During the last week of November, independent journalist and filmmaker Ami Horowitz journeyed through the cold, snowy streets of the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis, where he interviewed a number of Somali residents about which system of law they preferred, Sharia or American? The answers he received were terrifying, as most chose Sharia.
Horowitz kicked off his man-on-the-street style interview by asking a young, black Somali man in sunglasses, “Do you feel more comfortable living under American law? Or do you feel more comfortable living under Sharia law?” The young man, all smiles, wasted no time in giving his answer. “Sharia law.”
Another young man Horowitz posed the question to responded in similar fashion, saying, “I’m a Muslim, I prefer Sharia law.” Another answered in the affirmative, saying, “Sharia law, yes.” A third younger man sporting a flat bill ball cap and looking very American, replied, “Of course. Yeah. Of course, yeah.”
Horowitz asked the young man a follow-up question about whether his friends feel the same way. “Yeah, of course. If you’re a Muslim, yeah.” In a later part of the interview, the brave journalist had a conversation with a Somali woman, decked out in a pink, floral headwrap. Horowitz asked the woman how young a girl was allowed to be if she were to marry her son. The answer is more than a little disturbing. She answered, “15.”
He then asked her, “Is it right to kill someone who insults Mohammad?” The woman said it was perfectly fine to take someone’s life if they have criticized the founder of their religion. “Yeah, because she has the religion, I understand, but she shouldn’t pick on the prophet.”
“So you understand why someone would want to attack her [the individual criticizing Mohammad]?” Horowitz followed up. “Yeah.” The video clip then returns to the young man in the ball cap. Horowitz asks him if he would rather live here in the United States or in a Muslim country. “I’d rather live in a Muslim country with my people.”
Cutting back to the woman Horowitz spoke to earlier, he asks her the same question. You can probably already guess the response. “For me, I think it’s Somalia.” Which begs the question, if they would rather live in Somalia, why are they here? Returning to the young man in sunglasses, he answers, “I’d rather live in Somalia.”
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The man in the ball cap continues, “I’m not American. I just speak fluent. I’m articulate. I can articulate what I’m trying to say, you know what I mean? That’s about it. Other than that, as far as my culture and my preferences and everything, it’s still Somalia, you know what I mean?”
The clip once again returns to the man in sunglasses, where Horowitz then asks, “Even though here you have all the freedom and stuff like that?” He says in response, “Even though I have all the freedom.” Horowitz then asks, “Your life might be better in Somalia, than here?” The young man answers, “Yeah, now you have the freedom to practice your religion while you’re working and doing other things.”
Watch it here:
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video