Al Shabaab may have murdered Minneapolis recruit in Somalia
FoxNews, reported the second death of a Somali American youth from Minneapolis, 17 year old Burhan Hassan in Mogadishu , Friday. Hassan may have been recruited for the Taliban-like Al Shabaab militia in Somalia at the Abubakar As-Saddique Mosque in Minneapolis. Hassan's uncle, Osman Ahmed testified at a US Senate Homeland Security and Government Committee (HSGAC) hearing in March about his nephew, Hassan and accusations against the Mosque's Imam, who was put on a government 'no-fly' list. We reported Ahmed's testimony in the June NER article, "Foot Soldiers of Islam", the basis of a presentation made at the recent Nashville, Tennessee Symposium, "Understanding Jihad in Israel, Europe and America." Last December, the remains of another Minneapolis Somali American, 27-year old Shirwa Ahmed, a suicide bomber who took the lives of 29 others in Somalia ,were returned for a funeral and interment. Both Hassan and Ahmed attended Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis. The FBI has been investigation the 'disapperance' of upwards of 40 Minneapolis area Somali American young men who were reported to have gone to Somalia.
Hassan's uncle Osman Ahmed in the Fox report noted:
"Someone who claimed (to be) a member of al-Shabaab called Burhan's mom Friday (afternoon) and said Burhan died Friday morning," Ahmed said. "Burhan's mom got shocked and (threw) the phone when she heard the story."
"Al-Shabaab assassinated Burhan and shot (him in) the head," the individual said, according to Ahmed.
A law enforcement official told FOX News on Sunday that one of the Somali-American men was recently killed in Somalia by artillery fire, but the official declined to release the man's name.
"My sister still is under shock," Ahmed said.
Ahmed accused the Abubakar As-Siddque Mosque leaders of recruiting his nephew for Al Shabaab:
"Like his peers, Burhan Hassan was never interested in Somali politics, or understood Somali clan issues," Ahmed said during testimony. "These kids have no perception of Somalia except the one that was formed in their mind by their teachers at (a local mosque). We believe that these children did not travel to Somalia by themselves. There must be others who made them understand that going to Somalia and participatingon the fighting is the right thing to do."
In the NER article we detail various methods for indoctrinating American Somali recruits for Al Shabaab: radical Mosques, internet chat rooms and even hip hop videos. Al Shabaab also appeared to be recruting Jailhouse converts to Islam as Jihadis, such as those caught in the New York City Temple Bombing plot.
Perhaps Senator Lieberman's HSGAC investigations into Muslim Extremism in America ought to address how Radical Imams, extremist Mosques in America and prison chaplains have been instrumental in recruiting Jihadis as home grown terrorists for 'service abroad' in Somalia and Yemen. These home grown Jihadis represent a 'clear and present threat' here in America upon their return. We note the death of an Army Private and wounding of fellow recruiter at a West Little Rock mall by, Carlos Bledsoe AKA Abdulhakim Muhammad, an American convert to Islam who traveled to Yemen, and who apparently frequented a radical Mosque in Columbus, Ohio. We hope that Senator Lieberman and his HSGAC colleagues will address this issue soon.
Posted on 06/07/2009 7:44 PM by Jerry Gordon
