Another Stray, More Death Fodder

"It follows quite closely to the theme of a variety of videos aimed at Western audiences, like the video aimed at French Muslims a few weeks ago."
"The interrelated themes are of course ones of religious obligation: If a caliphate has been established and Muslims have been persecuted by the state you are living in, you are required to leave the state you are living in. The risk of staying is hellfire. Maguire's video is similar to the video aimed at French Muslims, asking a simple question: What are you waiting for?"
Prof. Amarnath Amarasingam, Dalhousie University Resilience Research Centre

"You either pack your bags or prepare your explosive devices. You either purchase your airline ticket or you sharpen your knife."
"[Canada is] waging war [against Muslims]. So it should not surprise you when operations by the Muslims are executed where it hurts you the most -- on your very own soil -- in retaliation to your unprovoked acts of aggression towards our people."
"You have absolutely no right to live in a state of safety and security when your country is carrying out atrocities on our people. Your people will be indiscriminately targeted as you indiscriminately target our people."
"I was one of you. I was a typical Canadian. I grew up on the hockey rink and spent my teenage years on stage playing guitar. I had no criminal record. I was a bright student and maintained a strong GPA in university. So how could one of your people end up in my place? And why is it that your own people are the ones turning against you at home? The answer is that we have accepted the true call of the prophets and messengers of God."
John Maguire, aka Abu Anwar al-Canadi

Possibly he views himself as having once been a typical Canadian. In an age where young people still shrug off conformity, and are attracted to the forbidden, where danger lies and adventure and romance, he now represents someone typically emboldened to discard his Canadian identity, and take on the persona of a much more fascinating character, a real, live mujahideen, as a convert to Islam, and a recruit to jihad.

Basking in the limelight of those credentials, he challenges other disaffected and dysfunctional young people to join his exploits and become of the advantaged, those accepting the obligation of jihad to become closer to god, to share the opportunities presented in the war against evil and corruption to become a shaheed, and with their martyrdom status become a heroic figure for whom respect is given, whose photograph and exploits will be valued as a learning opportunity to those who come after.

It is, of course, as a pointed reference to the atrocities committed within Canada where two members of the Canadian military were killed in terrorist attacks in seeming obedience to earlier ISIS videos encouraging Canadian jihadis to wreak havoc right where they are, if they're unable to travel abroad, where the obvious is seen: the two who killed in Quebec and Ottawa were also converts to Islam, like John Maguire, and recruited as well to the jihad of the faithful.

There are those who wonder whether his naivete has landed him a position where he is now being coerced to make such public statements on behalf of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham's polished public relations platform. That he looks gaunt, grim, not quite the picture of the champion he speaks of. On the other hand, this is grim business he and his cohorts have set about; abduction, threats, rape, slavery, mutilation, murder.

• Name: John Douglas Maguire.
• Aliases: Believed to be Yahya Maguire on Twitter; identified in ISIS video as Abu Anwar al-Canadi.
• Age: 23.
  John Maguire has written online that he is going to have the 'reward of jihad' and 'the opportunity for martyrdom.' (Facebook)
  
• Youth: Maguire grew up in Kemptville, Ont., about 50 kilometres south of Ottawa. His father was a mechanic who used the family garage as his auto shop, and his mother worked in a nursing home. He was one of two children and had a pet horse. He played guitar in a punk band called the Shackles, which held concerts in church basements. He also played hockey, an experience he references in the ISIS video.
• Education: He attended North Grenville High School until Grade 11, when his parents divorced and he switched to Hillcrest High School in Ottawa, where he graduated in 2008. Two former friends said he got a scholarship to go to a university in Los Angeles in the fall of 2010. He returned to Ottawa and attended the University of Ottawa in the fall of 2011, they said.
• Radicalization: His former friends said Maguire identified as a Muslim by the time he had returned from L.A. and that he started posting extreme viewpoints on Facebook.​ In previous online statements, he said he was going to have the "reward of jihad" and "the opportunity for martyrdom." The National Post reported in August 2014 that the RCMP questioned his family and friends and confirmed he had travelled to Syria "on a one-way ticket" in 2013.

A spokesman for Public Safety Minister Blaney informed the press that John Maguire's passport had been invalidated when his ties to ISIS were revealed. "His passport was revoked after he left the country, so his ability to return is very difficult ... though as you saw in the video, I don't think this guy has any intention of coming back to Canada," said James Bezan, parliamentary secretary to the minister of national defence.

He had reputedly been in Syria for the past two years. He anticipates the 'reward of jihad', which of course is martyrdom. 'Yahya' (which is how he has named himself in his online postings) invites others to become as blessed as he has been. Courting death by planning and executing death for others is the way of jihad and the blueprint for the achievement of martyrdom. That is his anticipated destination. He is now stateless, other than within the Islamic State; the passport ISIS offers crosses the border from life to death.


The U.S.-led air campaign has succeeded thus far in killing hundreds of ISIS jihadis, amid claims by military officials that the Islamic State's once-seemingly unstoppable advance has been halted. This man represents one of perhaps a hundred Canadians just like him who evaded suspicion before leaving the country to travel abroad to join in the allure of jihad and Islamist conquest, becoming a fighting member of the new caliphate.

Members of his extended family have said John Maguire was raised in an abusive home, moving eventually to live with his grandparents. From a troubled and abusive family life to one far away where all the vicious malcontents and products of troubled family lives view one another as family? Crossing the border from Syria anywhere else will prove to be extremely difficult without a passport. And according to Justice Minister Peter MacKay Canadian officials will not attempt to arrest the man.

"That is highly unlikely. What we need to do, obviously, to the greatest extent possible, is to monitor his activities." As for future such incidents of Canadian men going astray: "The RCMP of course are examining things such as recognizance and peace bonds that are preventative and pre-emptive, and we're looking at legislation, as you know, that would address that through such things as lowering [evidentiary] thresholds and allowing for police to have greater ability to intervene in cases such as this where there have been very pronounced and very specific threats that have been made."

And life goes on. And sometimes it does not.