Members of Toronto’s Somali community expressed shock at Tuesday’s arrest of one of their own as a terror suspect, and said not enough is being done to keep their young men from drifting toward radicalism.
Abdar Osople, 34, put blame at the feet of the mosques and community leaders of Toronto’s Somali community on Wednesday, saying more should be done to keep young men engaged with building lives here in Canada.
“They don’t do anything for the kids,” said Osople, a married father of three who traded Mogadishu for Toronto almost 20 years ago.
“If the community gave them something ... encouraged them to succeed, to work, then they wouldn’t do this. We need to work together as a community to save them, because the community here does nothing,”
Mohamed Hersi, 25, of Scarborough, was arrested at Pearson International Airport following a six-month investigation by the RCMP and Toronto Police.
It’s alleged Hersi — a Canadian citizen — was flying to Somalia to join al-Shabaab, an Islamic terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda.
Osman Ali, executive director of the Somali-Canadian Association of Etobicoke, said the mosques and community groups are hamstrung, not having enough money for programs to properly integrate Somali youth so their Islamic beliefs could co-exist with a more “Canadian” mindset of western culture and values.
“They are asking the mosques to help these people, but the extent that they want programs for these youth, they don’t have the means,” said Ali from his small second-floor office in the Thistledown Multi-Services Centre in Rexdale. What’s needed are employment workshops, leadership training and “elder” speakers who could talk both about the peaceful aspects of Islam and the dangers of radicalism on the Internet, Ali said.
“The mosques try their best with prayers and schools,” he said.
“The people at the mosques preach peace ... but they don’t have the means and the funds to really integrate them.”
According to the 2006 census, there are 18,445 Somalis in the Metropolitan Toronto census area.
terry.davidson@sunmedia.ca
Source: torontosun.com
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