FBI Investigating Facebook Death Threats on Somali Advocate

MINNEAPOLIS - The FBI and local police are investigating death threats against Omar Jamal, a well-known leader in the Minneapolis Somali community.

Jamal says he began receiving the threats a few weeks ago on his Facebook page. Those threats are allegedly coming from Mogadishu and the terror group al-Shabaab.

Jamal tells FOX 9 he began receiving those threats after the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) criticized him and another Somali leader for being anti-Muslim .

The FBI is searching Facebook records to see if it can identify the individual sending the threats.

Omar Jamal and Abdi Bihi were the first to blow the whistle on the effort to recruit Minnesotan Somalis for terrorism in Somalia . Three of the young men who disappeared from Minneapolis would later become suicide bombers in Kenya and Somalia for the terror group al-Shabaab.

That stance earned them a seat on CAIR's bad side, and the group recently sent a letter attacking both men's education and experience while asking local police departments to boycott a Thursday conference where the two will be keynote speakers.

"These individuals, who have no credibility in the Somali community, are going to be educating law enforcement," the letter read in part.

Yet, both men have been consulted by government leaders in the past. Jamal is now a United Nations representative of the Somali government. Jamal has also spoken before the National Press Club and has been sought after as a spokesman for the Somali community.

Follow Tom Lyden on Twitter @tlyden