There's a poignant scene in Fathia Absie's riveting documentary, "Broken Dreams," that underlines the anguish and anger caused by the exodus of 20 or more young Minneapolis men of Somali descent two years ago.
"He used to take me anywhere, hold my hand," Fadumo Elmi said of her grandson, Mohamud Hassan. "Now, when I go see my doctors, they ask me, 'Where is Mohamud Hassan?' I tell them Mohamud is gone ... I tell them something evil took him to Mogadishu, and he's gone."
Hassan, then 19 and an engineering student, was among the Somali youths from the Twin Cities who left, many on the eve of the 2008 presidential elections. They resurfaced in Somalia, purportedly to help their countrymen defend against invading troops from Ethiopia.
The leading theory of U.S. investigators: They were recruited here and lured there by supporters of al-Shabaab, a terrorist group with reported ties to al-Qaida. Al-Shabaab followers want to establish an Islamist regime and identity over divisive clan loyalties in Somalia. Nationalistic pride was used as a ruse, some community leaders and American law enforcement officials agree, to get the passport-toting American youths to a place they left as babies or toddlers and fight for a cause they knew little about.
An early traveler and al-Shabaab fighter, Shirwa Ahmed, a 2000 Roosevelt High School grad, blew up himself and 22 others in an Oct. 29, 2008, suicide bombing. Five others who left are known dead; the rest are presumed Read More