Counselling to Jihad

"The reason why you didn't do that was because you and the officer shared a common goal -- and that common goal is to make your way to Somalia to join Al-Shebab."
Iona Jaffe, Crown prosecutor, Brampton Court

"He was a friend, he was intent on going, so least I could do was help him not get caught. But I'm not telling him to shoot anybody, would you agree?"
Mohamed Hersi, Somali-Canadian

Mr. Hersi is just very good at giving advice. To people whose welfare he cares deeply about. People he assumes have embraced an agenda and values that reflect his own. Life can be so complicated at times. People assume that they can read motive into the simplest of things, and they're just so, well, wrong. Wrong enough to take an innocent young man, accuse him of buying into Islamist jihad and agitating for himself to join other friends in the war against the infidel.

He'd had some unfortunate experiences, witnessing the departure of former high school friends becoming radicalized and slipping out of the country to travel to Somalia, only to find death there. Of course, death of that particular kind was what they in fact sought, as good pious Muslims who believed that martyrdom represented the highest aspiration that might be achieved in service to Islam; death through battling the unbelievers.

So when Mr. Hersi was faced with an instance of yet another friend, this one of more recent vintage, exhibiting all the symptoms of someone who found it intolerable that Western-inspired ideas had infiltrated into a society pledged by heritage, culture and religious ideology to obey the most basic of Islamic principles, intending to do something about it, to defend those principles, he responded as a caring friend would.

He had, after all, he insisted, at least four times made an effort to turn his friend away from jihad. Failing that, however, he felt it best to advise him in an avuncular, completely-otherwise-disinterested manner so as to help his friend be safe in a clearly life-hostile environment. And so, he cautioned his friend that discretion is a fine defence against detention by authorities. To take possession of his plane ticket a month in advance of leaving, to pay with a credit card  to avoid suspicion.

And he would have to arrive at a convincing story about the legitimate purpose of such a trip; to take along just what he would need and no more, including less than $10,000 in cash. Knowingly, he informed his friend that connections could be made in Nairobi, and from there the Kenyan border could be crossed into Somalia, sounding just like someone who had taken the cautionary steps to discover all these details for some unspecified purpose.

Oh, and handing over a precious resource; a U.S. sniper training manual, and a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook, handy in its directions on homemade bomb-building. Best to buy weapons over there, not here. Al-Qaeda's propaganda magazine Inspire represented another source of information and encouragement to proceed with jihad. The lectures of Anwar Al-Awlaki particularly cogent and useful to his purpose that he would not, sadly, be swayed from.

Above all, not to be "frightened". And in fact, his friend was anything but frightened. He was merely doing his job as an undercover police agent who managed to record the conversations for a jury to hear during Mr. Hersi's trial. On charges of counselling to take part in terrorist activity, of attempting to leave Canada to join Al-Shabab, charges he has denied, since he was planning to study Arabic in Cairo and that's where he was headed when he was detained at Pearson Airport in 2011.

As for giving intelligence and police authorities a heads-up when he discovered that a friend was planning to embark on an overseas trip to join an al-Qaeda-associated jihadist group, why would he? There was never any danger to Canada. "He wasn't a threat to anyone in Toronto", he admonished his interlocutor.

But the Crown had played recordings where Mr. Hersi cautioned the undercover officer not to "burn any bridges in Canada". Al-Shabab, after all might task him once back in Canada to "take care of" those who insult the Prophet Mohammad. Just kidding of course, heh-heh.

Not his fault these awkward interpretations of good-humoured wordplay between friends were being given a sinister cast.