This week, four men of Somali origin in Minnesota for recruiting and raising money for al Shabaab, which as of last year is al Qaeda's branch in the Horn of Africa.
Although al Shabaab has lost control of its main bases in Mogadishu and Kismayo over the past year, it has continued to engage in a guerilla-style struggle against the African Union troops backing up Somalia's Transitional Federal Government. What these arrests in Minnesota demonstrate is that, for a jihadi organisation with a distinctly local outlook, al Shabaab has an impressive global reach, facilitated by its links to the Somali diaspora. This doesn't just mean recruiting and raising money in Minnesota -it also means carrying out terrorist attacks abroad. So far, the attacks on foreign soil have mostly been limited to Kenya, which has both a significant Somali population and a border with Somalia itself. However, the ongoing involvement of Western governments in the Somali civil war (especially the US' use of drones to target al Shabaab/al Qaeda militants) means there is a solid possibility of al Shabaab using its existing recruiting and money-raising networks to carry out terrorist attacks in the West.
Read more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22535766
There aren't enough bars jihadis would go to. Nowhere you could go, sit with a drink, and eavesdrop on the messy, convoluted and contradictory mess that is violent jihadism around the world. So instead we have the imaginary Sharaaabtoon, a place where various self-proclaimed mujahadeen will be brought forth to be seen and overheard, just as if they were the clientele of a bar. Remember: no shahada, no service. Twitter: @Sharaabtoon
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