Mahamad Accord, who has known Hussen for years through his work with the Canadian Somali Congress, says his friend has not forgotten his modest roots despite walking Canada’s corridors of power.
“He didn’t change,” he says. “The people around him changed.”
In other words …a sharia compliant muslim.
Ahmed Hussen: From Somali refugee to Canada’s parliament
By Jessica MurphyBBC News, Toronto
Image copyrightAPImage captionAhmed Hussen is Canada’s new minister of immigration in Justin Trudeau’s government
Ahmed Hussen came to Canada from Somalia as a refugee. Now he’s the country’s newest minister of immigration.
Along with thousands of compatriots, Ahmed Hussen fled war-ravaged Somalia for a better life in Canada.
Hussen’s journey took him from Mogadishu to Toronto and then on to Ottawa’s Parliament Hill, where the former Somali refugee was named this week as the country’s newest minister of immigration in a reshuffle of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Cabinet.
It was a fast political rise for the rookie politician, and will put Hussen, who arrived in Canada in 1993 as a 16-year-old teenager, in charge of the complex portfolio that oversees who is welcomed into the country.
Friends say the lawyer and social activist will be able to draw from personal experience in his new role.