Deserving of Protection

"Converts in particular are prone to extreme views because of their newfound zeal. Al-Qaeda and like-minded organizations are aware of the usefulness of converts for a variety of purposes: spreading propaganda, logistical support and knowledge of the West, among others."
CSIS: Canadian Converts to Radical Islam

Appealing to the frustrated mind of the perpetually pathologically aggrieved making common cause with other 'victims' taking up the violence of pay-back, the recruitment of North American and European Muslims to the cause of violent jihad has made great inroads in the underbelly of a portion of society most people hardly have any hint of its existence.

A silent swell of anger and resentment from a part of the population whose emotional equilibrium has been shattered with the rise of Islamist extremism.

Little wonder there would be some element of appeal in the message of Islamism in someone from another culture whose history is rife with oppression and prejudice. Beyond the reality of those two social miseries besetting people's human rights, there is always the imagined weight of a much weightier type of oppression through the emotional toll it takes on people. Add the huge feeling of victimization and the rage mounts.

It needn't be a rational situation, one where those considering themselves to be victimized look at the conditions which brought the situation to a head. In which case they would have to look at what the original cause of the current distrust and fear had been; violent, unexpected, bloody carnage brought to bear on those whom the assailants targeted as representatives of their oppression. Violent assaults that brought a response of self-protective defence.

Most Muslims simply refuse to believe that among them there are other Muslims who have no compunction in engaging in brutal plans to bring conflict, pain and death to others. To these people, Muslims do not behave in this manner; their religion, they claim forbids it. Their religion, on the other hand, was built on just that; and their religion has within its tenets passages describing these assaults as justified. And like all such religions the enlightened look beyond those ancient writings.

The trouble lies in the fact that those committed to violent jihad treasure those ancient writings and the indelible messages of violent conquest that heralded the rise of Islam during a time when the Prophet Mohammad led his armies of blood-curdling conquest. And, because Islam is a proselytizing religion, one that invites converts into online forums where simple and direct instructions suffice to welcome new adherents, it will also attract the notice of those with their own conflicts.

"For us Muslims, our religion teaches that we're brothers and sisters. You have to stand up for your brothers and sisters, you have to defend them. My view is, I'm OK with it as long as they're defending brothers and sisters. I will always have that view and I believe every Muslim should have that view", explains Dawood, member of the James Smith First Nation in Saskatchewan, a Muslim convert who advocates for armed jihad.

Dawood was born with fetal alcohol syndrome, his mother was a prostitute and alcoholic, abandoning her children's welfare.  Dawood's father was a Swede, an abusive drunken railroad worker. Dawood's mother taught him to pretend to being a child cancer survivor, sending him out to beg for money in the streets. He grew  up in foster homes, and he was sexually abused. He spent several years in a youth detention facility. He became addicted to crack cocaine in Vancouver.

Now, Dawood, father of a ten-year-old boy, has found salvation in Islam. Not any form of Islam but Salafist Islam, which insists that Muslims must live according to ancient laws and codes. And he is addicted to the jihad-championing videos of radical U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, given to handing out copies of the dead jihadist's video messages at Toronto mosques.

Dawood claims he does not support jihad carried out in Canada, but he is in agreement with jihadists striking Canadians abroad.

He is considered, he knows, a terrorism supporter by government agencies. CSIS officers have labelled him an extremist with 'inappropriate' views. Muhammad Robert Heft, the Muslim leader who converted Dawood through the introductory website Paradise 4 Ever, claims to disagree with Dawood's views on violence.

"He's unstable. The bottom line with Dawood is he doesn't know very much about the religion. He follows Mufti Yahoo or Sheikh Google. I think with him it's got to do more with wanting attention." Yet Muhammad Robert Heft converted a drunk Dawood over the telephone. When he appeared at the P4E office the following day Mr. Heft gave Dawood a skullcap, a white robe and money for groceries.

"So they get disenfranchised and then they become bitter. And when they become bitter they end up finding somebody who has an understanding of the religion that fits in with their feeling of being an outcast. It happens not only to new Muslims but newly practising Muslims", explained Mr. Heft of recruits to violent jihad.

"I specifically invite  youth to either fight in the West or join their brothers on the fronts of jihad -- Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia" represents one of the favourite parts of Awlaki's clips to Dawood. Some of his friends left for Somalia, Afghanistan and Yemen. "Some have come back, some are still there. Some are still alive." 

Canadians, he insists, have the right to join overseas jihads. As for making it a crime to leave Canada for the purpose of participating in terrorist groups: "I disagree with it, of course", said Dawood. "At the end of the day, there are people who deserve to be protected."