Minnesota Somali leaders are calling for an end to inflammatory rhetoric from President Donald Trump.
Community advocates gathered to speak out against what they call “the political targeting of Somali children after President Trump reshared a photo on Truth Social featuring a kindergarten graduation at Gateway STEM Academy in St. Paul.
The post was from a right-wing account criticizing the girls in the photos for wearing hijabs. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz also criticized the president for the post, saying that the president was attacking the students only because of what they were wearing.
"It has to stop. People who are saying these things has to be held accountable. Nobody is beyond accountability, including our presidents," says Executive Director of the Islamic Association of North America, Imam Abdulle.
Somali leaders also responded to a call from Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher to crack down on Somali gang activity, stating that characterizing crime strictly as a Somali problem furthers the discrimination they face.
Fletcher told the WCCO Morning News with Vineeta Sawkar non Tuesday that there's been a sharp increase in gun-related violence traced to about a dozen different young Somali groups, but noting that it was just a small percentage of Minnesota's large Somali population.
"There's 100,000 Somali people in Minnesota and we're really targeting 300," Sheriff Fletcher explains. "It's 300 young youth that are misguided and need some redirection and correction. And accountability, to be honest with you. Putting some of them in jail is a part of the solution."
That led faith, civic, and education advocates to gather inside Minneapolis’s Karmel Square Wednesday morning to address what they call online hostility against children.
"Whether a child wears a hijab, a cross around their neck, a kippah on their head, or any other expression of their faith, or whether they choose not to, they deserve to walk into school to celebrate their accomplishments and to know that they are safe, respected, and accepted," explained Executive Director of Reviving the Islamic Sisterhood, Malika Dahir.
She says what should’ve been a joyful milestone for these girls was rapidly transformed into a lightning rod for national political debate and online harassment.
