Blame the Lutherans: Six Somali Minnesotans charged with wanting to join Islamic State

Once most of Minnesota was like Garrison Keillor's mythical Lake Wobegon.

The idyllic days are over.

From the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

Six young Minnesota men, reportedly disillusioned with American life and swayed by a peer who'd already made the journey, tried repeatedly to travel to Syria and fight with the Islamic State, according to federal charges filed Monday.

They were thwarted with the help of a fellow recruit who had a change of heart and became an FBI informant, investigators said.

The group is Minnesota's largest contingent accused of trying to join the insurgent group since authorities first warned last year that Minnesotans were being recruited to the Islamic State, a designated terrorist organization that has attracted foreign fighters from around the world to conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

The men, all Somali Americans between 19 and 21 years old, were charged Monday with conspiracy to support a terrorist organization. They made their first appearances in federal court Monday afternoon.

As for the Somalis, an astounding forty percent of the refugees in the United States from Somalia settled in Minnesota, largely because of the efforts of Lutheran Social Services. "Everybody blames the Lutherans," Clint Eastwood's Walt Kowalski character complained in Gran Torino. Maybe for good reason. Perhaps the Lutheran Church should go back to proselytizing and saving souls instead of bringing jihadis and terrorist sympathizers to America.

Yes, I'll be discussing this entry with Mrs. Marathon Pundit, a Lutheran, tomorrow.