Autism the Scourge of the 21st Century (Somali Immigrants in Minneapolis and Autism – Epidemic or Statistical Fluke?)

Managing Editor's Note: At the end of this magnficent post by Mr. Khalif are links to our past stories about the Somali/Autism epidemic in Minnesota, including J.B. Handley's article that so interested Mr. McNeil.

By Abdulkadir A. Khalif 
    
The story in the New York Times by Donald McNeil Jr. and datelined 03/16/2009 (HERE) has started a storm within the autism community, especially the victims of the scourge in Minneapolis. The author picked on a few unsuspecting Somali immigrant families who could understand neither the English language nor the motive of those chaperoning them for the ‘interviews’.

They were deliberately selected so as to appear as representative as possible (one of the kids was born outside the USA). I happened to know the families involved as well as some of the officials quoted. I have read and re-read the NYT story and I am still at a loss of what purpose it really served, or what the real motive of the author is. Mr. McNeil had no opinions of his own on the topic he chose, nor did he qualify any statements he extracted from the people he interviewed. He went to great lengths to quote people and then used others to unravel their arguments. He quoted from government officials and others from nonprofits, all of who are known to have been working together in their elaborate cover-up schemes. All those he met were officials who helped organize the infamous forum in Minneapolis last November. He excluded the Hmong community from the ravages of autism while showing prevalence of the scourge within Somali immigrants in Sweden. That way he was indirectly alluding to a vulnerable gene within the Somalis everywhere.