Mosques step up safety after Trump's comments targeting Somali Minnesotans
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Mosques around the state are stepping up security amid a wave of comments from leaders — including President Donald Trump — attacking Minnesota’s Somali American community.
The president posted those comments Thursday after a week of statements from officials and social media chatter blaming the Somali community for violence in Minnesota.
A shooting at a high school football game in Eden Prairie on Oct. 2 that injured two Somali American teenagers helped spark the rhetoric. Law enforcement leaders said the shooting was gang-related and called for a more coordinated response to gang violence in the region, which they say is being perpetrated predominantly by Somali American youth.
The rhetoric intensified Wednesday, after the unrelated arrest of an 18-year-old Somali American accused of planning an attack at the Mall of America.
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Minnesota imams meet to discuss mosque safety
The ongoing hostility online has some Somali community leaders worried about mosques and other gathering places being targeted.
Minnesota’s chapter of the Committee on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, held a meeting Thursday for imams around the state to talk about safety plans. Deputy Executive Director Suleiman Adan said that includes communicating to congregations reminders about emergency exits and procedures.
He said he was especially concerned about the president calling on non-Somali Minnesotans to “fight back” against the Somali community in a social media post.
“We cannot simply dismiss that as political rhetoric or the president saying something that he doesn't actually mean,” Suleiman said. “We have seen how quickly hateful language can translate into harassment, into threats and violence.”
Imam Abdulahi Farah said he’s worried about the prospect of violence, too. He’s an imam at Dar al-Farooq mosque in Bloomington, where a far-right group set off a homemade bomb in 2017.
“These words are reckless, they are dangerous, and they have consequences,” Farah said at a press conference Friday, in response to Trump’s comments. “We know what it means when an entire community who comes to worship are made to feel unsafe. Blaming an entire community is not accountability. Scapegoating is not a public safety strategy.”
Neighbors renew patrols started during Operation Metro Surge
Farah spoke alongside a group of Minnesota clergy Friday morning. They called on leaders and neighbors across the state to speak out against racist rhetoric against Somali Americans and to protect the community in Minnesota.
Suleiman said several mosques and Somali businesses have heard from neighbors who plan to patrol outside their buildings and watch for any disturbances or threats of violence, restarting a practice that many retired after the drawdown of Operation Metro Surge. The federal immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota targeted Somalis, among other groups.
The Minneapolis Police Department and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to requests for comment regarding whether they had seen any particular threats, or whether they are stepping up security around mosques.
Several elected officials also denounced Trump’s statement Friday. Walz — who Trump called an “incompetent thief” in his social media post — said in a fundraising email that the president is lashing out at blue states.
“You’d think the president of the United States would have more important things to do than spend his afternoon trying to turn Americans against each other,” Walz wrote.
Some community leaders and officials said they’re concerned the federal government is attempting to blame the Somali community for violence as a pretext to send federal forces to the state, noting Trump’s promise to Minnesotans that “the federal government come to your rescue.”
Suleiman said he wants to see politicians stand up for all Minnesotans — including Somali Americans.
“Somalis are as Minnesotan as apple pie and the State Fair,” he said. “You should stand up for them, just as you would stand up for any element of your community that is being that is being scapegoated.”
