<cite> @DoctorKenney said:</cite> I find it a little strange that you condemn Somalee's post but yet you ignore what Naxar Nugaleed said! Talk about double standards here. What happened in Paris was obviously a crime, and should be roundly condemned. But that doesn't mean we should allow opportunistic Non-Muslims like Bill Maher and Naxar Nugaleed to use this incident to bash us. You really need to be more balanced. There's no "us" being bashed, the comment was specifically directed at somalee, who represents a particular view that justifies the killings for religious reasons (feeling disrespected by the cartoons in his mind makes murder legitimate). And Naxar Nugaleed is right, if somalee thinks God needs the murder of cartoonists to defend religion, he DOES need to rethink things.

<cite> @DoctorKenney said:</cite> With all due respect, your input here isn't very necessary....and your attempts to use this incident as a hammer to bash Muslims is especially offensive You're more offended by Naxar's post than Somalee's post justifying the killings?

<cite> @Naxar Nugaaleed said:</cite> By the way, if your God is incapable of defunding his religion and needs you to go around shooting people to do so, you should rethink something's. Somalee is not thinking at all, considering he seems to be under the impression that Charlie Hebdo is a person.

What I don't really get about the complaints against this thread is why you all seem to take it so personally. How does a mugshot of someone arrested for a crime reflect you in any way? Get upset with the individuals you see in this thread if you're so concerned about negative images of Somalis, not Nin-Yaaban for reporting news that's already public record.

<cite> @OneLove said:</cite> Is frankincense 'uunsi' ?? It's foox.

Thanks nuune -- Jijiga isn't my favourite city in eastern Ethiopia either (I prefer Dire and Harar), but I have a number of reasons to be based there while I research. It is the capital of the Somali region, after all

Sorry Mooge Yes, I'll be in Addis for the first 6-7 months, after that I plan to spend the rest of the time in the Somali region, mostly Jijiga. It's an interesting city and I'll finally have the chance to perfect my Somali I haven't figured out a title yet, but it's a project on the history of the Somali region of Ethiopia.

Hostel? You're trying to get me murdered huh It's gone off tangent now but my original reason for starting the thread was to get suggestions for neighbourhoods in London within a relatively easy commuting distance to Kew Gardens, that perhaps SOLers more familiar with London would know. I'm not thinking too much about cost right now, I'll worry about that once I can focus on a few specific areas to find a place.

Of course I have relatives in London, but I'm there to do work and I can't afford the distraction. They also don't live anywhere near Kew, so it wouldn't be convenient for me either either.

I'm surprised Mogadishu didn't beat Hargeisa to it. I've never been there but from what I've heard and seen in photos, there seems to be a lot of development and I would have thought they'd have a high story building by now. I think the Dahabshiil building is only 7 floors, so we're not talking skyscrapers here lol.

Thanks Ismail -- I plan to check out Airbnb, but it's mostly targeted to people looking for a cheaper alternative to hotels. It generally isn't cheap at all if you want to stay more than a week and compare the monthly cost on Airbnb to what regular rents/sublets would look like. So I need to find out where Londoners find sublets... I found a site called SpareRoom that seems to be popular, but I'm not too keen on roommates lol <cite> @Tallaabo said:</cite> Hey Saff what are you going to do in Kew Gardens- gardening? Tree hugging? :-D I said it in my post, I'm visiting the UK National Archives dee I need to go through all the colonial files on Somaliland/Somalia and any documents relating to Ethiopia.

Still a long way to go, Mooge! I'm actually moving to Ethiopia in November for a year and a half, which I'm looking forward to. I've lost interest in visiting Kenya though, after recent events. But I have friends in Tanzania that I'd like to visit

I'm thinking West London, so I don't have to travel too far. Is Shepherd's Bush heavily Somali?

I'm starting to plan a trip to London next summer (~2ish months) to visit the National Archives at Kew Gardens. I'm trying to figure out where to stay and what neighbourhoods to look at, so I was hoping SOLers more familiar with the city might have ideas. Kew seems to be outside of the city and looks boring, so somewhere interesting and not too far of a commute for me (I'd have to go there each day on weekdays). Also, where do people find places to rent in London? Craigslist is the go-to website here in the US, but what do people use in the UK? Thanks

<cite> @GoldCoast said:</cite> Certainly with "Yusuf" but "Abdille" spelling I've come across exclusively amongst Somalis. Much like "Adan" is a Somali take on a general Muslim name "Adam". I do believe the threadstarter's info here but this would be a peculiar example. The "Adan" spelling isn't unique to Somalis either, not even Muslims. I met a lot of Christian Ethiopians with the name Adan. But I do see your point with Abdille, it confused me as well. I'm also unclear why they have the same last name. Coincidence that they both have the name, her taking his last name, or him taking her name for some legal/immigration reasons? Who knows.

<cite> @Libaax-Sankataabte said:</cite> May Allah have mercy on them. Safferz, I am familiar with that area of Toronto because I grew up in area right across the Ontario Science Center. The Thorncliffe towers were mostly populated by South Asians back then. Your comment about Seychelles is plausible even though the name "Yusuf Osman Abdille" sounds like a typical Somali name. I have met quite a few Indians from Seychelles. This smells like a horrendous case of family violence. It's still heavily South Asian now but I think a number of Somali families live there too, though not as much as nearby Flemingdon Park. When I first heard Thorncliffe and saw the apartment building in the news, I assumed it was a South Asian family. Nice area. I spoke to my mom, and her husband was indeed a Muslim from Seychelles. I've only met a few people from the island but none of them were Indian, they looked similar to the mixed, lighter skinned Africans on the Swahili coast.

<cite> @GoldCoast said:</cite> Threadstarter are you sure about your information? The name of husband/father was released in Toronto media and it's Yusuf Abdille. That sounds Somali to me. I'll ask my mom again, but she said she was married to a man from Seychelles. My mom also works for Toronto Public Health (at a different office), but there are only a few Somali women who work for TPH and they all know each other quite well. The info is from one of the other Somali nurses, who called immediately to tell my mom what happened.

Can we not turn this thread into a debate on marrying non-Somalis? Anyway, there was a moment of silence for them at Toronto City Hall today, since she was an employee of the City of Toronto: "The Mayor and Members of Toronto City Council are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Zahra Abdille and her two sons Faris and Zain Abdille on November 29, 2014. Zahra started at Toronto Public Health in 2007 as a nurse (case manager) in the Tuberculosis Program. She completed her Bachelor of Nursing in the collaborative program between Humber College and University of New Brunswick. She had been working in Healthy Families since 2008 and in the Healthy Babies Healthy Children program since 2010. In 2013, Zahra completed the Combined Master of Nursing/Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner Certificate Program at Ryerson University. Zahra had a determination to succeed and provide a better life for her children. Described by her colleagues at Toronto Public Health as "beautiful both inside and out", Zahra was a strong support to her colleagues personally and professionally. Zahra had a deep respect for family and was the proud mother of 2 beautiful sons."

Slain nurse moved family to women’s shelter, says its boss Zahra Abdille, found dead with her two sons on Saturday, had fled a violent relationship and stayed in a safe house with her two young children last year, according to the executive director of Dr. Roz’s Healing Place. A slain Toronto nurse fled a violent relationship to stay with her two young sons in a safe house while she tried to gain custody of her children last year, according to abused women’s centre Dr. Roz’s Healing Place. On Saturday afternoon, Zahra Abdille, 43, and her sons, Faris, 13, and Zain, 8, were found dead in the same East York apartment they ran from last July, the centre’s executive director Roz Roach told the Star Tuesday. Roach said the family stayed in the centre’s shelter for three weeks while Abdille battled for the custody of her children. During her stay at the centre, the Toronto Public Health nurse went to court twice to fight for custody, but Abdille did not qualify for legal aid and could not afford a lawyer, Roach said. When Abdille and her sons arrived at the centre on July 10, she told staff she was running away from a long-term violent relationship, Roach, who has a PhD in health and human sciences, said. Abdille had escaped war-torn Somalia and arrived into Toronto in the late 1990s. She had no family in Canada, Roach said. Roach says Abdille’s file Dr. Roz’s Healing Place states that she met her partner in 1997 and the couple married a year later in Toronto. Roach said police would be collecting the Abdille family file from the centre Wednesday morning. Valerie McRobie, the centre’s child advocate, worked closely with the family and said Abdille was “a very hands-on mother.” “Her children’s happiness came first on top of everything else that was happening in her life,” McRobie said. Abdille watched her son’s soccer games and was seen helping the boys with homework during their three-week stay, McRobie said. “She was trying really hard to keep herself and the boys safe and she was going through the legal process but coming up against a lot of roadblocks, she was getting so frustrated.” McRobie said she can still remember the “bright smiles” of Faris and Zain. “They always had smiles on their faces and they were happy, happy to be little boys,” she told the Star. Roach said Abdille was also a “very private woman” who did not want the Somali community to know she was staying in the shelter. “She was a nurse and she found coming to the shelter had a stigma about it. She didn’t want anyone to know,” Roach said. The family stayed until July 23 when Roach said they moved into a downtown private rental. The nurse was last seen at the centre earlier this year collecting mail she had redirected there while she was living in the shelter. Roach said Abdille told staff at the time “everything was going well.” Roach feared Abdille may have been unable to afford rent in the city’s strained private market and been forced to return to her abusive partner, a situation many other clients from the centre had faced, she said. “Some of the obstacles these women have to go through are unbelievable. She was devastated when she tried to get interim custody of the kids but she did not get it. For me personally, I get really angry at the system when these things happen,” Roach said. According to Abdille’s file, which was read out to the Star over the phone, staff at the Ontario Court of Justice on Sheppard Ave. told the nurse she did not qualify for legal aid and that she should speak to a student lawyer for further advice. She was also told by the court that she needed to provide additional documents, such as income tax returns and receipts for daycare and school camps before her application would be processed, her file states. “Zahra was a wonderful human being and her sons were two bright boys who we had hope for,” she said. Faris Abdille was in Grade 8 at Westwood Middle School and principal Marc Sprack told the Star he loved skateboarding and drawing and had an “infectious smile.” “We’re having a hard time here trying to make sense of a very difficult situation,” Sprack said Tuesday. Zain Abdille was attending William Burgess elementary, Faris’ old school. Shane Colby, 10, said Faris, who was three years older than him at William Burgess, was always nice to the younger kids and even protected Shane when he was being bullied at school. “He was a really good guy. He was one of the reasons I could go to Grade 1 feeling safe,” Shane said. Faris, whose nickname was Faris Wheel, would stand beside Shane when older boys were tying to bully him; the pair would also trade hockey cards, he said. “He also did really nice things for other people,” Shane said. He’d race the younger students and let them win, “so they could feel like winners.” “He’s just a great person and life wouldn’t be the same without him. It’s just really sad that he has to go away,” Shane said. Shane’s mother, Nancy Adderley-Colby, said all the younger boys adored Faris. He graduated from William Burgess after Grade 5, but would come back to the school to visit Zain. “Just even a few months ago, I went to pick up the kids and there is this buzz of excitement because Faris is there and he’s got this swarm of younger kids around him and he’s playing with them,” Adderley-Colby said. Both Faris and Zain attended the Danforth Ave. Pat Schulz Child Care Centre as toddlers, director Kristi Bovaconti said. “They were that family that reached out and wanted to talk to you and tell you how much they appreciate everything you’re doing for them,” Bovaconti said. “They just loved being here.” In the years following, Abdille regularly kept in touch with Bovaconti — the two women spoke just a week ago. Abdille sounded like her upbeat self, Bovaconti said. “She was just really happy and friendly and just a lovely, lovely person,” Bovaconti said. Toronto police remain tight-lipped about a possible connection between a man who fell to his death from a bridge over the Don Valley Parkway and the triple homicide. Police discovered the bodies of Abdille and her two sons a few hours after finding the man’s body. On Tuesday afternoon, Toronto police Const. Clint Stibbe said traffic services have not yet identified the man.

Here are the kids:

She was a colleague of my mom's, they worked at different offices but knew each other and she was good friends with the other Somali women who work there. She told me the woman's husband is from Seychelles and she met and married him in Canada, so I'm not sure who the "Yusuf Abdille" in the article above was (although Somalis say all kinds of things for refugee claims, it could have been a relative she claimed was her husband to get him out as well, so perhaps she stuck to her story when speaking to Toronto Star back in 2003). Apparently what happened was that the man who fell on to the highway had ID on him, and when police went to his address to notify his family, they found the murder scene. They were all stabbed to death.

Another article that mentions her husband: A Toronto public health nurse and her two young sons were identified Monday as the victims of the triple homicide in East York. Zahra Mohamoud Abdille, 43, and her sons Faris, 13, and Zain, 8, were found dead in a third-floor unit at the Thorncliffe Park Drive apartment complex about 4:30 p.m. Saturday. Abdille was working as a public health nurse for the city, Toronto Public Health spokeswoman Lenore Bromley confirmed late Monday night. “We have just become aware of this tragedy. Our thoughts are with the families, friends and colleagues affected by devastating news,” Bromley wrote in an emailed statement to the Star. In a story published in the Star in 2003, a woman named Zahra Abdille, who was studying to become a registered nurse at the time, was interviewed at a Toronto daycare centre where she was picking up her two-year-old son, Faris. It is unknown if this Zahra and Faris Abdille are the same mother and son who were killed. In the story, Zahra and her partner, Yusuf Abdille, were collecting Faris from the Pat Schulz Day Care. The couple were receiving a child-care subsidy. The Abdilles were reported to have fled war-torn Somalia as refugee claimants in the late 1990s. The couple studied English at the Adult Learning Centre on Danforth Ave. “If we didn’t get a child-care subsidy, I’d still be in my apartment unable to speak English,” Zahra Abdille told the Star in 2003. “There was no one I could leave my baby with. We didn’t know anyone.” Her partner, Yusuf Abdille, was quoted as saying the daycare centre “is our family.” (The Star was unable to reach the Pat Schulz Day Care Monday night.) Osman Ali, director of the Somali-Canadian Association of Etobicoke, told the Star he fielded at least 10 calls on Monday from concerned members of the public wanting to know what happened to the family. Ali did not know the Abdilles, but said he was told by callers that they were from Somalia and that Zahra Abdille was a “good person.” “I’ve been with the association 28 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” he told the Star. “This was a family, two children and a mother. We don’t understand the motives yet or why it happened and the community is very saddened and moved by this tragedy.” Police are remaining quiet about any possible connection between the triple homicide and the death of a man who fell onto the nearby Don Valley Parkway a few hours before the bodies of Abdille and her two sons were discovered. On Sunday, Det. Tam Bui told the Star there was some correlation between the deaths, “but it’s not very tangible at this time.” On Monday, CityNews reported that police discovered the three bodies in the apartment when they were looking for the next of kin for the man who fell to his death on the DVP. Bui would not confirm the connection between the two incidents to the Star Monday night, but said police were working with Traffic Services to “help identify their deceased.” The TDSB confirmed Monday that 8-year-old Zain Abdille was a student at William Burgess Elementary School and 13-year-old Faris Abdille attended Westwood Middle School. Counselling is being offered to students at both schools and “will remain for as long as needed,” a TDSB spokesman’s statement read. “Our thoughts are with their family, friends and teachers at this difficult time.”

Holac, I'm just speculating at this point based on the limited info and how these things usually go. We don't know yet who the man who fell off the bridge was, or how that case is related to the triple homicide. But it's looking like it was the husband, if he were alive we would have heard from him in the media by now. <cite> @Mooge said:</cite> Allah u naxariisto. may be the guy was depressed or could be jealousy issue. Safferz, Hi. Hi Mooge!

Three bodies were found in an apartment in east Toronto, and a man fell off a bridge on to traffic on the highway not to far away, and the police have said that they were related incidents. Not sure who he was yet but it is starting to look like a murder-suicide by the father of the family. AUN to Zahra and her children, she was a public health nurse from Kenya. Mother and two sons identified as triple homicide victims Zahra Mohamoud Abdille, 43, and her two sons Faris, 13, and Zain, 8, are the three victims found dead in an East York apartment Saturday afternoon. A woman and her two young sons have been identified as the victims found dead in an East York apartment Saturday afternoon, according to Toronto Police. The bodies of Zahra Mohamoud Abdille, 43, and her two sons Faris, 13, and Zain, 8, were found in a third-floor unit at 85 Thorncliffe Park Dr., Toronto Paramedics confirmed. Emergency crews were called to the apartment at 4:41 p.m. Saturday. The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) confirmed Monday night that Zain was a student at William Burgess Elementary School and Faris was a student at Westwood Middle School. “Our thoughts are with their family, friends and teachers at this difficult time,” a TDSB spokesman said in an emailed statement. “Counselling is in place at the schools and will remain for as long as needed,” he said. Police investigators have been quiet about a reported connection between the discovery of the three bodies and the body of a man who fell onto the nearby Don Valley Parkway earlier Saturday afternoon. The man’s body and the investigation shut down the southbound DVP in the area for hours.

<cite> @Khayr said:</cite> What ethics of deportation are there? Do you think that a Homosexual Male Russian would get a deportation Order? The answer is a resounding No and the fact that Russia is a stable country would have nothing to do with it. It wouldn't be a politically justifiable move to deport someone that has the support of lobbiest (LGBT groupies). Now, deporting a Somali Male on the other hand is a win-win political move. After all they have three bad traits - Black Male; Muslim and Somali. Khayr, that is exactly correct -- it is unconscionable for a country like Canada to deport someone where they may be killed, that includes a 20something year old Somali who has never been to Somalia but is sent to Mogadishu. Canada does not hand over prisoners for prosecution in places that have the death penalty for this exact reason.