Disgust Over Jamal Bana Pictures

Calamity struck a gentle Minneapolis family in the most horrifying fashion. Imagine the trauma the mother, Abayte Ahmed must have experienced when a relative told them to check online and see their son, Jamal Bana dead. The twenty year old had suffered a wound to the temple along with other injuries over 9 thousand miles away from home in a hot East African desert.



Jamal Bana is just one of several tragic stories of youths that have been recruited for training by the Al-Shabaab terrorist organization and have ended up missing or worse in the chaos-wrecked Somalia. At least two reported and one unconfirmed case of dead, young Muslim men in the Minneapolis area have all been tied to the terrorists, who according to the FBI have strong links to Al-Queda. Authorities estimate that more than a dozen men have ended up missing in the past 6 months, all having ties to the same mosque.



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The family had tried to talk to Jamal previously after his disappearance from the local college where he was learning engineering. Finally, they recerived a phone call one day from him where he said quickly, "I'm in Somalia," and hung up according to his mother. Communication from then on was very scarce and guarded as if someone was watching him.



"He became brainwashed," his parents were quoted saying several times. All in order to fight in the civil war between Somalia's temporary regime and the terrorist organization that held the northeast regions. Thousands of youths just like Jamal have been recruited, some forced, to participate in the bloody struggle for succession and many of them have been killed. Moreover, students recruited by the groups from America often become suicide bombers similar to the case of Shirwa Ahmed, also from Minneapolis, who blew himself and dozens of others up according to the U.S. government.



For the families and friends of these children, it is too much to bear. In the words of the mother, "Whenever I see someone talking about my son, I feel bad. I can't sleep. I feel sick. So this happened, nothing I can do. We pray for him."