NEAL C. LAURONDISPATCH
Hassan Omar of the Somali Community Association of Ohio is among those engaged in fighting homegrown terrorism. |
So far, two meetings have been held to build relationships and share information among Somali leaders and agencies including the FBI, Columbus police and the Franklin County sheriff's office.
Local Somalis and law-enforcement agencies are working together to prevent recruitment, said Hassan Omar, who leads the Somali Community Association of Ohio.
The U.S. attorney's office in Columbus also participated in the meetings, said spokesman Fred Alverson.
"Our role has been to help the Somalis in attendance to understand the U.S. laws that protect them and prohibit certain activities," he said.
Local Somali leaders and officials say there is no evidence that anyone here has been recruited to join al-Shabab, an extremist Muslim group in Somalia that the U.S. government said has ties to al-Qaida.
Al-Shabab, meaning "youth" in Arabic, controls large parts of southern and central Somalia.
Last month, federal authorities in Minneapolis unsealed charges against eight people who are accused of recruiting young men of Somali descent to join terrorist groups, paying for travel and attending training camps operated by al-Shabab.
"It is a new type of threat we're seeing: the homegrown terrorism network," said E.K. Wilson, an FBI special agent in Minneapolis.
A federal affidavit said FBI agents watched a YouTube video titled "Blow by Blow" that features a Minnesota co-conspirator in Somalia described as an al-Shabab member.
"Those who go back to Somalia failed life in America," Omar said.
Mahdi Taakilo, who publishes the Somali Link newspaper in Columbus, said: "The key is they have a lot of time on their hands. They can be misled."
The charges in Minnesota were filed as authorities continued to look into the disappearance of as many as 20 young Somali men from Minneapolis in 2007 and 2008.
Federal authorities said most of them traveled to Somalia to join al-Shabab.
The investigation has spread beyond Minneapolis.
"We have coordinated with every field office that has a significant Somali population," including Columbus, San Diego and Seattle, Wilson said.
Minnesota is home to the largest Somali immigrant population in the United States. Columbus ranks No. 2.
Napoleon Bell, the executive director of the Columbus Community Relations Commission, said he has not heard of any active recruiting in central Ohio.
"Our office is trying to educate the young people and their parents to prevent this from happening," Bell said.
The commission's efforts include a youth soccer tournament held this year and a summit where issues facing the Somali community were discussed.
The Somali Community Association of Ohio is sponsoring an empowerment program for young people from age 17 to 21 to build their reading, math and computer skills, prepare them for jobs and help with social and emotional needs.
And on Jan. 8, the association will host a forum urging young people to stay in school and remain hopeful about the future, said Ubah Ali, 21, a graduate of Linden McKinley High School and an international business major at Cleveland State University.
The new Somali government, led by President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, controls a small part of Mogadishu, the capital. Ahmed visited Columbus as part of an American tour in October, pleading for the diaspora to continue to send money home and fend off terrorists' efforts to recruit young men.
Omar said many young men and women of Somali descent don't follow what's going on in Africa. At the same time, he said, he wants to make sure they're not enticed to go back and add to the problems of the country.
"We left the violence to get a better life here," Omar said.
The FBI in Minneapolis has long reached out to the large Somali community there.
"But the events in Somalia over the past year and a half has identified for us, really, the need to enhance the contact in the community and expand the reach of those contacts," Wilson said.