“Minnesota leads the nation in would-be ISIL terrorists from U.S., report finds,” by Paul McEnroe and Allison Sherry, Star Tribune, September 29, 2015:

Minnesota leads the nation in the number of people who have left or sought to leave the country to fight with terrorists aligned with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Syria, according to a scathing congressional report that says the U.S. and western countries have failed to disrupt the flow of combatants to the Middle East.

Released Tuesday by the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, the report specifically cites two Somali-American Minnesotans who joined or tried to join ISIL, highlighting its online recruiting success through peer-to-peer recruiting that relies on social media and sophisticated online messaging techniques.

Young fighters from at least 19 states have tried to join terrorists in Syria since the start of that country’s civil war in 2011. Minnesota recruits made up 26 percent of the sample of 58 cases reviewed by the committee’s bipartisan task force. California and New York had the second most recruits, with each state making up 12 percent, according to findings.

“This report is alarming and it’s really very worrisome,” said Sadik Warfa, deputy director of the Global Somali Diaspora based in Minneapolis.

And how is it alarming and worrisome to Sadik Warfa? Because he is opposed to jihad terror and ashamed of the role his community has had in it? Nope. Guess again:

“I worry about the stigma and the prospect of our community being marginalized.

Ah, yes. You’re not surprised, are you? Warfa, like virtually every other Muslim leader in the U.S. and Europe when confronted with the reality of jihad activity in his community, is playing the victim. The problem, as far as he is concerned, is not Muslims from Minnesota joining the Islamic State; it’s the “backlash” that is looming, but never quite arrives, against the Muslim community. This is, as always, an attempt to deflect attention away from the jihad activity and, by portraying Muslims as victims, make them the recipients of solicitude, rather than scrutiny, from government and law enforcement.

But in the end, it’s up to us as Somali-Americans to really change our image. And as Minnesotans, we need to be asking what can we do to put these kinds of people into our mainstream here instead of over there.”

Yes, that’s what we need: a large number of Islamic State-aligned jihadis in the American mainstream instead of in the Islamic State. What could possibly go wrong?

More than 250 Americans have attempted or succeeded in reaching Syria and Iraq to fight with terrorist groups, intelligence officials estimate. “We have largely failed to stop Americans from traveling overseas to join jihadists,” the task force declared. “A handful of suspects were stopped in other countries, but it appears the majority — 85 percent — still managed to evade American law enforcement on its way to the conflict zone.”

The task force said it could identify only 28 cases in which federal authorities stopped suspects before they left for the Middle East. Eight of those involved Minnesotans who conspired since March 2014 to leave the U.S. for Syria but who were stopped by FBI agents. Those men, all Somali-Americans, are in custody. Three have pleaded guilty in recent weeks to conspiring to join ISIL….

At least four men with Minnesota roots have been killed fighting for ISIL. Intelligence officials say that overall, more than 20 Americans who joined the group have died.    SOURCE

According to the FBI:

Zacharia Yusuf Abdurahman, 20, of Columbia Heights, Minnesota, pleaded guilty to conspiring with at least eight other individuals to travel to Syria in an effort to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a designated foreign terrorist organization.

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin, U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger of the District of Minnesota and Special Agent in Charge Richard T. Thornton of the FBI’s Minneapolis Division made the announcement.

“Zacharia Yusuf Abdurahman conspired to provide material support to ISIL and attempted to travel to Syria to join their ranks overseas,” said Assistant Attorney General Carlin. “Counterterrorism is the National Security Division’s highest priority, and we remain committed to stemming the flow of foreign fighters abroad and bringing to justice those who attempt to provide material support to terrorists.”

The teenaged teerrorists’ father told a reporter that many Somali children were caught between two worlds: an American society which ws often hostile and the beconing jihadi world overseas, which often gave them purpose that they did not find in the US:

Abdurahman’s father, Yusuf, recalled an incident from a year ago, when his son and his friends were spit on at a McDonald’s in Lakeville.

“They are angry and it grows on them, the way they feel they are treated,” the father said. “People ask why these kids would think [of] what they’re accused of. They are very angry from things like this.”‘

Abdurahman is the third Minnesota man to plead guilty in connection with planning travel to Syria. Five others face a February trial.

Authorities have described the men from Minnesota’s Somali community as friends who recruited and inspired each other. Prosecutors say the men were advised from overseas by Abdi Nur, another Minnesota man who went to Syria in May 2014.  SOURCE

[….]

He also said he watched English-language jihadist videos on YouTube, Twitter and other social media outlets, and wanted to join the Islamic State group even though he knew it carried out beheadings and burned prisoners.

This is still a tragedy waiting to happen: lost, alienated teeenagers, trying to validaate themselves by joining a cause which could literally kill them, or get them arrested and imprisoned.