’s office on anti-recruitment strategies. “He was already caught up.”
The effort must begin earlier, convincing young children that “there is opportunity and there is hope in this community,” Khalif said.
Minnesota’s Somali population, the U.S.’s largest, numbers 41,000, according to census estimates, though community advocates say it is much larger. They have been drawn here over the years by welcoming social programs.
Since local recruits began leaving for the war zones about 10 years ago, FBI officials here have appeared on Somali radio and television programs to counter the radical messages luring them. Somali community groups have held regular meetings to raise awareness about the recruitment threat. A group called Ka Joog, which is Somali for “stay away,” sponsored activities that give kids a sense of belonging in America.
Last year, in the largest effort, organizers secured $850,000 for an ambitious package of projects, including a new job center in the Somali community where unemployment hovers around 19 percent, about three times the state average.
A leading target of the effort is “Little Mogadishu,” where Warsame grew up. The neighborhood is marked by the massive 1970s-era concrete towers looming at its center, and dotted with Somali restaurants, shops and cultural centers.
Warsame, who goes by Zak or A-Zak, came to the U.S. with his family when he was 10 months old, the second of eight children. In his teens, Warsame found poetry as a way to express himself. He joined a group called Poet Nation and posted videos on YouTube. In one that features his old neighborhood, Warsame, wearing a Minnesota Twins hat, raps about violence after a friend was shot. He says he doesn’t preach violence, and gives “much love to the projects,” where gang-related shootings are a constant threat….
Warsame had work and school opportunities after high school. He worked as a baggage handler and for a deicing company at the airport and attended community college.
His mother, Deqa Hussen, was vigilant about radical influences. At one point, concerned about some of his companions, she sent him to live with his father in Chicago in 2014. Two months before her son’s December arrest, she lectured Somali parents at a town hall meeting: “I need you guys to wake up and to tell your child, ‘Who’s recruiting you?’ Ask what happened. …. We have to stop the denial thing that we have, and we have to talk to our kids and work with the FBI.”
But at his plea hearing, Warsame told the judge he was already in thrall to Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical Islamic cleric killed in Yemen in 2011, listening to his lectures on the internet and watching videos of beheadings. He said he came to believe his duty as a devout Muslim was to take up arms against non-Muslims….

John Spielman says
Let him go!! But don’t let him back in the country, revoke his citizenship
Bob says
Round ’em all up & ship ’em back to Somalia! Well, I can dream, can’t I?
balam says
It would be safer if the Muslims are not employed where public security is paramount.There is no such thing as a good Muslim or a bad Muslim just as a good Nazi or a bad Nazi.
SileReddin says
Totally agree!
Keith says
Lets see shall we, he can either stay in the US and preach peaceful, tolerant, loving understanding Islam to everyone he knows be considered an apostate by the true followers of Islam and risk being turned into a headless monk by those self same true followers.
Or he can join the Islamic state show his true worth as a true believer of Islam marry a young prepubescent girl, have up to 4 wives and as many sex slaves as he can afford.
I wonder which any devout muslim who really knows his koran and sunnah would choose?
linnte says
Amy Fortili, in case you read this- if you have not read the Qur’an yet, or the Hadith, it behooves you to do so. Read all of it without the “help” of anyone and gather your own professional opinion. Then you will know why this boy was radicalized. If you don’t, then you will also be part of the radicalization process.
Michael Copeland says
Start with chapter 9, the “Sura at-Tawba”. It overrides and “abrogates” ALL the peaceful verses elsewhere, as it is the latest chapter in chronological order.
خَليفة says
the dualistic ideology, Mecca vs Medina. When conditions change ( as subjectively determined by an individual ), so do Muslims – taqiyya spewing peaceful Muslim becomes sword and Koran wielding jihadi
Muslims, like the Saharan sand, lay quiet and calm until a storm comes along, and then the sand becomes highly destructive. I dare say, Muslims are nothing but dust in the wind. And the wind ALWAYS ceases at some point.
The way to keep Muslims in check is to carry a bigger stick and not be afraid to use it. The British knew this centuries ago, but now they want oil and money, so they appease Muslims and relinquish the big stick.
gravenimage says
Minneapolis: Muslim airport worker who preached non-violence tries to join Islamic State
………………………..
And yet, we have been reassured that all airport workers have been checked and cleared:
“Relax: DHS says airport workers suspected of terror ties have now all been vetted”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/04/relax-dhs-says-airport-workers-suspected-of-terror-ties-have-now-all-been-vetted
linnte says
Funny how we just had that reassurance that DHS is on top of things! And we know they are NOT! Good point Graven!
Champ says
Minneapolis: Muslim airport worker who preached non-violence tries to join Islamic State
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He preached non-violence, and yet tries to join IS, eh? He’s just another taqiyya artist at work, and obfuscation is his game.
And what is a muslim? A follower of muhammad. And what was muhammad? He ran a criminal enterprise as a liar, theif, pedophile and mass-murderer–and that’s just the short list.
Christine Roy says
A ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In other words, keep ’em the hell out!!
Shmooviyet says
Bringing Somali ‘refugees’ in by the plane-load and handing them subsidies for almost everything has been a terribly successful idea for the dopey leftists and various, grasping social services ($$$). Not so much for the citizens/taxpayers.
This kid was active in ‘the community’. Which community? In the Somali, he was bound to be constantly exposed to fellow muslims who tune in to the Screeching Clerics channel everyday and don’t care much for the local kuffar. No matter how active his mother may be, the ‘destroy the infidel’ seed was planted.
At the same time, being attracted to the thug/gangsta culture encourages the hopeless victimhood mindset, based on similarities in skin-color. Somali ‘youths’ are absorbed into gangs, or form their own ‘street brotherhoods’. Adding the toxicity of islam into the mix results in lots of Warsames who see joining IS as the ultimate cool factor. And he could always come back to Mama in Mpls if he didn’t like it.
AP could figure it out in about thirty seconds if they weren’t so PC-driven.
Angemon says
Like muhammad – he was all about non-violence until he wasn’t and started killing people…
خَليفة says
Agree with that assessment MP. Mosques should be confiscated and destroyed, we don’t need Satanic temples in the USA.
Terry says
Silly replies. Im grateful for this to be honest, how can you possibly criticize any religion, while simultaneously believing in yours? Amnesia much? Christianity was spread by the sword. Converting a bum with apple pies and soup kitchens is fairly recent in history. Was it not also used to condone slavery, polygamy, discrimination.
These nuts are just more serious about the ‘holy’ fiction books they read than you are. This should be a wake up call to the willful ignorance of all doctrines used to guide your life, without an iota of evidence supporting it. You feel he’s real because you want to, but that is not proof, that is a claim i.e. wishful thinking.
Until we are willing to no longer take ANY religion seriously, these stories will not stop. All you do by saying kick them out is justify their ‘holy’ war in their heads against the infidels. Its 2016 and people still can not let go of their skydaddy wizard in the cosmos.
Keep your heads up guys, you can be a good person without an invisible friend telling you to.
mortimer says
What an appropriate name: ‘WAR-SAME’
Whatever a Muslim says about peace, prepare for war just the same.
This young trickster is an example of what to expect from all and any Muslim. Because of the doctrine of TAQIYYA, no Muslim may be trusted.
Sorry, Muslims, but TAQIYYA is a doctrine in YOUR RELIGION, not mine. If you don’t like TAQIYYA, get out of Islam.
Jay Boo says
Eid-al-Fitr is another appropriate name from their backwards Islamic culture.
Eid — spelled backwards says it all.
sham says
MORTIMER SAYS
TAQIYYA is a doctrine in YOUR RELIGION……….
WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE FOR U’R CLAIMS……..? NO EVIDENCE SO HE TAQIYA(FOOLS) TO MEMBER OF THIS SITES……….
ISLAM PROMOTE SAYS AND STAND JUSTICE/TRUTH/MORALITY
6:152 ………..We burden not any person, but that which he can bear. And whenever you give your word (i.e. judge between men or give evidence, etc.), say the truth even if a near relative is concerned, and fulfill the Covenant of Allâh, This He commands you, that you may remember.
7: 29. Say (O Muhammad SAW): My Lord has commanded justice and (said) that you should face Him only (i.e. worship none but Allâh and face the Qiblah, i.e. the Ka’bah at Makkah during prayers) in each and every place of worship, in prayers (and not to face other false deities and idols), and invoke Him only making your religion sincere to Him by not joining in worship any partner to Him and with the intention that you are doing your deeds for Allâh’s sake only
33: 70. O you who believe! Keep your duty to Allâh and fear Him, and speak (always) the truth.
Muslim :: Book 32 : Hadith 6307,6308,6309
It is obligatory for you to tell the truth, for truth leads to virtue and virtue leads to Paradise, and the man who continues to speak the truth and endeavours to tell the truth is eventually recorded as truthful with Allah, and beware of telling of a lie for telling of a lie leads to obscenity and obscenity leads to Hell-Fire
Malik :: Book 56 : Hadith 56.7.16
Malik related to me that he heard that Abdullah ibn Masud used to say, “You must tell the truth. Truthfulness leads to right action. Right action leads to the Garden. Beware of lying. Lying leads to corruption, and corruption leads to the Fire. Don’t you see that it is said, ‘He speaks the truth and acts rightly,’ and, ‘He lies and is corrupt.’
Malik :: Book 56 : Hadith 56.7.19
Malik related to me that Safwan ibn Sulaym said, “The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was asked, ‘Can the mumin be a coward?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ He was asked, ‘Can the mumin be a miser?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ He was asked, ‘Can the mumin be a liar?’ He said, ‘No.’ ”
72:14. And among us are Muslims and among
us are the unjust. And whoever has become Muslim –
those have sought out the right course.
15. But as for the unjust, they will be, for Hell, firewood.’
2: 42. And mix not truth with falsehood, nor conceal the truth [i.e. Muhammad Peace be upon him is Allâh’s Messenger and his qualities are written in your Scriptures, the Taurât (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel)] while you know (the truth) .
4: 107. And argue not on behalf of those who deceive themselves. Verily, Allâh does not like anyone who is a betrayer of his trust, and indulges in crime.
6: 82. It is those who believe (in the Oneness of Allâh and worship none but Him Alone) and confuse not their belief with Zulm (wrong), for them (only) there is security and they are the guided.
WHO ARE THE LAYERS?
29: 68. And who does more wrong than he who invents a lie against Allâh or denies the truth (Muhammad SAW and his doctrine of Islâmic Monotheism and this Qur’ân), when it comes to him? Is there not a dwelling in Hell for disbelievers (in the Oneness of Allâh and in His Messenger Muhammad SAW)?
39: 60. And on the Day of Resurrection you will see those who lied against Allâh (i.e. attributed to Him sons, partners, etc.) their faces will be black. Is there not in Hell an abode for the arrogant ones?
61: 7. And who does more wrong than the one who invents a lie against Allâh, while he is being invited to Islâm? And Allâh guides not the people who are Zâlimûn (polytheists, wrong-doers and disbelievers) folk.
WHO R SUPPORTING LYING?
…scriptures indicate that under certain circumstances, lying is not condemned. The midwives found themselves in a moral dilemma. Would they obey God’s higher law of saving lives or the lesser obligation of submitting to the dictates of Pharaoh? The midwives chose to obey God’s higher law. The saving of innocent lives a higher obligation than obeying and telling the truth to the government. God thus did not hold the midwives responsible for what they did. In fact, the text tells us that God blessed them ‘because the midwives feared God’ (Exodus 1:21). Their fear of God caused them to obey the high law of saving lives. [1]
Professor Robert W. McGee
Finally, the reader should realize that Jewish law considers the prohibition of lying as only relative iniquity. This means that under certain conditions one is allowed to lie in order to prevent a larger injustice from being perpetrated. For example, in regards to taxes, a person is allowed to lie regarding his/her income to an illegal government. Under this circumstance, he/she is not considered to have violated the Biblical prohibition of keeping away from falsehoods. Evidence that lying is permitted under this circumstance is found in Tractate Nadorim (62b). It is described how a Rabbi allows a congregant to say that he was a servant of a priest in order to avoid paying a tax which the government did not have a right to collect. [2]
References:
[1] Commonly Misunderstood Bible Verses: Clear Explanations for the Difficult passages [Copyright 2008] By Ron Rhodes, page 29
[2] The Ethics of Tax Evasion: Perspectives in Theory and Practice by professor Robert W. McGee, page 155
“Go to the feast yourselves; I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” So saying, he remained in Galilee. But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private.” – John 7:8-10
In the above verse, we read that Jesus tells his brothers (or companions) that he will not be going to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Tabernacles. However, as soon as the companions leave, he goes privately. Is this not deception? Is Jesus not lying here?
The first person to bring this to discussion was Porphyry, a pagan who brought this to the attention of the Church fathers. His argument was something along the lines that since Jesus lied here, then he cannot be God.
The difficulty arose from the Church fathers as to how to make sense of the passage. How to explain or should I say, how to make it such that Jesus is not indicted with deception. The word, ‘yet’ was added to make it seem that Jesus was consistent and was not lying to his companions when he said he will not be going up [‘yet’].
However, although the word ‘yet’ was added, it did not escape Christian and non-Christian scholars eyes that the word was added later. The original reading of Jesus in the Gospel was that he will not go to the festival. There are many Christian Biblical-commentaries that attest and say that the word ‘yet’ was added in order to protect Jesus from deception.
SpiritOf1683 says
Off to Pakistan, savage. barbatrians like you aren’t wanted iin the West.
SpiritOf1683 says
Off to Pakistan, savage. Barbarians like you aren’t wanted in the West.
DP111 says
Somali Enrichment of the world
Canada 150,000[7]
United Kingdom 108,000[8]
United States 85,700[9]
Sweden 57,906[10]
United Arab Emirates 50,000[11]
South Africa 40,000[12]
Norway 38,413[13]
Netherlands 37,432[14]
Saudi Arabia 20,000[15]
Denmark 18,645[16]
Finland 16,721[17]
Germany 16,489[18]
Australia 9,914[19]
Italy 8,112[20]
France 2,000-3,000[21]
Pakistan 2,500[22]
New Zealand 1,617[23]
Ireland 201-1,000[24]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_diaspora
The UK I believe has 190,000, and so wins. It has the largest number of highly qualified engineers and scientists that Somalia has bestowed on the world.