Somali envoy to US accepts 'tall order' of new job

[Castro]

By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS

ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

 

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Somalia must rekindle its diplomatic relationship with the United States to help rebuild the country and protect the security of both countries, the first Somali diplomat assigned to the United States in two decades said in an interview.

 

Abukar Arman, appointed the Somali U.S. special envoy on Feb. 6, plans to re-establish the ties that disintegrated during clan warfare that tore Somalia apart in the early 1990s and culminated in a 1993 battle in Mogadishu that killed 18 U.S. soldiers and hundreds of Somalis.

 

"The world has changed - the lack of security in one area does not mean it is contained in that neighborhood," Arman told The Associated Press. "Everything that happens on one side of the world indeed affects everywhere else."

 

Arman also wants to work with the tens of thousands of Somali immigrants living in several U.S. cities, including Columbus, Minneapolis, Seattle and Portland, Maine. At least 20 young Somalis from the Minneapolis area were allegedly recruited by terrorist groups in Somalia, and Arman says he wants to work with Somali groups here to address that problem.

 

"Finding ways to address these issues without creating more problems will be helpful to both countries and both peoples," Arman said.

 

The appointment of Arman, 50, of Columbus, illustrates the extent to which Somalia has become a country many of whose citizens are scattered unwillingly across the globe.

 

Arman, until recently a writer and a work force development instructor for the city schools, came to the U.S. in 1980 and has lived in Columbus since 1994. He has blogged for the Huffington Post and has written about Islamic issues for several publications, including Aljazeera and The American Muslim.

 

The civil war ended Arman's plans to return home in the late 1980s after attending Houston Baptist University. He is married with four children. He plans to commute between Columbus and Washington, D.C.

 

Arman recognizes the challenges before him. Somalia has not had an effective government in almost two decades. The current administration controls only a small section of the capital with the help of some 5,000 African Union peacekeepers. The government is preparing an offensive to try to wrest back control of much of the capital from the insurgent group al-Shabab, which holds most of southern and central Somalia.

 

Somali pirates have seized control of several ships off the country's coast in recent years, holding crew members hostage for ransom.

 

Somali president Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed visited several U.S. cities with large Somali populations last fall, including Columbus, trying to drum up support for his beleaguered government and to ask Somali immigrants for help.

 

Arman has an almost impossible task before him given the country's problems, said Ahmed Samatar, an international affairs professor at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn.

 

"The transitional federal government under Sherif has no legs to stand on," Samatar said. "What then would an ambassador represent given that?"

 

Arman says people who say Somalia's problems are too great to try to fix are guilty of lazy thinking.

 

"We've tried that line for the last 20 years - it didn't get us anywhere," he said. "It's a tall order, but somebody has to do it, somebody has to march with confidence towards that goal."

AP

[Shilling]

This is what the article reads:

 

"The civil war ended Arman's plans to return home in the late 1980s after attending Houston Baptist University ."

 

What a shocking revelation. Ninka maa laa hubaa inuu Muslim yahay?

[Haatu]

^why's that so shocking?

[Shilling]

HBU is a Christian university where the Christian faith and learning go hand in hand. So unless this Arman individual is a Christian I have every reason to be shocked. I thought the man was Muslim and in my opinion no Muslim should even consider attending a Christian university; again ninka maa laa hubaa inuu Muslim yahay?

[Haatu]

^ are you sure it's just not a name thing because here in Britain, I've seen a lot of Muslims go to Canterbury Christ University? It might be the same thing.

[Peacenow]

Originally posted by Shilling:

HBU is a Christian university where the Christian faith and learning go hand in hand. So unless this Arman individual is a Christian I have every reason to be shocked. I thought the man was Muslim and in my opinion no Muslim should even consider attending a Christian university; again ninka maa laa hubaa inuu Muslim yahay?

So what if it is. Such hypocrisy. Why are you living in the West then??

[Castro]

^^^^ He's living in the West because "Ilaahaybaa gaalada inoo karbaashay".

 

Originally posted by Shilling:

HBU is a Christian university where the Christian faith and learning go hand in hand. So unless this Arman individual is a Christian I have every reason to be shocked. I thought the man was Muslim and in my opinion no Muslim should even consider attending a Christian university; again ninka maa laa hubaa inuu Muslim yahay?

lool @ maa la hubaa. Atheer Sheikh Sharif picked this guy to be his envoy. What would be acceptable proof to you that Abukar Arman is a Muslim? A blood or saliva sample? It must be raining thickness nowadays.

[Shilling]

Originally posted by Haatu:

^ are you sure it's just not a name thing because here in Britain, I've seen a lot of Muslims go to Canterbury Christ University? It might be the same thing.

Then perhaps our communities both here in the United States and Britain should consider educating the ill informed Muslim. No Muslims should be attending any learning institutions with Christ and Baptist in its names. It is a known fact that the Christian faith and learning go hand in hand in such institutions.

[Shilling]

Originally posted by Peacenow:

quote:Originally posted by Shilling:

HBU is a Christian university where the Christian faith and learning go hand in hand. So unless this Arman individual is a Christian I have every reason to be shocked. I thought the man was Muslim and in my opinion no Muslim should even consider attending a Christian university; again ninka maa laa hubaa inuu Muslim yahay?

So what if it is. Such hypocrisy. Why are you living in the West then??

I have no problem with HBU, as a Muslim though I wouldn't consider attending it for the same reason a Christian wouldn't considering attending Al Azhar university in Cairo or the University of Madina Munawara since the focus on both institutions is the Islamic faith. I worship Allah not the cross; HBU has every right to fulfill its responsibility on the renewal of Christian higher education on Christians, a Muslim though has no place in it is all I'm saying. No hypocrisy in that.

[Thankful]

Originally posted by Peacenow:

So what if it is. Such hypocrisy. Why are you living in the West then??

The West is not Christian! They have seperated themselves from religion!

[Peacenow]

Originally posted by Shilling:

quote:Originally posted by Peacenow:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Shilling:

HBU is a Christian university where the Christian faith and learning go hand in hand. So unless this Arman individual is a Christian I have every reason to be shocked. I thought the man was Muslim and in my opinion no Muslim should even consider attending a Christian university; again ninka maa laa hubaa inuu Muslim yahay?

So what if it is. Such hypocrisy. Why are you living in the West then??

I have no problem with HBU, as a Muslim though I wouldn't consider attending it for the same reason a Christian wouldn't considering attending Al Azhar university in Cairo or the University of Madina Munawara since the focus on both institutions is the Islamic faith. I worship Allah not the cross; HBU has every right to fulfill its responsibility on the renewal of Christian higher education on Christians, a Muslim though has no place in it is all I'm saying. No hypocrisy in that.

There is nothing wrong with attending a Christian focused institution. All the better if it encourages inter faith dialogue and networking. What is wrong with that?

 

You are part of these heretics that are quite happy to live off Western technology and work and then promote hatred. You have done nothing and contributed nothing but failure. Your values, culture, thought process. All failed.

[Che -Guevara]

Somali Christian has every right to be in the Somali government!!!

[Peacenow]

Exactly, what is wrong with tolerance. These people are arab worshipping. They live in the west, take western money. Depend on the West for everything. Because their own values, female mutilatio... etc. Has all failed.

[Castro]

Originally posted by Che -Guevara:

Somali Christian has every right to be in the Somali government!!!

LOOOL. Another classic.

[Che -Guevara]

^How so....?