Those are words you don’t expect to see strung together:
In the first wave of Somalis who left were men whose uprooted lives resembled those of immigrants in Europe who have joined the jihad. They faced barriers of race and class, religion and language. Mr. Ahmed, the 26-year-old suicide bomber, struggled at community colleges before dropping out. His friend Zakaria Maruf, 30, fell in with a violent street gang and later stocked shelves at a Wal-Mart.
If failure had shadowed this first group of men, the young Minnesotans who followed them to Somalia were succeeding in America. Mr. Hassan, the engineering student, was a rising star in his college community. Another of the men was a pre-med student who had once set his sights on an internship at the Mayo Clinic. They did not leave the United States for a lack of opportunity, their friends said; if anything, they seemed driven by unfulfilled ambition.
“Now they feel important,” said one friend, who remains in contact with the men and, like others, would only speak anonymously because of the investigation.
We’ve given away the myth of the melting pot in favor of cultural anomie. Now pre-med students are wandering around the dystopian warrens their parents flew from with AK-47s and suicide belts.
Better now? Or worse?
May they all self-detonate prematurely. Losers, every one.
this is no longer your grandfathers oldsmobile…err…country
I’m more concerned with just who in the heck is here in Minnesota convincing them to go back to Somalia and fight for jihad.
So sad.
Not really surprised. Just recently read Clash of Civilizations by Sam Huntington (written pre-/11) and he wrote that this would be the trend. I remember when in college in 1998 the class almost laughed that at his book that religion would be the source of conflict. Not so sure its a funny matter right now. Also, college can be a lonely experience for some people and it will just reinforce their own values and views. I remember a quote from his book which i think is appropriate here: “[The] West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion, but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do —— The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, p.51″ Bottom I dont think 4 years at a our liberal colleges will help to transform foreign students but will most likely reinforce their views of the US and reinforce their own worldview.
That old saw about leading a horse to water is true, I think. That’s why it’s an old saw. We’ve all known folks who, even when offered great opportunities to grow and achieve, just stubbornly want to hunker down in the misery that works for them. We tend to say, “see how nice it is here?” But they don’t want [strange] nice. They want familiar.
Guess it was too soon for them.
Marianne
Sadly reminiscent of the young muslim doctors who participated in the attempted attack on the Glasgow airport a few years ago.
Good riddance.
Note that two of the three were shot in the front of the head.
Sorta the same fate as befell the three pyrates in the same neighborhood.
Just a coincidence? Ya think?
Hope they start to wonder about that. Maybe they are being ratted out by some other jihadis. You never can trust them…
I don’t believe in moderate Islam. I have never seen any manifestation it. I should not write about this topic. arglebargle..aojtgoaihgtoi[hr4
I have many fond memories of Minnesota, ranging from art shows My Good Wife has attended to that time back in college where I met the most pretty young Norwegian valkrie who taught me a lot about myself, most notably that a guy could get hurt chasing impossible dreams… And I cannot rule out the occassional beer run to New Ulm, where Schell brewery is only to happy to load a couple of kegs into the pickup and toss in a T-shirt or pitcher for my trouble. Nice town, clean, heavily German in both populace and attitude. It’s clean, tidy, organized. Police are there but are largely unneeded. It’s a little bit of Bavaria in the northern Midwest. And they do know how to make great beer.
Good riddance. Minnesota is presently saddled with Al Franken as their voice in congress, it is best that such buffoonery remain in the political and immigrant populations, where it can more easily be seen as the anomaly rather than the rule.
I was rather suprised to note in college that the old adage that birds of a feather stick together was the rule. Black students congregated with other black students, but judging from the accents the black students from Chicago and those from Africa were two different groups. Likewise, those students from Mesopotamia and Arabic lands tended towards others with similar histories. White students didn’t seem to carry much baggage as to who they befriended, but I noticed that there was a decided rural/urban split among the groups.
Perhaps this isn’t a problem with the melting pot idea and rather a problem with humanity. If your history means that much to you, a melting pot might not seem such a great idea.
– Max
It’s easy to forget that America has been raising it’s own radicals for a long time now. Just in my lifetime, there’s the Puerto Ricans who planned to bomb Congress, the Students for a Democratic Society, and the skin head types that managed to bring down a Federal building right here. Oh, and let’s not forget POTUSs mentor, Mr. Ayers.
And you guys have a hard time believing this story?
Byron/
How could you “forgot” (to use the Cajun phrasing) to throw in the Black Panthers and the SLA-Symbionese Liberation Army–for good measure? You’re slipping, my good man.
Forgot dis not, me, just don’ won’ ‘barass you.
Trying to teach your grandpere how to pinch tails, Virgil?
Worse, Minnesota brought us Garrison Keillor. No wonder its newest guests want to kill themselves.
And as for that part about the kids being “innocent victims” in Somalia, it ain’t true. Ain’t true at all. ‘Nuff said.
I have a simpler explanation – that pre-med student just found out he’ll be working for Obama-care… and well… “can’t take much more, Captain!“