Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I don't look like a white woman. I look Somali.
I mix things from my Somali culture and my American side.
The film 'Black Hawk Down' paints the Somali people as wild savages.
Being Somali, being Muslim, it's always something I've been very proud of.
The Somali people deserve the kind of life we have here in the United States.
What I always emphasize is that I am a representative who happens to be Somali.
I love Somali foods like canjeero, a pancakelike bread; same for pizza, burgers, and sushi.
Somali is turning into a desert. Rwanda, you can hardly find a place to plant a potato, it's so crowded.
I know that for me, a lot of people will look at me and they'll think 'Somali' or 'outsider' instead of 'Minnesota.'
I don't see myself only as a Somali character. I think of myself as an actor, and if the job fits me and I like the story, I will go for it.
The risks of piracy spreading beyond the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, off the Somali coast, and in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore and beyond are substantial.
Many in the Somali community are excited to vote and support candidates who have shown an ability to lead with integrity and not use props and gatekeepers to get their votes.
Over the course of my life, I have made many transitions - most of them taking me further away from my Somali roots and steadily toward the enlightened mentality of Western democracy.
We need better coordination on the international side, just as they need better and more effective efforts on the Somali side. We have too many reconstruction and development assistance plans.
The next few years are going to be horrendous in the UK. The last thing we need is a Somali pirate-style raid on the few wealth creators who still dare to navigate Britain's gale-force waters.
My kids are the reason I continue to strive for something better. They know - as kids who are Muslim, Somali, black Americans - that they've always been part of a struggle and that change isn't easy.
I was always made aware of inequality in society, that there was a class system. In Somalia, we have clan structures. My mother's family is ethnically not Somali, and so we spoke often about what it meant to be 'other' in that way.
I think the guys who are sort of infantry in Somali piracy are not unlike low-level drug dealers in urban areas in America, who see it as, you know, not having many other options. I think it comes down to money and needing to survive.
Hamdi Ulukaya and Chobani have made the decision to feed 250,000 victims of the Somali famine. Their compassion speaks for itself, and is a shining example of how the business community can have an enormous positive impact on the world.
I get to say I was alive when the first Palestinian woman went to Congress. I was alive when the first Somali woman, in a hijab, who's black and Muslim - she's literally an immigrant, a refugee, black and Muslim and a woman and progressive.
If Barack Obama's campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed. Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely.
I remember, when I lived in a refugee camp, it was the people who weren't Somali, the people who came from Western countries, who helped the most. I remember being six and thinking, 'I want to be one of those women,' because I knew how much they helped us.
I like shopping at retail places like JC Penney or Macy's, and maybe buying a top or a shirt, and then buying a skirt from Rue 21 or Forever 21 because they have the maxi skirts, which I appreciate so much, and then topping it off with something that I buy from a Somali shop.
When people put labels on us, it doesn't always enclose everything that we are. So even though I'm proud to be Somali, I'm proud to be American, at the end of the day, I'm still Halima, and I take things from both sides and combine them, and I make my own little category. I'm me!
I am not a Somali representative. I am not a Muslim representative. I am not a millennial representative. I am not a woman representative. I am a representative who happens to have all of these marginalized identities and can understand the intersectionality of all of them in a very unique way.
I used to own an island in the Seychelles and had a big boat there and one day I came across some Somali pirates who were passing by on their way to re-provision their boat. They didn't even acknowledge me - which is unheard of among sailors - and it was like looking into the eyes of a black mamba.
Immediately after 11 September, the U.S. closed down the Somali charitable network Al-Barakaat on grounds that it was financing terror. This achievement was hailed one of the great successes of the 'war on terror.' In contrast, Washington's withdrawal of its charges as without merit a year later aroused little notice.
When I was younger, I didn't have that type of person that I could look up to and be like, 'OK, this is someone who dresses like me and I relate to.' I didn't have that growing up, so to give that opportunity to a younger generation of women - and not just Somali women, but anyone who feels different - that means a lot to me.
Muslims know that Islam clashes with Western Civilization. They make no bones about choosing Islam over their new home country, like the Syrians in Germany, or the Somali at Ohio State University. They are very open and honest on polls, because they know they have nothing to fear from the governments that welcomed them with open arms.
