The photograph you see above was, perhaps unsurprisingly, taken in the United Kingdom. However, it could just as easily have been photographed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Lewiston, Maine, or Clarkston, Georgia. In fact, it could have been taken in any of the numerous, bucolic surburbs or thriving cities that have been the unwelcome recipient of thousands of Somali refugees who have been resettled inside of the United States in the wake of the post-1991 collapse of the Mohammed Siad Barre regime.
Contrary to glowing accounts of these newcomers coming from mainstream press organs, these Somalis are far from integrated into the American cultural fabric. The ones who’ve settled in Minnesota have been linked to interstate white slavery and recruitment of fellow Somalian immigrants for Al Qaeda affiiate Al Shabaab-including the participation of one Somali living here in a suicide bombing during the ongoing civil conflict in that country. Now, courtesy of a Fox News affiliate in that state, we have video evidence confirming what most of us have known all along, i.e. attempting to get tens of thousands of Somalis to adapt to a culture that’s poles apart from that found in a nomadic, sternly Islamic, third world country is virtually impossible. As the brilliant Theodore Dalrymple has pointed out on many an occasion, these newcomers often wind up adopting the worst aspects of Western culture, e.g. glamorization of urban violence, disrespect for authority figures-regardless of the legitimacy of their demands-and complete indifference to, if not ignorance of, the rich bequest of Western civilization.
Yet they also retain the worst aspects of the culture that they fled-the culture that is chiefly responsible for turning their homeland into the morass which makes them seek shelter within countries like the United Kingdom and the United States-which means that we are left to bear the cost. Whether it be flash mobs beating innocent Americans senseless, or young girls impressed into service as sex slaves, or Somalis who come here just to be trained in the art of death and destruction, it can no longer be argued that these refugees, in aggregate, are a net benefit to American society. While I’m extremely proud that brave Dutch dissident, Islamic apostate, and member of the Darod clan Ayaan Hirsi Ali now makes her home in the United States, I don’t think that means every Somali refugee should be welcomed into the United States. The perils of superficial humanitarianism, which exacts traumatic costs in real world terms from American citizens, should not be forgotten when we’re exploring this nation’s immigration policy.
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