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Nin baa masaajid ka eedaami jirey oo uu mu’addin ka ahaa. Subaxdiina seyladda xoolaha ayuu u dillaal tegi jirey, si uu quutal daruurigiisa uga soo saaro.  waxa uu iibiyaa xoogaa xoolo ah oo dillaalka uga soo baxa  iskaga bixiyo biilka qoyskiisa. Haddaba maalin maalmaha ka mid ah ayaa suuqii xooluhu xumaaday oo waxba laga iibsan waayey wadaadkii. Wuu yaabay oo talaa ku cadaatay. Isaga oo gadhkiisii u ekaa sonkorta iyo shaaha madow ee la isku daray rifaya oo bidaar aad mooddo madaar diyaaradi soo degayso kolba salaaxaya, ayuu u tegay dillaal kale si uu bal xaalkiisa isna wax uga ogaado oo hadduu wax dhaamo bal shaxaad iyo qadadiisa ugu yaraan uga helo. Haddaba intaanu u tegin ayuu laba orgi oo loo sii dhiibtey oo laga iibsan waayey meel ku sii xidhay. Ninkii dillaalka ahaa ayuu cabbaar ag joog joogay, waxaanu  ogaaday in aanu ninkan laftiisu  waxba dhaamin oo isba maanta qatan yahay. Waxa uu ku laabtay halkii labada orgi ugu xidhnaayeen. Markuu meeshii soo gaadhay ayaa wuxuu arkay labadii orgi ee uu kaga tegey oo aan meeshii kuba xidhnayn. Cabbaar buu baadh-baadhay ilaa markii danbe uu arkay iyadoo ay labadii orgi ay adhi kale dhex galeen. Ninkii adhiga watey buu…

Growing up deaf in a hearing family, Fardowsa Ali never had access to a sign language, lip-reading or any other forms of communication. In Somalia and Kenya, where she spent the first 27 years of her life, deafness can be a major setback to having an active life. For Ali, it meant not going to school and living in isolation — even in a house full of people. But in 2006, Ali immigrated to the United States, where she had discovered for the first time things she never knew existed: that she had a name and date of birth; that she has options to communicate with others; that she can do almost anything she wants — like going to work and earning her own income. “I can’t believe I didn’t know my name for many, many years,” she said through an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter. “I had nobody to teach me anything.” During the 11 years that she’s lived in Minnesota, Ali has achieved many milestones she once never thought possible. She became fluent in ASL, secured a part-time job at a UPS store and made friends in both the deaf and hearing communities. She and her friends have…

Somali Deportees File Suit against ICE Attorneys representing several Somali men facing deportation to Somalia filed a class-action lawsuit on Monday to block the deportations of 92 Somalis rounded up by immigration agents since Trump took office. The men and women were supposed to be in Somalia by now, but their cases became complicated when their flight returned to the United States, landing in Miami, after a brief stop in the West African country of Senegal. They are now in detention centers in Florida, and lawyers say the detainees could be deported as early as Wednesday. At least 10 of the 92 detainees are Minnesota residents. Somali Music from the 1970’s Nominated for a Grammy Somali Music from the 1970s and 1980s known as the “Golden Age of Music” has been nominated for a GRAMMY! Ostinato Records is reviving neglected and forgotten Somali music record tapes in Hargeisa and Mogadishu one cassette tape at a time. Sweet as Broken Dates: Lost Somali Tapes from the Horn of Africa was produced and compiled by Vik Sohonie and Nicolas Sheikholeslami. Nominated in the Best Historical Album category, the 15-track mixtape features Somali classics that document the vibrant music era of Somalia before the civil war broke out in 1991….

1. Amina Abdul Kadir Wins the Inaugural Women Peacebuilder for Water Peace Prize Amina Abdulkadir, a researcher from the Peace and Development Research Centre (PDRC), has won the inaugural Women Peacebuilder for Water (WPW) Prize for her contribution towards the resolution of water-related conflicts in Puntland. Amina, 31, accepted the award on September 27 in Milan, Italy, during the first annual ‘Rules of Water, Rules for Life’ summit, organized by Milan Global, and the Milan Center for Food Law and Policy. She was selected from a pool of ten finalists from Finland, Haiti, Italy, Kenya, Sudan, Somalia, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States. 2. Sada Mire Selected for the International Hay Festival List of 30 Thinkers and Philosophers The Hay festival is an event that brings readers and writers together for an opportunity to collaborate. Nobel prize winners, scientists and even politicians like Bernie Sanders make appearances. 30 inspiring and young novelists, scientists, philosophers, performers, and activists were selected for this year’s Hay festival. Sada Mire, an Archaeologist at the Faculty of Archaeology in Leiden, is one of these 30. In the next ten years, The Hay Festival will promote Sada Mire’s  work at their festivals around the world. In these years the…

On a recent evening in St. Cloud, an hour before the city council would debate the fate of a proposed moratorium on refugee resettlement in the city, Feisal Ali stood in the parking lot of the city’s largest Somali-American strip mall, trying to make sense of the controversial plan. As he thought about it, several passersby waved and shouted greetings as they walked into the mall, which serves as both a social and business hub for the growing Somali-American community in the region. They stopped by the Somali-owned Afya Pharmacy, or joined people chatting over tea, or squeezing into the packed coffee shop, where young men took turns playing dominoes. Later that evening, more than 300 people — Ali among them — gathered at St. Cloud’s City Hall, where city officials would discuss the proposed refugee resettlement ban. And though the moratorium wasn’t voted on — in fact, a resolution “in support of a just and welcoming community” passed in response to the proposed ban — the meeting nevertheless included discussions about the cost of having people born in other countries settle in St. Cloud. Even amid the expressions of support, though, Ali couldn’t help but notice what wasn’t much…

Minneapolis resident Ahmed Hirsi was only a few miles away from the powerful blast that killed hundreds of people in Mogadishu last Saturday. When he arrived on the scene, where a truck filled with explosives was detonated, Hirsi saw pavement covered in blood; bodies decapitated and shattered, burned beyond recognition. As the deadliest single attack in Somalia’s history, the explosions killed more than 300 people, including a Bloomington man — a death toll that’s expected to rise as crews continue to dig into the rubble for signs of life. Just hours before that fateful afternoon, Hirsi had posted smiling photos of himself on Facebook, urging young Somalis in the U.S., Europe and Canada to return to the East African country and get involved in efforts to rebuild it. On Monday, however, Hirsi returned to Minneapolis, still reeling from the shock of the bloody attacks that rocked Mogadishu, where he spent 10 days with a group invited by the Somali government to review parts of the country’s new constitution. Now, Hirsi — who is married to Minnesota state Rep. Ilhan Omar — is part of a growing effort led by various Somali-American individuals and organizations in the Twin Cities aimed at…

“Shark Tank” Like Event for Somalis Attracts Hundreds in Minneapolis On Thursday, September 21, over 150 people packed the Mcnamara event hall at the University of Minnesota for MinBar; a shark tank like event where investors seek to buy shares of companies. The event was organized by organizations and companies that include Dahabshiil, USAID, ARC, Affinity Labs and more. Contestants submitted hundreds of proposals and 6 entrepreneurs were chosen to pitch their ideas to the investors. The pitched ideas included a mobile tea shop, a dip sauce, a water bottle, a auto-dispensing tooth paste, and a water purifying system. Out of the 6 pitched ideas, the mobile tea shop (Dhake Jebiye) got the most money funding. The event concluded at 10pm. U.S Youth Observer to the U.N Has Been Named and She is a Somali-Minnesotan The United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA), in partnership with the U.S. Department of State, announced in July, Ms. Munira Khalif as the sixth annual U.S. Youth Observer to the UN. Khalif, a Minnesota-native and rising junior at Harvard University, was chosen from a competitive pool of nearly 350 applicants that included top-ranked university students and young professionals from across the…

By: Ibrahim Hersi East African and Muslim women in Minnesota escaping domestic abuse now have a place to find a safe haven in St. Paul: The Farhio House. “It took us seven years to create this center,” said Farhio Khalif, founder of the shelter. “We want to empower women. We want to tell them that it’s OK to come forward and talk to us about what they’re going through.” The Farhio House is part of Voice of East African Women(VEAW), a Twin Cities-based nonprofit that’s been providing immigrant women and families with legal services and wellness programs since 2012. The shelter, Khalif said, is the result of years of seeing an unusually high number of domestic abuse cases involving mothers and young girls in the Twin Cities’ East African community — experiences the women were often reluctant to talk about.   “I started talking to all these women in the community,” she said. “I realized that a lot of women were in abusive relationships. But they were not talking about it. They were not reporting it.” Khalif — who until several years ago was a producer and host of The Farhio Khalif Show, a program documenting the stories of Somali-Americans in Minnesota…

BY: Ibrahim Hersi, Minnpost Over the last several years, researchers and government officials from Europe and different parts of the U.S. have regularly visited the Twin Cities to learn about the East African Muslim community’s political and economic success. “Minneapolis is viewed around the world, particularly in Scandinavian countries where the Somali diaspora is growing, as a model for Somali integration,” writes Stefanie Chambers, a political science professor at Trinity College, in her recently published book comparing the Somali-American communities in Minneapolis and Columbus, Ohio. “Other American mayors, such as the mayor of Portland, Oregon, have visited Minneapolis to learn about policies that can help their cities better address the needs of Somali immigrants.” For all the talk of success and integration, however, the more common reality for Somali-Americans in Minnesota is more complicated, if less comforting. “From outside, the community seems to be doing really great,” said Ahmed Yusuf, a Minneapolis Public Schools teacher who’s written about Somalis in Minnesota. “But when you look deep down, we’re struggling big time, except for a few individuals who have risen above as the cream of the crop.” The Story of a Success Story The history of the Somali-Americans in Minnesota echoes that of…

Written by: Ibrahim Hersi When the Minneapolis police officer involved in the shooting of Justine Damond was identified last week as Mohamed Noor, Suud Olat’s iPhone lit up with calls and texts from journalists around the country. Most of them came from news organizations that were already familiar with the 25-year-old Somali-American, who has made a name for himself as an advocate for refugee communities during the three years he’s lived in Minnesota. This time, though, the journalists didn’t want him to talk about refugee issues; they wanted information about Noor, a Somali-American who shot Damond after she called 911 to report a suspected sexual assault. Olat talked to reporters from several local and national media organizations — including the Star Tribune, Minnesota Public Radio, The Associated Press, Voice of America and CBS News — about the one-time brief interaction he had with the officer some months ago in Minneapolis. Later, when his comments appeared in the news, Olat’s iPhone started to blow up again. This time, though, the calls didn’t come from journalists; they came from people he knew from the Somali-American community, almost all of them saying he should stop speaking to the media about the shooting. “The community…