Minneapolis : Al-Shabaab ambushed, the Somali community ready to pounce
Nairobi, September 21-24th, 2013: Four Somali gunmen from al-Shabaab attack the Westgate shopping mall and kill 67 people. A Twitter message implicates Minneapolis: two of the assailants might have been raised in Minnesota. At the same time, cameras surround “Little Mogadishu”, home to more than 100,000 Somalis, the largest community in the western world. The tweet was wrong and the diaspora’s leaders condemned the attack, but to no avail. Nobody can forget that since 2007, up to 50 young Somalis have left Minnesota to join Al-Shabaab in the Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. The terrorist group even circulated a video especially targeted at Minneapolis, a city that has provided the first known suicide bomber with American citizenship. Today, the jihadist threat is the FBI’s top priority in the Twin Cities. However, the Somali community cries innocent. For years now, Somali refugees have worked hard for a slice of the American dream. Many would like to portray Minneapolis as a haven for extremists, but it’s been able to integrate outsiders much more efficiently than cities in Europe.
Text : Dorothée Moisan
Photos : Jonathan Alpeyrie
http://www.jonathanalpeyrie.net
