FBI statistics reveal that Minnesota's 5th Congressional District, represented by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), is the terrorism recruitment capital of the United States.
According to the FBI, more Somali American men and boys from this district have joined, or have attempted to join, a foreign terror organization in the last 12 years than any other community in the US.
"Forty-five Somalis left to join the ranks of either the Somalia-based Islamic insurgency al-Shabab, or the Iraq- and Syria-based ISIS combined," Fox News reports.
In 2018, a dozen more Somalis were arrested, accused of planning to leave the US to join ISIS.
Ilhan's district is a very insular ethnic and religious community that has not fully assimilated into American society.
"For over a decade, Islamist terror groups have been able to recruit from Minnesota. This is, in part, because Minnesota has a large Muslim population compared to other parts of the US," Robin Simcox, a terrorism and national security expert at The Heritage Foundation, told Fox News.
Federal authorities say they are "highly concerned" about this district's ties to international terrorism. "We are very conscious that there may still be fertile ground for that, and that is could re-start at any time," one official told Fox.
Recruitment for terrorism usually takes place online where jihadists criticize US counterterrorism policies, like targeted assassinations and drone strikes that sometimes kill innocent civilians. A number of these Somali terrorists have become suicide bombers while others are believed to have died on the battlefield.
Congresswoman Omar has a history of being sympathetic to Somalis terrorists.
She defended six Somalis arrested in 2015 for trying to cross into Mexico in an attempt to join ISIS in Syria. As the case moved forward in 2016, the then-state representative wrote a letter to the trial judge requesting "compassion" and a lighter sentence.
"Such punitive measures not only lack efficacy, they inevitably create an environment in which extremism can flourish, aligning with the presupposition of terrorist recruitment," Omar wrote. "The best deterrent to fanaticism is a system of compassion."
In 2013, Omar said al-Shabab's terror attack on a Kenyan shopping mall that killed nearly 70 people and wounded 200 others, was a reaction to US "involvement in other people's affairs."
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