Yearly Archives: 2009

MINNEAPOLIS - More than one hundred Somali Minnesotans held a rally on Friday to denounce Al-Shabaab, the hard-line Islamist insurgents in Somalia and a series of suicide bombings in their homeland.

The radical Islamic group Al-Shabaab has carried out several suicide bombings attacks on African peacekeeper’s bases and against government officials and clan leaders whom they suspect to be allied to a weakening Somali government led by their former ally, President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed.

The 2010 H-1B visa cap remains unfilled.  Each year, the U.S. government allocates 65,000 temporary employment visas for foreign-national workers engaging in “specialty occupations.”  Specialty occupations are jobs that require theoretical or technical expertise in a specialized field and a bachelor's degree or its equivalent.  Examples include engineers, computer programmers, and accountants.

Wilson Coker left his Nigerian homeland 17 years ago.  He now supervises a group home for Ramsey County, Minnesota.  Tuesday evening, although still dressed in business attire, he moves his hips in true Nigerian dance style.  He might have lost a bit of his accent, but he hasn’t lost the beat of traditional dance.

He came to the Minnesota Zoo on June 30^th to hear a favorite musician, King Sunny Adé who opened the evening of Nigerian music to a near-capacity crowd of over 1300 people.  He stayed to experience superstar Femi Kuti close the house.

Despite fears of distractions from  the missing Somali youth saga that has engulfed the Somali community in Minnesota, the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center held its 9th Annual Convention at the Minneapolis Convention Center over the  weekend where thirty speakers addressed 10,000 people over three days. Participants said it was encouraging to see the number of attendees, the breadth of topics, and the scope of talent.

God wants us to see life from His point of view.  This is truly the “view from the top”.  This is an expansive, sweeping view of the future landscape for our lives. 

CLARKSON, GA. -– In this small town on the edge of Atlanta, the FBI and local law enforcement are looking out for an alarming kind of crime: radical Islamist terrorists potentially trying to recruit the town's young Somali-Americans to fight a war in Africa.

There is terrorist recruitment taking place already in Minnesota, said Clarkston police chief Tony J. Scipio. That's why his department and the FBI are looking for anything similar in the Somali-American community here in Clarkston.

Editor’s Note: This editorial was produced in association with New America Media (www.newamericamedia.org), a national association of ethnic media, and was published by ethnic media across the country this week to bring attention to the urgency of immigration reform.

The White House and members of Congress must move quickly on enacting a just and humane immigration reform package that will reunite families, reinvigorate the economy, and remove the term “illegal or undocumented immigrants” from the dialogue in this country. Ethnic media, which reaches over 60 million adults in the United States, calls on Congress to move decisively on immigration reform because there are few issues as important to the nation's well-being as an overhaul of the inefficient, inhumane and economically debilitating immigration system.

ATLANTA, Ga. - Women immigrants must overcome formidable barriers when they first come to the United States, but their determination to hold their families together helps them overcome many of those obstacles.

Those are among the findings of a recent New America Media-commissioned national survey that pollster Sergio Bendixen shared with a tightly packed gathering here at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on June 5 at a forum, "Women in Ethnic Media Breakfast: Women Changing the Face of Immigration and Journalism."

The Minneapolis MOSAIC is launching its seventh annual celebration of the city’s diversity this weekend in downtown Minneapolis. The Twin Cities is home to immigrants and refugees from all over the world. Minnesota has a rich history of immigration, and new arrivals in the past several decades have introduced a blend of new cultures, perspectives, and people to the state. The Minneapolis MOSIAC hopes to capitalize on this diversity, and encourages the city to explore difference through artistic means.

^{Federal district courts continue to play a significant role in reviewing immigration cases, despite the passing of the REAL ID Act of 2005, which makes it more difficult to obtain judicial review of discretionary decisions by U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) and other government agencies.}

Transport Minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere said over the weekend that the coalition government in Kenya was stable despite what was portrayed in the press.”Sasa tuko katika hali ya kusikizana ki sawa sawa (we are in the process of being in agreement)”. The Minister was speaking to Kenyans in Minnesota gathered to celebrate Madaraka day at a local park. He is in the country to be part of the inaugural flight to Nairobi by Atlanta based Delta Airlines on June 2.