No-Contest Utopia

"To understand the appeal of ISIS to young Canadians, you have to understand it as a religious sect within Islam, one made up of conservative Salafism, mixed with the more violent ideology of thinkers like Sayed Qutb."
"ISIS follows the thinking and writing of early 20th-Century thinkers like Maulana Maududi and Qutb, both of whom argued that the establishment of an Islamic state was a necessary prerequisite for the fulfillment of a Muslim's faith."
Amarnath Amarasingam, postdoctoral fellow, Dalhousie University, Resilience Research Centre

"I disown those who settle in the land of the mushrikeen [non-Muslims]."
"By living and paying taxes in the West, you are contributing to the suffering of your fellow Muslims around the world."
"Actually no one spoke a single word to me [recruiting to jihad]. All I did, I opened the newspaper, I read the Koran. Very easy."
"Run to the land of jihad, brothers, and help us in reestablishing the Islamic caliphate."
"Beheading Shias is a beautiful thing."
"I just heard that I was on the news and Canada fears I will return to attack them. Rest assured. I have no plans on returning."
Farah Mohamed Shirdon, formerly of Calgary

YouTube

"We are coming and we will destroy you, with permission of Allah", Farah Shirdon said in a video, as he threw his Canadian passport into a fire, ensuring that he will indeed not return to Canada other than by stealth and his presence will be picked up by Canadian security intelligence so if he did return he would be arrested and tried for what passes as the modern equivalent of treason. In his case, since an earlier report that classified him as a martyr turned out to be incorrect, for pursuing a terrorist cause.

Life in Canada was simply unbearable for this son of Islam, leading him to cling to the appeal of the utopia promised by the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham. The vision of unbridled violence, the enablement of giving full vent to caustic hatred, able to express the direst of intentions in destroying the trust once held in society that once migrants who fled a destructively violent civil war as in Somalia found haven and freedom in a democratic society, such religious and ideological dysfunction would be left behind.

"We are all witness that the Western societies are getting more immoral day by day. I do not want my kids being exposed to filth like this", wrote a 19-year-old American Muslim in a note to his parents, explaining just why and how it was that he planned to migrate to the Islamic State, but was foiled in the attempt when authorities arrested him at Chicago O'Hare airport on Saturday. Disinterest in 'immoral filth' and attraction in contrast, to unbridled violent atrocities simply wins the day, no contest.

Farah Shirdon's father, born in Somalia, studied agronomy at Somali National University achieving the status of dean of agriculture and director general of the Ministry of Agriculture. This, then, is no family of under-achieving poverty and ignorance. Studying plant breeding at Cornell University in New York, coincided with the disintegration of Somalia into civil conflict where rival clan militias ran amok, leading to an exodus of Somalis from the land.

"I foresaw that  trouble would start, but I never imagined the government would collapse all at once", Shirdon's father related to an interviewer as a U.S.-led force arrived to deliver humanitarian aid in Mogadishu. "The U.S. is doing what needs to be done. It's the right time to intervene -- all other options have been exhausted", he said, his U.S. visa expiring. On completion of his PhD thesis in 1993 he left for Canada.

For his Somali-Canadian son, the awareness of awakening consciousness was initiated at age eight by the September 11 2001 Al-Qaeda attacks in the United States. So unutterably romantic. Mr. Shirdon was a loner, even while a clique of Calgary jihadists existed. "He had mutual friends with them, but seems to have interacted with them very minimally", explained Mr. Amarasingam who has researched the circle of Calgary extremists for a study in engaging Muslim youth to jihad.

Mr. Shirdon now titles himself Abu Usamah, claiming that ISIS pays a salary to him. Among his influences were radical preachers such as Anwar Awlaki. "There seemed to be a kind of ignorant arrogance that he had", said a one-time Calgary acquaintance who said Farah Shirdon openly challenged speakers at Muslim seminars at University of Calgary. Perhaps they failed to subscribe to his ardent version of Salafist Islam.

It is entirely possible that in the near future as Canadian CF-18s bomb ISIS, they may be bombing some of their own....