The Victim-Addled Mind

"My aim is very simple: to give them a message. But the problem is that Canada, the Canadian government I mean, it don't want to listen."
"You go to a land which is far away from you .... You go with your army and you kill people and you took their land. And after that you cry out 'terrorism, terrorism'."
"You made the fire and after that you cry out, 'smoke, smoke'. You, you made the fire. So then what is the solution? The solution is very simple: To stop the fire. Do you understand me? Hopefully you get my answer to your question."
Chiheb Esseghaier, incarcerated terror suspect

Chiheb Esseghaier is led off a plane by an RCMP officer at Buttonville Airport just north of Toronto on Tuesday April 

23, 2013.

For a man with an outstanding academic record, aspiring to receive his doctorate studying at Universite du Quebec, Institut National de la Recherche Scientific in Varennes, Quebec, this Tunisian-born PhD student doesn't seem particularly well-spoken or bright. Granted, English is not his first language; Arabic is, though he also speaks French and English, but the simplicity and black-and-white scenario he outlines doesn't identify him as having much cerebral acuity.

This is, after all, a man who can boast that he is familiar with molecular biology, systems biology, microscopy, physics, nanoparticles, biochemistry, spectroscopy, and specializing in microfabrication. How is it possible that he can be so utterly dense? Mind just too packed full of scientific knowledge to have any room left over for rational debate on just exactly what constitutes neo-colonialism, as opposed to humanitarian intervention?

He insists he is nothing less than a "victim of NATO colonization of Afghanistan", although it's likely the 30-year-old has never visited Afghanistan. He has, however, visited Iran, where he was made heartily welcome by the al-Qaeda faction that operates out of the Islamic Republic. And it was his al-Qaeda masters that convinced him he should make good on the opportunity to bring grief to Canada.

He, along with an accomplice, Raed Jaser of Toronto, planned to disrupt the safe passage of a Via Rail passenger-laden train from New York to Toronto. A joint RCMP/FBI investigation uncovered the plot, tracing contacts and movements and plans, before the duo was finally arrested, and another man in New York taken into custody, while a fourth was sought for conspiracy to commit terrorism in Canada, impacting both on Canada and the United States.

But he's the victim, being persecuted by a vengeful government that tracks down hateful Muslims and arrests them, charging them with vile plots. A finer example of Islamophobia could hardly present. A transcript of an interview conducted with the man was shown to two academics, experts on extremism whose opinion was that Mr. Esseghaier's comments were predictable, consistent with the viewpoint of fundamentalists who place themselves above the law.

Certainly above Canadian law, as Mr. Esseghaier has done, refusing to be tried by any law other than that contained in the Koran, insisting that any lawyer he would consent to defending him in court must base his defence strictly on the Koran. Understandably, no such lawyer has yet stepped forth into the breach, and he is prepared to defend himself. And given the incoherent stab he's taken in the interview, he's doing a fairly feeble job of it.

"From my perspective, the views expressed ... are very typical of the world view of religious fundamentalists and very comparable to what one might hear from a strident anti-abortion activist coming from a Christian perspective."
"We have the literalist reading of scripture and emphasis on the absolute dominion of God's word, as revealed, over all things human in origin. There is little or no consideration given to the other gifts of thought and freedom of will also granted by God to humankind."
Professor Lorne Dawson, sociologist, co-director, Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society, University of Waterloo

Mr. Esseghaier and 35-year-old Raed Jaser were arrested last April and now face terrorism and murder conspiracy charges. Mr. Esseghaier was reputed to have become extremely devout after his arrival in Canada as a student in 2008. So if he was radicalized while in Canada, there's a big question right there begging for an answer.

He is said to have received training by al-Qaeda "elements" in the Iranian city of Zahedan, considered a gateway for extremists on their way to Afghanistan.

"You see Canada make lawful what God made unlawful, so that's my point", was his rejoinder to a journalist who suggested God's will is subject to various interpretations. There is only one God, insisted Mr. Esseghaier, and he gave his last revelations to the Prophet Muhammad. "If you deny his last revelation, that means there is a problem."

"Look, the police they always, what they do is try always to make them victim and to make the other the ones who is doing the attack. They always do that. Me, as I said to you before, if you compare the army of thousands of soldiers and tanks, they are doing the colonization of Afghanistan, and you compare my case, which is just one person, so here it's like you compare the Earth with the seventh heaven."

A genuine idiot-savant.