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Called to Fight
Mukhtar M. Ibrahim

Meeting tonight on feds' MN anti-terror recruiting efforts

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Updated: 3:06 p.m. | Posted: 2:19 p.m.

A Minneapolis neighborhood group has organized a community event scheduled for Monday evening about a controversial federal pilot program intended to prevent radicalization in Minnesota's Somali community.

The program, Countering Violent Extremism or CVE, was launched in 2014 by the U.S. Justice Department, and has since generated debate in Minnesota. Some Minnesota Muslims have questioned the pilot's intent and raised concerns that it's simply a way to gather intelligence on local Somalis.

The event will be held at 5 p.m. Monday at the Brian Coyle Center.

Organizers of the event, which is hosted by the West Bank Community Coalition, say it's an opportunity for community members to learn more about the CVE, also known as Building Community Resilience, and how it affects the Somali community.

When the program was launched, U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Andrew Luger, a champion of the CVE program, created a Somali-American Task Force, which is seeking to build support for the anti-terror program.

Conversely, the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has opposed the program, arguing that the government's outreach efforts could be used for covert intelligence gathering, an allegation Luger's office has denied.

This is the first community discussion about the CVE organized by a group not affiliated with the government or a Muslim advocacy organization. People who support and oppose the CVE are invited to attend the event.

"We really thought it was necessary to bring both sides of the debate together and give our residents the opportunity to make informed decisions about the program, and whether they want to participate in it, how they can get involved in it or shape it even," said Mohamed Mohamed, executive director of the West Bank Community Coalition.

The Building Community Resilience program calls for bolstering afterschool and tutoring programs in hopes of fostering a sense of belonging for young Somali-Americans. Earlier this month, three Minnesota House DFL legislators called for $2 million in state funding for the CVE.

But in January, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law sued several federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department, for documents on the Minnesota counterterrorism program.

"Our concern here is that the current iteration of CVE will have some negative impacts on Muslim communities including stigmatization, reinforcing Islamophobic stereotypes, facilitating covert intelligence gathering and suppressing dissent," Brennan Center attorney Michael Price told MPR News on Feb. 1.