Hassan Mohamud is seen as either protecting youth or interfering with justice. By Stephen Montemayor BRIAN PETERSON Somali community leaders Imam Hassan Mohamud and Sadik Warfa. Hassan Mohamud, a longtime St. Paul imam, made history in 2002 when he became the first Somali-American to earn a law degree in Minnesota. He has also created his...
November 14, 2026
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Who Is Warsan Shire? 5 Things to Know About the Poet Who Inspired Beyoncé’s Lemonade
Warsan Shire AMAAL SAID BY TIERNEY MCAFEE Beyoncé’s Lemonade may be a visual album but it still has fans hanging on to the singer’s every word – thanks in part to the award-winning poetry of 27-year-old Somali-Brit Warsan Shire. Shire, a writer who was born in Kenya to Somali parents and raised in London, is...
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Seek knowledge from learned men
DR. GARY MILLER The Qur’an repeatedly exhorts its readers to seek advice from men of knowledge. It informs about different facts and then gives the advice: “If you want to know more about this or that, or if you doubt what is said, then you should ask those who have knowledge.” This too is a...
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Poet Warsan Shire Is the Next Beyoncé-Backed Literary Sensation
By PATRICIA GARCIA Before any of the multiple directors, producers, or collaborators were credited at the end of Lemonade, Beyoncé paid tribute to Warsan Shire, the Kenya-born, Somali-British poet whose prose is read throughout the film. By now we know what this means: Queen Bey would like you to take note of this name. Beyoncé...
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Everyone Hates the U.N. (Until They Need It)
By Suzanne Nossel In his January State of the Union address, President Barack Obama asked a rhetorical question: “How do we keep America safe and lead the world without becoming its policeman?” The image of a global constable dates back to Franklin Roosevelt’s 1940s conception of the United States, Britain, Russia, and China as “four...
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Saudi Arabia: Deputy crown prince backs women driving
ARAB NEWS JEDDAH: Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in an interview to Bloomberg’s Peter Waldman, has signaled he would support more freedom for women. “We believe women have rights in Islam that they’ve yet to obtain,” he said on Thursday at Rawdat Khuraim. He said he has no problem with the official religious authority...
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The $2 Trillion Project to Get Saudi Arabia’s Economy Off Oil
By Peter Waldman Early last year, at a royal encampment in the oasis of Rawdat Khuraim, Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia visited his uncle, King Abdullah, in the monarch’s final days before entering a hospital. Unbeknown to anyone outside the House of Saud, the two men, separated in age by 59 years, had...
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Two survivors from Ethiopia and Somalia tell of mystery migrant shipwreck
An Ethiopian and a Somali say they were on two boats heading to Italy from Libya when one of the vessels sank. The UN refugee agency says up to 500 people may have drowned in the tragedy. Visibly shaken from their ordeal, the two men – 25-year-old Muaz Mahmoud Aymo and 28-year-old Mowlid Isman –...
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Kofi Annan to African leaders: Leave when your time is up
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan has urged African leaders to leave when their mandated time is up and to avoid excluding opposing voices if elections are to cease contributing to conflicts on the continent. The renowned international diplomat said that while unconstitutional changes to government on the continent had reduced, exclusionary...
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IFRAH AHMED: FIGHTING GENITAL MUTILATION IN GM WORLD CAPITAL SOMALIA
BY CONOR GAFFEY Anti-FGM campaigner Ifrah Ahmed, left, meets with Somali Prime Minister Omar Sharmarke. Ahmed was recently appointed as Sharmarke’s advisor on sexual violence in Somalia. FRAH AHMED Ifrah Ahmed remembers confronting her aging Somali grandmother, whose decision it was that the former should undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) at the tender age of...