Somali Migration to Maine: it’s the welfare magnet, stupid

Yesterday I brought to readers’ attention that now that the Somali population in Lewiston, ME is large and well-established, the demands for accomodation of Muslim religious practices has begun, see CAIR threatens, here.  Among those who study Islamic supremacism around the world, this is known as the Stealth Jihad (see our entire category here)—changing a country from within to bring about Islamic dominance.

In my post I attributed a role to Catholic Charities in bringing the first Somalis to Maine, and after a little research I found that assertion was accurate.  However, the majority of the thousands of Somalis now continuing to upset Lewiston are secondary migrants resettled by Catholic Charities and other federally contracted agencies in Georgia.    Here is the best summary I’ve found so far about how Lewiston got to the point it’s at now with CAIR breathing down the necks of school adminstrators.  I’ve only taken a bit of this very long and thorough 2002 article, so please read the whole thing.

LEWISTON — Every week, another four or five Somali families arrive in this workaday city on the Androscoggin River.

They are refugees from the clan-wracked ruins of their homeland on the Horn of Africa, from years of waiting in camps in Kenya. And they are migrants from their place of first resettlement in America, more often than not trekking 1,000 miles from the heat and multihued humanity of metropolitan Atlanta to this sparse, wintry, whitest of all states.

They are nomads, their ancient instincts honed to a 21st century edge. Pioneers in a new world, they discovered Lewiston and claimed a bit of it for themselves.

“It’s like finding a small island in the middle of the Pacific,” says Mohammed Abdi, who last year moved here from Decatur, Ga., and was quickly hired as the liaison between the city’s schools and the burgeoning Somali community. “We put it on the map.”

They were originally resettled with American blacks and that wasn’t going so well, an issue we have discussed at RRW on previous occasions.

In their exodus, they say they are looking for peace and quiet, cheaper housing, a more benevolent welfare system, better schools and a place to raise their children — families of seven or more are common —with fewer perils and temptations. That they are leaving a metro area renowned as an African-American mecca to resettle in Maine, home to fewer than 7,000 blacks in 2000, is less a matter of irony than intent, given the prickly state of their relations with African-Americans and a desire to protect their children from assimilating too quickly.

Scouts sent out!   But, I will bet you anything they had some hints from their friends at Catholic Charities which was already resettling Somalis in Portland, ME.

Fed up with life in Atlanta —he was robbed twice — Abdiaziz Ali said members of the Somali community there researched other places on the Internet, comparing crime rates, the cost of housing, test scores. Then they sent scouts to a handful of cities — Kansas City, Mo., Nashville, Tenn., San Diego, Houston and El Paso in Texas, and Portland and Lewiston in Maine.

Maine was preferred, and Portland was full.

It is cold but the welfare is oh so good!   Note when you read the article that some of the men stayed back in Georgia to continue to work while the wives and kids went to Maine for the welfare.

Indeed, in moving from Georgia to Maine, Somalis are trading one of the nation’s least generous welfare systems for one of its most generous.

Lewiston provides general assistance to anyone in need, splitting the cost with the state. Such relief was unavailable in Clarkston. In Georgia, there is a four-year time limit for receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. In Maine it’s five, but even that can be extended. About a quarter of Lewiston’s Somali families receive that form of welfare, according to the state. And in Maine, a state-funded program assists single parents while they attend college.

There is a waiting list for public housing in Lewiston, but not nearly as long as back in Georgia. About a third of the more than 90 apartments at Hillview, Lewiston’s largest public housing project, have Somali tenants, and about 35 more Somali families have received Section 8 vouchers, which subsidize the rent on private apartments.

[...]

Fulfilling that expectation [that people work] is complicated because so many of the Somali families are single mothers and children, the fathers dead, missing, still in Africa or still in Atlanta.

“The men don’t like it here — it’s too cold or too quiet or too behind,” says Fatuma Hussein, whose own husband still drives a taxi in Atlanta, making frequent visits to her and their three young children.

The role of  Catholic Charities

There were no Somalis in Lewiston prior to the colonization that began after 9/11.  Note in the article that Somalis are quoted as saying Portland was “full.”   That would be full of primarily Somalis and Sudanese resettled in Maine by Catholic Charities, the only refugee resettlement contractor in the state for 30 years.   That makes it easy for us to check the numbers Catholic Charities brought.    Not nearly the tens of thousands resettled in other states, but from 1983-2005, Catholic Charities resettled 498 Somalis and 607 Sudanese (I mention the Sudanese because we have heard lots about problems with the “Sudanese community” of Portland recently).  You will see later that the number 498 is inaccurate because in just 3 individual years during that time period, reported in annual reports to Congress, below, the number exceeds 498.

To this day, Catholic Charities is resettling new Somalis in Maine.   The stats aren’t out for 2009 but in 2007 the number of Somalis resettled was 118 and in 2008 it was 60 (that drop may be because of the discovery by the State Department of the fraud in the family reunification program).

I don’t believe the Somali scouts found Lewiston all on their own—-I think there is a really good chance that earlier resettled Maine Somalis and Catholic Charities (CC) in Atlanta tipped-off the scouts to the lucrative welfare in Lewiston.  So, I checked the Office of Refugee Resettlement annual reports to Congress for the years 1997, 1998, and 1999 to see how many Somalis CC had brought to Maine in the years preceding the migration.  Sure enough, in 1997, CC resettled 228 Somalis to Maine, in 1998 the number was 168 and in 1999, 277.  What are the chances that a few of those Somalis were “related” to Atlanta Somalis and told them to ‘come on up, the public assistance is great!’

Piven must be so proud!

Note to readers in Maine: I have many more discoveries I want to share with you in another post, things that  need further research, but this is getting too long!

To all readers:  If you want to learn more about the Lewiston multicultural experiment, search RRW for ‘Lewiston,’ we have written a lot on the topic.

For new readers:

The US State Department has admitted over 80,000 Somali refugees to the US in the last 25 years and then last year had to suspend family reunification because widespread immigration fraud was revealed through DNA testing.  That specific program has not yet been reopened, but will be soon.  Nevertheless, thousands of Somalis continue to be resettled as I write this.

Man charged with rape after Muslim “marriage” to an underage girl

Presumably this guy is an American Muslim convert and not an immigrant, but the article doesn’t tell us about the alleged rapist’s ethnicity nor that of  his “bride.”   This is a prime example of the stealth jihad on-going in America today—they just keep pushing the envelope in hopes of changing American law and culture.   Thankfully authorities in Kansas City weren’t buying it!  Hat tip:  Blulitespecial

From the Kansas City Star:

Vincent Mosby signed a marriage contract and paid a dowry in a religious ceremony in August, police said.

Mosby, 23, of Kansas City didn’t legally wed his 14-year-old bride, however, because Missouri law won’t allow it without a judge’s order. Police said she was pressured into the union because her mother and stepfather thought she was going to be sexually active with a boy her age.

Although the bride’s stepfather arranged the “marriage,” according to court records, other relatives frowned upon the union and told police in late August. The relatives also took the girl to protect her from further sexual abuse, according to court records.

A relative told police that Mosby called and threatened violence if family members didn’t “give me back my wife in 72 hours,” according to court records. Two days later, on Sept. 9, someone fired three shots into the Kansas City home of the girl’s aunt. No one was hit.

Let’s see, daughter might have sex with young boyfriend,  parents fear that,  so parents find a man ten years older to take part in a sham marriage so the man can then come over to the house from time to time for sex.

Police said the girl’s stepfather and mother became concerned that she was going to become sexually active, so the stepfather allegedly approached Mosby about marrying the girl. The girl was “strongly encouraged” to wed Mosby, police said.

The stepfather, Mosby and the teen had several “sit downs” before the stepfather arranged for a religious ceremony on Aug. 4 at her home, not far from the stepfather’s mosque.

Two members of the mosque attended, but the bride “was not allowed to be present,” court records said. She waited in her room upstairs. Her stepfather allegedly came upstairs after the ceremony, which consisted of prayers and a contract signing, to announce that she was married.

[.....]

Court records said the couple had sex three times in August in her home, while her mother and stepfather were home. The girl did not move in with Mosby. She stayed with her parents and kept in touch with Mosby through phone calls and text messages.

Doesn’t it make you wonder how many other illegal Muslim “marriages” are happening in the US with the young girl staying at home but being ‘available’ for her hubby?  This story would not have even come to light if concerned relatives hadn’t been brave enough to intervene.

Book: CAIR covered up immigration fraud by their own “attorney”

As I told you last week, here, I’m working my way through the hot new book about the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) entitled “Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That’s Conspiring to Islamize America,” and a chapter dealing with Muslim immigrants interests me.

CAIR hired a Muslim convert for its immigration law work at the offices of its Maryland/Virginia chapter by the name of Jamil Morris Days.   If you recall there was a big flurry in the news, generated by CAIR, a couple of years ago about how federal Immigration officials were slow to process citizenship papers for Muslim immigrants since 9/11. 

It turns out that one of the reasons was that this lawyer, who turned out to be a fraud, was taking thousands of dollars from poor Muslim immigrants to process their papers and then did nothing.   Days wasn’t even a lawyer!   The whole scam came to light only when about 30 victims of Days’ scam threatened to sue CAIR and CAIR responded by closing the office and basically tried to wipe out all records of the wrongdoing.

Here is a little passage from the book:

When CAIR discovered the fraud, it joined the fraud by covering it up and deliberately set out to conceal the truth about Days, not just from the authorities and the media, but from the clients he defrauded.  The only thing CAIR’s headquarters told his defrauded clients when they called was that he no longer worked for CAIR. That’s it.

Why?  In a word, money.  Immigration cases are big business for CAIR, a hook for bringing in fundraising revenue, which CAIR desperately needs.  Immigrants account for a large segment of the Muslim community.  If word got out that CAIR mishandles their cases, even steals from them, it would hurt donations from the community at large.

I would add that immigrants also account for large numbers of voters as well!

Read this book, it is jaw-dropping—thanks to young (brave!) Chris Gaubatz who infiltrated CAIR and came out with boxes of documentation about this supposed defender of Muslim civil rights.

Hagerstown Mosque discussed in “Muslim Mafia” book

I just opened my copy of the book we reported here a few days ago:  “Muslim Mafia, Inside the Secret Underworld That’s Conspiring to Islamize America”  by David Gaubatz and Paul Spherry and learned that the FBI had an interest in the Islamic Society of Western Maryland, located in Hagerstown, near where we live. 

We are interested in this information because this mosque was involved with the Muslim refugees brought to Hagerstown a few years ago by the Virginia Council of Churches.

This is a portion of Chapter 6 which I am copying verbatim because there will be people in our county who should know this happened and our local paper, The Hagerstown Herald Mail is so politically correct they won’t publish any of this.

In September 2004, a pair of agents arranged an interview with the Muslim leader of a Maryland mosque that the FBI was investigating for suspicious activity.  The mosque leader alerted CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations), and CAIR sent Shama Farooq, then the civil rights director for its Maryland chapter, to coach him through the interview.

Farooq wrote a detailed plan covering what Dr. Sayeed Ahmed, president of the Islamic Society of Western Maryland, should and shouldn’t say.  The predominantly Pakistani mosque is controlled by ISNA (Islamic Society of North America) and the Muslim Brotherhood.

“Oftentimes, these meetings are used to get information about other community members,” she warned in the plan she devised.  “It is important, first of all, not to talk about anyone else at all.”  (emphasis in the original).

Farooq also insisted Ahmed turn his cell phone off, and keep it out of the sight and reach of the agents during the interview.

Finally, she advised, “You are not required to tell the which Islamic centers you attend, how many times a day you pray, who you give charity to, and which organizations you are associated with.”

“Definitely,” she stressed, “do not address any questions relating to terrorism or violence and their place in Islam.”

That was step number one.  Then Farooq and Ahmed went to lunch the day of the scheduled interview with the FBI—September 1, 2004—to review her ground rules, the secret CAIR memo details.  They agreed she would sit in on the meeting.

Following lunch, they went back to his office and continued to “discuss strategies,” including introducing her to the agents only as “a sister in Islam,” while not identifying her position with CAIR up front. And she again specifically advised Ahmed not to answer any questions regarding information he may know about terrorism and violence.

The agents arrived at Ahmed’s office on time, and over the course of their interview, Farooq stepped in to stop Ahmed from answering several questions she felt could “incriminate” him, even though she was not his attorney.

As a result, Ahmed withheld critical information from the FBI.  

[....]

The FBI agents, who were attached to the bureau’s Pittsburgh field office and led by agent Terry Grzadzielewski, left the meeting unaware they were denied information relevant to their investigation—-thanks to CAIR’s operative running interference on behalf of the subject of their inquiry that day.

Farooq reported details of the FBI meeting, including Ahmed’s omissions, to CAIR-Maryland/Virginia chapter executive director Rizwan Mowlana, who had assigned her to spy on the FBI.  A copy of the confidential memo—which is marked DO NOT RELEASE OUTSIDE CAIR—was obtained from CAIR’s internal files.

At the end of her report, Farooq recommended CAIR gather local Muslims who worship at Ahmed’s mosque in Hagerstown, Maryland, to formally train them in similar deception and obstruction tactics.

“Since the Hagerstown community seems to be a center of attention for several FBI agents,” she wrote, “I recommend CAIR conduct a know-your-rights lecture at the location with some recommendations [on] how to respond to FBI agents when approached by them.”

Of course left unanswered is why the “Hagerstown community” was of interest to the FBI in the first place!

Muslim Mafia: Important new book out today

Update November 25th:  Interesting development reported here by Jerry Gordon about how the FBI has taken possession of all the documents that served as the basis for this book.

In the mold of ACORN undercover investigators James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, another young brave man has infiltrated CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations), in this case as an intern, and has come out with mountains of documentation that the supposed Muslim civil rights group is really just a front for the radical Muslim Brotherhood in the US. 

See New English Review or World Net Daily for the details on this amazing breakthrough that confirms what many of us have been assuming all along.  I’ve just ordered my copy of “Muslim Mafia:  Inside the Secret Underworld That’s Conspiring to Islamize America.”  

Frequent visitors to RRW may remember that it is CAIR that has been working with Somalis around the country to put legal pressure (along with the federal EEOC) on their employers to give in to demands for Muslim accomodation in the workplace.

Update: Daniel Pipes has a good review at FrontPage with lots of links to information about CAIR.

Communists beware, Islamists are coming for you too!

I find it fascinating whenever I see the largely atheistic radical leftists, anarchists, socialists and Communists teamed up politically with Islamic supremacists because I wonder, don’t they get it, don’t they see they are hated by the Islamists more than Christians and Jews are hated? 

We just told you that there are 22 million Muslims in Communist China and now comes news that Al Qaeda is urging the minority Uighyurs (also spelled Uighers or Uighurs) to prepare for holy war against the Communists. (Hat tip: BL)

From CNN:

A high-ranking al Qaeda leader has called on China’s minority Uyghurs to prepare for a holy war against the Chinese government.

“There is no way for salvation and to lift this oppression and tyranny unless you … seriously prepare for jihad in the name of God and carry your weapons against the ruthless brutal invader thugs,” Abu Yahia Al-Libi said Wednesday in a video on an Islamist Web site. He delivered his message in Arabic.

The Uyghurs are Muslims in western China’s Xinjiang province. Some Islamists refer to the region as East Turkistan.

Al-Libi’s proclamation was in reaction to the violence that has recently shaken Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital. There, long-simmering resentment between minority Uyghurs and majority Han Chinese erupted into riots and left more than 200 people dead in July.

Muslims will defeat you atheists because we are “stronger in faith.”  Remember Afghanistan!

Al-Libi regularly produces video messages and has, in the past, called on Pakistanis and Somalis to resist their “apostate” governments. He is considered one of al Qaeda’s top strategists and one of its most vocal leaders in its propaganda campaign

In his latest message, Al-Libi called on Muslims worldwide to support the Uyghurs. And he vowed that China will suffer the same fate that the former Soviet Union did when it invaded Afghanistan in the 1980s — only to be thwarted by Islamist fighters

“To you, the state of atheism and obstinacy: You are coming to an end and you will face the same fate of the Russian bear of disintegration and division,” he said. “You will encounter the same defeat when your nation will fight in its own backyard the humble minority of Muslims who are stronger in faith.”

Where have I heard this before?  Oh, yeh, this is what the prophet Mohammed teaches and it applies to all infidels.

The leader of the Turkistan Islamic Party, in a video on Islamic Web sites, blamed the Chinese for “genocide.”

The speaker urged Uyghurs to “kill the Chinese communists where you find them, take them and besiege them and ambush them wherever you can.”

We have followed the twisted tale of the Uighur detainees at Guantanamo Bay for over a year now—ever since there was an early plan to resettle 17 or so of them as refugees in the US.  For our most recent post on that story go here.

Pew Report: 1.57 billion Muslims in the world

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life just released a report on the world’s Muslim population which raises concerns for those (including me!) who believe that Islam seeks to establish world dominance through the stealth jihad—they will simply outbreed us.

From AP:

The global Muslim population stands at 1.57 billion, meaning that nearly 1 in 4 people in the world practice Islam, according to a report Wednesday billed as the most comprehensive of its kind.

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life report provides a precise number for a population whose size has long has been subject to guesswork, with estimates ranging anywhere from 1 billion to 1.8 billion.

The project, three years in the making, also presents a portrait of the Muslim world that might surprise some. For instance, Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon, China has more Muslims than Syria, Russia has more Muslims than Jordan and Libya combined, and Ethiopia has nearly as many Muslims as Afghanistan.

Most Muslims do not live in the Middle East.

The report provides further evidence that while the heart of Islam might beat in the Middle East, its greatest numbers lie in Asia: More than 60 percent of the world’s Muslims live in Asia.

About 20 percent live in the Middle East and North Africa, 15 percent live in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2.4 percent are in Europe and 0.3 percent are in the Americas. While the Middle East and North Africa have fewer Muslims overall than Asia, the region easily claims the most Muslim-majority countries.

While those population trends are well established, the large numbers of Muslims who live as minorities in countries aren’t as scrutinized. The report identified about 317 million Muslims — or one-fifth of the world’s Muslim population — living in countries where Islam is not the majority religion.

About three-quarters of Muslims living as minorities are concentrated in five countries: India (161 million), Ethiopia (28 million), China (22 million), Russia (16 million) and Tanzania (13 million).

Among the highlights listed by AP, it looks like Mark Steyn was correct when he titled his bestselling book “America Alone.”  Note that even his home country of Canada has a higher percentage Muslim population than the US.

Of roughly 4.6 million Muslims in the Americas, more than half live in the United States although they only make up 0.8 percent of the population there. About 700,000 people in Canada are Muslim, or about 2 percent of the total population.

Then I saved this highlight for last because I’m going to tell you shortly about this in an upcoming post.

In China, the highest concentrations of Muslims were in western provinces. The country experienced its worst outbreak of ethnic violence in decades when rioting broke out this summer between minority Muslim Uighurs and majority Han Chinese.

Texas Candidate for Congress wants to halt all Muslim immigration

This guy is brave!   From ReporterNews of Abilene:

Big Country congressional hopeful Canyon Clowdus wants no more Muslim immigration to America.

But the conservative Republican doesn’t want to stop at the stance he outlined to radical blog “Dr. Bulldog & Ronin,” which endorses him for 11th Congressional District representative.

It’s not just them,” Clowdus told a reporter Sunday night. “They need to check all immigrants. They used to assimilate.”

Instead, immigrants retain their beliefs, weakening America, Marble Falls businessman Clowdus said.

[....]

Clowdus wants to halt Muslim immigration to stop what the blog termed a “Stealth Jihad” and “creeping sharia” to replace the Constitution with Islamic religious law.

Read on as the reporter attempts to smear Clowdus.

Now, you gotta go see the blog Doctor Bulldog and Ronin on this story, here where they take this article apart and analyze it using facts and humor.

New civil rights group to protect former Muslims will launch next week

Earlier today I told you about a new group making its debut in Washington next week called  Stop Islamization of America (SIOA), and now tonight I received a press release for another group concerned with the threat of Islamic activity in America.  This one, Former Muslims United, has formed to protect the rights of apostates and it too will hold a press conference in Washington next week.

WASHINGTON, DC (September 21, 2009) – Prominent former Muslims– apostates from Islam– will hold a press conference Thursday, September 24 to announce the launch of a new civil liberties organization, Former Muslims United, and the start of a national campaign to educate the American public and policymakers about the threat from authoritative Shariah– Islamic law– to the religious freedom and safety of former Muslims.

At the press conference, Former Muslims United founders Nonie Darwish and Ibn Warraq (both internationally-respected authors and scholars) will release letters calling on the Department of Justice and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to investigate possible hate crimes and civil rights violations against apostates from Islam, including the circumstances of the current Florida case of 17-year old Rifqa Bary, a former Muslim. The letters are also signed by Former Muslims United co-founders Mohammad Asghar, Wafa Sultan and Amil Imani.

Darwish and Warraq will release the text of Former Muslim United’s groundbreaking “Muslim Pledge for Religious Freedom and Safety from Harm for Former Muslims,” copies of which will be received in the offices of dozens of Muslim leaders across America by September 25, the 220th anniversary of Congress passing the Bill of Rights. They will also distribute a list of the names of this first group of Muslim leaders to be asked to sign the Muslim Pledge. Additional Muslim leaders will be sent the pledge in the next month as the national campaign gets underway. The names of all pledge recipients will be listed at Formermuslimsunited.org

President Obama, an apostate himself, might want to join this much-needed new group.

New group launched to educate about the Islamization of America

From New English Review:

WASHINGTON – Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) will hold an organizational launch and press conference with speakers and panel discussion on September 25th, to coincide with Islam on Capitol Hill Day and the 220th anniversary of the passage of the Bill of Rights.

[....]

SIOA’s mission is to educate the American people about the political doctrine of Islam, its history, Sharia (Islamic Law), and Jihad. SIOA believes that Sharia Law is incompatible with our Constitution and Bill of Rights.

So what’s this Islam on Capital Hill Day?  Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs has the inside story, here.