A Muslim activist defends his faith against radicalism

With little money or support, Abdirizak Bihi is on a one-man mission to protect young Somali Americans in Minneapolis from the lure of Islamist extremists.

5 Seconds

00:00

Somali American Muslims pray during a soccer tournament in St. Paul, Minn., that was organized as part of the area's Somali Week celebration.

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

Saeed Fahra holds U.S. and Somali flags as he speaks to a mostly young and male audience during a break in the action at a Somali Week basketball tournament in Minneapolis.

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

Abdirizak Bihi, director of the Somali Education and Social Advocacy Center, testifies at a hearing on Muslim radicalization in March on Capitol Hill. He had flown to Washington hoping the trip might result in some money for his programs. Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, heralded Bihi as a “real master of these issues.” But the congressman’s support wavered when their conversations turned to money.

Kevin Lamarque / REUTERS

Farah Mohamed Beledi in a 2006 arrest photo. Beledi, 27, had been a Minnesota kid with American problems. He had gone to prison for stabbing someone and had come out two years later as a radicalized Muslim. He disappeared to Somalia and joined al-Shabab, an Islamist extremist group. In late May, he killed himself and three others in a suicide bombing in Mogadishu.

Courtesy of the Ramsey County (Minn.) Sheriff's Office

Farah Mohamed Beledi, 27, after the suicide bombing in which he killed himself and three others May 30 in Mogadishu, Somalia.

Beledi's jacket is still outfitted with the bomb’s trigger after the suicide attack.

Tally Squires checks out a newspaper article about Farah Mohamed Beledi's death in Somalia. Squires was taking a break from helping activist Mohamed Amin Ahmed create a counter-radicalism video in Minneapolis.

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

Burhan Hassan was one of the first Americans to vanish from Minneapolis to join al-Shabab, an Islamist extremist group with ties to al-Qaeda. The 17-year-old honors student, who joined al-Shabab in Somalia in 2008, was killed the next year. His uncle, Abdirizak Bihi, responded by launching a youth advocacy program to combat militant Islamists.

Courtesy of family / VIA AP

Bihi, left, and Kasim Bashir meet with city representatives in the Minneapolis mayor’s office to discuss Bashir’s Somali Week basketball tournament. They were lobbying for the mayor to reduce the amount the city was charging for the use of a gymnasium and the city-provided security. In the end, the city reduced the fees for the organizers of the youth event.

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

Officially, Bihi is the director of the Somali Education and Special Advocacy Center, but in truth he is the whole operation. He earns no salary, and the undertaking has jeopardized his finances, his marriage and his reputation. He would happily quit tomorrow, he said, “if I believed there was anyone else crazy enough to do this.”

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

Bihi, 46, returning home after 11 p.m., is greeted by his youngest of two daughters, Aisha, 6. “I really need to keep getting home early,” Bihi said. “My daughters need me.” Recently his wife had forced him to sign a contract requiring him to make money or continue sleeping on the couch. “I’m tired of you being a charity worker, like Mr. FBI-slash-Mother Teresa” his wife told him.

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

Bihi, 46, plays with his two daughters, Fatima-Jamila, 9, and Aisha, 6, in their sixth-floor apartment in Minneapolis.

Jahi Chikwendiu / WASHINGTON POST

Fatima-Jamila Bihi taunts her father after breaking one of his cigarettes outside their high-rise apartment building. On most days, he smokes two packs of cigarettes and forgets to eat breakfast, so now his size-small dress shirts drape off his shoulders like garbage bags.

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

Bihi talks with neighborhood girls about starting a girls basketball league. Usually on Wednesday evenings, a local gym is closed off to boys and the girls are allowed to play basketball among themselves. But their program is in jeopardy of being shut down.

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

Bihi's daughter Aisha, 6, calls to her mother from the back of their family's vehicle. Their apartment building is part of a square-mile area of Minneapolis that residents refer to as “Little Mogadishu.” It consists of five cinder-block apartment towers, four mosques, three community centers, several Somali restaurants and a Somali record store. Most people are Sunni Muslims who immigrated here in the past 20 years after fleeing war, and they speak almost exclusively in Somali.

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

Bihi, right, and Kasim Bashir strategize about raising money for a Somali Week basketball tournament.

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

Bihi, left, greets Mohamed Hassan, 24, and his young daughter, Riyan Hassan, on the street near the Cedar-Riverside apartment complex. "I'm surprised to see that young man like that, being such a responsible father," Bihi said. In the past three years, at least 25 young men have disappeared from Minneapolis to fight for the Somali-based Islamist extremist group al-Shabab, and dozens more are being investigated on suspicion of recruiting or fundraising on behalf of the terrorist organization.

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

Before Friday prayers, Hassan Omar dusts the head wrap of Barkhad Abdirahman so that his forehead will touch the floor when they kneel to pray at the Darul Quba Cultural Center in Minneapolis.

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

Hashi Garaad, 22, silences Khalid Sh-Osman, 8, as Khalid's brother Ali Sh-Osman, 11, sits by at left during the sermon before Friday prayers at the Darul Quba Cultural Center.

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

Mohamed Amin Ahmed, 35, a Minneapolis businessman who owns a small convenience store, heads the Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism. “Our silence is enabling [extremists],” he said, “and I’m tired of enabling them.”

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

At a Minneapolis coffee shop, Mohamed Amin Ahmed, left, asks for Imam Sheikh Sa'ad Musse Roble to stand with him in his campaign to speak out against Islamist radicalism. Roble is president of the World Peace Organization.

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

Omar Sharif, 21, smokes a pipe outside the 280 Hookah Bar in St. Paul, Minn. The bar is a regular hangout for young Somali men and women.

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

Smoke fills the room at the 280 Hookah Bar.

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

Barkhad Abdirahman, left, and Abdirahman “Ohio” Muse hang out at Currie Park in Minneapolis. Activists such as Abdirizak Bihi are working to counteract influences that lead Somali American youths to radicalism.

Jahi Chikwendiu / The WASHINGTON POST

Hassan Aden debates with his friends about their soccer skills in Currie Park.

Jahi Chikwendiu / The WASHINGTON POST

Rashad Williams, an American Muslim convert, goes up for a basket against other boys and young men, mostly Somalis, during a pickup game at Currie Park in Minneapolis.

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

Crowds jeer at a referee's call during the Somali Week Hoops for Hope basketball tournament. Kasim Bashir, the tournament's organizer, said: "The main reason for starting this basketball tournament was because you have to feed the people before you can talk to the people. The basketball is just to bait them, to bring them in." He said he "wanted to clear up the negative perception of Somali people, to give an alternative to joining gangs and other negative things."

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

Young men play soccer near "Little Mogadishu." Abdirizak Bihi pushed the city to build the AstroTurf soccer field.

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

The Riverside Plaza apartment complex in Minneapolis is part of the area known as “Little Mogadishu.” Most in this community of 10,000 immigrants are Sunni Muslims who settled here after fleeing violence in Somalia.

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

Udah Salad, left, wears a Minnesota Twins baseball cap over head-to-toe religious dress as she talks to her sister Fathia Hassan as the two wait for an elevator in the Cedar-Riverside high-rise apartment building. Many young Somali Americans feel regret that they have never seen their home country.

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

Abdihakim Adam, left, dances with Ayan Maruf during practice for a routine they'll perform for the upcoming Somali Independence Day celebration.

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

Anisa Yusuf, 9, at Currie Park, near where she lives in the Cedar-Riverside apartment complex in Minneapolis.

Jahi Chikwendiu / The WASHINGTON POST

A Muslim woman runs for cover during a fast-moving lightning storm.

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

Newlyweds Najma Omar Aballa-Suweyda Gale, left, and Abdirahman Muhamed Sheikhabdi dance during their wedding reception in Roseville, Minn., outside Minneapolis.

Jahi Chikwendiu / The WASHINGTON POST

Chaltu Berento, left, and Hamdi F. Mohamed talk in Currie Park after a storm passed over the Cedar-Riverside apartment complex.

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

Adrienne Dorn, left, director of development at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis, sits with her assistant Catherine Reagan. “I’ve been here seven years, and I don’t have any East African friends,” Dorn said. She said she is working on projects to foster ties between the cultural center and the large Somali immigrant community in the city.

Jahi Chikwendiu / THE WASHINGTON POST

FEATURED PHOTO GALLERIES

A protestor in a Guy Fawkes mask walks past razor wire outside a security perimeter of the G-8 summit in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland on Monday, June 17, 2013. The summit is taking place under heavy security, with some 7,000 police lining roads and checking vehicles. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Photos of the day

G-8 summit, massive protests rock Brazil, Britain’s Royal Ascot and more.

Two-year old male rat named Dyatlik wears a costume during a rodent exhibition in Minsk, Belarus, Saturday, June 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Animal views

Rodent exhibition, swimming with elephants, Mexico’s feline mayoral candidate and more.

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 14: Johnathon Carrington, valedictorian at Dunbar High School, laughs with family and friends after his school's graduation ceremony at Howard University on Friday, June 14, 2013, in Washington, DC. Carrington, who grew up in Tyler House public-housing apartments and is graduating from one of DC's low-performing high schoolsy, where academic expectations are high. (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

Johnathon’s journey

Johnathon Carrington graduated Friday as the valedictorian of his neighborhood school, Dunbar High, and is headed to Georgetown University. But Carrington, 17, is nervous, and so are...

U.S. actress Sandra Bullock poses for the media during a photocall to promote her latest move 'The Heat' in Berlin June 18, 2013. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch (GERMANY - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT)

Eye on entertainment

Sandra Bullock, Jessica Sanchez, Snooki, Billy Porter, Billy Crystal, Sean Hayes, Gwen Stefani and other celebrities.

LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 16: Reenactors dressed as knights stage a medieval jousting competition at Eltham Palace on June 16, 2013 in Eltham, England. The 'Grand Medieval Joust' event at Eltham Palace, an English Heritage property which was the childhood home of King Henry VIII, aims to give a great insight into life at the palace during the medieval period. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

The Grand Medieval Joust

The Grand Medieval Joust at Eltham Palace, an English Heritage property that was the childhood home of King Henry VIII, aims to lend insight through reenactment into life at the palace...

In this June 8, 2013 photo, youth compete in the Sao Carlos slum local soccer tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The pitch is just dirt and the incandescent lights aren't so bright. But when the boys' feet strike the football in the Sao Carlos slum as night falls every Saturday, big league dreams glow, inflated by the hope of escaping the shantytown with sporting skills. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Brazil’s other soccer fields

With the Confederations Cup opening this week and the World Cup one year away, all eyes are on Brazil, where soccer is arguably played with more passion and art than anywhere else....

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 16: John F. Tatum Sr. hugs his grandson John F. Tatum III during his annual Father's Day block party on Sunday, June 16, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Amanda Voisard/For the Washington Post)

Father’s Day picnic in Northeast D.C.

A decades-old backyard barbecue in Northeast Washington draws hundreds in honor of dads everywhere. “It’s off-the-chain fun,” says Butch McNair, who has worked one...

LAS VEGAS, NV - JUNE 16: Miss Connecticut USA Erin Brady reacts after being crowned Miss USA during the 2013 Miss USA pageant at PH Live at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on June 16, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Miss USA 2013

Miss Connecticut USA Erin Brady is crowned Miss USA 2013 in Las Vegas.

Back to Previous Gallery

Discussion Policy | FAQ | About Discussions

Comments

Add your comment

Read what others are saying About Badges

SuperFan Badge

SuperFan badge holders consistently post smart, timely comments about Washington area sports and teams.

More about badges | Request a badge

Culture Connoisseur Badge

Culture Connoisseurs consistently offer thought-provoking, timely comments on the arts, lifestyle and entertainment.

More about badges | Request a badge

Fact Checker Badge

Fact Checkers contribute questions, information and facts to The Fact Checker.

More about badges | Request a badge

Washingtologist Badge

Washingtologists consistently post thought-provoking, timely comments on events, communities, and trends in the Washington area.

More about badges | Request a badge

Post Writer Badge

This commenter is a Washington Post editor, reporter or producer.

Post Forum Badge

Post Forum members consistently offer thought-provoking, timely comments on politics, national and international affairs.

More about badges | Request a badge

Weather Watcher Badge

Weather Watchers consistently offer thought-provoking, timely comments on climates and forecasts.

More about badges | Request a badge

World Watcher Badge

World Watchers consistently offer thought-provoking, timely comments on international affairs.

More about badges | Request a badge

Post Contributor Badge

This commenter is a Washington Post contributor. Post contributors aren’t staff, but may write articles or columns. In some cases, contributors are sources or experts quoted in a story.

More about badges | Request a badge

Post Recommended

Washington Post reporters or editors recommend this comment or reader post.

You must be logged in to report a comment.

Comments our editors find particularly useful or relevant are displayed in Top Comments, as are comments by users with these badges: . Replies to those posts appear here, as well as posts by staff writers.

All comments are posted in the All Comments tab.

More about badges

Get a badge

To pause and restart automatic updates, click "Live" or "Paused". If paused, you'll be notified of the number of additional comments that have come in.