20/12/2025
Slurs Cannot Erase Facts
A Response to Tucker Carlson
By Mowlid Ali
12/18/2025
Mr. Carlson,
To define an entire community by the circumstances of their arrival, while ignoring everything they have built, is not commentary.
It is slander.
Farmers receive subsidies.
Corporations receive tax incentives.
Industries receive bailouts.
No one reduces them to what they received.
The same honesty must apply to Somali Americans.
As a community leader, I am trained as both an Imam and a critic of modern ideologies, including the hidden self-interest agendas and biases they contain.
In his recent video, Tucker Carlson called Americans of Somali heritage "primitive" and "tribalistic," accused them of having low IQ, and suggested they survive on government assistance.
The language Mr. Carlson has deployed reveals not scholarship but ideology. It is the same language used to justify colonization and exploitation for centuries.
I cannot remain silent.
On the Charge of Low Intelligence
Mr. Carlson accused an entire people of low intelligence without a shred of evidence.
I invite him to consult the accounts of those who actually encountered Somalis in their own land.
In 1331, the Moroccan scholar Ibn Battuta visited Mogadishu and described it as "an exceedingly large city" with wealthy merchants, sophisticated trade systems, and fabrics so fine they were exported to Egypt.
He found a Somali sultan fluent in both Somali and Arabic, a city with judges and scholars, and hospitality customs that impressed him deeply.
Five centuries later, the British explorer Sir Richard Burton, an Orientalist who is no friend of Africa, traveled through Somali lands and wrote: "The Somali is a democracy of equals, where every man is noble, and no man is king." He admired their poetry, legal traditions, and courage. "He is the freest man in Africa," Burton observed.
These are not my words. They are the words of outsiders who arrived with their own biases and still could not deny what they witnessed.
And let me add one more thing: Somalis sent charity to the Arabian Peninsula long before oil was discovered in the region. That is the people and culture you are attempting to humiliate, Mr. Carlson.
On the Charge of Being "Primitive"
The facts tell a different story.
Dr. Bruce Corrie, an economist at Concordia University, estimates that Somali Minnesotans generate over $500 million in annual income, pay approximately $67 million in state and local taxes, and contribute roughly $8 billion to Minnesota's economy. That $8 billion figure exceeds the economies of many Minnesota counties.
Somali Americans serve as physicians at Hennepin Healthcare, Mayo Clinic Health System, and clinics across the state. Dr. Abdirahman Madar, a Senior Medical Director at Hennepin Healthcare, has trained doctors both in Minnesota and abroad. Dr. Bashir Moallin opened St. Cloud's first Somali-run medical clinic in 2024. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, 1.6 percent of the state's licensed physicians speak Somali.
Somali Americans serve in law enforcement across Minnesota. Commander Abdirahman Ali of the Minneapolis Police Department is believed to be the highest-ranking Somali-American police official in the nation. The Somali American Police Association counts 48 Somali peace officers in Minnesota alone. In 2024, Ikran Mohamed became the first Somali-American woman sworn into the Minneapolis Police Department.
This is not the record of a "primitive" people. This is the record of a community building Minnesota's future.
On the Charge of Being "Tribalistic"
Mr. Carlson appears troubled that Somali Americans maintain cultural and religious traditions. I ask: what is wrong with being American while honoring one's heritage?
The United States is a nation built by communities who preserved their identities while contributing to the whole.
Scandinavian Minnesotans celebrate their heritage. Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Jewish Americans have all maintained their traditions across generations.
This is not tribalism. This is the American story.
Somali Americans have been elected to the Minneapolis City Council, the Minnesota State Legislature, and the United States Congress.
They serve alongside neighbors of every background in hospitals, classrooms, and police precincts.
They are woven into the fabric of this state.
On the Claim of Dependency
The suggestion that Somali Americans rely on government assistance is at best inadequate and at worst deliberately misleading.
Somali Minnesotans have a labor force participation rate above 70 percent, which exceeds the general population.
They are indispensable in sectors facing chronic labor shortages: healthcare, food manufacturing, and transportation.
They make up 11 percent of animal food processing workers in the state.
Remove these workers, and parts of Minnesota's economy would stall overnight.
The community has established hundreds of businesses.
As early as 2006, Somali-owned enterprises in Minnesota accounted for $164 to $394 million in purchasing power and numbered over 600 businesses.
That ecosystem has only expanded. Somali entrepreneurs now own trucking fleets, restaurants, retail shops, professional services, and medical clinics that employ workers of all backgrounds.
In conclusion, Mr. Carlson, you offered slurs. I have offered facts. The Americans you called primitive are building Minnesota while you watch.
The record is before you. What you do with it is your burden to carry.
Mowlid Ali
12/18/25
