« OMG! | Main | Shabbat Shalom »
August 09, 2007
The Somali Bridge Collapse
Allowing such a thing to happen is just another insult to moslems:
"Instead of building bridges, they spent more on invading countries," said Abbi Osman, a young Somali who came to Minnesota four years ago and was watching buddies play dominoes Tuesday in a Somali coffee shop. "They are investing in the wrong places."
The collapse too adds to uneasy feelings among Somalis who say they have felt a federal backlash since Sept. 11, 2001 not only because of their Muslim faith but also because Somalia has been accused of harboring terrorists associated with Osama bin Laden. The bridge collapse has added jitters for Somalis who in recent years regrouped and rallied around one another.
For Somalis, who have migrated here in the last decade, the bridge was a vital lifeline connecting an established community on one side of the river with a growing Somali neighborhood on the other. Sometimes locals jokingly referred to it as "the Somali Bridge" – a lifeline for the 40,000 to 50,000 Somalis estimated by community leaders to be living in the Twin Cities and their suburbs
Somali cabbies used it. So did Somali truck drivers. At least two Somali drivers were on the bridge when it collapsed and got out alive. So did at least four Somali children who were on a school bus that fell downward in the disaster.
Sigh. There can be no doubt that the collapse of the "Somali Bridge" is the fault of George W. Bush and the part of the vast conspiracy to oppress moslems.
Posted by LindaSoG at August 9, 2007 06:59 AM