"My name is Mohamud Ahmed. I am 20 years old, enrolling in the University of Minnesota this spring. Currently being in Augsburg College, I look forward to switching schools due to my major and choice of school. I am working in the social justice department and pursuing a career in the law field. I look forward to becoming a lawyer, to having a better understanding of how our justice system works, and helping people more. Being a first generation immigrant, I look forward to making myself someone that contributes to my community."
Mohamud Ahmed
"There's always going to be those little snippets in your life"
My upbringing was pretty hard since I came here when I was two but before that my family was at a refugee camp in Somalia. And that was mostly due to the civil war and after we got here it was pretty hard because my dad actually stayed behind because he was a doctor at the time and he was trying to help his people, but it was just me, my mom and five of my other siblings. We came here, my mom got three jobs to support us and thankfully we had presents in the holidays, we had clothes, we had food. My dad came to America when I was thirteen and at first it was pretty hard talking to him because I didn't get accustomed to him with his father role. I felt like he was pushing boundaries, like he was telling me when to come home, he was telling me what to do. And at first, being a kid, I was like, oh my father he wasn't with me throughout the struggle and he can't really tell me what to do, but later on I realized that he was doing this for my sake and for my advance in life. I feel like I really owe it to my mom for basically making me who I am. She was really doing so much that she didn't have enough time to play with us, talk to us, see how we were doing. The bond me and my siblings have is really deep because they were the ones that were taking me off the bus, putting me on the bus, they were the ones feeding me at home, getting me lunch, helping with my homework. So that bond won't be broken.
I guess it started, I mean there's always been those little snippets in your life where you feel like you're not wanted somewhere and you feel like you have to actually go out and change the world. One example was, I was in class and a girl that was sitting next to me asked me, "Hey, what sport do you play?" Like she automatically assumed that I played a sport because I was in college, you know. And I was like, "Oh, I don't play sports." I said, "I came here for my education." She said, "Oh, seriously?" And it was that awkward moment, you know. I was like, oh this is kind of awkward. So the day continued on and I just didn't know about what it means to actually be black inside an institution. So that was one of the most defining moments in my life.
Coming into college, I wanted to go into science and then recently I've had passion, about a year or two, for going out, having people hear my voice, and protesting. I mean, it's just the feeling you get is way greater than the feeling you get from any kind of math or science, or solving a problem, or getting a good score on an exam. That feeling is just like, I can't really describe it. It makes you feel amazing. I feel like the system is in place for us to fail, for black youth, Muslim youth, Latino youth, minorities all across the board are set up to fail and it's once you break that barrier and you move on to the next point in your life, there's other barriers. Oh you graduated college and you have a job now, but are you really getting paid what you want to get paid? Are you getting paid equally? I mean, all those things come into play as factors. I guess if I could change one thing it would be the system. It's going to be long, it's going to be hard. I'm pretty sure I can't do it in my lifetime, so I just train anyone that's to come. I mean the system has been in place for 200 - 300 years and that won't change, but if I can push anyway, a case at a time, one person at a time, we will get there.
"You can't defeat hate with hate"
Experience wise, I'm the co-founder of YMC: Young Muslim Collective and YBC: Young Black Collective. They're two groups that really work hand in hand with Black Lives Matter. They work with different student groups on different campuses in the Metro area, Augsburg, St. Thomas, and the U of M. We just strive to go out, protest and make a change, raise funds to payoff lawyers, payoff anything we need, give people clothes, supplies, and it's been great. With YMC and YBC, I feel like I take control in my role and really being the founder puts a lot of strain on me, because I feel like one little mistake can really change hundreds even thousands of lives. They say, "Oh you have a lot of events and the turnouts are amazing," and really that's the reason why we are pushing so much and we're getting a lot of funding from the communities. If we mess up, that support is really gone because it's based on the community, so we really try to make the community happy, continuing to do that will get us far. Recently, two or three days after Trump was elected, YMC and YBC shut down Highway 94 and I feel like that was a statement in itself. People here really want to get into and they really want to protest and want to advocate, but all they were waiting for is that little push. That little push is what we give them. Go speak, use poetry to bring out symbolism and bring out how you're feeling. Use rap, use anything you want, use art and portray your feelings and basically put your voice out there.
We welcome everyone. Actually, at most of our events, the people that come are people of other religions, people of other races and they just come out because what we're doing is showing people what being Muslim is really about, what being black is really about, what being Somali is really about. Yeah we have people that come there to spread hate, but it's not really one of our major concerns. One thing you should never do is respond with hate. You can't defeat hate with hate. Show love, smile, say, "Oh ok, have a great day," or "Hey, do you want to sit down with us, talk to us? We would love to give you a platform to speak," just because everyone wants to be heard, whether it be attacking someone or helping someone. So if you give everyone that platform to let out their feelings, it affects them.
"Every case I work with impacts me"
[Leading YMC and YBC was] one of the things that actually helped me in my experience with CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations). That's how I actually got the job for CAIR. I love going there, the feeling that it gives me, the work I do, watching my mentors and lawyers over there advocating for people that are facing criminal lawsuits. I feel like the president of CAIR, Jeylani, he is an amazing Somali lawyer. He is really my role model, because he is my mentor and he always has a smile, he is always caring about everyone, putting everyone in front of himself. There was an instance that he was on a board that was taking some really crazy actions against minorities, so he decided to step off the board so he could obey the law and sue against them and you know, literally saying, "Oh it's not about the money," because he was getting paid a lot for being on the board. My job really is to help Jeylani and basically retrace his mistakes and see if he got anything wrong, see if he's got any interviews or meetings. I'm basically a secretary, but [my goal], of course, is getting into law school. It's going to be hard, but I want to be one of the lawyers for CAIR.
I feel like every case I work with impacts me, because it's someone that's a minority in the community, someone that's a police brutality [victim], someone that's a domestic abuse [victim], or it's between an interracial couple, you know, things between people getting hate in all types of different ways. Every single case affects me in a way, because I feel like being Somali, being black, living in Minnesota, I cover a wide spectrum and all these identities really suit me and every single case covers one of those identities.
CVE (Countering Violent Extremism) is one program that basically they try and start funding, survey, and keep watch on Somali kids, particularly in Minnesota, and believes they're about to join ISIS and that every single Muslim is a terrorist and that kids are radicalized at such a young age. But right now CAIR, the biggest movement we have is against CVE. There's a lot of groups that get funded from the government to survey kids of all different minority groups and see if they are radicalized and if they are willing to fight. One of the biggest things we've done recently, these two CVE groups, one was getting $500,000 and the other was getting $2 million, and we made them stop getting funding and actually become anti-CVE and now they are with us, helping fight against CVE. I feel like that just helps, those little people here and there that are backing out, saying, "This is not right. We're sorry." It's really amazing.
Recently there's been trials with 6 or 9 Somali kids and how they were played and they were applying to go to Syria and join ISIS and that's really shaken up Minnesota. They had a friend, he was working with the FBI and he was the one that was putting all these thoughts in their heads, like it came up a few times when he was like, "Oh guys, are you gonna actually go and do it?" and "Are you gonna go over?" I guess him feeding all those thoughts provoked them and there were recordings. The trails started off about a year ago, the kids got trialed and sentenced to really harsh time, some getting 35 years, some getting 10, some getting almost 40, but the kid who was working with the FBI got zero and he actually got money. After the trials I was pretty depressed. I didn't really want to talk to anyone, but you have to get up, you know, you have to actually go in and talk to the parents. That's really the hardest part actually, talking to the parents and having them cry. With every case we lose, it's like, what's the point? What's the point of staying up all night? What's the point of writing all these letters and talking to community leaders? But, I feel like we tried really hard. Even though they got really harsh sentences, I feel like the work we did really showed the community's really together and the kids have people actually supporting them. That made me proud.
Everyone takes losses here and there. The end goal is just to get something done. You fight so hard to get people free and them just ending up in jail, it just really shows you that even though you push really hard and you work day in, day out, that you can't really do anything if the system's against you. So I guess the challenge is within the challenge. Actually working and knowing that you're going to hit a roadblock and that it won't actually get pushed through, is the challenge itself. I feel like the one thing that pushes me is that with every case we lose, the next morning there is someone else that needs our help. So I have to get up and help that person. I can't just sit back and say, "Oh I can't really help you out right now." That's just not how it works. With every new case, with every new trial, with every new person that needs help, that feeling is back. The feeling that you changed someone's life, you're changing your own life.
Story Facilitators: Said Ahmed, Russell Sottile, Ryan Stach
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