Young Men Vanish in
Anguished
By Bob Drogin
January 18, 2009
Reporting from
Minneapolis -- Tall and lean, with a wispy mustache and shy smile, 17-year-old Burhan Hassan chalked up A's last fall as a senior at
Roosevelt High School, vowing to become a doctor or lawyer.
After school and on weekends, he studied Islam at the nearby Abubakar As-Saddique mosque. He
joined its youth group.
"He wanted
to go to Harvard," said his uncle Osman Ahmed.
"That was his dream."
Instead Hassan has gone to
The youths, who have
As a result, a
joint terrorism task force led by the FBI is scrambling to determine if
extremist Islamic groups are seeking recruits here in the nation's largest
Somali community -- as well as in
"We're aware that these guys have traveled from
Topping their concern is the case of Shirwa Ahmed, a
27-year-old former
Officials believe the naturalized American was on a terrorist team that
detonated five car bombs in two northern Somali cities on Oct. 29, killing at
least 30 people, including U.N. aid workers.
Ahmed phoned his sister in
The FBI brought back bone fragments and other remains found in Bosaso, one of the blast sites,
He was buried in a Muslim funeral in
Ahmed had not been on the FBI's radar before the bombings. And his death raised
fears that someone trained in
"There is always a concern about spillover, bleed-out, call it what you
will," said a
In late November, Homeland Security officials put the imam of the Abubakar As-Saddique mosque and
the coordinator of its youth group on a no-fly list. They were barred at
The imam, Abdirahman Ahmed, did not respond to
interview requests. In a posting on its website, the mosque said it
"unequivocally condemns" suicide bombings and other terrorist acts.
It blamed the travel ban on "false, unsubstantiated rumors."
The leader of another mosque under scrutiny, the Darul
Da'wah center in
"Nobody who is part of my mosque left for
It might seem odd to seek a restorative cure in a country that has been mired
in war for 18 years and now is known for its pirates. But many Somalis in
"They each support a particular warlord back in Somalia," Omar Jamal,
head of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, explained as he puffed on a huge
hookah at the crowded Pyramids Cafe and Shisha Lounge.