MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - While visiting a Somali refugee camp in Kenya, Mohamed Farah was struck by a young man who spends each day just waiting for it to end.
The roughly 20-year-old man told Farah he has nothing to fill his time. No sense of identity. No future. No hope. So, like hundreds of other young people in the camp, he waits - while members of the terrorist group al-Shabab lurk nearby, ready to entice new recruits.
“We used to say ’Why would anyone join al-Shabab?’” Farah said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It’s sad for me to say, but if I were in their shoes I would do anything to get out of that situation … Now that I understand, that shows me what I am fighting against.”
Farah and other members of the Somali-American group Ka Joog have been working since 2007 to combat radicalism among Somali youth in Minnesota by providing positive alternatives through education, the arts and mentorship.
But now, the group is thinking bigger. Five members recently took their message of youth empowerment to Kenya, in hopes of intercepting al-Shabab’s radical message there. They said they were astonished at what they learned, and they are presenting a report and recommendations to members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in Washington on Wednesday.
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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - A Minnesota Department of Natural Resources official says a report that Ely bear researcher Lynn Rogers gave tips to people in his “bear course” on feeding the animals from their mouths is “egregious.”
Lou Cornicelli, who oversees research permitting for the DNR, read the instructions provided by a former course participant at a hearing Friday, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press (https://bit.ly/1kkHtKHhttps://bit.ly/1kkHtKH ).
Among instructions read aloud from Rogers’ Wildlife Research Institute before a judge in St. Paul was “Tip Number 4: Don’t offer bears food from your lips unless the bear is used to that.”
After reading the instructions, Cornicelli said: “To me that’s just egregious. … You’re teaching people how to feed a bear from your lips.”
Friday’s testimony and evidence are at the core of the DNR’s allegations that Rogers’ practices have created a public safety hazard and amounted to entertainment and tourism, not scientific research.
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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Hundreds of mourners gathered Saturday for the funeral of five children who were killed in a north Minneapolis duplex fire last month.
Five small white caskets were lined up in the front of Shiloh Temple Church Saturday, as family and friends comforted their father, Troy Lewis, the Star Tribune reported (https://strib.mn/1lrG2KThttps://strib.mn/1lrG2KT ).
Killed were 18-month-old Gwendolyn, 3-year-old Troy, 4-year-old Fannie, 6-year-old Mary and 8-year-old Christopher.
“Our hearts are exploding. … There are no words to describe how we feel right now,” said Lewis’ sister, Debra Lewis of Chicago. “How hard it is for my brother to have his five beautiful angels in front of him.”
Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges, school Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson and Fire Chief John Fruetel attended as did several faith leaders, the children’s teachers, friends and family from around the country.
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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - The St. Paul Police Department is now allowing employees to wear a police-issued hijab headscarf, according to an announcement Saturday.
St. Paul Police Chief Thomas Smith said he knows of only one other department in Washington, D.C., that allows the hijab in the United States, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press (https://bit.ly/1gJtpFc).
Cities in Canada and Great Britain allow Muslim officers to wear police-issued hijabs while in uniform.
The St. Paul announcement comes in tandem with the recent hiring of their first Somali woman, Kadra Mohamed. She serves as a Community Liaison Officer.
Although the Twin Cities has the nation’s largest Somali-American population, Garaad Sahal was St. Paul’s first and remains the only sworn Somali-American police officer, joining in late 2012.
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