Abdi Warsame won a seat on the Minneapolis City Council Tuesday, riding an aggressive campaign to become the highest elected Somali official in the United States. The victory was significant because thousands of East Africans began arriving in Minneapolis two decades ago but had yet to elect one of their own to the City Council, a move that Warsame and his supporters hope will encourage more participation in civic life. Warsame secured 64 percent of first-place votes for the Sixth Ward seat. He defeated 12-year Council Member Robert Lilligren, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe who strove to show that he could connect with East African voters even if he didn’t share the same cultural background. He emphasized that he would address racial inequities. The ward spans Cedar-Riverside, Seward, Elliot Park, Ventura Village, and Phillips West. Warsame, who left Somali as a child and spent much of his life in the U.K., won the DFL endorsement in April and built a considerable edge going into Tuesday by spending weeks bringing East African supporters to the polls to vote early. “He might have generated more volunteer hours from those Somali people who are eager to participate in a democratic process than any of the mayoral campaigns,” said attorney Brian Rice, who is advising Warsame. “The [campaign] room is always packed.” startibune.com

BREAKING NEWS: We project Abdi to be the winner of Ward 6 city council seat.

Numbers are in ... so far Abdi is destroying the competition.

No results are in for Ward 6 yet. It is a matter of minutes ...

Tempers flare up as passionate voters head to the polls. http://www.startribune.com/video/230734481.html#/230734481/video/1/sfcri The polls are now closed. We should be seeing numbers trickling in.

Tempers flare up as passionate voters head to the polls. http://www.startribune.com/video/230734481.html#/230734481/video/1/sfcri The polls are now closed. We should be seeing numbers trickling in.

Lazy, the reason why Brian Coyle is not as busy is that most of Cedar-Riverside residents voted absentee. If I am not mistaken, approximately 1600 absentee votes were cast for Abdi Warsame. Your friend Lillgren had zero votes heading into today’s election. May I also remind you that Lilligan's entire election vote total the last time he won the ward is roughly the same as the number of early votes Abdi Warsame has in the bank. I am not saying Lilligren will not get any votes. I think his community (the LBGT community) will rally behind him, but his chances of being re-elected today are very slim. Having said that, I am fully aware this is politics and anything can happen. Let us wait and see how the numbers turn out.

LayZie G.;984523 wrote: 3) Mahamed A Cali 4) Abdi Addow 5) Sheikh Abdul 6) Abukar Abdi 7) Abdulahi Mahamud Warsame (withdrew his candidacy shortly after the filing) Lazy, the Abdi's you listed are most likely there to stop Abdi Warsame and are working with Lilligren's campaign. All evidence points to a dirty campaign orchestrated by a losing incumbent. His last ditch effort is to divide the Somali vote and keep the status quo. The Abdis above have no campaign committees and have only registered to run - which any eligible citizen can do for a small fee. I was searching for the original article I read about the "multiple Abdis" suddenly showing up, but I found something better. Here is a video of Abdi himself calling Lilligren out for his dirty tactics.

The election is Tuesday, November 5th. The internal numbers coming our are very very promising. The momentum is clearly on Abdi Warsame's side. History will be made. Please go out and vote. Follow the results right here after the polls close.

The election is Tuesday, November 5th. The internals numbers coming our are very very promising. This momentum is clearly on Abdi Warsame's side. History will be made. Please go out and vote. Follow the results right here after the polls close.

He seems to enjoy the verbosity.

The man being investigated by Norwegian police over the attack on Kenya's Westgate shopping centre is Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow, BBC Newsnight has learned. The 23-year-old Norwegian citizen of Somali origin is suspected of helping to plan and carry out the attack. BBC Newsnight has spoken to a relative of his in Norway who said he left the town of Larvik for Somalia in 2009. At least 67 people died in the attack in Nairobi, which the al-Qaeda linked group al-Shabab says it carried out. Last week Norway's intelligence agency, the PST, said it had sent officers to Kenya to verify reports that a Norwegian citizen had been involved in the assault on the shopping centre, which began on Saturday 21 September and lasted four days. It is unclear how many militants were involved. Police had initially estimated that there were 10-15 attackers inside the complex, but the CCTV footage which has so far been released by the Kenyan authorities shows just four men. Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow is believed to be one of those four, the BBC's Newsnight programme has learned from sources in Kenya and Norway. The revelation that at least one of the Nairobi shopping mall attackers has spent time living in Europe may sound shocking but it was perhaps inevitable. There are around 23,000 Somalis in Norway, making it the largest of the country's refugee communities. The vast majority have no connection with terrorism. Norwegian investigators estimate that between 20 to 30 ethnic Somalis have left Norway to go and fight in Somalia - that's just one in 1,000. Counter-terrorism officials do say though that al-Shabab, the Somali insurgent group that carried out the Nairobi attack, appears to have stronger links to Norway than with most other European countries. They suspect there is an established "pipeline" for those wishing to travel to Somalia, transiting through the refugee camp of Dadaab in eastern Kenya. Ikrimah, the al-Shabab commander whom US Navy commanders narrowly failed to capture in southern Somalia this month, spent years in Norway, trying unsuccessfully to claim political asylum there. Dhuhulow was born in Somalia, but he and his family moved to Norway as refugees in 1999. One relative, who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity, said that Dhuhulow left for Somalia in 2009. He made infrequent, increasingly erratic, phone calls to the family, they said, the last one coming in the summer when he said that he was in trouble and wanted to return home. On being shown the CCTV footage of the Kenya attackers by Newsnight, Dhuhulow's relative said: "I don't know what I feel or think... If it is him, he must have been brainwashed." Reporting for Newsnight, Gabriel Gatehouse travelled to the coastal town of Larvik, 120 km (75 miles) south of Oslo, where Dhuhulow's family made their home. Morten Henriksen, one of the family's former neighbours, has not seen Dhuhulow for years. "He was pretty extreme, didn't like life in Norway… got into trouble, fights, his father was worried," Mr Henriksen said of Dhuhulow as a teenager. When shown the CCTV footage of the four Kenya attackers he said that the one dressed in a black shirt or jacket could be Dhuhulow. 'Falling between cultures' Forensics investigators work next to the collapsed upper car park at the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi The deadly assault on the Westgate shopping centre lasted four days Stig Hansen, an expert on security and political Islam based in Norway, told Newsnight said that he was not surprised to learn that a Norwegian citizen was suspected of taking part in the attack. He said that an estimated 20-30 Norwegians had gone to Somalia to sign up as fighters for the Islamist militant group al-Shabab. "The biggest problem is the so-called 'Generation 1.5', those who weren't born in Norway, but came when they were quite young, falling between two cultures," he said. "[Al-Shabab] need people who are quite ignorant about Somalia. That is in their interest because that will give them a more internationalist agenda. And it might also make them more dangerous when they return back to their home countries," he added. There have been reports that a Kenyan al-Shabab leader whom US commandos targeted in a raid in Somalia on 5 October, but failed to capture, may have spent time in Norway. Norway's TV2 reported that Abdukadir Mohamed Abdukadir, also known as Ikrima, had travelled to Norway and applied for asylum in 2004 but left in 2008 before there was a decision on his application. Norwegian officials have not commented on the claims. Watch the full report in Newsnight on BBC Two at 22:30 BST on Thursday 17 October and on BBC iPlayer (UK only) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24569512

Read it on NYT What is her contribution?” asked Khursheed Dada, a worker with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, which governs Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, including Swat. That cynicism was echoed this week across Pakistan, where conspiracy-minded citizens loudly branded Ms. Yousafzai a C.I.A. agent, part of a nebulous Western plot to humiliate their country and pressure their government. Muhammad Asim, a student standing outside the gates of Punjab University in the eastern city of Lahore, dismissed the Taliban attack on Ms. Yousafzai as a made-for-TV drama. “How can a girl survive after being shot in the head?” he asked. “It doesn’t make sense.” The reaction seemed to stem from different places: sensitivity at Western hectoring, a confused narrative about the Taliban and a sense of resentment or downright jealousy. In Swat, some critics accused Ms. Yousafzai’s father, Ziauddin, of using his precocious daughter to drum up publicity and of maligning Pashtun culture. Others said the intense publicity had cast their district in a negative light, overshadowing the good work of other Pakistanis in education. Dilshad Begum, the district education officer for Swat, said that 14,000 girls and 17,000 boys had recently started school after an intensive door-to-door enrollment campaign led by local teachers. The threat from the Taliban was exaggerated, she added. “I have been working for female education for 25 years, and never received a threat,” she said. Even fellow students seemed to resent the recognition Ms. Yousafzai has received. At another school, a group of female students, assembled by their headmaster, agreed that Ms. Yousafzai did not deserve a Nobel Prize. “Malala is not the only role model for Pakistani girls,” said Kainat Ali, 16, who wore a black burqa.

That is not fair.

The country will be fragmented along regional states. SL, PL and JL are already realities (with minor teaks) that cannot be reversed. With the presence of AMISOM, and Alshabaan the rest of the country will take time to develop solid political entities. And that in turn will mean Somalia as many of us had hopped will not be. It will be very difficulty to envision a federated Somalia when significant portion of Somali population oppose the federalism framework (even though the constitution mandates it). Equally hard to imagine is how a central authority could ever develop the political legitimacy and legal mandate needed to govern when plurality of the country is quite resolved to implement federalism. Had it not been current SFG's intransigence and arrogance, this stalemate would have been mitigated. President Hassan and Prime Minister Shirdon have indeed underestimated the effect of civil war on the country and how the significant demographic change in Mogadishu affects any future political framework in the country. The situation is so bad, trust so lost, that even if the leadership genuinely attempts now to right the situation, success will be limited at best, if not unachievable. Xiinoow, that sums up of how I see things Awoowe. The hopelessness that Somali people feel about the current leadership is quite unprecedented. Timakalajeex!

Thanks for the update Alpha. The team is busy with absentee/early voting efforts.

Somali professionals propel Warsame to top tier of money getters in race for Minneapolis City Council By Tom Gitaa, Mshale September 13, 2013 Abdi Warsame, seen here with his daughter, is the DFL endorsed candidate for City Council Ward 6 in Minneapolis. He is one of the top money raisers in Campaign Finance reports filed. Cab drivers, IT workers and a host of the self-employed have catapulted Minneapolis City Council candidate Abdi Warsame to the top tier of candidates in the city in terms of fundraising. Should he win the election in November, he will be the city’s first Somali City Council member. Somali-born Warsame is the endorsed Democratic Party (known as the DFL in Minnesota) candidate for the sixth Ward in Minneapolis after the incumbent Robert Lilligren withdrew from endorsement consideration at the DFL convention in the spring. Lilligren challenged the party’s endorsement of Warsame citing irregularities at the caucus but the State party upheld Warsame’s endorsement. Warsame’s campaign filed its campaign finance report last week as required by law, and it shows for the reporting period in question (January 2013 to August 2013), his campaign raised a total of $11,700 from 45 individuals and total year to date revenues for the campaign totaled $24,835 against year to date expenses of $14,679. The campaign has a healthy cash balance of over $10,000. All donors to his campaign during this period gave a minimum of $200 with the majority giving $300 each. Warsame’s main challenger, the incumbent Robert Lilligren, in the January-August period that the law requires filing for, had raised $9,250 from 39 individuals and year to date money raised amounted to $15,925 against expenses of $18,295. The campaign reported a cash balance of just over $10,000. The law caps contribution limits at $500 per individual for Minneapolis mayoral races. Warsame is not only proving adept at organizing the community to garner votes which resulted in winning the party endorsement, he is also proving equally successful at attracting money to finance the campaign. His cash haul, generated almost exclusively from within the East African community puts him at the near top in fundraising in all of the city’s 13 wards. The cash haul signals the Somali community’s intent to put their money where their mouth is. They have become an important voting bloc in Minneapolis to ignore with some elections in the city becoming impossible for candidates to win without support from it. The sixth ward in Minneapolis which Warsame is vying to represent is a case in point with Somalis consisting of one of the largest voting blocks Only two other candidates in all of the candidates running in Minneapolis’ 13 wards have more money at hand than Warsame. Both are veteran council members. Campaign Finance law requires campaigns to indicate a contributor’s employer and for Warsame it runs the gamut. Contributors listed some of the state’s largest counties as their employers with professions ranging from IT, nutritionists and a sprinkling of professional managers with familiar Somali sounding names. Warsame who has a Masters degree in International Business from Middlesex University in the United Kingdom where he grew up, has also attracted support from business owners in the Cedar-Riverside area, both Somali and non-Somali, who have given to his campaign. © 2013 Mshale

Even the Telegraph is running with this story. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10322578/Sex-Jihad-raging-in-Syria-claims-minister.html

This must be the worst form of anti-islamic propaganda.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/variety/2013/09/20/Tunisia-says-sexual-jihadist-girls-returned-home-from-Syria-pregnant.html Tunisian girls return home pregnant after ‘sexual jihad’ in Syria A number of Tunisian girls who had travelled to Syria for "sexual jihad" A number of Tunisian girls who had travelled to Syria to perform “sexual jihad” there have returned back home pregnant, Tunisian Interior Minister Lotfi Bin Jeddo said on Thursday. The Tunisian girls “are (sexually) swapped between 20, 30, and 100 rebels and they come back bearing the fruit of sexual contacts in the name of sexual jihad and we are silent doing nothing and standing idle,” the non-partisan minister said during an address to the National Constituent Assembly. Bin Jeddo said the interior ministry has banned 6,000 Tunisians from travelling to Syria since March 2013 and arrested 86 individuals suspected of forming “networks” that send Tunisian youth for “jihad” to Syria. The minister hit back at human rights groups criticizing the government’s decision to ban suspected “jihadists” from travel. Most of those slapped with travel bans were less than 35 years old, he said. “Our youths are positioned in the frontlines and are taught how to steal and raid (Syrian) villages,” Bin Jeddo said. Former Mufti of Tunisia Sheikh Othman Battikh said in April that 13 Tunisian girls “were fooled” into travelling to Syria to offer their sexual services to rebels fighting to overthrow the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. The mufti, who was dismissed from his post days afterwards, described the so-called “sexual Jihad” as a form of “prostitution.” “For Jihad in Syria, they are now pushing girls to go there. 13 young girls have been sent for sexual jihad. What is this? This is called prostitution. It is moral educational corruption,” the mufti told reporters. In August, general director of the public security service Mostafa Bin Omar said a “sexual jihad cell” was broken up in an area west of the country where al-Qaead fighters holed up. Bin Omar told reporters that al-Qaeda affiliate Ansar Shariah was using minor girls, dressed in the full face cover to offer sexual services for jihadist male fighters.

This is unbelievable!