The Home Front

On the surface, the cedar-riverside neighborhood near downtown Minneapolis seems like any other Midwestern community. But in recent weeks it has been the site of heightened activity by the FBI, local law enforcement and local leaders struggling to counter terrorist recruitment.

Minneapolis is home to the largest Somali population in the U.S., and in the past six years it has lost an estimated 25 to 40 young men to al-Shabab, the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group that claimed responsibility for the Sept. 21 Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi. In the wake of that attack, Kenyan officials said intelligence suggested that two or three of the terrorists responsible came from Minnesota. Though the FBI officially says it has no information to suggest a link, it has sent a team to Kenya to investigate, and the bureau and community leaders in Cedar-Riverside believe that someone is still drawing local Somali Americans into the terrorist fight. They just don’t know who or how.

The probe has had mixed success. In May, Mahamud Said Omar, a former janitor at Minneapolis’ Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for recruiting young men and sending them to Somalia for al-Shabab. But as recently as July, two young locals disappeared to join the group, according to community leaders.

Most of the Minnesota recruits who fought for al-Shabab are dead, killed in Somalia. Some are in prison in the U.S., and a few are still fighting. Their families–like that of Cabdulaahi Ahmed Faarax, 35, who left Minneapolis in 2009 and is wanted on 14 counts of terrorism-related activities in the U.S.–know very little. Faarax’s close family members say the best-case scenario is that their relative is caught and sent to prison. “Then he can kill no more, taint our names no more,” one tells TIME.

Since the Kenya attack, local mosques have condemned the killings in their sermons, saying al-Shabab violates Muslim principles. Schools and youth programs are on the alert for disenfranchised kids, who are at the highest risk of recruitment. “This can happen again,” says Mohamed Farah, executive director of Ka Joog, a youth group that works with more than 10,000 Somali kids in Minnesota. Says Kyle Loven, an FBI spokesman in Minneapolis: “We’re going to continue our efforts to make sure this pipeline stops.”