Born in Mogadishu,[citation needed] Qalaf came to Sweden as an asylum seeker in 1992 and later received Swedish citizenship.[2][3] He stayed in Sweden for twelve years, most of the time preaching as an Imam at mosque in the Rinkeby district in Stockholm (Swedish: Rinkebymoskén).[2][3][4] As such, he worked to influence young Muslims about Jihad.[2] He was openly sympathetic towards al-Qaeda and collected money towards financing the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia as well as recruiting youth to both the Islamic Courts Union and later also to al-Shabaab.[4] He was also an prolific lecturer at the Bellevue Mosque in Gothenburg.[4] In 2004, Qalaf returned to Somalia together with his family to fight with the Islamic Courts Union in the war against the Transitional Federal Government and allied Ethiopian forces.[2]