Another Teenage Murder, Another Somali Suspect! Lord have mercy

[Paragon]

Youths bring violence from a war-torn land

By Ben Fenton and Mike Pflanz, East Africa Correspondent

(Filed: 20/05/2006)

 

 

The search for a youth of Somali origin in connection with the murder of Kiyan Prince will add to the woes of community leaders trying to dispel the association of immigrants from the Horn of Africa with violent crime.

 

In recent years, Somalis have been connected with some of the most high-profile murders in Britain and been on the receiving end of criticism from senior figures in other ethnic minority communities.

 

Mustafa Jama, 25, whose family is part of the large Somali population centred on a mosque in Plumstead, south-east London, is wanted for the murder of Pc Sharon Beshenivsky.

 

His 19-year-old brother, Yusuf, has already been charged with that crime.

 

One of the four men awaiting trial for the attempted suicide bombings on the London Underground last July 21, Yassin Hassan Omar, is a Somali.

 

Another Somali, Abdulrahman Osman, raped a 40-year-old woman shortly after he had been released from a three-year sentence for robbery, but had not been deported.

 

Last January, a 19-year-old Somali man was stabbed to death at a north London bus stop by other Somalis from a different part of the city.

 

In the past six months, Somali youths have been blamed by a Labour MP for a spate of street robberies in Southall, west London, and in south London tensions between Britons of Afro-Caribbean origin and Somalis were brought to public attention by Darcus Howe, a commentator on ethnic minority affairs.

 

Mohamud Gure, a community leader in Islington, north London, said: "We are very, very alarmed by what is happening to Somali youth in this country.

 

"This is the first generation of Somalis who have come into adolescence here and there is a great deal of frustration and poverty and alienation and anger.

 

"They are frustrated because they do not feel supported by the Somali community or by the Government and I think many are disillusioned by life here because they do not see Somali role models who have made successes of themselves."

 

Mr Gure, who trained as an economist before coming to Britain five years ago, said that the only role model young Somalis had was the BBC journalist Rageh Omar.

 

"They are confused. Really confused.

 

"The Government and the existing Somali community has to do something about this as a matter of urgency.

 

"There must be intervention at school level to give these youngsters a sense that they can achieve something in this country.

 

"Many of them still carry the trauma with them that they brought from Somalia as very young children.

 

"Some of them even saw their parents killed in front of them. Many have no father because he was killed in the chaos of Somalia.

 

"Some of them react by using violence, but it is only a very small minority because Somalis are a peace-loving people in general."

 

There are at least 100,000 Somalis in Britain, with up to 6,000 a year coming in as asylum seekers when the anarchy in their homeland grew worse in the late 1990s and early part of this century.

 

They did not as a rule move in among the settled Somali communities in cities such as Cardiff, Bristol, Liverpool, Hull and South Shields, whose presence was linked to the reputation of the coastal peoples of the Horn of Africa as good and uncomplaining seamen.

 

Two waves of Somali refugees have arrived, the first in about 1987 and the second, larger, following the civil war that erupted in 1993.

 

Somalia is considered to be one of the least stable countries in the world.

 

There has been no effective government since the overthrow of the military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

 

The capital Mogadishu normally tops lists of the worst places to live on the planet.

 

Even the limited government bodies that do exist consider it too dangerous to be based in "Mog".

 

There is no education ministry to teach children, no health department to hire doctors and no financial authority to regulate the economy or collect taxes.

 

Since Barre's departure, a plethora of powerful families and well-armed clans has fought constantly for influence, carving the country of eight million people into a patchwork of medieval fiefdoms.

 

bfenton@telegraph.co.uk

 

 

Kiyan was killed stopping a fight

 

 

Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright

[-Lily-]

Yes it is unfortunate,I just saw on the news that a 16 year old has been arrested in connection with the murder.

 

It isn’t enough that most are unemployed, cheating the system and living here as guests now they want to make their name in crime as well. The word ‘Somali’ is almost synonymous with criminality nowadays; with newspapers such as The Sun taking daily jabs at the community, I’m sure they will have a field day with this news.

 

I blame parents who send out a dangerous message to young Somali criminals, that they can evade justice and start a new life afresh under the sun elsewhere. A lot of the time, suspects are smuggled out of the country. As was the case of the Camden gang killing, where 5 of the suspects fled the country presumably with the help of their families, also, the man who shot the police woman is rumored to have left the country.

 

 

Poverty, bad housing, bad parenting, lack of knowledge in regards to the law. Just how many young Somalis know that you can get 5 years in jail for carrying a knife? Poverty is just no excuse, in Somalia there was poverty, you never saw people resulting to crime. And if they were born here how can they see violence? Were they not too young to remember such things?

 

How can you not know if your child is carrying a weapon to school? Or who his friends are? The murder has been failed by both teachers and family. What does it take for a youngster to take a knife to school?

 

Now all young Somalis will suffer as a consequence, Lord Help us all. This is truly depressing.

[Castro]

Parenting is tough no matter where it is conducted. An alien culture only fuels the difficulty of it.

 

Now, the article didn't say Somalis were anymore criminal than anyone else for that would be a blatant lie. Per capita, Somalis in the UK wouldn't even register on the radar of violent or petty crime. But in "recent years, Somalis have been connected with some of the most high-profile murders in Britain". Well who the fcuk is doing the "connecting"? And who is putting the spotlight on the community? What do they stand to gain from showing the community to be violent and ill-adjusted to life in the UK?

 

It is no secret that the less (economic and political) power an immigrant community has, the more they'd be assaulted in the media and elsewhere. "The Sun" would have a field day because they're waiting with megaphones on any Somali to spit on the sidewalk. The whole of Europe is engulfed in immigration debate, specifically the UK, with a minister already fired over immigrants and crime. It is no surprise then that, guilty or not, any association, however remote, of a Somali in any crime is front page news.

 

We are Muslim, we are black, we are loud and we are weak as a community but we are also very disproportionately visible as a community. And that last fact may not have anything to do with us. Let the British convince themselves, at the expense of the Somalis, that theirs is a rotten society at the core only because of Somalis. When in fact, Somalis are victims of its ills, not the perpetrators.

 

Edit: A war gone bad, an economy in the gutter, and a government (and its puppet media) losing favor with their constituency, who else could they blame for all the ills? Immigrants, that's who. In the US it's "illegals" crossing the border and in the UK it's knife-wielding Somali teenagers. From Moscow to Minneapolis and everywhere in between, immigrants are under siege. And they're the perfect scapegoats for bad foreign and domestic policies. It's ALWAYS been this way.

[Fiqikhayre]

^Go back where you came from!

[-Lily-]

^^^I actually thought he made some good points, laakin the avarage pub-going-working white Brit won't think that way.

[Castro]

Originally posted by Sakhar:

^Go back where you came from!

In due time, atheer. In due time.

[Fiqikhayre]

Inshallaah Adeer. Wish you all the best!

[winnie]

this is really silly why do the bad apples HAVE to represent us? its bad enough the mass media likes to pigeon hole minorities into tight two dimensional boxes but we dont have to accept it

[Strawberry_Xu]

Because we don't have as many high profile successes, it's easier to remember the Somali community for its failures, even though most of us are still going strong on the right side of the law. It's not fair, but it's understandable, like Castro pointed out, we're black and muslim and immigrants, as scapegoats we couldn't be more perfect.

 

However, I live in one of the areas mentioned, and it is scary how little a lot of Somali parents care for their teenage kids. These boys (some of them as young as 9 or 10) gather together in gangs and continue to roam streets until well past 3am. Now tell me, since we Somalis are supposed to be so family oriented, why are the parents either not noticing or not caring that their young boys are not in bed. A lot of them have no problem telling their daughters off if they get home past 6pm or if she's wearing make-up. Yet their sons are allowed the 'freedom' to get themselves in trouble. (To be fair, I know some parents who simply can't control their kids, and they're finished with them, but seriously, a lot seem to just not care).

 

Maybe it's this mentality that boys can take care of themselves, whereas girls need protecting. It's bullsh*t of course, but it's really really scary how profoundly unaware some Somali parents are of what their kids are going through and what they are up to.

 

I don't want to be all The Sun like, but in this case, I'm inclined to place some blame on the parents.

[JUSTICE]

Family ,Family ,Family

It's all start from home. If you are from a dysfunctional home, then you are more likely to have a dysfunctional future.

 

Why mothers and fathrs are not loving each other no more. when kids see their mom and dad they relate to them. IF the father is chewing all night and sleep all day and not concerned about his family, and the poor mom running around trying to fix and mend what is left of her family. Guys all I can see is that the most families in the somali community are going in to the point of nowhere. The problem that I've seen the most os that parents are not willing to spend money on their kids. they save the money so they can spend it back home , to build 100,000$ house that they not gonna live in !!!!!!

This make me go mad..........

[Fiqikhayre]

The only fault, parents got is: Bringing/giving birth to their kids in this country in the first place!

 

We don't get out nothing from bringing our children up in "luxuary"!

 

Even the arabs during our prophets time (peace be upon him), knew that if children are allowed to grow up in cities, they're more likely to become useless and weak citizies of the community comparing to their peers, who grew up in the countryside/desert!

 

That's why our prophet was sent to the desert, in order to perfect classical arabic and to become strong, as children, who grew in cities were more likely to become "not so bright people", who couldn't speak properly in other words they were/are handicap and that's what our children will end up becoming!

 

Only the people Allaah willed and ordained to become guided will be guided and the tied/current is too strong for the kids to resist, as they live in a society, that is not theirs!

 

The best thing to do is to return back to our country and make our children shephards until they five and six, in order to master our beautiful language and become strong and useful citiziens of our society!

[Sharmarkee]

Originally posted by JUSTICE:

Family ,Family ,Family

It's all start from home. If you are from a dysfunctional home, then you are more likely to have a dysfunctional future.

 

Why mothers and fathrs are not loving each other no more. when kids see their mom and dad they relate to them. IF the father is chewing all night and sleep all day and not concerned about his family, and the poor mom running around trying to fix and mend what is left of her family. Guys all I can see is that the most families in the somali community are going in to the point of nowhere. The problem that I've seen the most os that parents are not willing to spend money on their kids. they save the money so they can spend it back home , to build 100,000$ house that they not gonna live in !!!!!!

This make me go mad..........

 

^^

Justice,

That people building 100 grand dollars on a waterless and electric less hillside backhome are the same people having their aroos party in Heathrow Sheraton, or parklane hilton,while they are on caydh payroll. they are just Fake community and their kidds ain't no better - fake kids too

[Cindrella]

I blame the fathers for everything that goes wrong in the family.Nowadays somali community the term "father figure"no longer exisit walaahi.Somali fathers are not what they were in Somalia.All they do is sit home chew 24/7 with they're buddies and dont know shit about what they're children are going throught.Its a hard world out there,and the children are doing everything they can even if it means husting or killing folks.If parents arent involve in they're children lives.I dont think the crimes in the somali community would stop soon.From the looks of it i doubted i'll even stop.

 

MONKEY SEE MONKEY DO.KIDS DO WHAT THEY SEE ON RAP VIDEOS THINKING BEING A CRIMIAL IS THE SHIT.

[Resistance]

Well well he we go again ... why the Somlis u wonder huuh the problem is not easilly fixable and there will more examples of such events.

 

whats the answer u wonder .. well i do wonder that myself, there is no quick fix or easy solutions. but there is one simple fact in this , we Somlis do not have within our ourselves those indivuals capable of tacklings the social and educational problems children are facing today.

 

as long as communites are being run by self-serving middle aged man ( whose own family are on benefits) the problem will always exist.

 

yes u will see the next few days the mad rush of few Somalis ( some with good intentions others lookin to please their paymasters ) attempting to tackle this once again, and after few weeks it will long forgetten till something similar happens.

[Paragon]

Time graduates and undergrads take an active role within the community. Atleast that is worth mentioning.