Original subtitles

- This call is from a federal prison.

- So I'm gonna start from the beginning.

I was born in Minneapolis.

I'm as American as it gets.

It's painful to speak about this.

I regret my actions, 100%,

but the people need to understand my reality...

- Right.

- Is not the same as your reality.

- Document 717.

Defendant Abdurahman makes plans to join ISIL.

- Zacharia Abdurahman pled guilty.

The judge gave him a 10-year sentence

and 20 years supervised release.

female narrator: A father and son

torn apart by extremism

rebuild their relationship

in this film by Eunice Lau.

- While growing up, Zach used to get bullied

by his friends because of me, 'cause of what I believe.

- When I get out, I want to be a part of raising awareness

in the community, because if there's no dialogue,

there's just gonna be more walls built.

narrator: "Accept the Call," now, only on Independent Lens.

- [singer vocalizing]

[exciting music]

[tape clatters]

- [whistling idly]

- [baby-talking]

Watch this. Watch this.

[baby-talking]

- [exhales]

- [speaking on phone]

Uh...

uh, we're gonna ha--you know--

- Yeah.

[soft music]

- [praying in foreign language]

♪

Hello. How are you? You guys, you're playing?

Can I play with you?

No? No?

Fire truck.

[all laughing]

Hey...

[explosives blasting]

[explosions and gunfire continuing in distance]

[static hisses]

[low, dramatic music]

♪

♪ X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

all: [singing in Somali]

I got married.

[gentle music]

♪

- Um...

[children talking indistinctly]

[both speaking Somali]

- [speaking Somali]

- [speaking Somali]

- Oh, yeah? [speaking Somali]

- [speaking Somali]

[speaking English]

[laughing]

[triumphant music] X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

[triumphant music]

♪

- Yeah! - That's how pros do it.

Yeah.

- ♪ We all want success, we all want to provide ♪

♪ The dream's to make it to the top and never ever slide ♪

- We just did, like, one random, like,

com--coming, like, coming out of nowhere. [laughs]

I'm the third-eldest in the family

of seven siblings.

You look cute, though.

- ♪ Numbers don't lie, 'cept the 2012 apocalypse ♪

♪ Let me tell you, I'm on a roll ♪

♪ Ain't nothing stopping this, gas so high ♪

♪ At, like, four, maybe five bucks ♪

♪ Since when was the car payment ♪

♪ Equal to the price to fill up ♪

- My father, we see him often,

but not as much, because he doesn't live with us.

[percussive music playing over speakers]

- Everywhere we go, every turn,you're recording.

- [laughs]

Look at that. He's doing it.

Did you see it? - Yeah.

- That was [inaudible]. Zach used to do that too.

- I just getthe feeling of him.

[laughs] - Spirit.

- Oh, he does not.

- Zacharia as a person was...

very kind.

He was very gentle...

Very humble in nature.

When my dad kinda left the house,

Zacharia just assumed that role as the father figure.

He's very caring.

He would help the kids with their homework.

Loose doorknob? He's the one who fixed it.

- You wanna take a picture? - No.

I was just teasing.

[indistinct chatter]

- He liked a lot of the things that we did.

We'd go skating.

We'd go horseback riding. Road trips.

One of the main things that stands out to me

is that, surprisingly,

he would remember everything everyone said,

and he would just kind of, you know, ask

about things that you don't even remember you said.

It's--it's...

it's just different with him not there.

Um, he pa--played a really prominent role in our family,

and it's just really-- like, you can...

there's obviously not a presence there,

I guess, is what I could say.

♪ X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

♪

This is what I used to tell Zach.

"I came here, but you were born here.

You can become president."

[cell phone rings]

[intense music]

♪

And...

[horn blares]

- When it all happened, I was at madrasa.

My mom called me, and she said, "Where are you?"

She said, "Zacharia's gone."

[wind rushing, police shouting]

- Police department! - Go! Go! Go!

- "The police took him."

They raided the house, 15 or 16 of them.

My mom was taking a walk at this time.

They kind of pinned her to a truck

and told her that she couldn't move.

So when they were cuffing Zach,

they cuffed him really hard,

and they told my mom, "Any last words?

'Cause you're not gonna see him for quite some time."

And my mom was crying X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

And my mom was crying

and she was really devastated.

[solemn music]

- Six Somali-Americans in Minnesota

were charged with attempting to enlist

with a terrorist group.

In November of 2014,

FBI stopped them from boarding a plane to Turkey.

- The latest damaging recording revealed in court

quoted Zacharia Abdurahman as saying, "ISIS is amazing."

But at least ten by my count

were asked to leave the jury pool basically

because they said their minds were already made up.

They believe these defendants are guilty

of these terror charges.

[applause]

- Thank you very much, and God bless America.

And...

- So that's, like, nice. Okay.

[sighs]

[somber music]

[coughs] X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

- Sentencing continues today for three Minnesota men

who pleaded guilty to terror charges.

- Well, Frank, the importance

of those who cooperated was emphasized

by a highly unusual statement

by U.S. attorney Andy Luger

at the start of today's sentencing.

Luger said it was a daunting task

to testify against former friends in this case.

Zacharia Abdurahman pled guilty

but did not testify for the government.

He was facing 15 years in prison,

but the judge gave him a 10-year sentence

and 20 years supervised release.

- Somali youth are under attack.

What do we do? all: Stand up, fight back.

- I go visit my brother twice or three times a week.

I spend a lot of time with him, catch up.

He said that he has a lot of time

to think about many things.

One time he was in solitary confinement

for, like, a week.

Some guy called him "terrorist."

He kinda got pissed off, a bit,

and he tries to, you know, hold that in,

and then this guy keeps making remarks.

And it almost turned into a fistfight.

The guy got a couple days in solitary,

but he got a week.

23 hours locked in a cell.

You get an hour to shower,

talk to your family if you want,

and there's really only so much you can do.

Um...

and so then, he said that, at one point,

it felt like he was actually dying.

That--um...

[softly] Sorry.

[mumbles to self]

What is this thing right here?

Appeal denied documentations.

- Document 717.

During the summer of 2014,

defendant Abdurahman makes plans with his coconspirators

to travel to Syria to join ISIL. X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

to travel to Syria to join ISIL.

Zacharia Abdurahman:

"It's easy, bro.

"At the end of the day,

"the only thing is that you got to be low-key.

"I told these guys, Somali truck driver.

"Just pay Somali truck driver.

Go in the back. He will be going, bro."

- [reading under breath]

- Later, in a recorded conversation,

defendant Abdurahman watched

and talked about the ISIL propaganda video...

[shouting playing on video]

[man speaking foreign language in video]

[prayer playing in video]

[explosion sounds]

...in which hundreds of captured military groups

are slaughtered by ISIL executioners...

where they are being shot in the head

as they lie in a ditch

or being shot in the head on the banks of the River Tigris.

An unknown Iraqi Shi'a military recruit

begs for his life

shortly before he's murdered

by ISIL.

Codefendant Mohamed Farah laughs at the killing

and cruelty that is displayed in the video.

Zacharia Abdurahman makes noise of a gun firing.

- [imitates gunfire] [laughter]

- Yeah.

Yeah, this was...

[children speaking Somali and laughing]

- Where is Arun?

- Hello. - Hi.

all: Bye!

[laughter and chatter]

[children chattering]

- Bye. children: Bye!

[coughs] X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

[both laughing]

- Welcome to Somali Radio at KFAI Radio in Minneapolis.

My guest today is a very old, old friend of mine,

Yusuf Abdurahman,

and today we are talking about radicalization.

Recently your son was indicted,

and he was sent to prisonfor attempting to go to Syria.

- That's right. - And you are a dad.

- I feel sorry that he's in prison.

- You're very-- - But I'm very happy that--

- That your son was stopped? - I'm very happy.

Honestly, I'm very happy about it.

- Instead of going over there? - Exactly.

- Why? - He... [stammers]

I would never see him again.

- In order to arrest the MuslimSomali young people,

do you believe there wasa conspiracy of the government

to tryand to get our young people?

- Well, there is-- - Some people said.

- Mm-hmm.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- So now you want to explainto our mainstream audience

and other community membershow radicalization takes place?

- Yeah, really.

In Islam there is denominations.

It's called madhab.

- Mm-hmm.

I don't know.

[child crying] X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

- [speaking foreign language]

- [speaking foreign language]

[men praying in foreign language]

[men praying in foreign language]

- Daddy!

- [shouting playfully]

- [shouting]

- [screaming]

- Hey! [laughs] - Abo!

[laughter]

I'm good. About to go down. - [laughs] Yeah.

- Gonna die.

[all laughing]

- Let go!

- [shrieking]

- [laughing] Oh, my God.

- Oh, no, no! Oh! - Oh!

[cell phone ringing]

- Yay!

[phone beeps] X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

- What's up?

- No, he's coming tomorrow. Is that okay?

- Yeah.

We're all together right now, sledding.

- I want to do it by myself. - I'm too cold!

- Hi, Zacha.

- Oh, hi, Zacharia.

- Um, I'm good.

- We're sledding! - [laughs]

- Yeah.

- Yeah. [sniffs]

- Ah, yeah.

- All right. I'll come to you tomorrow until then.

In the morning.

- I love you too.

- Bye.

- [sighs]

Actually,this is going down.

[somber music]

- [laughs]

He apologized for what he did.

He took responsibility.

[phone beeps]

- [speaking Somali]

- Yeah. It's all right. Family's okay.

It's good, kinda talking, chilling with the kids

and things like that, you know?

It's all right. So what's--what's up?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know? - Uh-huh. X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

You know? - Uh-huh.

[coughs]

[phone beeps]

- Yeah, I'm still here.

...those, uh...

So I--I--I-- just wanna ask you

what kind of books and stuff and...

Um...

- Uh-huh.

- Right.

- Okay.

[phone beeps]

You know? - [laughs]

[both laughing]

- Okay.

- Yeah, but that's--yeah.

[man speaking foreign language in video]

[siren wailing] X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

- This call is from a federal prison.

- Okay.

- Okay.

[phone beeps]

- Okay.

[line beeps]

- Hello?

[inspiring music]

- ♪ I don't

♪ Stay

♪ Down

- ♪ Keep on fighting

♪ Fork in the road, left or right ♪

♪ Don't know which way to take ♪

♪ Promises are made

♪ Don't know whether I should keep them ♪

♪ Break them, maybe I should just... ♪

- Ah!

- Ah!

♪

- ♪ Keep on fighting

♪ Never surrender, never surrender ♪

♪ Even when you're under pressure ♪

♪ One thing to always remember ♪

♪ Never surrender, never surrender ♪

♪ One thing, not a chance

♪

- Still cold. Watch out.

Still today we are very close.

[clapping and tapping bottle]

[music playing from phone]

Don't break that.

[music continues playing]

- ♪ I've got my ticket for the long way round ♪

- Here you go. Use that. - It's gonna break.

Are you serious? [laughs] - Use that.

- The bottom is gonna break.

- Just break it. Use this.

[music continues playing]

- And then... [imitates blast]

I don't know. There is just a lot of shame

'cause it's like there's a personal identity.

There's someone's personal traits

and what they like to do,

and then there's the cultureof your parents

that you also have to adhere toin very many ways X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

that you also have to adhere toin very many ways

and, you know, like, also respect.

Then there's the culture of--of the place where you reside.

- Yeah.

- Mmm.

[imitating old woman]

"Okay." [laughs]

- That's interesting.

- Okay.

- [laughs] Oh, my gosh.

- [makes comicalsmooching sound]

[laughs]

All right.

- What do we do? all: Stand up, fight back!

- What do we do?

all: Stand up, fight back.

- I want to thank you all for coming out today.

Just short of two years ago,

the FBI seized Zacharia Abdurahman,

my eldest brother, with a case built

solely upon illegitimate FBI informancy.

Mending broken communities

stigmatized by covert government funding to stop

the so-called radicalization of Somali youth and...

We are refusing to accept that we have problems.

"Release plan for Zacharia Abdurahman."

The Somali Youth of Minnesota,

Somali American Parents Association,

organizations that help us.

Everywhere I dig, I can find some interesting stuff

about Zach and, you know,

his life and the case and court and government stuff.

- So I ask of you, bearers of justice,

repeat and remember their names with me.

Zacharia. all: Zacharia.

- Guled. all: Guled.

- Hanad. all: Hanad.

- Abdurahman. all: Abdurahman.

- We all do. Thank you so much.

[cheers and applause] X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

[cheers and applause]

- Okay, everyone!

- Tony Osman.

- The assignments first started, like,

"Get us this phone number. Get us that phone number.

Go make contact with this person."

- His FBI handlers gave Tony

a wire to record dozens of conversations.

- What's up? - Hello.

- ...if I introduce myself.

So I'm Yusuf.

I'm glad that I came and meet you today.

I want to ask you about my son, Zach.

Have you ever met Zach?

- Yeah.

You know, this is a pictureof your son, Zach.

So since I startedbeing a FBI informant,

which was in June 2014,

I saw him regularlyhanging out, right?

All this group.Well, the FBI was telling me,

"Encourage them,"and they told me,

"You can't sayor do anything to stop that.

"You can only agreeand encourage

and also saythat you want to go too."

- But that is a setup. - Yeah, and it felt like

that could beentrapment, you know?

I mean, straight-up, the FBItold me they want convictions

and they wantterrorism convictions,

and we can easily get them.

That's an exact quotefrom my handlers.

And I even was introducedto him by name, you know?

"Say salaam to the brothers,"you know?

"Assalamu alaikum, brother."[laughs]

And then they,"Oh, come through."

I always observed your sona little bit more chilled back,

just a little bit more calmer.

Even from this picturethat I took,

you can see he's sitting--and his body language.

Look. He's sitting like this.

- Yeah. - Laid back, kinda chill,

just laughing, having a-- trying to have a good time.

But you gotta understand whereyour son is getting the ideas.

Saudi Arabia money camps with--this book is from Saudi Arabia.

- And this is one is among the Somali community.

All the stores everywhere. Kids read this.

- And they're substituting thisfor something that's--you know,

the Koran and other good stuff.

But anyway...

- There's a lot of Muslims here.

Where do you think that we can stop this?

How can we stop this?

It seems that our children are softer.

- Yeah, a naive target is the best target

when you're a terrorist recruiter.

The actual number onebest target

is someone who's recentlybeen traumatized X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

is someone who's recentlybeen traumatized

or feels like some sortof injustice

has been done to them.

And then as a naive kidwho grew up in the U.S.

playing video games,it goes with the fantasy,

and they love listening andwatching more than anything.

And the way the ISIS videos are made,

they're better than any damn Hollywood movie

I've ever seen, so-- - "Let's go practice."

- Exactly. - Somebody's--

- "Let's go make this a reality," right?

- Yeah.

- I think that, really, there's nothing you could have done

without knowing.

"This is not Zach, you know?"

[phone beeps]

Okay?

- This call is from a federal prison.

- Mm.

- Mm.

- Mm. X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

- But that is--that's-- - Although--although--

at the time--yeah.

- But the thing is--

- Okay.

- Right. They do.

- That's...

That's what I'm saying.

Yeah.

[tense music]

♪

- No.

...but...

[phone beeps]

...I--I--I...

So--so no--

- Yup.

- Uh-huh.

- This call is from a federal prison.

- I want to--I want to--to hear from you, to learn from you.

- I--I agree with you. [phone beeps]

- Yup.

[line beeps]

- [sighs, coughs]

[melancholy music]

♪

- ...buy itineraries and go. - When you took that picture,

was way back.

- Uh-huh. - So this is the mosque?

- Yeah, this is Dar Al Farooq,

where yourson's photo was taken.

That mosque, Saudi Arabia had funded it a little bit

and some of the books.

Then a lot of the lessons that were done here

were actually Wahhabi curriculum.

- Wahhabi, Salafi. - Yeah.

And the picture that I took was right there,

Literally under that window, right there.

I'll show you.

Right there.

They were watching a couple of videos,

chat.

I'd sit literally in the opposite corner.

They didn't allow me to see what they were watching,

and then we'd leave,

and we'd go get some foodor something, yeah.

- Yeah.

- If I were you, I would tell the imam and the people.

- Yeah. - Have you ever thought

about it? - Yeah, well, the thing is

with here, becauseit's rotating imams,

there's no central authority.

- Okay. - So this is, like, the perfect

environmentto radicalize someone.

- Huh?

- Oh, okay, that's fine.We'll step over here.

- Over here, we can step over there then?

- Yeah. - Uh, yeah. Yeah.

- Oh, you're talkingabout here?

- Yes.

- Ah, okay. - Yeah, no problem.

So I was telling--

so later on, as time changed, the lessons

at the mosque changed, like, from some of these-- X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

Shias, they give the lecture,

and they say that, you know, jihad is this and that,

and you can't do jihad now.

They dismiss that completely

as wrong interpretation and anti-jihad.

But then the kids would be like,

"Well, what about like, all this stuff going on in,

like, Syria, for example?" You know?

"The poor kids being killed?" You know.

And then an active recruiter who is sort of, like,

a accelerator of the radicalization,

and he would be like, "Nope, there is jihad now.

"Any time a Muslim has been killed,

you have to go defend them," and if you can support ISIS

"and--financially or material support,

"do that, or if you can go, do that.

That's, like, all jihad," you know, right?

- Oh. You know, I--

- No, this isa public sidewalk here.

- Okay.

- But this area is a public easement.

I can callthe police right now,

and they'll come tell you this is a public--hey,

hey, just stand right here.

- Oh, okay. - On the street.

He can't say nothing on the street, man.

Come over here. Is this public too?

- Yeah, that's fine.So okay.

[tense music]

He would say,"You go sit in that corner,"

so I have no ideawhat's going on,

and then to me,they seemed like little kids

that were such small friesand small fish that,

in my mind, the FBI hadno interest in them.

- But later--but later on you--later on,

you realized that the FBI--

- No, I didn't--I didn'tuntil way later.

Like, this is, like, one weekbefore they did the raids.

- Yeah. - They told me,

"Yeah, we're interestedin those kids."

- Okay, all right.

And you did nothing.

And you watched my kidrecruited by someone.

By Amir Meshal. - I didn't--well,

hold on a second. - No, no.

- He was already recruited.

I didn't watch anybody get recruited, man.

You're not getting this in your mind right.

- No, no, no,he show--he show--

- Look, man, Zach was hanging out

with these recruiters for at least one year

before I started informing, and he already had given him

his philosophy, his radicalization,

and already showed him ISIS videos.

- I got a differentperspective now.

You took the picture while mychild was sitting over there.

I don't know what my childwas listening and watching

through the YouTubeand the stuff like that.

- I didn't either. I assume they were watching--

- You knew. You knew. - Yeah.

- As a man, I would stand upfor justice for everybody else.

- I believe in justice for all, man.

- You didn't--you didn't do itfor my kid.

- How did I not do that?

Tell me how I could have done it.

- Well... - Well, how?

- How? - What would you have done

if you were me?

[tense music]

- Welcome back, KFAI.

Today my guest, Mr. Yusuf.

You kept saying Wahhabi, Saudi Arabia, interpretation.

- We have to go back to the basics and know

about ideology of Wahhabis,

and these books with this ideology

are there in English now. X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

The problem is they don'thave a community

that knows radicalizationsand that guide them.

They don't have imamsor sheikhs

understand the problem.

[speaking Somali]

Well, I'm going to distribute this flyer,

raise awareness about terrorism and radicalization

and some kids leaving and things like that.

Here you go.

It's written in Somali and English.

- [speaking Somali]

- [speaking Somali]

- [speaking Somali]

- [speaking Somali]

- [speaking Somali]

- A lot of people in our community are still in denial.

We have a problem, and we haveto come out and just say,

"Listen, the mosqueshas to stand up.

The sheikhs and imamshas to stand up."

It's literature. Read that. You read that.

- [speaking Somali urgently]

- Oh, thank you. Thank you.

It's just awareness.

We're just giving awareness tothe kids and to Somali youth.

I said about watch outwhen we teach the kids.

Don't read--don't read misinterpretations,

Saudi misinterpretation books. Salafi, Wahhabi books,

don't read-- don't teach the kids.

I'm--I'm against violence. Look at that.

Look at that. Look at that. Look at this older man.

I'm in a public place, okay?

- Right here? - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Right here?This is a sidewalk.

- He's come out of a place of concern,

but I think it's difficult for the person

who's receiving it to see that.

- You're gonna call anotherMuslim a traitor

and the whole world a traitor?

- That's what it say. - That's hadith.

- Whoa. Hey.

- This is public space. - Move.

- Hey, listen.

- The former U.S. attorney attempted to initiate a program

titled CVE, Countering Violent Extremism,

a program that only targets Muslim communities

and is both stigmatizing and alienating

because it furthers this false assumption

that American Muslims are not fully invested

in honoring our religious and civic duties.

- Our youth are confused

becauseof what these imams say.

They say today something.Tomorrow they say something X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

They say today something.Tomorrow they say something

completely againstand different.

Oh, you are against me?"Don't send to my kids.

Just go." You go fight.

- We don't, as a society,

look for the goodness of people.

There's always two sides to a story, if not more.

Why don't you call the police?

- Get out of here.

- Why don't you call the police?

I'm here. I'm here.

What's the problem? I don't understand.

♪

You become very lonely into your own community.

[ominous percussive music]

♪

- We're collecting commissary and different kind of donations

to keep this campaign and advocacy alive

and to put, essentially,

money on the books of these young men.

- Terrorism is not a disease, nor is it a religion.

- Islam becomes the biggest threat to the United States.

- It was like a hit and run,

like you pulled the trigger on your gun.

Do you know how it feels to lose a loved one?

- I have every right to due process. Shut up.

- Black privilege is the hung elephant swinging in the room,

is the memory of a slave ship praying for the Alzheimer's

to kick in.

Black privilege is me having already

memorized my nephew's eulogy,

my brother's eulogy, my father's eulogy,

my unconceived child's eulogy.

Black privilege is knowing that if I die,

at least Al Sharpton will show up to my funeral.

At least Al Sharpton will Mason jar my mother's tears,

reminding us that the only thing we are worthy of

is our own death.

We are judged by the number of people it takes

to carry our casket.

Black privilege is me thinking that's enough.

It's me thinking this poem is enough.

Black privilege is this--

is this breath in my lungs right now,

is me standing right here

with a crowd full of witnesses to my heartbeat.

Thank you.

[cheers and applause] X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

[cheers and applause]

[men praying in foreign language]

- That's an ISIS prayer.

They're specifically talking about mothers.

[prayer continues]

It says that, uh, "Don't be sad, Mom.

"Don't be sad. I'm going for jihad.

"This is a source of glory and pride for you.

"I will be getting the best of awards.

Don't cry, oh, Mom. Don't cry. I'm going for you."

[rapid gunfire]

It's a hypnotic melody. It's a hypnotic cult.

It's so powerful.

It's so potent. It's so glorified.

It puts them at the status of an elite top soldier

who can only go higher.

- Because my father

was murdered by these people.

[rapid gunfire]

To me, they are con men that want power,

but if you want power and you want money

and somebody promises that to you,

and hey, you can get away with it, that's what this is.

At the end of all this game of all these humans,

it's elitism.

Just like with the Nazis.

Elitism.

- This call is from a federal prison.

- Right.

- Okay.

- Okay. Okay. I'm list--I'm listening.

- Okay, okay. - I'm gonna listen.

[bell ringing]

It wasn't... X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

- [sniffles]

- This call is from a federal prison.

You know?

- Yeah.

- Yup.

- Yeah.

You know? [line beeps]

- Okay.

You know?

- This call is from a federal prison.

- So obviously, you know--

- I wasn't-- - 'Cause--

- Yeah. X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

You know?

[sorrowful music]

♪

- [clears throat]

And me and my wife and children

used to go to that mosque.

- My wife, she used to say... X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

♪

♪

And, uh...

...that I came from some...

another planet, and...

that I had...

some weird, crazy...

[stirring piano music]

♪

- [laughs]

Well, you're doing a good job, advocating,

standing up for justice and things like that.

But you know what I afraid?

- Hmm?

And if you don't know what their mission is,

you don't know whose finance it is,

all your energy might go into negative way

and might come back to you, you know? X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

and might come back to you, you know?

- Your caution is valid,like, as a parent,

but, like, also peacefullyassembling or voicing

my concern or speaking outis a part of my right.

It's, you know,constitutionally correct for me

to be able to speakwhat I want, right?

Essentially, like, I know,like, there's so many...

- But, like...

- There's so many issues

that I think the childrenof first generation immigrants

bear that no other--no other,

you know--I guess, like,privileged white people

don't have to even--even think about, right?

Like, the ways in which the lawin this country is set up,

if you're visibly black,in terms of the law,

you deal with a lot more.

These laws are put into placethat, like, stigmatize,

you know,our young men or even,

like, you know,paint with a broad brush

and want to incitethese sort of things, right?

Like, we also have to recognizethe socioeconomic conditions

that m--that makethese things possible.

Like, I think right nowin Cedar

they're attempting to builda fence around the entire area

where you're cagingan entire community

because they're--they're, like,you know--

they carry disea--you know,in some ways it's kind of like,

"We're gonna confine thesepeople because they're"--

- They're out of the norm? - They're out of the norm.

They're--they need to besegregated from the rest

of the American community.

- But lately, what Minneapolis did was they put so many

ethnic--different ethnic group polices

into the neighborhoods, you know?

- Right, that doesn't changethe culture, though,

and it doesn't...

You know? - Okay.

- Yeah, man. I'm old man. X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

- Yeah, yup. You said--you said--

- Yeah.

So, uh-- - So...

- This call is from a federal prison.

And... - Okay.

♪

- Oh, heard, yeah--yeah. [speaks Somali]

Yup. I hear you real well.

- Get him, get him, get him.

[laughs]

all: 90...

- One, two...

- And she stole my Somali song.

- I didn't steal it. I didn't even know about it.

- Come on. Come on. - [laughs] X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=MPEGTS:187507, LOCAL:00:00:00.000

- [inaudible], yeah, bald.

First time bald.

- Yup.

- Here you go.

- [speaking Somali] - Here you go.

Here you go.

- Here go! - Here you go.

Say bye. all: Bye!

[all speaking Somali]

narrator: YouTube Impact Lab is a proud presenting partner

of "Accept the Call" on PBS.