A Restorative Look At the Troubled Somali Youth

By Fedwa Wazwaz
From StarTribune.com

On December 15th, there was an article titled, "Terror suspect's case drags on 5 years after arrest in Minneapolis" by Pam Louwagie on a Somali terror suspect, Mohamed Abdullah Warsame who has been awaiting trial for 5 years. The article can be read here.

As I read the article, and interacted with the Somali community I was wondering how to reconcile two voices of fear. Both are real and humane, but only one seems to be validated, understood and given space to articulate, define and refine itself. It is the fear of terrorism. That voice of fear is validated and articulated well. This voice also has a strong support group and strong defense. It can speak openly without fear of persecution and is open to criticism, growth, and enrichment from the greater community leading to self-understanding. From the article, regarding Warsame, one reads ...

"Some harm to civil liberties seems to be endemic to war situations and you know, at the end of the day, if we win this war against terrorism, we and the whole world will be more free and our rights will be more secure, but along the way, there may be some situations and some individuals who will have the opposite," said Joshua Muravchik, a resident scholar at American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank. "And it's a shame, but nonetheless, if there's a strong reason to believe that this man was involved with terrorists, I wouldn't want him out on the streets."

But there is another voice of fear and that is the voice of those who are weak and low in the land. That voice is more disoriented, chaotic and possessing mulitple personalities. This voice of fear lacks an open space to hear itself, to define itself and the room for it to benefit from criticism, enrichment or growth. It is invalidated and lacks the ability to articulate in words that it is even afraid, rather it just hides breeding anger and resentment within itself. It lacks power and the ability to defend itself. But how does it speak and grow and nurture itself to a higher understanding - if there are so many wiretappings in every corner waiting for a buzz word before coming with the swat team?

I was troubled by Muravchik words as it lacks depth in understanding and wisdom in truly solving the problem. Muravchik says, "if we win this war against terrorism, we and the whole world will be more free and our rights will be more secure." This is fantasy reasoning. Historically, when have Americans or the world been living in utopia? When I was growing up - we heard the same story regarding Russia. It is the same fantasy reasoning then and now.

There doesn't seem to be an explicit recognition of the need to really understand the problems of these young people who are easily recruited. There have been many Somali youth joining gangs, and engaging in Somali upon Somali violence. There are many in juvenile detention, disfranchised and lost. If we would look at this issue - in a less self-absorbed manner, we may see a pattern that is impacting the community. Studying the problem from its roots is a better approach than rushing into laundry listing solutions before we really know the in depth of the issues.

Journalist Abdi Aynte, who lived in Minnesota for seven years commented once on a story he was covering about the growing number of Somali kids in jail. Aynte said, "The City of Minneapolis actually commissioned its human rights division to do a study on this, and they found that, on average, 600 Somali kids transit in the jail systems of Hennepin County each year." Aynte added, "that there are at least three Somali gangs in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area."

I discussed this issue via email with Abdul-Lateef Abdullah, a social worker with experience in dealing with troubled youth. He has worked as a Program Assistant for the Academy for Educational Development (Washington, D.C.); a Social Worker at the Montefiore Medical Center (Bronx, New York); and the Director of Documentation and Evaluation at Community IMPACT! (Washington, D.C.).

He has also worked with the the Taqwa Gayong Academy (New Jersey, U.S.A./Penang, Malaysia) for troubled youth, both Muslim and non-Muslim. Abdallah suggested the following..

"What is being missed in this whole affair is the foresight to realize that the fear-based, over-simplistic approach of just lock 'em up more often than not breeds more hatred, frustration and desperation, which does nothing but make the problem more complex and more difficult - and expensive - to solve. But in the world of political sound bytes, it's an easier case to make to a public that is largely ignorant of the more subtle realities at play in this complex world. We, however, should have learned something by now with the war on terrorism going on its 8th year already, and that is that just throwing guns and money at the problem is not going to make it go away. Just as in the case of domestic crime, drugs, poverty and other social ills that we face, only concentrated efforts that target the sources of the problems we are facing -- ignorance, social and economic injustice, mis-education, poverty and the like - will bear fruit."

The law enforcement and the community must try to make some effort to first try to assess what is really happening in the community. Instead of looking to prosecute and lock up, it can best protect by working with the Somali community through building trust and understanding.

Abdallah suggests to the law enforcement and Somali community - some kind of assessment and ground work. It can use surveys or even informal focus groups and meetings, but there should be an effort to really understand what's happening. We need to find the courage to listen to them and talk to the young people, parents, community leaders, and 'experts' including social workers and counselors such as Abdallah to find out what are the real issues. Only then should there be an effort to draft programs to address the situation.

Perhaps they can work with a nearby social work school and even enlist students to help with the assessment. It could be a great resource as well as an educational/learning experience for all. But that's the high road. Whether the authorities are willing to take that road is yet to be seen.