Thing is, we Somalis are not Arabized like our brehs in (North) Sudan. Now since the civil war you can make an argument that there's been a lot of influence from Saudi and what not but thats the case with the whole Muslim world since the 1970s. The Somali language does have a lot of vocabulary from Arabic but the grammar and structure of sentences is completely different. Arabs didn't 'rule' over the Somali peninsula at all either. And its true most Somalis do not like Arabs but then again, Somalis don't like a lot of people including other Somalis because of clan differences.
You can make a case of more people in East Africa being Muslim after the time of the Prophet than the entire Arab world.
But thats moving besides the point here. I've been to Minnesota, London, Columbus, OH, ATL, I live in the DMV and have observed so many of the Somali communities. Yes, we Somalis for the most part stick to ourselves despite the divisions in our community. But it is varying in these different places. Here in the DMV, Somalis are much more integrated with people of other cultures due to us having a smaller community here. I'm practicing Muslim and there's certain things I won't do with the AAs I grew up with (party, club, etc) but we ball, we watch games, go eat and all that... those my homies. I pray at work and I'm pretty open about it. I could care less what people think. I don't think being practicing is a barrier or should be a barrier to connecting with people. But there's boundaries no doubt and you definitely hit the nail on the head with that.
And as far as Somalis being in the news over violence..
my people are just crazy in general and really defy authority. For a Somali, its my way or the highway mentality. Just look at our homeland having civil war and disagreements about anything political.