A Significant Milestone

"I felt that throughout my time in Canada, I felt lot of discrimination whether because I'm black or I'm Muslim. I felt that if I lived in a Muslim country I probably would not experience Islamophobia."
"I never told him to join al-Shabab but I basically told him ways to evade capture, if you will, because I didn't want to see a good friend go to jail." 
"I probably should have called [to report the undercover officer], but he wasn't saying he wanted to do anything in Canada. I was like, out of sight, out of mind."
"Yeah, I always pictured myself as a type of, ah you know, like a silent assassin, you know what I mean."
"If you ever insult the Prophet Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, you deserve a certain outcome, you know?"
Mohamed Hersi, convicted Canadian-Somali jihadi

Mohamed Hersi, 25, outside Brampton court in April. (Stan Behal/Toronto Sun files)

If the seasoned, experienced reporter quoted Mr. Hersi correctly, does that mean that this devout Muslim is ignorant of the name of the Prophet Mohammed, confusing him with the Almighty? That aside, he's contradicting fairly serious evidence pin-pointing him as precisely what he claims not to be. The advice he gave to the undercover police officer posing as a sympathetic figure to Mr. Hersi's own oft-stated intention to travel to Somalia to join al-Shabab was replete with usefulness.

Say, for example, handing over for the undercover officer's edification a U.S. sniper training manual and a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook. Telling  his friend the undercover officer not to "burn any bridges in Canada" before leaving for his overseas destination in case al-Shabab might decide to dispatch him on a mission back to Canada to "take care of" anyone there who might be foolish enough to insult the Prophet Mohammad.

Two of Mohamed Hersi's Canadian school chums had already departed for Somalia, much earlier, to join al-Shabab in defence of fanatical Islamism; one of them died a martyr to the cause. Mr. Hersi had contact with the other through Facebook. He had gone online, a survey of his computer contents revealed to the RCMP, to search such innocuous terms as "shotgun Somalia", "Somalia AK-47 cost", and "gun market in Mogadishu Somalia". Just curious, see?

Mr. Hersi would never have come to the attention of police had not a drycleaner in Toronto discovered a USB memory device in the man's security guard uniform. When it developed that the device contained a book on bomb-making the drycleaners called in Toronto police, and an undercover investigation was launched. The undercover agent dispatched to make contact with Mr. Hersi gained his confidence.

And their relationship followed from there. At trial Mohamed Hersi insisted that his undercover friend was the instigator, who continually expressed interest in al-Shabab. "I said, 'I don't want to join al-Shabab", insisted Mr. Hersi. But testimony and recordings played for the jury revealed that Mr. Hersi never hesitated in giving advice about how to make up a cover story for a trip to Somalia, how much money to take along, and how to make "connections" in Kenya.

Bribing his way across the border into Somalia would be a cake-walk. Buy weapons in Africa. Read the Al-Qaeda magazine Inspire. Listen to the online lectures of idealogue Anwar Al-Awlaki. And just don't fear anything about the venture. "The verdict here is not the end of things", warned Paul Slansky, lawyer for the convicted, planning an argument that his client was entrapped. And facing up to ten years' imprisonment.

"You shouldn't fear them. They're stupid as a rock, you know?", Hersi had said convincingly to the undercover officer. "They don't know too much. They're not very intelligent themselves, you know? When you think about it they are very stupid, you know?" So stupid that he pretty well convicted himself.

"It's not fair. Where is the justice in the world. He didn't do anything", a woman dressed in traditional Somali garb sobbed outside the courtroom. For their part, the stupid RCMP spoke of the verdict as a "significant milestone", that "underscores the reality of the threats that exist in Canada, as well as abroad, including Canadians participating in violent extremism."