By God's Order

"I came here by God's order."
"My point of view on the world is that I protect the oppressed. I want to save the people from oppression."
"The Muslims are oppressed."
Fawzi Ayoub, Hezbollah commander

This undated file photo shows Hezbollah commander Fawzi Ayoub praying. (Mouqawama Twitter account)

"The land of the Levant has been watered with the noblest blood."
"We are proud that our commanders are among American intelligence's top most wanted."
"If this proves anything, it is that we are on the path of righteousness in the face of the greatest force for evil in the world."
Mouqawama Twitter account -- Hezbollah party

"Did you tell the Canadians that you were involved in Romania?"
"No"
"Why?"
"They didn't ask me."                                                                                   Exchange between Israeli judge and Fawzi Ayoub

Fawzi Ayoub, a longtime Hezbollah operative, formerly part of an elite unit with the late unlamented terrorist Imad Mugniyah, is described by his Toronto-resident family as a religious and devout Muslim. He was born in Beirut, fought with the Amal militia in the Lebanese civil war, and at a later date joined Hezbollah. He was tasked to Romania to hijack an Iraqi passenger plane.

Ayoub had been arrested by alert Romanian authorities, but his partner evading capture, took the jet and crashed it in the Saudi desert causing the death of over 60 people. The plane hijacking was planned for barter in the release of Shiite clerics, held in Baghdad. Susceptible to bribes, Romanian officials released Ayoub and that's when he came to Canada, in 1988.

In Canada, he led a 'normal' life, working for a computer company and for a supermarket. Nostalgic for Lebanon, his wife wanted to return: "My wife  didn't like the life in Canada", he explained. Returning to Lebanon they bought a bakery. In Beirut he was recruited back into Hezbollah to join the Islamic Jihad unit, training for an Israeli mission.

With a fake American passport he went to Hebron where he was taken into Israeli custody and where authorities there claim his mission was to assassinate the Israeli prime minister. He was returned to Lebanon in 2004, two years after his arrest, part of a prisoner swap with 436 Palestinians and Lebanese freed in exchange for a kidnapped Israeli businessman and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers abducted and killed by Hezbollah in 2000.

On his return to Lebanon, television footage featured Ayoub disembarking from a plane at the Beirut airport and fervently kissing the hand of Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah chief. "He said at one point he may [return to Canada], but that's not in his immediate plans" related a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs. That plan hit a spanner when he was charged and identified as a wanted terrorist by the United States.

Which was when he was given a command position to lead Hezbollah forces in northern Syria. The naturalized Canadian citizen has now been proudly declared a martyr, killed in an ambush by Syrian rebels. Ayoub now represents the first Canadian citizen to lose his life in defense of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad; quite the distinction, in contrast to the handful of Canadians who have died fighting the bloody dictator.

The Free Syrian Army can take credit for dispatching this Hezbollah commander and one-time Canadian citizen. But the question remains; why did due diligence not reveal this man's background, thus making him ineligible for entry to Canada, let alone ensuring he would never come close to having Canadian citizenship?

Is this what may be in store when Canada agrees to absorb greater numbers of Syrian refugees fleeing their government's dedication to mass atrocity?