The Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo) estimates that there are about 200 people in Finland who have contacts with violent groups abroad. Yle interviewed the father of one of them, a young Somali Finn linked to the extremist group Islamic State. According to Faisal Ali Warabe, a Somali-born Finn who reportedly died fighting in Syria earlier this year was his son’s cousin — and may have encouraged him to join the extremist group.
The Finnish Security Intelligence Service estimates that are some 200 people in Finland who have contacts with violent groups abroad.
Most of these individuals have links to extremist Islamist organisations, says Chief Inspector Tuomas Portaankorva of the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo). Interviewed by the Yle TV1 programme A-studio on Monday evening, he said some Finns have contacts with leaders of terrorist groups overseas.
Portaankorva says about 40 people have left Finland to fight in Syria, including native-born Finns.Yle’s A-Studio journalist Kyösti Hagert recently interviewed Faisal Ali Warabe, a resident of Finland and a former presidential candidate in his native Somalia. He has identified himself as the father of a Finnish jihadist who recently appeared in a propaganda video by the militant fundamentalist group that now calls itself Islamic State.
Warabe says he contacted Finnish police in the past to report fears that his son was becoming radicalised. He said that his son may have been encouraged to join the extremist militant group by his cousin — a Somali-born Espoo resident who reportedly died fighting in Syria earlier this year. The interview took place on July 4, with Warabe speaking from Hargeisa in Somaliland. Excerpts from the interview transcript follow.
“The internet caused my son to change”
Q: How did it feel when your son became an extremist?
A: I was extremely shocked because I was not expecting this from him. I cannot conceive what compelled him to do this. If I have to guess, [it was because] I was busy from 1992 with our country’s, Somalia’s issues. So I can say that the father’s role model was lacking.
Q: Are you disappointed by what your son has done?
A: I was deeply disappointed, I was even shocked.
Q: Earlier you told me that your son was reserved and a friend of the Finnish people. What happened then; why is he changed or what changed him?
A: First, it has been about three years since he has been practicing the religion. He started in 2010. It means that he is deeply schooled in the religion. Second, he used the internet and this is the place that caused my son to change. The Somali religious scholars in Finland are very good scholars and they try to shield them from extreme elements by keeping the Somali youth in hand.
Q: Today you said to me “I am giving parents a warning to be aware of what their children are doing and monitor their children’s time in the mosque”. Why?
A: First of all, when I look at Finland, it is an open country whose openness even extended to hiring religious teachers for the Somalis and for other Muslims as well. So I cannot see any reason that would drive our children to become radicals when they [the Finns] treated us so well. In my understanding the problem arises because [Somali] parents are not monitoring their children as well as they [Finnish parents] monitor theirs and not limiting the time that the children are in [Koranic] school. When [youngsters] say ‘I’m at school’, [parents] assume that they are in a safe place as it used to be and they cannot know who they’re in contact with. So I would like to tell parents to keep an eye on their children, particularly Somali parents should monitor their children. When they are using the internet, [parents] have to know what websites they are logging into or browsing. I know I was away from my son and I think my absence caused this problem.
Q: But going to mosque or to pray can’t turn someone radical or extremist?
A: First, the issue is not limited to Somalis in Finland or in Europe. A while ago I read in your newspapers that 40 people left Finland, 16 of them are originally foreigners and 24 native Finnish people who converted to Islam. This is a general phenomenon which is not only specific to us. After seeing this trend, it would be wise to keep an eye the children in the religion, the children that were previously brought into the religion to protect them from extremists, after we have seen the results of radicalism.
Passport renewed despite family’s warning
Q: How the police begin their investigation into your son’s militant connections?
A: I said ‘arrest him for me’ and he was arrested. When he escaped from Hargeisa [in north-western Somalia] I seized his passport and he went to Garowe [north-eastern Somalia] to get a passport after evading the soldiers guarding the house. We last spotted him when he was at Laas Caanood [Las Anod, northern Somalia] and I asked the government to detain him and they did. After that I bought him a ticket to return to Finland. At that time I came from [place deleted] to Finland. So I caught him but there is no one else who suspected he was a terrorist.
Q: But when you asked the police to detain your son, didn’t they investigate whether he had terrorist connections?
A: He was investigated. I said ‘Investigate his mobile telephone and his contacts’. His iPhone was screened, but they found nothing. I then asked them to send him to me in Finland. We informed the police of his return to Finland. They knew about him because we used to give them information. There were two policemen assigned to us to whom we used to give information. We said to them, ‘You see that we brought him back and we suspect him, so do not renew his passport’. But when the passports were renewed, they went to that place.
Q: Did the two policemen come to you there; did they came to you in Somaliland or not?
A: No, they used to come to the house, they used to contact my wife by coming and asking about the developing situation when he was arrested in Somaliland. The girl’s family [son’s wife] filed a complaint at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs saying that their daughter had been taken away and was missing. We told them [the Ministry] that no one has taken their daughter but they are married and that they [the son and his wife] returned to Somaliland and were under police investigation.
Q: In June a boy from Leppävaara [Espoo, Finland] who was a friend of your son’s, died in the war. Do you know anything about him?
A: He was his cousin, he was the son of my son’s uncle [maternal uncle]. He was there for two years, he was there one year before my son. He is the one who may have influenced my son and invited him to go there. We informed the government and the police about them. We asked them [police] not to renew his passport which was about to expire. They refused, saying that they found no evidence of crime. That cousin who died, may Allah be merciful unto him, influenced him.
Q: Do you know when his cousin became radicalised, or when he joined?
A: He left in 2012, before my son. When my son went to Somaliland, this cousin went to Syria. When I brought him back from Somaliland, [the cousin] contacted him.
Gaza and ISIS spread driving extremism
Q: Now that your son and his cousin got in to this danger, became extremists, is it possible that others could follow them?
A: There are two things encouraging extremism now: first what is happening in Gaza now, what Israel is doing there is encouraging it. The other is victories gained by ISIS, the places they captured are also encouraging. So it is possible these two issues may attract the young who do not know the religion well. But we maintain communication, we continue to try and regain our son and to restore his mind and goodness; that is what we want. Him and the other Finnish ones who are away, because we have to try hard to get back our people and work together as parents and with the government.
Q: Are there friends of your son and his cousin who are extremists?
A: No, no, not of our children. They carried out national military service [in Finland], he is the only one; may Allah show him the right path.
Q: How long has your son been in Syria?
A: He went in April or May last year.
Q: His wife is with him, and she is Finnish-Somali as well?
Q: He took her. Now, days before [they left] we were told that she is pregnant and we rejoiced because we assumed that he’d bring his wife back if she is pregnant. We were also told that she fasted [for Ramadan] in Turkey in order to bring him back but she did not find a way to get him to travel.
Q: How has her family reacted to her going with him and staying there?
A: We talked and contacted her but I think that her family have cut her off… It seems that way. We talk to her most and I do not know much about the relationship between the girl and her mother but we are in touch a lot. My son’s mother and siblings are in touch too, but I do not know about the relations in that family.
Q: What did your son said to his mother when she asked him to come home? Does he listen to his mother? What does he say when his mother contacts him?
A: I do not know what he said to her, but she contacted him daily, telling him to come….Once he attempted to leave Syria, but he did not get a way out because the border was closed. I do not know more than that.
Q: Have you talked to him?
A: No, I did not talk to him while he was there. The communication was through his mother and siblings. I did not talk to him.
Q: How did his mother keep in touch with him, the computer, by telephone, what did she use?
A: I guess with Facebook.
ISIS tightening grip in Syria
Q: If his children live there what kind of life would they live?
A: Actually, he was living in a village during the year he was there and there was no war. But now it seems that war is approaching and the government and ISIS will clash there. So now he is in danger. Our worry is the birth of the child, his wife and himself. Instead of worrying about two now, we are worrying about three, if Allah wills it.
Q: Syria is a dangerous place – do you think your son is in danger?
A: Danger was upon him from the time he arrived there. Once it was said that he was dead but later it was said that he is alive. Everyone dies but he is in danger. And I would like to stress that we need the government to give us a hand to ensure his return and the return of others. I am extremely worried. After he came out in the video, those who brought him there brought [the video] to him, it was seen all over the world, the danger increases. So I would like the government to help us on this issue, since he has not fought in a single war yet. He was working for the humanitarian side only, he has not yet seen combat. He was working on humanitarian grounds, collecting the wounded from battlefields. My son is not yet a real combatant.
Extremism is non-Islamic
Q: As a father, how you see extremism, is it good or bad?
A: Extremism is non-Islamic. I believe that people aiming to disgrace Muslims are behind these issues and that these [extremists] are being used. I mean indirect hands are involved in this issue to disgrace Islam. What they are doing now such as killing people, suicide bombing, killing Christians or non-believers is not written anywhere in Islam. That is shameful, according to our religion. During the era of the Prophet, peace be upon Him, Muslims and non-Muslims lived side by side. For example the Koranic Sura of the Unbelievers says that every nation has its own religion [“To you your religion, and to me mine”]. So, my view is that some people whose aim is to disgrace the Islamic religion are using these methods but this is not based on any Islamic vision; it is not an Islamic vision at all.
Q: If your son wanted join to a group, there is al-Shabaab in Somalia, why didn’t he join al-Shabaab instead of going to Syria?
A: I cannot answer that question, but whether they are in Afghanistan, Mali, Somalia or Iraq they have the same principles.
Q: Do you mean Syrian ISIS and Somali Al-Shabaab have the same principles?
A: They are the same, they share the same vision, because their basic goal is to establish an Islamic state. Killing people or dividing people into Christians and Muslims cannot be the basis for the establishment of Islamic states. But their vision is to rule places where Muslims live with Islamic Shari’a but their method is wrong.
