The story of the Somali population in St. Cloud starts like many other American immigrant tales: They came as refugees from war in their homeland, in search of opportunity.
But since 9/11, Muslims and immigrants around the country have been under suspicion — as unpatriotic, as terrorists, as outsiders, as dangerous. On Sept. 17, one man seemed to confirm those suspicions when he used a knife to attack 10 people in St. Cloud’s Crossroads Center mall before being killed by an off-duty police officer.
Many in the community hoped the perpetrator would be neither Somali nor Muslim.
In fact, 20-year-old Dahir Adan was both, although the reason for the attack is still unknown. Islamic State claimed responsibility, but there is as yet no evidence to connect Adan to the terror group. The investigation has been turned over to the FBI.
Hours after the attacks, Somali leaders were quick to show their sympathy for victims and their families. They described the attack as an act of a single individual, not a community. They say the whole community was victimized by the attack, as were Adan’s family and friends and the Somali community, which fears misplaced retaliation.
Somalis have spent a lot of time in St. Cloud proving themselves as neighbors, employees and students. The Somali population started to grow in the early 2000s, where previously there had been only a handful among the St. Cloud metro area’s 190,000 residents.
According to the Census Bureau’s 2014 American Community Survey one-year estimates, there are about 428,000 foreign-born people living in Minnesota, about 7.8 percent of the state’s total population. The population of foreign-born residents in St. Cloud is estimated at about 5,800, and about 10,500 in the metro area, according to the Census Bureau.
The Minnesota State Demographic Center estimates that there are between 40,200 and 52,400 Somalis in Minnesota, with between 950 and 1,900 Somali-Americans living in St. Cloud. Roughly 200 new refugees are resettled annually in St. Cloud, the majority of which are Somali.