The death of George Floyd during a botched arrest propelled Minneapolis into the headlines as the city became the centerpiece in a debate about persistent, if not systematic, racism in the United States as well as the nature of policing today. In politics, however, Minneapolis has become ground zero in a different conflict originating more than 8,000 miles away.
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Speaking at his first post-pandemic campaign rally in Tulsa, President Donald Trump raged against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Somalia: “She would like to make the government of our country just like the country from where she came. Somalia,” he declared.
For Trump, Omar is both a political and an ethnic target. On Nov. 6, 2018, Omar became the first Somali-American and, alongside Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress. Her home city Minneapolis hosts the largest Somali community in North America, and the United States itself hosts 7 percent of Somali migrants worldwide.
Trump may see in Omar all Somalis, but within her own district, the situation is far more nuanced. Hyphenated identities are problematic because they elide diversity within nations and communities. Suffice to say, Somalia is an extremely complex society. Somalia’s political orientations are generally formed by clan, expediency, and opportunism rather than by ideology, and different clans dominate other regions and leave their marks.
The country is today comprised of six states. Somaliland — the northern-most state which declared its independence in 1991 — was a victim of genocide perpetrated against the Isaaq clan by Cold War-era dictator Siyad Barre. Now, however, it is a peaceful and thriving democracy counting five peaceful transfers of powers and elections secured by biometric iris-scans. Siyad Barre’s nephew Abdullahi Farmajo is today president in Mogadishu, and presides over a very different political culture. Puntland — best known to Americans as the former center of piracy in Somalia — is today increasingly defined by the inroads the Islamic State has made in the region.
Over the past 16 months, I have made multiple trips to both Somaliland and to Kenya to interview current and former officials and civil society activists in Somalia, Somaliland, and Kenya about issues involving Somali politics, great power competition, the fight against terrorism, and U.S. national security. The trips to Somaliland were self-funded, although a development conference at which I spoke in Nairobi provided roundtrip economy class airfare there. I receive no compensation for any work or analysis about the Horn of Africa. Everywhere I went, Somalis were as anxious to talk about U.S. politics as I was about Somali politics.
Just as the U.S. political press celebrated Omar as a pathbreaker, Somalis from across Somalia were also proud of her rise. Her subsequent family turmoil, embrace of progressive social causes, and foreign policy focus, however, have led to criticism among some Somalis in Somalia, who point out that Omar won a seat not only on the House Foreign Affairs Committee but also on its Africa subcommittee.
With the Horn of Africa receiving little U.S. attention since the post-“Black Hawk Down” withdrawal from Somalia more than 25 years ago, many Somalis among the more than four dozen I spoke to hoped that Omar would focus sustained attention on the region and on diplomatic efforts to restore democracy to Somalia and advance U.S.-Somali ties.
Instead, Omar made the Palestinian issue a cornerstone of her congressional activism.
Omar’s foreign policy partisanship in the broader Middle East also raised suspicion among some Somalis. Somalis and Somalilanders both suggested to me that Omar continues to internalize local divisiveness — and some Somalilanders suspect that her partisan approach in the Horn of Africa context leads her to ignore if not seek to undercut Somaliland’s more liberal democracy and democratic progress.
Somalilanders with family back in the United States often asked me about the candidacy of Leila Shukri Adan, a Minneapolis community activist whose family came from Somaliland — largely because they hoped she might better promote Horn of Africa stability as a foreign policy focus (Shukri Adan has since withdrawn).
Once again, one of the problems with the term Somali-American is that it ignores Somalia and Somaliland’s political diversity.
It is insulting to assume that hyphenated Americans will prioritize the countries of their birth. I may be Jewish with family from what is now Ukraine, for example, but I seldom work on Israel or Ukraine. At the same time, it is natural for politicians elected on the strength of a diaspora community and with family remaining in the region to be informed about and invested in that region and to focus the limelight that comes with the higher office upon the country to which their community maintains cultural, if not political, ties.
Minnesota’s 5th District may have other priorities, but in Somalia, there remains hope that someday those who migrated might work both to promote democracy and also to develop closer ties between the United States and the Horn of Africa.
Alas, as Omar’s first term draws to an end, Somalis within the district are divided, and many of those back in Somalia appear disappointed that Omar’s Middle East activism represented a missed opportunity for the U.S. ties to a long-neglected region of Africa.
About Michael Rubin
Senior Fellow
Research Areas
Arab politics, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Horn of Africa
Bio & Experience
Michael Rubin is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he specializes in Iran, Turkey, and the broader Middle East.
A former Pentagon official, Dr. Rubin has lived in post-revolution Iran, Yemen, and both pre-and postwar Iraq. He also spent time with the Taliban before 9/11. For more than a decade, he taught classes at sea about the Horn of Africa and Middle East conflicts, culture, and terrorism, to deployed US Navy and Marine units.
Dr. Rubin is the author, coauthor, and coeditor of several books exploring diplomacy, Iranian history, Arab culture, Kurdish studies, and Shi’ite politics, including “Seven Pillars: What Really Causes Instability in the Middle East?” (AEI Press, 2019); “Kurdistan Rising” (AEI Press, 2016); “Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes” (Encounter Books, 2014); and “Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos” (Palgrave, 2005).
Dr. Rubin has a Ph.D. and an MA in history from Yale University, where he also obtained a BS in biology.
Experience
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- Foreign Military Studies Office: Contract Analyst, 2012–present
- Naval Postgraduate School: Senior Lecturer, 2007–21
- Middle East Quarterly: Editor, 2004–09
- Coalition Provisional Authority (Baghdad): Political Adviser, 2003–04
- Office of the Secretary of Defense: Staff Adviser, Iran and Iraq, 2002–04
- Council on Foreign Relations: International Affairs Fellow, 2002–03
- Hebrew University (Jerusalem): Fellow, The Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations, 2001–02
- Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs: Fellow, 2000–01
- Universities of Sulaymani, Salahuddin, and Duhok (Iraqi Kurdistan): Visiting Lecturer, 2000–01
- Yale University: Lecturer, Department of History, 1999–2000
- Iranian Studies: Assistant Editor, 1994–97
Education
Ph.D. and MA in history; BS in biology, Yale University
Contact
Send Email: mrubin@aei.org
Twitter: @mrubin1971
Media Request
Brady Africk
Tell: 202-924-0784
Send Email: Brady.Africk@AEI.org
