Minnesota: Muslim "recruited for jihad" returns from Somalia, FBI investigating

Recruited for Inner Spiritual Struggle, possibly in Minneapolis mosques. Note that Omar Jamal won't say who paid for the man's trip to Somalia. More on this story. "Somali man's return to Minn. has locals buzzing," by Abby Simons and Richard Meryhew for the Star Tribune, March 21.

A young Somali man from Minneapolis believed to have been recruited by a terrorist group to travel to his war-torn homeland has returned to Minnesota, a community leader said Saturday.

Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, said Saturday that the 22-year-old man was recruited for jihad before a change of heart led him to return in recent months. Jamal wouldn't confirm the man's identity, saying that he and his family fear for their safety and are in hiding. Others identified him only as Kamal.

The disappearances of perhaps a dozen young men from the Twin Cities have traumatized and divided the local Somali community.

Jamal also wouldn't say why the man went to Somalia or how he financed the trip, but said he apparently returned because "his expectation was not what he wanted when he went over there.
... I think he simply didn't like what he saw over there."

Jamal said the man has met with FBI investigators but is not in jail.

FBI special agent E.K. Wilson declined Saturday to comment about the development or the status of the travelers "because of the ongoing investigation," he said.

Federal authorities have been investigating the possible connection between terrorist groups and the disappearances of seven to 20 young Somali men in the Twin Cities since last fall, when Shirwa Ahmed, a 27-year-old college student from Minneapolis, blew himself up in Somalia in an October attack that killed up to 30 people.

Ahmed immigrated with his family to Minneapolis in the mid-1990s but returned to Somalia after he was recruited by a militant group, FBI Director Robert Mueller said last month. Mueller said that Ahmed had apparently been indoctrinated into extremist beliefs while living in Minneapolis....

Now we have one trained jihadist amongst us. Lets put a chip in him to make sure that we know where he is at all times.