The Minnesota Independent

Shirwa Ahmed - Latest Stories

Recruited for jihad?

By Paul Demko | 01.28.09 | 3:32 pm

Newsweek has a piece about the recent rash of Somali-American teenagers suddenly disappearing from their Minneapolis homes. The fear is that they are being recruited by radical Islamic groups to fight in their war-torn homeland. As many as 20…

Are jihadist groups luring Minnesota Somalis back to fight?

By Abdi Aynte | 12.23.08 | 3:18 pm

Burhaan Hassan was a fairly typical kid, the kind who asked his mother for $20 when he wanted to go see a movie on weekends. But on Election Day, while much of the world — including his single mother — was consumed by the historic election, the 17-year old and a handful of other Somali-American teenagers quietly boarded a plane to Kenya, en route to the front lines of a Jihad in Somalia. Law enforcement officials fear as many a dozen local boys have been lured by Islamist groups to fight.