From: barnhart@gagme.chi.il.us (Mr Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS: BRITAIN: Somali community finds san
Originator: barnhart@gagme
Organization: Evanston, Illinois
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 01:37:02 GMT

Title: BRITAIN: Somali community finds sanctity in Wales /RELATE/


att editors: please relate the following item to: 'somalia: somali
refugees face widespread discrimination', moved earlier from
london.

cardiff, sep 2 (ips/leslie goffe) -- while the most recent batch
of somali refugees in britain tend to settle in london, the welsh
capital cardiff has had a thriving somali community for about 100
years.

some 3,700 somalis now live in cardiff, mainly in the old dock
areas of butetown -- their home since somali seamen began lodging
there in boarding houses at the turn of the century.

while cardiff's somalis do suffer problems with racial
discrimination and a shortage of housing, they also see their
community as a model of integration -- accepted and supported by
the city.

the local authorities recently granted funding for the somalis to
set up an advice and information centre, which has three full time
workers. there is also talk that the somalis are soon to get their
own community radio station.

the local media is involved with the issues confronting its
somali readership. the daily paper, the south wales echo
newspaper, recently ran a major story examining the conflict in
somalia, the famine and how somalis in south wales are managing
with the new refugees.

politicians too seem to be keen to sit up and take notice of
their somali constituents. in february and again in march this
year, the local mp alun michael, tried and failed to table motions
on the subject of somalia in the house of commons.

abdi karim adan, coordinator of the somali information centre in
cardiff, says the it is proving to be a vital life line.

''when the typical somali family arrives, mostly to join a male
head of family, they do not have ready accommodation and we have
to register them as homeless with the council,'' says adan.
''without us they would not know where to begin.''

yet cardiff somalis will tell you that it is religion which is
the key to their cohesion. to cement this cohesion there is a long
going campaign to have the nurul islam mosque -- the oldest in
britain -- rebuilt especially for the somali community.

the mosque is located in the very heart of the somali community.
work on the project began four years ago, after donations from the
saudi arabian government and several muslim businessmen, with
additional money from cardiff's development corporation.(more/ips)

britain: somali community finds sanctity in wales /relate/(2-e)

britain: somali (2)

although the money ran out two years ago, in august the saudis
agreed to make up the difference and the mosque should soon be
open.

even though there are at least 11 mosques in cardiff, the
chairman of the mosque committee, mahmood kalinleh, says it will
serve as a good place to pray and discuss problems.

''for the first time in a long while we will be able to hear
somali language in the mosque. the yemenis have their own mosque,
the pakistanis have their own mosque so we will try to have our
own too,'' he says.

abdul rashid gulat, who was born in wales and works at the advice
centre does not believe the somali demand for their own mosque is
divisive.

''most of the new refugees are young, and they are not like the
old ones who speak arabic and english. they only speak somali.
without the language they cannot study the quran the way it should
be,'' he argues.

yet, while the mosque has become an important symbol of unity,
there is evidence of some tension between the young and the
old.   abdi salaam, a member of the liberation party hiztittarir --
an islamic group which sprung up in the middle east and is trying
to expand its influence -- believes older somalis are backward in
their approach.

''the elders hold ideas which do not come from islam but instead
come from traditional somali society,'' he says. ''the elders
believe islam should remain in the mosque with veils for the women
and fasting on ramadan.

''but islam is more than this. it is a complete way of life. the
elders fail to understand this. we believe the way forward for
british society is islam.''

yet, while some of the young have indeed turned to radical islam,
many others have fallen for the lure of qat, a plant with
hallucinogenic properties which somalis have chewed for
generations.

qat is not illegal and is on sale on most street corners in
butetown. it costs around five pounds for a bundle of 100 dried
stalks wrapped in newspaper. older somalis say qat is robbing the
young of desire to do anything -- other than chew it.

kalinleh argues that it is not differing views of islam that
divide young from old in butetown, but rather qat -- and the
adoption of western ways.

''when we were young we did not go with girls and drink. all of
this is because they chew qat,'' he says. ''they do not behave as
proper muslims.''(end/ips/pr/lg/rp/92)



-- 
Mr. Aaron Barnhart@gagme.chi.il.us -- posting from Evanston, Illinois
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