Spurning Humanity, Embracing Malevolence

"It [Jabhat al-Nusra]employs a combination of military exploits and delivery of social services to build a support base and position itself for power after the transition."
"A post-Assad Syria risks opening yet another phase in the conflict if those who vanquish Assad retain power through the force of arms, by sowing ethnic or sectarian division or through allegiance to extremist religious beliefs."
"...The rapidly deteriorating conditions in Syria, its impact on neighbouring countries and ... the importance of Middle East stability ..."
National Defence, Foreign Affairs (Canada) documents

A number of estimated scenarios were drawn where Canada could foresee involvement in Syria's brutal civil war. Concerned over the possibility of extremist groups receiving advanced or chemical weapons, or the conflict spilling beyond the borders of the country, Canada has considered how it might best respond in giving assistance to the people of Syria.

Such planning, according to Daniel Blouin, a spokesman for National Defence is "routine to significant international events", representing due diligence on the part of the military, to be prepared for any eventuality.  Other documents reveal that Canada has helped train anti-sectarian activists, journalists and others involved in the country to enable them to proffer a political alternative to Islamist extremists.

The teaching assistance is aided by the Canadian embassies located in Lebanon and Turkey, operating with discreet funding intended for that quite specific purpose. Estimated to be part of the over $630-million that Canada has committed to humanitarian, development and security purposes related to the catastrophic conflict destroying Syria.

"This is a message to Canada and all the American tyrants: We are coming and we will destroy you, with permission from Allah the almighty."
"I made  hirja [emigration] to this land for one reason alone. I left comfort for one reason alone -- for
Allah, glorified and exalted be He. And Allah willing, after Syria, after Iraq, after the [Arabian] Peninsula, we are going for you Barack Obama."
Unnamed member of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant; online video

SITE Intelligence Group   An English-speaking fighter for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in a video message to Canada.

So this is a two-pronged concern for Canada, as it is for other Western countries compelled to consider aiding Syrians in their agony, murderously assaulted both by their own minority-Shia government, because they are Sunni Syrians who began their protests almost three years ago hoping to achieve some measure of equality with the Alawite Syrians, but reaping the rage of Bashar al-Assad instead, contriving by all atrocious means possible to punish their insolence.

On the one hand, there is a concern for the outcome of the vicious civil war joined by Islamists battle-tried in Afghanistan and Iraq, some of whom travelled from Europe, Canada, the United States where they were born and presumably socialized into the greater community, but who saw jihad as a more personally attractive choice for themselves in service to Islam. The fear of the return of those who are not themselves killed in battle rests in their bringing hostile Islam back to places like Canada.

The young jihadist speaking in the video gave no hint of where he had come from, but it was obvious from the calibre of his speech that he must have come from North America, spurning all the comforts and freedoms of his citizenship, so much so that in the video it shows him contemptuously consigning his passport to a bonfire. According to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service some 30 Canadians have joined Syrian extremist factions like ISII.

Yet a Canadian who identifies himself as a "jihadi" claims in an online post that "many bros" have come from Canada to do battle in Syria; he claims that there are "maybe 100". Whatever their number they pose as a possible threat, not only within the society they have established themselves in, but to the society from whence they came before they were radicalized into killers in the name of Islam.

"Some never achieve their intent and simply return home. Thus their depth of experience varies widely, making some individuals much more concerning than others."
Michel Coulombe, director, CSIS