Al-Shabaab's Threat to Mall of America in Minnesota

by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi • Mar 9, 2015 at 3:29 pm

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It's notable that al-Shabaab, elements of which appeared to be receptive to Islamic State overtures back in 2013 (back then Islamic State was just ISIS), has ultimately remained loyal to al-Qa'ida, whereas Boko Haram, which previously had suspected links to al-Shabaab, recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. To maintain credibility and prevent further defections within Somalia and the wider African continent, al-Shabaab may have additional incentive to carry out attacks in the West, particularly where it might have a constituency base to reach out to such as the Somali community in Minnesota.

***The new threat by al-Shabab extremists to attack the Mall of America in Minnesota could serve as a call to arms for disillusioned Somali-Americans, according to a former law enforcement official who investigated the group.

While it's doubtful that al-Shabab currently has enough operational capability in Minnesota to carry out the attack, former U.S. attorney W. Anders Folk told Foreign Policy that "there's certainly some precedence for the idea of a terror group putting out ideas in the public sphere to influence people who are on the fence."

The threat could "influence the ideology of people thinking about what they could do. It could be a call to action," said Folk, who investigated al-Shabab in Minnesota while on a FBI-run task force from 2005 to 2011.***