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Called to Fight
Mukhtar M. Ibrahim
St. Paul

Lawmakers up funding ante for anti-recruitment efforts

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Updated: 12:55 p.m. | Posted: 9:50 a.m.

Three Minnesota House DFL legislators are calling for $2 million in state funding for a program intended to combat terrorist recruitment in Minnesota.

The money will support community-based programs, such as the youth group Ka Joog, that are trying to steer young people away from extremist groups, according to the lawmakers.

The three House Democrats argue that there are currently not enough resources to help these programs. Last April, legislators earmarked $250,000 to fund combat terrorist recruitment.

In Minnesota's Muslim community, these programs are controversial. Some community members are skeptical of organizations that receive funding through the lens of counterterrorism. Those critical of the counterterrorism initiatives say the CVE will gather intelligence on Somali-Americans under the guise of community outreach.

Minnesota House DFL Minority Leader Paul Thissen, one the legislators calling for more funding for the anti-recruitment programs, said previous funding had a positive impact on the Somali community and they want to scale up the funding for youth programs.

"This is not about saying Somalis are terrorists in any stretch of the word or trying to impose that on them," Thissen told MPR News' Tom Weber. "What it's saying is, let's make sure we can build this community up so that they have the tools and the resources themselves to offer other opportunities aside from terrorism."

Last month, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law went to court to challenge the U.S. Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security after exhausting other efforts to get records on the Countering Violent Extremism program, or CVE.

The Justice Department in 2014 launched CVE pilots in Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Boston, calling it a way to bring religious and community leaders and law enforcement officials together to counter efforts by ISIS and other terror groups to recruit fighters in the U.S.

The CVE program in Minnesota was renamed as Building Community Resilience, and is championed by U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger, who is prosecuting the cases of men arrested over ISIS-related charges.