NH refugee contractor says it is on target for NH resettlements

Even in spite of the fact that the state has had much controversy of late about a possible moratorium on resettlements,  Lutheran Social Services is bragging that it is mostly on target to get a full-compliment of refugees into the state this fiscal year (although it appears they won’t be placing too many in Manchester).

It was only a few days ago that we learned  (and here) that Minnesota wasn’t going to come close with its goal for the year.  So what is the difference?   Minnesota continues to be the go-to resettlement site for Muslims (mostly Somalis) and due to those security screenings, their numbers are down.  In New Hampshire (at the moment) they are resettling mostly non-Muslims so the numbers aren’t slowing so dramatically.

From the Concord Monitor:

Two-thirds into their fiscal year, the main refugee resettlement agencies in the state say they are on target to reach or fall slightly short of their projected new cases this year.

Lutheran Social Services, which works primarily in Concord, Nashua and Laconia, has settled 145 people so far this year, about 60 percent of the cases it projected to handle between Oct. 1 and Sept. 30.

Most of those people are refugees from Bhutan, and about 65 percent have settled in Concord; the others were settled in Laconia or Nashua. Most of the new arrivals are related to refugees who have already settled in New Hampshire, said program director Amy Marchildon.

“Nationally, we’ve been a little bit slower this year overall,” she said. “There were new security measures implemented in the beginning of the year so it’s taken a while to move refugees” through the system.

As for Manchester and the International Institute, the Institute hired a new head honcho and they hope to get things rolling again there so that more refugees can come in and get their “services.”

The International Institute of New Hampshire works primarily in Manchester, where it has so far this year settled 74 people, mostly Bhutanese refugees with family members in the city, according to site director Nasir Arush.

[.....]

“I had a very good conversation with him [speaking of Mayor Gatsas--ed] when I was in New Hampshire and was very involved in many initiatives in the past ten years for services to enhance the lives of refugees in Manchester,” he said. “I really thought this is a good fit for me and a good opportunity to have someone with my experience and background as someone who is very known in Manchester to take this job.”

Then here is one line in the story that caught my eye!

One exception [when numbers were larger then projected---ed] was in 2004, when a humanitarian crisis in Somalia led the State Department to resettle more refugees nationwide than anticipated that year.

It wasn’t just 2004 that was a good year for Somalis!  See this post I wrote years ago and is still every day on the list of most visited posts.  I had combed through all the annual reports and noted the numbers of Somalis entering the US through the refugee program.  And, yes, 2004 was a big year (remember the then-Senator Brownback involvement) but the years following 2004 were pretty overloaded too!   Here are those POST-911 years when we were bringing Somalis to the US in large numbers:

2004:  12,814

2005:  10,101

2006:  10,330

2007:  6958

It was in 2008 that the discovery was made that Somalis were lying about their family relationships and one portion of the program was suspended and the number of Somalis dropped dramatically (links to posts on the suspension may be found in this recent post on Minnesota)  Now we are creeping on up again.

Kansas governor signs bill to ban foreign laws in Kansas courts

And, of course the Islamic lobby is going nuts.   According to this story at Fox News, Kansas becomes the 4th state to enact the so-called “American laws for American courts” model legislation.  (Hat tip: Greg)

But, Governor Brownback’s signature on this bill is ironic since as a US Senator he helped open the Somali Muslim floodgates to America!

First, here is the story about the bill-signing last week:

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has signed a law aimed at keeping the state’s courts or government agencies from basing decisions on Islamic or other foreign legal codes, and a national Muslim group’s spokesman said Friday that a court challenge is likely.

The new law, taking effect July 1, doesn’t specifically mention Shariah law, which broadly refers to codes within the Islamic legal system. Instead, it says courts, administrative agencies or state tribunals can’t base rulings on any foreign law or legal system that would not grant the parties the same rights guaranteed by state and U.S. constitutions.

“This bill should provide protection for Kansas citizens from the application of foreign laws,” said Stephen Gele, spokesman for the American Public Policy Alliance, a Michigan group promoting model legislation similar to the new Kansas law. “The bill does not read, in any way, to be discriminatory against any religion.”

But supporters have worried specifically about Shariah law being applied in Kansas court cases, and the alliance says on its website that it wants to protect Americans’ freedoms from “infiltration” by foreign laws and legal doctrines, “especially Islamic Shariah Law.”

[.....]

….laws similar to Kansas’ new statute have been enacted in Arizona, Louisiana and Tennessee.

Read it all!  See CAIR go nuts.

Now get this!  This is the same guy (Brownback) who as Chairman of a Senate immigration subcommittee pushed for the resettlement of Somali Bantu into the US (and lots of other refugees as well!).   However, after initially saying ‘we will take some in Kansas,’ he changed his tune when rumblings from his state indicated that it was not something the average Kansan was open to—AND 911 happened.   Here is a short segment from a very detailed article from Thomas Allen at VDARE, written in 2003, about the now ten-year-old Brownback change of heart:

Anywhere but Kansas!

When it comes to mass immigration, Sam Brownback is not just another Senator. He played a key role in sabotaging Republican support for the 1996 Smith-Simpson bill, the last serious effort at immigration reduction. And when the State Department accepted the Somali Bantu, and discussions began about where they would go, he was chairman of the Senate immigration subcommittee.

State Department officials say Brownback had told both them and U.N. refugee chief Ruud Lubbers that he was “interested in resettling more refugees in Kansas.” State began exploring the feasibility of resettling the Bantu in Wichita, Kansas.

According to Chris Renner, Program Director of the Kansas Board of Education, the Senator was the catalyst of the resettlement plan and “to make a long story short, he … lent his support to the resettlement of this population in Kansas.”

But apparently Kansas did not like the resettlement proposal any more than Maine and Massachusetts do. And after 9/11, Brownback announced a change of heart.

Change of hearts are O.K. as long as everyone knows the history of what happened and the people involved in bringing the largest groups of Muslim immigrants to the US—anyone involved with refugee resettlement—apologizes for what they are and have done to the country.   There would be no need for laws like this one if we weren’t importing the Islamic foot soldiers for groups like CAIR.

Flood of Somalis to Kansas anyway!

By the way, even if Brownback had a change of heart, he couldn’t stop the flood of Somalis to Kansas.  Remember in 2007 we began writing  many posts on the trouble in Emporia, KS as the town became flooded with Somali workers for Tysons Food (gee I wonder if Brownback was getting campaign donations from Tyson and other meatpackers looking for cheap and captive labor?).  We created a whole category on the problems in Emporia, here.

Tyson Foods closed the Emporia operation and moved the Somalis to other meat packing towns.  One was Shelbyville, TN, but some went to Garden City, KS where the somalification of Kansas is occurring at this very moment.   LOL!  It is Garden City where the Somalis want a special publicly-funded Muslim cemetery so they don’t need to be near infidels even in death.  I mentioned the Garden City cemetery in my post yesterday on Muslims demanding cemeteries in Europe, here.

So, it’s all well and good if there is no Shariah law allowed in Kansas courts, but Shariah is creeping into Kansas anyway in the most unlikeliest of places—local government training sessions (again, see somalification of Kansas) on how to understand Somalis in order to “serve” them better and local government decisions about segregated cemeteries.

Europe: Muslims want special taxpayer-funded cemeteries

And, you think Shariah isn’t creeping into Europe?

Before you read this story about special cemeteries in Europe for Muslims who cannot be buried with infidels, note that this demand for taxpayer-funded cemeteries for Muslims is also happening in the US.   We had a story in 2010 from Garden City, KS*, here, about such a request.  I don’t know if they got what they wanted in this Kansas city—the refugee resettlement hub in the heartland.  But, here is an idea!  Maybe Tyson Foods that was responsible for attracting the Muslim immigrants to the city might pay for their cemetery!

From The National:

BERLIN // In a sombre sign that Muslims are becoming more integrated in German society, the 300,000-strong Islamic community in Berlin has complained that it is running out of graveyard space, and is urging authorities to help solve the problem.

The shortage of sites reflects a desire by increasing numbers of Muslims to be buried in Germany rather than be taken to their countries of origin after their death. Community leaders have stepped up their campaign this month for more burial space.

[....]

The requirements of the Quran make the search for suitable sites more difficult. All graves must be positioned with the head facing towards Mecca, and rooms must be made available to allow the ritual washing of the dead. Cremation is not permitted.

Berlin does not require the bodies be placed in caskets and permits burials of people wrapped just in cloth, in accordance with Islamic tradition. But the German practice of limiting the duration of burial sites clashes with the Muslim tradition that the dead must be allowed eternal peace. In Berlin, the leases on graves span 20 years, after which they have to be renewed. Otherwise the site is cleared for reuse.

Poor France!

Many European countries face similar pressures to find burial space for Muslim immigrants. In February, France inaugurated its first municipal Muslim cemetery in the city of Strasbourg in a move Islamic leaders described as a step towards recognising one of the country’s largest minority groups. France has western Europe’s biggest Muslim minority, estimated at between five and six million people.

Germans, so far, don’t want to pay for special privileges for those who even in death wish to stay separate.

The German capital has voted to tackle the space shortage but has so far baulked at making funding available for a new cemetery. And Muslim representatives said they cannot afford to run a cemetery based just on donations. [Let the infidels pay!---ed]

* We have many many posts on Garden City, KS, just use our search function to find them.

California citizen: refugee program a fraud!

Russian:

“Who would not tell a white lie in order to get everything for free”?

Readers, I haven’t forgotten that I plan to continue to post testimony from that May 1 State Department meeting which was ostensibly to give you an opportunity to voice your opinion on how many refugees the US will take in FY 2013 and from where.  But, the Refugee program head honcho, Lawrence Bartlett, said at the meeting that they wouldn’t make the testimony available on-line (those in attendance received the testimony in hard copy).   All of the testimony I’ve posted so far is here in our special category for the meeting.

This is what one California citizen had to say (emphasis mine):

I have been in the photography business since 1973 in a town called Rancho Cordova, California. It is a suburb of Sacramento. We do not need any more refugees in our community. We have been the destination point for over 150 thousand alleged religiously persecuted refugees from the former Soviet Union. It is nothing more than a scam against taxpayer. It is under the Lautenberg act of 1989. There is no religious persecution in Russia. And if there was, is it our duty to support them?

The churches are behind it in order to receive free money for putting phony refugees on public assistance. I cannot describe in words the resentment of my customers who work in the banks, grocery stores, and in the medical field who are extremely resentful of this largesse.

The women who work at the banks and grocery stores are witnesses to the scams and the fraud that is committed on a daily basis. As my friend who works at the bank states if I cash one more social security check for someone who has never paid into the system and is drawing more than my parents who worked all of their lives I will scream. The resentment is palpable.

Particularly when the community found out there is no religious persecution in Russia. That it is nothing more than a scam to obtain a middle class life on the backs of someone else.

I have proof it is all fraud and not even my congressman Lungren [Dan Lungren] will discuss it out of fear of being destroyed politically. I have brought the fraud to the attention to ICE. They responded with they know it is fraud. They said they would be sued if they dare try and stop it.

I am a Viet Nam Vet as is my brother via the law in those days. My brother’s neighbors from Cambodia never worked a day while they lived next to my brother. He and his wife worked to support them. How can you justify that. The nice folks from Cambodia received section 8 housing and their kids went to college at my brother’s expense.

If we took that money and spent it on the black community maybe there would not be cities full of Ghettos?

We cannot afford it period. We need to follow the original law. Meaning they cannot be a burden on taxpayers. They are supposed to have sponsors who support them. It is shameful the only reason the churches are interested in resettling is money for themselves.

You forget the domino effect in our community such as crime and gangs in the Russian community. I had a Russian friend who worked for me, by the name of Alex Sukonof tell me “Who would not tell a white lie in order to get everything for free”?

Alex also told me that he thought “It was ok that his in laws claimed religious persecution like the others.” That they only receive about $1300.00 between them, including free health care that we pay for. Apparently as alleged Refugees: they are entitled to SSI for 7 years. If they become citizens within that time, it is now a lifetime entitlement. Even though they have never worked a day in their life here.

The real sad part is that according to Alex they are allowed to take the Citizenship test in their native language. I know for a fact his in laws do not speak a word of English, as I have called their house looking for him several times.

The bottom line is: by telling a little white lie about religious persecution, they are allowed an income for life that they did not earn. That is persecution of hard working taxpayers. This entire Refugee program is an upside down cake.

Furthermore: even if it was all real as there are others that are real, this directly affects Americans who are in need of a job. We need to shut it down totally until we become flush with cash again as a country.

We need to eliminate the entire program and operate it on an individual basis with true volunteers.

The reason you do not hear from the public is fear of losing their job or demonized as a racist.

Arab Spring leaves refugees on the Libyan/Egyptian border—US picks up the pieces

Told you so!   We would join the coalition of European nations which took on Gaddafi (Qadhafi) in Libya and our reward would be—you guessed it!—we get the refugees!

Here is an article that gives you a window into a process on-going as a result of that joyous Arab spring.  Immigrants who want to escape Libya and are not allowed into Egypt are stuck at a border crossing called Sallum where the UN and our Dept. of Homeland Security are sorting through them to see which ones we get to bring to America!

From AllAfrica:

Sallum, Egypt — Andrew Mok, computer open in front of him, faced the Sudanese man across the table in a converted freight container and began the interview.

“Please do not make any false statements because that could have a negative impact on your application,” the 23-year-old from Hong Kong informed the man, who was bidding to be recognized as a refugee. “Everything you tell UNHCR will be strictly confidential,” he added, reassuringly.

Refugee status determination (RSD) is a vital part of UNHCR’s daily protection work and the above scene is replicated every day in UNHCR operations around the world.

But there is a difference at Sallum because those being interviewed are stuck at a busy border crossing, unable or unwilling to go home or back to Libya, and not allowed to go further inside Egypt. There are around 2,000 people left from the 40,000 third country nationals who fled to Sallum to escape last year’s conflict in Libya, most of whom were allowed to transit Egypt.

UN Heavily dependent on the US for resettlement!

While the RSD process is almost over, it will take many more months before all of those referred for resettlement finally get to leave for their new homes. That’s partly because “only six resettlement countries have taken cases from Sallum,” said Heidi Boener. “We are heavily dependent on the United States,” added the resettlement officer.

The article doesn’t make it clear who exactly Miss Heidi works for, but in 2008, here, she worked for International Catholic Migration Commission*.  We learn from this report that she preps the prospective “refugees” on the kinds of questions they will get from Homeland Security…hmmmm!    You know it is very important that they keep their stories straight!

As Mok continued with his questions, Boener stood in a nearby building and addressed about 30 registered refugees from Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia who were due to be interviewed over a two-week period by officials from the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS). She took them through the kinds of questions they would face, including queries about their family history and why they cannot return to their country of origin.

Boener said more than 1,400 people had been referred to the US for resettlement and the visiting DHS staff planned to meet a first group of about 250 for a so-called first circuit interview, with plans to return about every three months to talk to a similar number each time. After interviews, and if they are conditionally approved, they will undergo security background checks and medical screening before final approval and authorization to fly to America.

To hear Obama tell it, we were dragged into the Libyan war so that we might help a coalition of nations—France, Britain, Canada and Italy.  So, after paying for the lions share of the war’s cost, the US takes the lions share of “refugees” while Canada, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden take a few.   According to this account, guess who isn’t helping—-the greatest beneficiaries of that Libyan oil—France, Britain, and Italy.

More Africans on the way to your town!

* Just when you think you have seen them all, along comes another NGO living on the US taxpayer’s dime.  Here the International Catholic Migration Commission gets half of its funding from you.  And, it is so funny, you never see the ACLU go after these non-profits on the separation of church and state issue.

American Jihadist in Somalia: gee, I wonder how my Mom is feeling about all this

Oh brother, not long ago there were reports out of Somalia that Alabama-born Abu Mansoor al-Amriki was dead (killed by fellow jihadists), now we learn he has penned a book.  He says he hopes to inspire other young American Muslims that they too can follow their Jihad dreams and come on over to Africa.

Jihad a normal career choice!  From Dawn.com:

Amriki, who has reportedly been based in anarchic Somalia since late 2006 and is wanted by the US on terrorism charges, has issued previous videos calling for foreign recruits, including singing rap songs praising holy war.

“I am not simply a disenfranchised foreigner who is jealous of America,” the 28-year old said, writing thousands of miles from the small town of Daphne, Alamaba where he grew up.

“The real fear that Americans feel when they see an American in Somalia talking about jihad, is not how skillful he is at sneaking back across the borders with nuclear weapons,” he added.

“The Americans fear that their cultural barrier has been broken, and now jihad has become a normal career choice of any youthful American Muslim.”

But wait…there will be no going back.  No Mommy, no sister, no chicken wings or gourmet coffee!

What I would like though is to have a three day visit to see my mom, dad and sister…I often wonder what this whole experience has done to them,” he writes, as well as missing his daughter whom he abandoned in Egypt as a baby.

“After going through all the hugs and kisses, me and Dena (his sister) would probably go running around town laughing our heads off and talking about a billion things without ever finishing a conversation,” he wrote.

“I’d like to make a round of the restaurants and get some Chinese food, some hot (chicken) wings, some Nestle ice cream, some gourmet coffee and a slew of other foods and beverages.”

Wait till he finds out that he gave up Chinese food and there is no Allah!  Boo hoo!

The face of Lancaster, PA refugee resettlement

Only last week we had a widely read post about the problems in Lancaster, PA with an overload of refugees.   A commenter from Lancaster to the US State Department May 1 meeting said that Church World Service (CWS) was bringing thousands of refugees to Lancaster.   Then a commenter to that post said that was hogwash, there weren’t thousands being resettled in Lancaster.  But, here CWS tells us about the person responsible for resettling “thousands upon thousands” in her home town of Lancaster.

Not many people can claim to have resettled thousands upon thousands of refugees to their hometown – but Sheila McGeehan can.

Since she began her work with the Church World Service Immigration and Refugee Program (CWS/IRP) 25 years ago, she has introduced refugees from all around the world to Lancaster, Pa. – the “tranquil, prosperous, safe, pretty” city she loves.

In turn, newcomers from Russia, Vietnam, Sudan, Bhutan, Ethiopia, Burma, Bosnia, Iraq and numerous other countries have transformed this small city in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch Country into what McGeehan calls a “very cosmopolitan” community, population 55,000-plus.

[.....]

“I don’t take credit.  This is a great area for resettlement, and it would have happened without me,” said McGeehan, Director of the CWS/IRP Lancaster Office.  “But it’s been very satisfying to contribute to making Lancaster more open and diverse.”

Hmmm!

Read it all!

Get ready for it! Next they will ask for us to resettle “refugees” from South Africa!

And, they don’t mean the persecuted white minority!

As I have written many times on these pages, the Rainbow Nation*, that supposed model for racial inclusion and socialist harmony is imploding.  Can you believe it!  They have xenophobia.  They can’t use the word racism because all those busy persecuting each other are various ethnic groups from around Africa.

I have written many posts on South Africa and how the flood gates (the borders) are open and people throughout destitute Africa are arriving in South Africa asking for asylum.  South Africans (blacks!) have reacted violently at times as they try to hold on to their country and their livelihoods in the wake of the tsunami of illegal aliens, the large majority of whom are economic migrants.

And, it is no wonder they are coming, here is what the African National Congress—the ruling party in the “model” nation—offers its people.  “There shall be peace and friendship!” (dammit!)

The Freedom Charter, which was adopted by the Congress of the People in 1955, remains the basic policy document of the ANC.

The Freedom Charter declares that:

* The people shall govern
* All national groups shall have equal rights
* The people shall share in the country`s wealth
* The land shall be shared among those who work it
* All shall be equal before the law
* All shall enjoy equal human rights
* There shall be work and security
* The doors of learning and culture shall be opened
* There shall be houses, security and comfort
* There shall be peace and friendship

Any idiot knows you can’t offer that and then expect people to respect your borders!

So are we now going to mop up the mess?   Are we going to use the Malta-model?

Ethiopian Community Development Council (one of nine major federal refugee contractors) plants the seeds for resettlement of South Africa’s illegal aliens.

At the May 1 US State Department hearing/meeting/scoping (whatever you want to call it), the Ethiopian Community Development Council said this (below) in their testimony (and they surely aren’t talking about the persecuted whites of South Africa who have begun to ask for asylum in the West).

Refugees in South Africa

In 2010 and 2011, South Africa received the most asylum application of any country in the world, according to UNHCR, with 107,000 asylum seekers registered in 2011.  The Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CoRMSA) reports that according to empirical estimates, the number of Zimbabweans alone in South Africa is between one to two million, though only a small percentage is legally recognized.  Other major asylum seeking and refugee populations in South Africa come from Angola, Burundi, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda, and Somalia.  Regardless of their status, all refugees in South Africa face serious life and livelihood-threatening issues tied to xenophobia and discrimination.  Though laws allow refugees to access basic services, in practice they are denied public health care, discriminated against by government institutions, and often face violence, including sexual and gender-based violence.  [How can that be! This is the rainbow nation, the socialist model for the world!---ed] Refugees are often located in areas where they share their poor socioeconomic status with local communities, and are therefore seen as competition for housing and work.  As a result, refugees live in poor conditions in informal housing, squatting in abandoned buildings, or have become homeless.  Additionally, refugees face difficulty with legal documentation, and UNHCR documents are often not recognized and provide little protection or legitimacy regarding work.

Watch for it!  They are priming the pump for us to take some of South Africa’s illegal population off its hands—after all, they have seen what we have done in Malta with the precedent-setting Malta model where we transform another country’s illegal aliens into refugees destined for the United States!   Speaking of which we have a new story this week about Africans (mostly single young Muslim men again!) who got to Malta and then were given their refugee ticket to your town!   For more on the Malta-model, use our search function for Malta, but here is one post that will give you some idea of what we have done.

*Search RRW for ‘rainbow nation’ for more on the situation with South Africa’s new form of apartheid.

Rohingya Muslims pushing into India, want refugee status; already in the US

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that US federal refugee contractors and lobbyists are pushing for more Rohingya Muslim refugee resettlement into the US.   Here both the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Refugee Council USA (the lobbying arm of the refugee industry) asked for more Rohingya at the May 1 US State Department meeting.

You know the Rohingya drumbeat has begun in earnest when the New York Times trumpets their plight in a feature story, here.   You need to read about how Rohingya are arriving in New Delhi by the thousands and are squatting on “community land” described as Muslim land?

By the way, note that the New York Times reporter wrote 25 paragraphs before getting to the issue of the Rohingya’s “religion” and thus why the heightened concern about their influx.  Remember Mumbai.

Asad Ghazi Ansari, the president of the nongovernmental organization Nawa-e-Haque, which has been helping the Rohingyas with food and medicine, said that most of the Rohingyas returned from where the police had left them.

On Wednesday, about 500 of them had assembled in Batla House, in the Okhla neighborhood in south Delhi, on what Mr. Ansari called “community land,” which meant that the land belonged to members of the Muslim community.

He said that his organization is making arrangements to get the other Rohingya together and set up another makeshift camp for them at Batla House.

Meanwhile, the Indian Parliament discussed the growing problem (and much to my surprise India has never signed the UN Convention on Refugees).   Here is the nub of the argument and I am sure it is one our very own US Conference of Catholic Bishops uses—it isn’t fair if we resettle Christians (as in the Burmese Karen people we have been resettling by the tens of thousands) if we don’t also give fair treatment to Muslims.    Here the USCCB and the Communist Party of India are on the same page!

Another member of Parliament, Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), told the home minister: “If people from other religions have been allowed and Muslims have been denied, then it is very unfair.”

For new readers, I have been writing about Rohingya since January 2008.  We now have over 100 posts in our Rohingya Reports category.  Be sure to see the one about resettling Rohingya in New Hampshire!  The United States did not resettle Rohingya until the last few years because there was adequate proof that certain Islamic terror groups had infiltrated Rohingya camps.  However, it is important that you see this post I wrote in 2010 where we learned that American Muslim advocacy groups are also pushing that Rohingya be resettled.  They are already also being resettled throughout Europe and Canada.

We learned from Dan Kosten of the Refugee Council USA on May 1 that Bangladesh is holding up the processing of Rohingya out of Bangladesh, so I will bet you a buck Islamists and refugee advocates are pushing Rohingya into India.  Watch for it!  We will soon be bringing Rohingya directly from India (a safe country if they are true refugees!) just as we are now doing with Malta—-we are taking illegal alien problems off the hands of some countries that need to deal with their economic migrant problems themselves!

San Diego: Somalis say no to another liquor store

From KPBS News:

There’s a corner of University Avenue in San Diego that’s home to a store called University Market. It’s also home to a Buddhist Temple, a mosque and an Islamic parochial school.

Ahmed Malinomar is leading the opposition to a liquor license for a store that’s right next to a mosque on University Avenue.

Due to intense pressure from Somalis, a local planning committee has already recommended that the license be denied.

He [the owner of the store who doesn't want his name used] said he needs to sell alcohol, due to financial competition form many new Somali markets that have opened across the street and right next door to him. He said University Market has been a friend to San Diego Somalis, allowing members of the mosque to use the parking lot. Yet they have organized the opposition to his liquor license.

The question of the conditional use permit now goes before the San Diego Planning Commission. Islam forbids the use of alcoholic beverages, but Somalis I spoke with said that is not an issue in this debate.

Yeh sure!  Readers may recall that Somali cab drivers in Minnesota unsuccessfully tried to stop people from bringing even a closed bottle of liquor into their cabs.

By the way, we have a lot about San Diego Somalis, use our search function for more.