From Mogadishu to Minneapolis, Somalis reject Trump’s bigoted remarks

Somalis and Somali Americans are denouncing Donald Trump’s attacks on their communities after the United States president described them as “garbage” and hurled insults at them.

Trump’s comments this week have sparked widespread outrage and accusations of racism.

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On Tuesday, the US president ended his final cabinet meeting of the year with a torrent of invective, both against the Somali diaspora and Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a former child refugee from Somalia.

“We’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. Ilhan Omar is garbage. Her friends are garbage,” Trump said.

“ When they come from hell and they complain and do nothing but b****, we don’t want them in our country.”

Minnesota state Senator Omar Fateh, who is of Somali descent, called Trump’s comments “hurtful” and “disgraceful”.

“Also, it was flat out wrong — calling not only our congresswoman ‘garbage’ but calling the entire community ‘garbage’, saying they’re good for nothing,” Fateh told Al Jazeera.

“It is a community that has been resilient, that has produced so much. We are teachers and doctors and lawyers and even politicians taking part in every part of Minnesota’s economy and the nation’s economy.”

The state legislator accused Trump of engaging in “political theatre” to rally his base ahead of next year’s mid-term elections.

Fateh warned that the president’s rhetoric could fuel further political violence in Minnesota.

Already, in June, a gunman in Minnesota assassinated a Democratic state legislator and her husband and injured another lawmaker.

“Right now our community is afraid,” said Fateh, who unsuccessfully ran for mayor Minneapolis last month.

“We’ve had our mosques be targeted. Myself, I had a campaign office vandalised earlier this year, and so we want to make sure that our neighbours understand that we’re standing up for one another, showing up in this time in which we have a hostile federal government.”

Khadijo Warsame, a cafe owner in Minneapolis, echoed the feeling that Trump’s remarks have created an atmosphere of fear in the local Somali community.

“It is deserted. Every business is closed, and it has been like this for the last three days,” she told Al Jaeera. “And we are really a small business. I’m scared that people [are] not showing up to buy from me, and I am like, I don’t want to close my business.”

Trump has escalated his anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies after the deadly shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington, DC, last month.

An Afghan evacuee who worked with allied forces during the US war in Afghanistan has been charged with the shooting and has pleaded not guilty.

Trump has long attacked Congresswoman Omar and the Somali community, but his tirade against them during Tuesday’s cabinet meeting was especially striking.

“ They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country, I’ll be honest with you,” Trump said.

“These aren’t people that work. These aren’t people that say, ‘Let’s go, come on. Let’s make this place great.’ These are people that do nothing but complain. They complain, and from where they came from, they got nothing.”

Omar has told reporters this week that Trump’s xenophobic and Islamophobic comments are not new. “But what is weird to me is just how creepy he’s been obsessed with me and the Somali community,” she said.

Trump’s comments have also been rejected in Somalia, where many people are expressing anger and calling on their government to respond to the US president.

The US president had called the East African country “hell”, saying that “it stinks”.

“This is intolerable,” said Mogadishu resident Abdisalan Ahmed.

“Trump insults Somalis several times every day, calling us garbage and other derogatory names we can no longer tolerate. Our leaders should address his remarks.”

On Thursday, several key Democratic congressmembers released a statement condemning Trump’s comments, calling them “xenophobic and unacceptable”.

“Instead of using the power of the presidency to bring our country together, President Trump chose to attack an American immigrant community, the overwhelming majority of whom are law-abiding and have made many positive contributions to the United States,” the legislators said in a joint statement.