Advertisement

Somali Reporter Blocked From Entering Courtroom Is The Latest In String Of Incidents In Minneapolis

Mukhtar Ibrahim CREDIT: BUSH FOUNDATION
Mukhtar Ibrahim CREDIT: BUSH FOUNDATION

Shortly after 8 a.m. on Monday, Mukhtar Ibrahim tried to make his way through a security checkpoint and into a federal courtroom in Minneapolis.

Ibrahim, a Minnesota Public Radio journalist covering the first day of the trial of three Minnesota men accused of plotting to join ISIS, looked on as a white reporter and others make it through the checkpoint without incident. But when he reached the front of the line, a marshal stopped him.

“When I put my wallet and keys and my belt in the small basket and tried to go through the metal detector, this security guard came up to me and said, ‘You can’t go inside, you can’t go in,’” Ibrahim told ThinkProgress. “And I told him, ‘I’m part of the press,’ and I pulled out my press pass and said, ‘I just saw another reporter going in, what’s going on?’ He said, ‘I’m sorry, it’s not open to the public.’”

While Ibrahim waited to be allowed in, he tweeted about the experience, which he said was unusual but not altogether unprecedented during his two years reporting for MPR.

Before too long, Ibrahim was let through the security checkpoint. But reached for comment hours later, he acknowledged the experience of being singled out affected his mindset throughout the day.

Advertisement

“Being prevented from going in the court threw me off,” he said. “This was going to be a big day, and that threw me off balance for a while. Unfortunately, it happened. I guess that’s what comes with being a reporter.”

A security official with the U.S. Courthouse in Minneapolis didn’t immediately respond to a message asking why Ibrahim was held up. Security guards did not give a reason at the time why they had to detain the reporter, and it’s not entirely clear if it was because of his background.

Ibrahim, a Bush Foundation fellowship winner who was born and Somalia and came to the United States with his family in 2005, didn’t want to speculate as to whether he was a victim of profiling.

But he’s recently been covering that very topic at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Late last month, Andrew Rhoades, an assistant federal security director for the Transportation Security Administration, blew the whistle on a supervisor he says asked him to profile Somali imams and other Somali community members in Minnesota. Rhoades’ allegations are being investigated by the TSA.

News of the alleged TSA profiling broke just days ahead of the start of the high-profile trial of the three young Somali men. Guled Omar (age 21), Abdirahman Daud (22), and Mohamed Farah (22), are the first people facing ISIS-related charged to go on trial in Minnesota. As Ibrahim has reported, the three are accused of plotting to commit murder overseas as well as conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization. They could spend the rest of their lives in prison if convicted of the former charge.

When a fellow reporter goes through without being asked questions or being pulled aside or anything like that, and then you try to do the same thing and can’t… that shows something.

Extremism within Minnesota’s large Somali community has become an increasing concern in recent years. A total of nine young men have been arrested for allegedly planning to join ISIS in Syria since 2014, and the United States Department of Justice included Minneapolis among three cities taking part in a pilot program intended to bring together community representatives, public safety officials, and religious leaders “to address radicalization to violence” through organized activities, employment opportunities, and mental health services for refugees.

Ibrahim said he would be back at court today and is hoping he won’t be subject to unique treatment once again.

“If they let everyone in at 8:30, I wouldn’t have any issue with that. You have to follow the procedure,” he said. “But when a fellow reporter goes through without being asked questions or being pulled aside or anything like that, and then you try to do the same thing and can’t… that shows something.”

Advertisement

The fellow reporter Ibrahim refers to is the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Stephen Montemayor. In a statement sent to ThinkProgress, Montemayor said that as he passed through security, he overheard Ibrahim tell a marshal he’s a media member.

“In my experience, it’s not uncommon to be asked if you’re media and I’ve also been asked to show credentials. But I’ve never been held back or prevented from entering the building,” Montemayor wrote, adding that after he got through security, he saw that other reporters and a Somali activist had gotten through as well. He then saw Ibrahim’s tweet about getting blocked and decided to head back to the checkpoint to investigate.

Any singling out of a reporter there would at a minimum be disturbing.

“By that time (about 10 minutes) he was through security,” Montemayor continued. “I told someone from the U.S. Attorney’s Office about it later and recommended to Mukhtar he mention it to the U.S. Marshal, which he told me he was able to do briefly. Any singling out of a reporter there would at a minimum be disturbing, but would also seem to me to at least flirt with flying in the face of the judge’s order regarding attendance/media at the trial.”

As Montemayor reports, Monday’s trial proceedings involved jury selection. Ten prospective jurors were dismissed because they said they couldn’t be impartial.

“When I first walked in, I already had the mind-set of them being guilty,” one prospective juror told the judge.

“To be honest, I’m kind of uncomfortable even being in the room with them,” said another.