Interesting Read: Muslim Somalians in Maine

LadyEagle · Dec 30, 2005

In 2001, there were none.

At the start of 2001, not a single Somali lived in Lewiston. The old textile mill city of 35,000 had been losing population for 20 years, and in the 2000 Census counted but 361 black residents.

Today, there are some 1,000 Somalis, black and Muslim, in this sheltered redoubt of Franco-American Catholicism, where the 4 p.m. French Mass still packs them in at St. Peter and Paul Church. Lewiston has its first mosque, operating from a storefront on Lisbon Street, which en route to a neighboring town becomes a highway dedicated to the memory of Sgt. Thomas Field, a native son killed in Somalia in the battle depicted in the book and movie "Black Hawk Down."
Click to expand...

(Copyright 2002, so in less than 1 to 1-1/2 years, over 1000 Somalis moved there)

http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/story1a082002.html

LadyEagle · Dec 30, 2005

Pressure on the "bigoted" mayor:

LEWISTON — Following an emotional private meeting Friday morning with Mayor Laurier Raymond, Somali leaders said they believe the mayor did not mean them any harm when he asked them in writing last week to slow the wave of new immigrants to the city.

At an afternoon press conference at City Hall, Abdirizak Mahboub, a representative of the Somali community, struck a congenial tone, far different from the Somali community's complaints earlier in the week that Raymond was a racist.
Click to expand...

http://www.centralmaine.com/news/stories/021012somalis_.shtml

LadyEagle · Dec 30, 2005

And don't speak out!

Executive Editor David B. Offer fired Cheever immediately, saying the guest editorial was "blatant racial intolerance" that "should not have been printed."

Miller's editorial questioned whether the Somalis being admitted had undergone thorough enough background checks.

"Somalia is even now identified as a growing stronghold and training area for Islamic terrorists, he wrote. "Some in our government believe Osama bin Laden could be there now, rebuilding and reforming his worldwide terrorist network. How thoroughly were our Maine Somalis screened?"

Miller also questioned why the people of Lewiston must endure transformation.

"But why Maine, where life is still the way it used to be?" he asked.

Frank A. Blethen, chairman of the Blethlen group that publishes the paper where Cheever worked, "has become known for promoting diversity in the news business," according to the newsletter of the Accuracy in Media organization in Washington, D.C.
Click to expand...

http://www.manews.org/0303fired.html

LadyEagle · Dec 30, 2005

By February 2001, they had discovered Lewiston, and the influx began. The numbers of those arriving accelerated last summer, exceeding 100 a month. Although it is difficult to get an exact fix on the figures, it seems that more than half of all Somalis in Lewiston are on the dole. Welfare spending has more than doubled since their arrival.

One of the Somalis who has a job is Abdiaziz Ali, a 31-year-old father of five who arrived in Lewiston last year. Ali is a welfare caseworker. He greets new arrivals, puts them on welfare, and finds them housing. He is happy to be in Lewiston, where benefits are substantial, schools good, and crime low. He himself was robbed twice by local blacks in Atlanta.

Mohammed Maye, the president of the African Community and Refugee Center in Clarkston, has a map of Lewiston on the wall of his office. “Go to Maine,” he advises Somalis. He has recently opened a second office in Lewiston. Abdullahi Abdullahi, the president of the Somali Community Development Organization in Clarkston, tells Somalis that, unlike Georgia, Maine has terribly cold winters, but “the welfare system is better.” Better for sure. Lewiston provides welfare to anyone in need, and the state picks up half the tab. Recipients are allowed a generous five years of assistance before benefits are terminated, and, even at that point, extensions are not difficult to obtain. Single parents can stay on welfare and go to college. Public housing is also available, although, because of the influx of Somalis, there is now a waiting list. More than a third of the apartments at Hillview, Lewiston’s largest public housing project, are occupied by Somalis, many of them single mothers with large broods of children. The fathers are unaccounted for or still in Georgia or Africa. Those who are unable to obtain public housing are eligible for Section 8 vouchers, which the federal government provides to subsidize rental of private housing.

Just where all the Somalis will eventually be employed is a mystery. The mills of Lewiston, once upon a time, produced a quarter of all American textiles. Across the Androscoggin River, the factories of Auburn turned out shoes by the thousands. Foreign competition has destroyed those industries. Like many other communities in the United States, Lewiston has tried to re-invent itself and create a service-based economy. Banking, insurance, healthcare, and the like, however, do not provide the blue-collar jobs that have sustained generations of immigrants with few skills and limited English. Perhaps the demise of the old industries is of little consequence to the Somalis. When Renee Bernier, the president of the Lewiston city council, offered to hire 30 Somalis at $8 an hour to hold warning signs at road construction sites, few showed any interest. Those who did wanted to work no more than a half-day, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

With the welfare system, public housing, and, to a rapidly increasing degree, the schools creaking under the strain of the Somalis, some in Lewiston have dared to speak out. Recently, mayor Laurier Raymond, in a public letter, asked the Somali leaders to discourage the migration to Lewiston, saying the city was “maxed out financially, physically and emotionally.” He was immediately attacked by the former mayor, Kaileigh Tara, who said she “wanted to cry” when she read Raymond’s letter. Somali leaders said he is “an ill-informed leader who is bent toward bigotry.” The usual terms xenophobe and racist were bandied about. A protest march of some 200 Somalis and their white sympathizers traveled several blocks from a downtown Methodist church to Lewiston’s first mosque, a converted grocery store on Lisbon Street. The U.S. Department of Justice was called upon to conduct an investigation to ensure that the Somalis are not discriminated against. The UN cannot be far behind.
Click to expand...

http://www.somaliawatch.org/archivejun02/021124201.htm

pinoybaptist · Dec 30, 2005

Maine is probably going to be the Somali terrorists, and other terrorists', R & R area.

Joseph_Botwinick · Dec 30, 2005

Originally posted by LadyEagle:
Pressure on the "bigoted" mayor:

<blockquote>quote:<hr />LEWISTON — Following an emotional private meeting Friday morning with Mayor Laurier Raymond, Somali leaders said they believe the mayor did not mean them any harm when he asked them in writing last week to slow the wave of new immigrants to the city.

At an afternoon press conference at City Hall, Abdirizak Mahboub, a representative of the Somali community, struck a congenial tone, far different from the Somali community's complaints earlier in the week that Raymond was a racist.

Click to expand...

<edited only to shrink link - LE> [/QUOTE]I would say that their earlier complaints were correct. It sounds like the mayor is a bigot to me. If these folks are there legally, and haven't broken any laws, then the mayor and all the other bigots in that town should leave them alone.

Joseph Botwinick

[ December 30, 2005, 06:51 PM: Message edited by: LadyEagle ]

LadyEagle · Dec 30, 2005

Even as we fight a war on terrorism abroad, the U.S. — thanks to the UN — is importing a potential terrorist "fifth column" at home.

<snip>
With an estimated 90 percent of the Somali newcomers claiming rental and food assistance from the already-strapped city government, Lewiston doubled its welfare budget to $200,000 — and turned to Augusta for help. The state government responded by proposing to increase state property taxes. Predictably, the over-taxed and under-compensated Maine residents didn’t welcome this news. The June 30, 2002 Portland Press-Herald pointed out that Maine "ranks No. 2 in the nation in tax burden and No. 37 in personal income."

<snip>
Lewiston’s troubles foreshadow things to come as the UN, with Washington’s cooperation, resettles Somali Bantus in cities and towns across America.

"Over the next two years, nearly all of the Somali Bantu refugees in Kenya — about 12,000 people — are to be flown to the United States," reported the March 10th New York Times. "The Bantu are practicing Muslims. Women cover their hair with brightly colored scarves. Families pray five times a day. In Somalia, they were in a predominantly Muslim country often described as a breeding ground for terrorists." By the end of September, 1,500 Somali Bantus will be resettled in 50 U.S. cities and towns, including Boston, Charlotte, San Diego, and Erie.

This latest wave of Somali refugees will join a vast Somali sub-population that has already embedded itself in America. According to an April 4, 2001 report on Minnesota Public Radio, Minnesota is home to the largest settlement of Somalis outside Africa. While that midwestern state, with its Norwegian cultural history, brutally cold winters, and plentiful lakes, seems an unlikely haven for refugees from an arid country on the Horn of Africa, it offers one irresistible lure to the newcomers: extraordinarily liberal welfare policies, coupled with a pervasive multicultural dogma that makes criticism of such policies tantamount to a "hate crime."

That many, or even most, of the Somali refugees are peaceful, law-abiding people is beyond dispute. The tragedies those innocent people have endured will provoke the sympathy of decent people. But many of the Somalis have imported to this country the clan-based loyalties that led to bloody chaos in their homeland.

The November 19, 2000 Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported that Somali refugees in that state had sent at least $75 million back to their homeland since the resettlement began in the early 1990s. Most of that money was given in increments of $100-$600 to clan officials simply called "Collectors." "They will say, ‘We are collecting money to buy ammunition and defend our people,’" explains Somali immigrant Omar Jamal. According to Somali expatriate Abdi Samatal, a professor at the University of Minnesota, "Some people are sending money to warlords … a criminal act, in my opinion."

An unspecified amount of Somali money raised in Minnesota has been used to underwrite Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network. The October 14, 2001 Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported that a Somali "charity" called Al-Itihaad Al-Islamiya was among the suspected terrorist fronts shut down by the FBI and Customs immediately after 9-11. Somali immigrant Abdisalan Hussein describes the group as "fanatics" preying on emotions of potential donors by displaying gruesome photos of Somali women who have been raped and killed. Left unexplained, of course, is how funding Islamic extremism would end such horrors.
Click to expand...

Source

Ben W · Dec 31, 2005

Does Dell have a factory there?

Daisy · Jan 1, 2006

That's an odd question - would you explain?

LadyEagle · Jan 1, 2006

Probably referring to the Muslim political pressure (including massive letter writing campaigns by CAIR and MPAC members) put on Dell for firing Muslims who walked off the job for evening prayers. Dell ended up backing down.

Here's the story:

Source

And here's CAIR web site story:

Link

Thanks for the reminder, Ben.

KenH · Jan 1, 2006

Wasn't that incident in Nashville, Tennessee, not in Maine?

LadyEagle · Jan 1, 2006

Yes, but Ben brought it up.

It will be interesting to see what happens in Maine when it comes to employment and prayer times.

Joseph_Botwinick · Jan 1, 2006

LE,

If these folks are there legally, what do you think should happen when it comes to employment and prayer times?

Joseph Botwinick

OldRegular · Jan 1, 2006

Frankly I believe we should stop all Muslim immigration to this country and keep the radical clerics out of our prisons, unless they occupy a cell.

LadyEagle · Jan 1, 2006

Originally posted by Joseph_Botwinick:
LE,

If these folks are there legally, what do you think should happen when it comes to employment and prayer times?

Joseph Botwinick
Click to expand...

They should do their job. They are in America, not Saudi Arabia or the Muslim country they came from. They should stay in their own countries or assimilate. It shouldn't be the other way around. Period.

Ben W · Jan 1, 2006

Originally posted by LadyEagle:
Probably referring to the Muslim political pressure (including massive letter writing campaigns by CAIR and MPAC members) put on Dell for firing Muslims who walked off the job for evening prayers. Dell ended up backing down.

Here's the story:

Source

And here's CAIR web site story:

Link

Thanks for the reminder, Ben.
Click to expand...

Yes Daisy, I confess that I was being a little flippant!

Joseph_Botwinick · Jan 1, 2006

Originally posted by LadyEagle:
<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Joseph_Botwinick:
LE,

If these folks are there legally, what do you think should happen when it comes to employment and prayer times?

Joseph Botwinick
Click to expand...

They should do their job. They are in America, not Saudi Arabia or the Muslim country they came from. They should stay in their own countries or assimilate. It shouldn't be the other way around. Period. [/QUOTE]Seems to me that they are assimilating rather well, since they are enjoying their freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and all the benefits of our democracy. One could even argue that they have truly become American in the modern sense of the word since, as you seem to imply, they are registering for welfare (please don't think that welfare began with the Muslim immigrants in this country).

Joseph Botwinick

LadyEagle · Jan 1, 2006

Their plan is to take over and they are succeeding (as I have chronicled in this thread about one little town in Maine). They are getting a lot of help from non-Muslims who are blind to their political ideology, even though it is freely admitted by their own leaders.

Enjoy your freedom while you can, Joseph, cause if the pre-tribbers are wrong, your children & grandchildren may end up living under Sharia in the USA.

"One of them [American converts to Islam], Jeffrey Lang, writes of his dismay attending a lecture in a San Francisco mosque not long after his conversion and hearing an immigrant medical student issue a seditious call to arms:

We must never forget - and this is extremely important - that as Muslims, we are obligated to desire, and when possible to participate in, the overthrow of any non-Islamic government - anywhere in the world - in order to replace it by an Islamic one.

But calling on Muslims to overthrow the U.S. government, Lang protested to the lecturer, means that accepting Islam was tantamount to an act of political treason. "Yes, that's true," the lecturer blithely replied.30 [Quote from p. 116-7.]

"Second, the United States permits Islamists to transform the country in a legal fashion. They never need to challenge the existing political order, but can achieve all their goals "without disturbing or violating the constitution of the U.S.A."48 Indeed, because that Constitution guarantees complete government neutrality toward religion, Siddiqi finds that the existing system can be used to further militant Islamic aims. Democratic means can be used to spread the message - for example, by developing a lobby, cultivating politicians, and electing Muslim representatives. Nearly a million legal immigrants arrive in the country each year, as well as many more through the long coastlines and porous land borders. Courts are an important vehicle. Conversion to Islam is not just perfectly legal but happening in substantial numbers. These are advantages, it hardly needs stressing, that did not exist in Muhammad's Mecca or in any other society outside the contemporary West. . . . Muslims will find themselves not just enfranchised but actually running the show: with due representation in Congress and throughout American life, "they will be able to create a strong lobby in Washington for the promotion of Islam and its cause in this country as well as elsewhere in the world."52 . . . Siddiqi sees Islamists in power in Washington before 2020.54" [Quote from p. 121-2.]
Click to expand...

http://tinyurl.com/9reb6

Source links are at text link above, including those by Shamim A. Siddiqi.

Joseph_Botwinick · Jan 1, 2006

Originally posted by LadyEagle:

"One of them [American converts to Islam], Jeffrey Lang, writes of his dismay attending a lecture in a San Francisco mosque not long after his conversion and hearing an immigrant medical student issue a seditious call to arms:
Click to expand...

Did I miss something? Is there a San Francisco in Maine? Silly me. I always thought that was in California.

Joseph Botwinick
Click to expand...

Joseph_Botwinick · Jan 1, 2006

Originally posted by LadyEagle:
Their plan is to take over and they are succeeding (as I have chronicled in this thread about one little town in Maine).
Click to expand...

Sorry, LE. But you have shown no such evidence of an attempted take over of these Muslims in Maine. All your articles show is that there are a group of Muslims enjoying the freedoms of our democracy that everyone else enjoys (thereby showing that they are assimilating to American Culture rather well), and that there are a bunch of bigots in the small town of Maine. Nothing more.

Joseph Botwinick

Interesting Read: Muslim Somalians in Maine

LadyEagle <b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

LadyEagle <b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

LadyEagle <b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

LadyEagle <b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

pinoybaptist Active Member
Site Supporter

Joseph_Botwinick <img src=/532.jpg>Banned

LadyEagle <b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

Ben W Active Member
Site Supporter

Daisy New Member

LadyEagle <b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

KenH Well-Known Member

LadyEagle <b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

Joseph_Botwinick <img src=/532.jpg>Banned

OldRegular Well-Known Member

LadyEagle <b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

Ben W Active Member
Site Supporter

Joseph_Botwinick <img src=/532.jpg>Banned

LadyEagle <b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

Joseph_Botwinick <img src=/532.jpg>Banned

Joseph_Botwinick <img src=/532.jpg>Banned

Useful Searches

Interesting Read: Muslim Somalians in Maine

LadyEagle <b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

LadyEagle <b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

LadyEagle <b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

LadyEagle <b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

pinoybaptist Active Member Site Supporter

Joseph_Botwinick <img src=/532.jpg>Banned

LadyEagle <b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

Ben W Active Member Site Supporter

Daisy New Member

LadyEagle <b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

KenH Well-Known Member

LadyEagle <b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

Joseph_Botwinick <img src=/532.jpg>Banned

OldRegular Well-Known Member

LadyEagle <b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

Ben W Active Member Site Supporter

Joseph_Botwinick <img src=/532.jpg>Banned

LadyEagle <b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

Joseph_Botwinick <img src=/532.jpg>Banned

Joseph_Botwinick <img src=/532.jpg>Banned

pinoybaptist Active Member
Site Supporter

Ben W Active Member
Site Supporter

Ben W Active Member
Site Supporter