There was a report on the blog “Islam in Europe” about Somali Swedes heading terror groups.

Patrick Poole emailed me after reading the blog entry noting: “the leading Swedish Somali imam is a former Columbus, Ohio imam who incorporated the North American Council of Somali Imams”.

The Islam in Europe blog cited the Somali terror connections:

Journalist and blogger Per Gudmundson revealed last week that two Somali-Swedes are top members of one of Somalia’s newest and deadliest terror groups, Hizbul Islam (The Islamic Party). One of them was arrested last year by the Swedish authorities on charges of terror financing, but was released due to lack of evidence (In Swedish, here and here.)

Both The Local and The Long War Journal reported extensively on this story, based on Gudmundson’s report. Gudmundson was kind enough to update with me more info, which I bring here, putting together additional facts.

Three Somali-Swedes were arrested on charges of terror financing in February, 2008 as part of a joint Swedish-Norwegian operation. One of these was Yassin Ali (Baynax), then 42, a high ranking member of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS) who lived in the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby. Apparently, Ali was the same man in whose house police, in a previous raid, discovered a map of Lars Vilks’ house and documents on military night-vision binoculars.

Gudmundson noted the alignment of Somali terror group Hizbul Islam with Al Shabaab and Swedish indifference to Somali terrorist accusations.

In late February the Hizbul Islam joined forces with Al Shahaab in the battle with the African Union (AU) peacekeepers that left nearly 50 dead and 300 wounded. Not only do Shabaab and Hizbul Islam reject the AU, they also reject President Sharif and his faction of the ARS for reconciling with the Somali government.

Gudmundson also noted that revelations of a Swedish citizen leading an Islamic terrorist group in Somalia hadn’t gotten much attention in the Swedish press or among Swedes in general.

While news about Africa seldom attracts a great deal of attention, he theorized that Swedes’ views about citizenship may also have something to do with the general lack of awareness of Ali’s case.

“In the eyes of most Swedes, a Swedish citizen of Somali origin is simply considered Somali,” he said.

“Swedes don’t really think it has anything to do with them.”

Not so different from the politically correct views on display at the recent US Senate HSGAC hearings on Al Shabaab recruitment of naturalized American Somali youths to become Jihadi fighters in Somalia.

Poole noted in a call the high level of chatter on US hosted Somalia émigré websites, including fronts for Al Shabaab, that were very concerning to local Counter Terrorism cadres in major centers in the US. We noted the swarming attack threats posed by homegrown Somali Jihadis in a letter to the US Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee staff.

Apparently the Congress , FBI and National Homeland Security groups think this is just ‘nationalist’ leanings, as reported by Poole in as Pajamas media article, entitled: “What Senators Didn’t Hear About Somali-American Jihadists’. Poole’s conclusion is prescient:

Anyone following this issue closely in recent months knows the potential danger Somali jihadists carrying American passports pose to our national security, but you wouldn’t get that impression listening to Wednesday’s hearing. If Senator Lieberman and his Homeland Security Committee colleagues want to avoid a potential homegrown 9/11, they’re going to have to circumvent the official channels and the politically correct agency propaganda to get an accurate assessment of how serious the threat is and how rapidly it is growing.

Both we in the US and Swedes in Eurabia delude ourselves about the Somali Jihadi threat at our peril.