New Film 'Basilica vs. Mosque' Shows Americans One Warning in Two Buildings

Sep 14, 2026
Jacob Grandstaff
Culture War | Immigration & Borders

Steve Cortes' new documentary on Somali immigration provides a stark reminder of the costs of failed assimilation.

Lewiston, Maine should not be a test case of third-world Muslim assimilation. It's a historic mill city in one of America's safest states. It boasts the gorgeous Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul that local craftsmen built during the Great Depression after an influx of French-Canadian immigrants. In his latest documentary, League of American Workers founder Steve Cortes contrasts that structure with the house of worship that Lewiston's most recent influx of immigrants occupy. "Basilica vs. Mosque—Mass Migration to Maine," shows the calamity an incompatible culture has brought to this once idyllic American town.

He walks the streets and lets the viewer see the varied architectural styles of two different immigrant groups.

On one hand, there is the imposing Gothic Revival cathedral, which he says compares to "most of the great cathedrals of Europe." He adds that this "provides a powerful contrast against a town that devolves into dysfunction and a foreign hostile diaspora that refuses to assimilate or to become productive, even after decades in America for many of them."

A brief stroll away sits the Masjidu Salaam Mosque, of the repurposed commercial shack variety.

The cathedral was built strictly for worship for a growing immigrant population that intended to make Lewiston its home. The mosque blends the non-governmental organization (NGO) machinery that has become ubiquitous with Somali communities. This NGO infrastructure facilitates a very different kind of permanent settlement—a client population sustained by public benefits and organized scams.

Mass Somali Immigration Brings a Different Worldview

Cortes interviews Maine Wire editor Steve Robinson, who has reported on Medicaid and welfare fraud and remittance businesses in his state. Robinson notes that Lewiston's Somali nonprofits have already drawn state and federal attention by engaging in "economic terrorism."

He notes that after the U.S. welcomed hundreds of thousands of Somali war refugees in the 1990s, many made their way to Lewiston after Catholic Charities in Portland, Maine recruited and welcomed them to the state. Restoration News has previously reported on the danger Catholic Charities poses to Americans and how it profits from bringing in hordes of foreigners. According to Robinson, the group's activities in Maine "are indiscernible from a human trafficking agency."

A quarter of a century later, the results are measurably bad. Asked whether Lewiston's Somalis have assimilated and become Americans, Robinson said, "Well, to the extent that Americans engage in scams."

He referenced Hussein Hirsi Ahmed, who runs the Lewiston arm of a Minnesota-based remittance company called Ramad Pay—a business Robinson says exists largely to funnel American welfare benefits back to Somalia. Ahmed spent two years as finance minister of Jubaland, the semi-autonomous Somali region where al Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab holds significant territory. He now works out of Lewiston, holding both money-transfer and Medicaid provider licenses. Just last year, officials raided a Mogadishu-themed grocery store across the street from Ahmed's business over an alleged multimillion-dollar food stamp fraud scheme.

Then there is Abdullahi Ali, who built Gateway Community Services into a multi-million-dollar Medicaid overbilling operation while running for president of Jubaland on the side. According to Robinson, Ali bragged about doing arms deals with money he scammed from America and is avoiding a return to the U.S. from Kenya because "he's worried about a three-letter agency waiting for him." He may not be in the U.S. any longer, but Ali created the model that many of his fellow citizens would follow.

Robinson said that two other Lewiston business owners also face federal tax fraud charges for allegedly billing MaineCare for employees and services that never existed.

He added that many Somalis view fraud very differently than Americans. To many of them, succeeding at fraud makes one a smart businessman.

When American Compassion Hurts Americans

Cortes notes that 60 percent of Lewiston public school students in grades 6 through 12 are classified as foreign-language learners. Four Lewiston schools rank in the bottom 10 statewide for English language arts. Only 10 percent at one Lewiston school meet state math expectations—giving it the worst rating in the state.

Gun violence tells the same story. A city that went decades without a serious violence problem is now ranked first in Maine for gun violence per capita, with that violence concentrated in a Somali population of roughly 6,000 in a town of 38,000.

The clash isn't only economic. Robinson recounts an incident that shows how incompatible Islamic fundamentalism is with American culture. On Bartlett Street in Lewiston, a resident walking a dog was met with shouting and a confrontation serious enough to draw police and arrests because the offended Somalis viewed dogs as unclean animals not fit to be treated as pets. This offers a reminder that it matters where immigrants come from and whether they can absorb the values of the country that took them in.

Makers or Takers?

Cortes skips the success stories and the official line that Lewiston was "revitalized" by people willing to do jobs Americans won't. He successfully makes the case that elite institutions have spent a quarter century refusing to measure integration by the standards earlier immigrants met.

The French Catholics came to labor, worship, and assimilate. These earlier immigrants contributed to the preexisting culture and architecture of their new home. That stands in contrast to how the new arrivals in Lewiston have repurposed the basest forms of American architecture and culture as their own. Somali communities have profited from the Democratic Party's politics of minority grievance and used their host's economy and taxpayers to help their country. Meanwhile, they use their position as legal permanent residents to bring more of their countrymen to America through chain migration.

Cortes closes with important questions: “Will we welcome our destiny as the culmination of Western civilization and choose patriotism, beauty, accountability? Will we choose the Basilica?”?

He warns that following the same path as Europe on this question could lead to "civilizational erasure."

Catch the documentary here:

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Jacob Grandstaff is an Investigative Researcher for Restoration News specializing in election integrity and labor policy. He graduated from the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C.

Email Jacob HERE

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