Word: abdelal
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Savage beatings and drowned loved ones are part of every refugee's narrative in Kharaz Camp, run by the U.N. in the desert about 100 miles west of Aden, and in the urban slum of Bassatine. "They leave Somalia because of war and money troubles," says Abdel Kadir Hassan, a Somali community leader in Bassatine, who left Mogidishu in 1995 with 16 members of his family. "There is a government here in Yemen; in Somalia there is no government. We can have our farms and get what we need in our country, but there is no government...
...residents of Bassatine say they're forced to rely on the generosity of community members and local NGOs to make ends meet; the government - though relatively welcoming, they say - simply can't help them. "We thought that Yemen would be better than Somalia. But it's not," says Sofia Abdel Samat, 20, who lost her younger sister to the sea when the two tried to make the journey less than a month ago. "There is no work here, there is nothing...
...Somalis, Ethiopians and Eritreans can find little employment. Says Abdel Kadir Hassan, deputy community leader of Bassatine's Somalis: "A lot of the men go to the market to wash cars and a lot of the women beg." They have to compete with the locals, who already suffer a 35% unemployment rate, compounded by one of the fastest growing populations in the world. It is not surprising that the foreigners are quickly becoming scapegoats for Yemen's ills...
...That was back when nations waged war against one another; today's bad guys are increasingly "non-state actors." Near the top of the list right now are Naser Abdel-Karim Wahishi and former Guantanamo detainee Saeed Ali Shehri, the leaders of the Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). AQAP is believed to have trained and outfitted alleged airline bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. There is also intelligence suggesting that radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemen-based cyber pen pal of Major Nidal Hasan, who is accused of killing 13 Army personnel at Fort Hood in November...
...Everyone is obsessed with soccer, and everyone loves it even if they don't play - like me, for example," says Sheikh Ali Abdel Ba'i, one of Egypt's state-appointed Muslim clerics, of the national pastime. "Football captures people's hearts. It's a game for the people...