Multicultural Must Read: Somali-Canadians Support Canada in Saudi Spat

Somali-Canadians strongly oppose the Somali government’s decision against Canada

Somali source Hiiraan from Ottawa reports: 
Translated Summary: The Somali-Canadian community is condemning and strongly opposing the Somali government’s decision to support Saudi Arabia’s unilateral declaration to cut off diplomatic ties with Canada, representatives of the Canadian-Somali community told Hiiraan. This week, Saudi Arabia ordered the Canadian ambassador to leave the country and suspended trade and investment with Canada. They began withdrawing more than 15,000 Saudi students enrolled in Canadian universities and suspended air service to Toronto. This came when Canada asked the Kingdom to release Raif Badawi and Samar Badawi. A statement from the Somalia foreign affairs government is declaring that Somalia fully supports Saudi Arabia Kingdom in its dispute with Canada. In that statement, the Somali government confirmed that they are against the Canadian government’s policy of interference in the internal affairs of Saudi Arabia. The Gulf’s crisis began last year when a Saudi-led coalition cut off relations with and imposed a blockade on Qatar. The Somali government had been allied with Qatar, which was allegedly supporting terrorist groups including Al-Shabab and the Islamic Republic of Iran, with which Somalia has no diplomatic ties. Somalia abandoned their long relationship with the Saudi-led coalition after the Gulf confrontation started last year. At the same time, last week the Saudi Kingdom gave Somalia, for no apparent reason, herds of 30,000 cattle, sheep, goats and camels for slaughtering on the day of Eid Al-Adha. Animal life stock is a vital lifeline for the Somali people. The Canadian-Somali community representatives described this government’s decision as ironic, unwise and out of diplomatic context. Canada is a home to hundreds of thousands of Somali residents, whom Canada has welcomed and given an enormous amount of support when they were in dire need of help, especially after the Somali civil war in 1991. (10/08/2018)