Three small South Seattle groceries owned by Somali immigrants were caught up in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks. In late 2001, federal agents raided Maka Mini Mart and Halal Meat, owned by Abdinasir Ali Nur, during a raid on a neighboring money-wiring business with alleged links to terrorism. Although unrelated to that neighboring business, the agents confiscated checks and about $250,000 in inventory from the market. In March 2002, the US Department of Agriculture stripped the Maka Market and two other Somali-run groceries of their ability to take food stamps. These actions badly hurt both the businesses and their customers, most of whom used food stamps and checks for credit at the stores.

After community protests and pressure from rights groups and the Washington congressional delegation, the USDA restored food stamp use in July 2002 and later paid for the confiscated checks, but not Nur’s lost inventory. Store owners and community members continued to feel harassed and targeted, however. Nur closed the Maka Mart temporarily but was eventually repaid by the government for part of his lost inventory. He reopened the store and became an American citizen in 2005.

Here, in 2002, Abdinasir Ali Nur (left) works at his desk in the Maka Mini Mart. The space was shared with a small gift and household goods shop.

Caption information sources: “Somali grocers lose right to use food stamps,” by Chris McGann, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 9, 2002, p. A1; “Somali grocer feels pain over again,” by Robert L. Jamieson Jr., Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 16, 2002, pp. B1, B6; “USDA reverses itself, to grocers’ relief,” by D. Parvaz, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 17, 2002, pp. B1-B2; “The right to vote stirs Muslim’s soul,” by Robert L. Jamieson Jr., Seattle Post-Intelligencer, November 9, 2006, pp. B1,B5.