Will Real Islam Please Step Forward...?

"These individuals are going into these jihadist hot spots, they are fighting alongside and learning alongside (extremist groups), and becoming even further ideologically extreme."
"They come back, and they have a whole lot of credibility. This is someone in the community that walks the walk, says  'I've been over there, and I've been doing this, and will have a bigger reach of friends and acquaintances, more than a recruiter operating in the shadows."
"There's obviously something going on in Calgary."
"They found a receptive audience, they're going to remain here as long as they're able to recruit people, and when they feel the heat is coming from the community, or the Calgary police, or intelligence agencies, they may simply pack up and move."
Michael Zekulin, terrorism and radicalism researcher

"These hatemongers, these brainwashers, these fanatics have found grounds. They have misguided our youth, and it's a huge concern."
"It's a real threat, I would say, because these people are Canadian. They've gone outside to a foreign country, becoming very fanatic, and they're a huge danger to all of us."
Imam Syed Soharwardy, president, Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, Calgary

"Our message to the youth has been crystal clear: If someone is telling you that you will go to paradise by blowing yourself up in a plane, a train or a public place taking your life and the lives of innocent people, then he is misleading you and committing a crime against the whole society and against the Islamic religion itself."
Hacene Chebbani, director of religious affairs, Islamic Information Society of Calgary

Militant group ISIS posted photos online that appear to show its fighters shooting dead dozens of captured Iraqi soldiers in a province north of the capital Baghdad. (Associated Press)

The Islamic Information Society of Calgary operates the Downtown 8th&8th Masallah. It is a small Calgary prayer room.And it was identified as the place where a cell of young Calgarian Muslims formed their prayer group, convincing themselves in the process that they weren't being radicalized, they were recognizing the validity of the Islamist call to jihad. And, as pious Muslims steeped in the traditions of Islam, they must honour their religious devotion by abandoning loyalty to Canada and travel abroad where the West is warring against Islam.

At the very least, take advantage abroad of the opportunity to attend jihadi training camps, and turn their attention as newly-minted jihadis to Syria where, as Sunnis it becomes their duty to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant to help destroy the unIslamic regime of Shiite Syrian President Bashar al Assad. ISIL, funded by Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia and Qatar, fighting a proxy battle for power and authority with Shiite Iran, has drawn the region into an irresistible tinder-box of all-enveloping proportions.

CBC News has reported that yet another of the infamous Calgary group of jihadis, Farah Mahemd Shirdon is fighting with ISIL. A graduate of Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in 2012, he is featured in an ISIL video burning his Canadian passport and threatening to return to Canada: "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".

"The video was really bizarre", said one of his former schoolmates in middle school and high school. "Here he was trying to be like a thug, a cool guy. Now over there he's speaking differently, with this accent. That's not how he speaks. It's like you're genuinely brainwashed or you're trying to gain respect and attention. It's one thing to hear someone's from Calgary, but this gets pretty close to home when you know somebody", she said.

According to the head of CSIS, about 130 Canadians have joined terror groups in Arab countries. Shirdon represents the third Calgarian whose presence has been confirmed, fighting alongside extremist groups. Before him there was Damian Clairmont who was killed in Syria, and Salman Ashrafi who took part in a suicide bomb attack in Iraq, killing 46 people. Seven other men associated with that tight little group are being sought, it would appear, by CSIS.

Radicalized Westerners have filtered through to the conflict in Syria and from there to Iraq. Many have joined ISIS. The RCMP has been attempting to identify and track the movements of what it terms "high-risk travellers", concerned that they may return to Canada to commit terrorist attacks on Canadian soil. CSIS believes that about 30 Canadians are in Syria with various jihadist groups.

Todd Korol for National Post   The Downtown 8th & 8th Masallah in Calgary. The Muslim prayer room was once a hub for several young Canadians who became radicalized.

"At IISC, we believe that the safety of our youth, families and the community at large is the responsibility of all groups and individuals and we will do whatever we can to prevent such instances from happening in the future", stated Abdulla Barahim, the president of the Islamic Information Society of Calgary.