‘Betray The U.S. And Join The Real Disneyland Of African Jihad’
That is the recruitment pitch to American teenage boys in the Somali community by Al-Shabaab, the group responsible for the Kenyan mall attacks. They have been conducing an aggressive drive to get American youth to participate in jihad.
Recruiters from al-Shabaab are targeting disaffected young men in the “Twin Cities” of Minneapolis and St Paul, which are blighted by gangs and high youth unemployment.
A 40-minute video released online earlier this year, titled Minnesota’s Martyrs: The Path to Paradise, promised would-be recruits a glamorous new life.
It followed three young Minnesotans – Dahir Gure, Muhammad Al Amriki and Mohamud Hassan – from their ordinary lives to Somali training camps. “If you guys only knew how much fun we have over here,” Gure told viewers at one stage. “This is the real Disneyland”.
