At Somali town meeting, a show of solidarity

There is a very large Somali immigrant population in Minnesota and they are trying to learn what to do if they are hassled by anyone about their background. And educate their neighbors about their culture and that they are not all terrorists or pirates. - - Donna Poisl

Several hundred people went to the Minneapolis Convention Center on Saturday hoping to dispel myths about the community.

By JANET MOORE, Star Tribune

Several hundred people, mostly of Somali descent, gathered at the Minneapolis Convention Center on Saturday in a show of solidarity for a community that is often misunderstood by many Minnesotans.

The town meeting came at a sensitive time for the Somali community, currently at the center of a far-reaching federal counterterrorism investigation into whether young men from Minneapolis have been recruited by terrorists to fight in their homeland.

"The Somali community has been under a microscope for the wrong reasons,'' said Sharmarke Jama, a spokesman for the nearly two dozen community and religious groups that sponsored the event. "This has been guilt by association. We want to demystify our community."
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