The sooner the local Somali American community stops cooperating with U.S. District of Minnesota attorney Andy Luger, the better off they will be.
Luger’s recent feel good Star Tribune editorial, “Minnesota must meet Islamophobia head-on” (Nov. 3), cannot be trusted, because it comes from a man who goes in front of Somali American leaders and says, “I do not want to see young men from Minnesota die on a foreign battlefield… Every individual we stop from going abroad to fight is another life we save.”
But then when Luger gets his hands on local Somali American men who try to go abroad, he uses every resource at his disposal, including trumped up “attempted murder” charges, to destroy the lives of these young men. Somali leaders need to ask Luger this: How can you claim to care about saving their lives, when you then use every trick in the book to put them away with a life sentence in prison?
Currently Luger and Judge Michael Davis are using psychological torture against the five remaining suspects by keeping them in jail until the start of the May 2016 trial. There is no way these five men can get a fair trial.
Luger is trying to make a name for himself by putting these potential “terrorists” in prison for a long time. He cares not one bit about their safety or lives. What is the difference between dying from a bullet on the battlefield, or being put in prison for 30 years, 50 years or life? Either way your life is over.
The number-one thing Luger needs to concern himself with when it comes to Islamophobia in Minnesota is him treating Muslim foot soldiers trying to join ISIL the same as he treats Christian soldiers from the U.S. who attacked Iraq. Both situations are the same, the use of corrupt violence on the battlefield.
For Luger to charge only the Muslims for fighting in a corrupt “war” and not the Christians is Islamophobic. If trying to fight for ISIL is “attempted murder,” then what was it when the U.S. blew up Bagdad with “shock and awe?” Those weren’t mannequins being blown up, those were human beings.
Is it ok to unjustly kill people as long as you don’t behead them?
Frank Erickson lives in Minneapolis.
Reach the MSR staff at msrnewsonline@spokesman-recorder.com.