Minnesota Radicals

A couple of days ago, an unknown story became front page news, carrying with it undertones of fear. The story ran on the front page of the NY Times and, shortly thereafter, became headline news across the nation. The story investigated an incident in which several immigrants from Somalia, who all lived in Minneapolis, had suddenly returned to their homeland to join rebel forces in the raging fight in and around Mogadishu. At least three have since turned up dead.

The fighting in Somalia is between disparate cells of rebels and insurgents and the main government force. Originally, the rebel forces were fighting mostly Ethiopian troops as Ethiopia had invaded Somalia to push out the radical Islamic groups. However, Ethiopia has since withdrawn from Somalia leaving government forces augmented by African Union peacekeepers (nice to see the AU stepping

up) to secure the country. The main rebel force is the al Shabaab militia comprised by a majority of Somalis. There are foreign elements which give the Shabaab links to groups like the Taliban and especially Al Qaeda.

This story, upon a closer read, becomes even more disturbing. Of the three found dead, one of the immigrants had blown himself up in a suicide bombing, at the same time becoming the first naturalized US citizen to become a suicide bomber. All research indicates that the al Shabaab militia wasn't involved with foreign groups until the past few years. Before they had a foreign element amongst them, they never engaged in suicide bombings. This would seem to indicate that the al Shabaab militia has been infected with a much more radical form of Islamic influence.

The clear link here is Al Qaeda, which has a history of operating in Africa and especially Somalia. In many of his early messages, Bin Laden actually used the US's intervention in Somalia in the early 90's (the infamous Black Hawk Down scenario) as a motivating factor. He praised the rebels to striking fear into the US and making their soldiers run like cowards. He also used it as a call to radicalize.

The Minneapolis men that have returned to join the fighting are all in their early twenties, a time in their life when they are most susceptible given their background to being radicalized. The issue here that is so disturbing is how these men were recruited. A few days after the story ran on the front page of the NY Times, CNN reported that two men had been arrested in Minneapolis for recruiting and radicalizing these young men. But the consequences of their actions send a message loud and clear: US citizens can be radicalized and even turned into suicide bombers.

Unfortunately, this continuously developing story will probably lead to greater scrutiny of immigrants from conflict areas where radical Islamic groups are known to opperate. That factor, coupled with radical recruiting, could be enough to push a candidate over the edge. But, the gut check here is that not every immigrant with an Islamic sounding name is a potential terrorist.