Good Boys; All Misunderstood: Settling for Less: Loyal Canadians

"Even tho you don't like to hear it ... we kill and beg to be killed to get closer to Allah. It is the message every kafir [disbeliever], murtad [apostate] and munafiq [hypocrite] should remember."
Ahmad Waseem, Windsor, Ontario

"Most times I dealt with him, I didn't see him as extreme. Actually, he's one of the good youths. He's helping the community, he's good with his parents. We never saw him having any violent acts."
"We explained to him what's the best way That's the message we send to all the youths."
"He was here for all of that [RCMP/CSIS mosque presentation]. He [RCMP officer] didn't make it clear that's illegal [to participate in Syrian conflict]."
"He said, yeah, if he got a chance to fight he should protect them, so he believes that he's giving help to the right people against the bad things."
Imam Mahmoud, Windsor mosque, Windsor Islamic Association

"You can't have police standing at the airport detaining them as they seek to leave the country."
"What we can do is to try to monitor networks that recruit and radicalize youth."
Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney

Ahmad Waseem, Photo: Facebook

Ahmad Waseem returned home to Windsor in 2013, wounded at the Syrian border. Just like that; wounded at the border to Syria. Nothing he did to attract a wound, he was just there, at the border and sometimes unfortunate things happen. His mother read between the stubborn lines and removed his passport. His imam said he took the trouble to explain that if young Ahmad wanted to help Syrians he could become involved in humanitarian aid work.

Obviously Ahmad felt he was involved in humanitarian aid work, but as a jihadi, since this is what Islam demands of its faithful. At 26 years of age, ripe for the task at hand. No one appears to know where Mr. Waseem has got himself up to, where he is now, although it appears that he has left for an international destination. And he is now wanted by the RCMP for returning to Syria at the turn of the year.

Uncertain what he could be charged with under Canadian law he has been charged with passport fraud to enable his arrest should he return. It would be far more difficult to prove he had left because of his wish to join a terrorist group; he hadn't been on any intelligence watch-list. "We can confirm the charge, it was in relation to a passport-related offence. There is an ongoing investigation so we cannot provide further details", stated Sergeant Greg Cox, RCMP spokesman.

From the Muslim community arises complaints that Canadian authorities haven't been diligently stopping young Muslims before they embark to foreign destinations. CSIS raised the alert earlier in the year that roughly 130 Canadians are currently fighting with extremist groups, about 30 in Syria. To apprehend a suspect police must have a reasonable case, be able to prove someone intends to join a terror group, have some material evidence.

As for Ahmad Waseem, on his original tryst with destiny he arrived in Egypt ostensibly for study purposes, then wended his way to Turkey which has become a gateway for foreign fighters planning to go on to Syria, next door. The imam suggest that the young man had been emotionally involved in accounts of Syrian refugees who migrated for refuge into Egypt. He hadn't actually entered Syria, he had claimed; his injury took place near the border.

The Imam explained that after Mr. Waseem returned from Turkey he was given support by his parents and the mosque to ensure he would not return once his abdominal injury healed. Learn to provide humanitarian relief, he was urged. And the Imam complained that when the RCMP and ISIS sent representatives to the mosque to speak they never specified the illegality of participating in the Syrian conflict. And so, he apportions blame to them on this account.

He also accused the RCMP of not taking action when they were informed by Mr. Waseem's mother that he had disappeared. "And they didn't react to this", said the imam. "We can't confirm he went back", he added. Nor is the RCMP or CSIS any more enlightened than he is. But Internet postings place him in Syria. In February he wrote during infighting between the Free Syrian Army and extremist groups: "Strange ... FSA fights for whom?" Giveaway statement.

Sgt. Cox explained that the RCMP "works diligently" with its 'partners' to try to ensure Canadians don't join terrorist groups. The focus on prevention programs to aid communities to counter the extremist appeal is ongoing. "The RCMP cannot effectively counter the threat of radicalization leading to violence through detection and disruption alone" he added.

The mosque, stated Imam Mahmoud, was fully cooperating with intelligence agencies conducting the investigation, but authorities had failed by allowing Mr. Waseem to fade back to Syria, and certainly by not emphasizing in their appearances at the mosque, addressing young people that it was illegal under Canadian law for a Canadian to travel to a foreign destination to fight in a foreign war.

And he takes umbrage, as being counterproductive, the RCMP advice to Mr. Waseem's mother that she inform her son if he returns that he will be arrested. That knowledge, he said, could drive Mr. Waseem away The community had done all they could to steer the young man on the right track. "He has free will. If the government can't stop him, what can we do?"

What indeed. Perhaps start by not emphasizing continually how embattled Muslims are by Western forces seeking to intimidate, control and victimize them. Perhaps by mounting a counter-offensive complete with refutations of recruiters' claims that young Muslim men are required to embark on jihadist ventures for the salvation of Islamist aspirations.

As Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney pointed out, police cannot be posted at airports detaining young Muslim men without good reason. If suspicion is mounted against people of Muslim faith, the community rises as one and screams discrimination. It is incumbent on the Islamic community to adequately and usefully inform their religious constituents that as citizens of Canada they must be faithful to Canadian values and mores.

It is incumbent on the Islamic community to be aware that malevolence stalks their young men to allure them into the romance of jihad, to be fully aware of the primary place of the concept of jihad in the Koran and in the minds of those who eagerly read the propaganda that the recruiters have become adept at utilizing. Mothers from Somalia and from Pakistan and elsewhere in the Muslim and Arab world complain that Canada is not protecting their offspring.

It is their primary responsibility to guide their offspring within the morals and values of the country that has taken them in as landed immigrants and citizens. It is their moral responsibility to imbue the universal values of human rights and human dignity, and an aversion to violence and bloodshed. If that guidance is lacking what can society do to compensate against the blandishments of jihadist recruiters to prevent their sons from flight, conflict and death?

There are some unsavoury examples of expectations and behaviours that do no justice to the values and personal responsibility of those who come as immigrants or refugees to Canada to escape poverty, theocratic thuggery, internal strife and hopelessness. Moroccan-born permanent resident Adil Charkaoui who for a decade was suspected of terrorist connections had his name finally cleared by the RCMP and CSIS, and has now been granted citizenship.

He chortled that he gracefully took possession of the citizenship certificate, considering it an admission of Canada's wrong-doing to him. "It was signed by the right Honourable Stephen Harper, which is really good news. It's like George W. Bush signing for me" he said. He is taking his opportunities that Canada offers to complete his education, planning to teach.

And just incidentally suing Ottawa for $26-million, though magnanimously declaring he might settle for less out of court. Just what Canada needs, another disloyal, sneeringly disrespectful quasi-citizen with no real attachment to Canada other than what he can dredge out of the country's generosity.