Abdirizak Ali Bihi, the Minneapolis man who testified Thursday at a congressional hearing about alleged radicalization of Muslims in the U.S., has been a lightning rod for criticism within the local Somali community.
He was praised Thursday for his work with Somali youth, by a woman who claimed he stalked and harassed her in a 2004 dispute over Somali terrorism.
And he is subject to a warrant for his arrest issued in Ramsey County last year for not completing terms of probation after a 2008 DWI conviction.
Bihi, 46, was called by U.S. Rep. Peter King, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security. The Minneapolis man spoke about his late nephew, Burhan Hassan, who Bihi said was among a group of Twin Cities men recruited by a terrorist group to fight in Somalia.
Hassan, 17, was reportedly killed in fighting in the Somali capital of Mogadishu in the spring of 2009. After his death, Bihi became a vocal opponent of what he claimed were efforts by local Somali Muslim leaders to lure young men to fight in Somalia for al-Shabaab, which the U.S. government considers a terrorist organization.
In a telephone interview, Bihi, co-founder of the Somali Education and Social Advocacy Center, said he believed he got his point across in the hearing.
"I think it was great," he said of the hearing. "Though the media was misled in the beginning that this was about a witch hunt, it was not. It was a platform that we had been begging for for a long time.
We've been looking for the opportunity to talk to the American public. It's not about Islam."
Bihi would not discuss his court cases, nor say whether he had informed King or the committee's staff about them.
"I've been dealing with big issues, and that is the death of young men and my nephew," he said.
A spokesman for King's office did not return a call for comment.
In 2004, the executive director of the Riverside Plaza Tenants Association went to court in Hennepin County to get a harassment restraining order against Bihi after he allegedly stalked and threatened her.
A judge granted the order after Frederica Scobey said Bihi led a group of women after her as she left a Somali Independence Day celebration at the Brian Coyle Community Center.
"He was yelling 'Fredda Scobey says Somalis are terrorists' and the women were hissing," Scobey wrote in an affidavit. "I feared for my safety as did the Somali staff member who accompanied me."
In an interview, Scobey said she didn't want to discuss the incident.
"Mr. Bihi is a tenant here, and that's far in the past," she said. "I don't want to hurt him, nor do I want to face anything similar."
She credited Bihi with being "a really great orator" and said that while she didn't always agree with him, "I think the man means well, at least in regard to this stuff."
She was referring to the exodus that saw 20 or so young Somali men return to their homeland to fight. Riverside Plaza has a sizable population of Somali immigrants, and she said Bihi's attempts to keep the youth in this country were laudable.
Four years after the dispute with Scobey, Bihi was arrested when he crashed his car on Interstate 94 in St. Paul.
A state trooper wrote in his report about the July 2008 crash that Bihi told him a friend had been driving and had run from the scene. But when the trooper pointed out that traffic cameras were recording the scene, Bihi said he was alone in the car.
Bihi later pleaded guilty to fourth-degree driving while impaired, a misdemeanor. He was given a 30-day jail term, which was stayed, and he was placed on two years' probation.
He was required to participate in a safe-driving program. But in May, a Ramsey County probation officer swore out a warrant for Bihi's arrest, saying he had failed to enroll in the program.
Mara Gottfried contributed to this report. David Hanners can be reached at 612-338-6516.
Source: Twincities.com
No comments:
Post a Comment