On Second Thought....

"The vast, vast majority of new converts, we have never seen them before and then we never see them again. They disappear and they never come again. This is a big concern. We are concerned about who they are getting information from."
"They never come back [to the mosque] again. And this is a big concern for us."
Samy Metwally, imam, Ottawa Mosque

Patrick Doyle/Ottawa Citizen    Samy Metwally, the imam at one of Ottawa's largest mosques, says that 15 to 20 men between the ages of 20 and 30 have come to him to convert since the attack on Parliament Hill on Oct. 22, 2014.

Young males, fascinated by the fact that one man loaded with religion-inspired hatred and a hunting  rifle was capable of having monumental attention focused on him as he murdered a Canadian reserves military officer, then launched an impromptu and explosive attack on Parliament, experienced an arousal in their sense of adventure. Those not averse to violence, those who simmer with resentment against the society they have grown up within, those who have inherited sociopathic tendencies are led to the belief that Islam may hold all the answers to life that have been eluding them.

And so, they gravitate to the capital city's largest mosque to speak with its religious leader. Islam stresses first and foremost among the faithful their responsibility as pious Muslims to grow the faith, to be instrumental through prosetylization, in bringing new converts to the religion whose values and sacred precepts surpass all others. Through the simple declaration before a witness that "There is no god but Allah and Mohammad is his Messenger", does the conversion take effect. Absolutely painless, no study, no complex rituals, no background checks and balances ... just ... submission.

But a responsible cleric like imam Metwally, with the understanding that among those so eager to convert, driven to the personal perceived need to do so to give value and purpose to their lives in the wake of a blood-curdling attack by an earlier convert to Islam who had absorbed the equally compulsive direction to commit as a faithful Muslim to jihad, would seek to downplay that aspect of Islam, when the raw recruit seeks justification in jihad demanded by Islam, in the violence that he is driven to take part in.

In his original interview, Imam Metwally stated he frequently questions the intentions of Islamic converts without spurning their desire to convert. He takes pains to spend time to explain Islam before conversion, he explained. But he is left nonetheless with the concern that many of those he sees come to the mosque for the conversation process; a witnessed declaration -- and then never return again, despite a cordial invitation to do so.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - RCMP  Michael Zehaf Bibeau is shown carrying a gun while running towards Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2014, in a still taken from video surveillance.

His imagination, fuelled by recent events such as the convert Michael Zehaf-Bibeau who killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo and planned to kill Members of Parliament as well, shutting down Parliament Hill and central Ottawa, visualized these new converts as being willing recruits to violent jihad, manipulated by those invested in terrorism. An admission that such recruiters commonly exist within Islamic society, and that the violent October events that horrified and transfixed a nation motivates disaffected psychopaths to join forces with jihadists.

Imam Metwally's interesting comments came in the wake of reports of battlefield deaths of a number of young Canadian men, both those who were born into Islam and those who converted and travelled to the Middle East to fight with Islamic State. What motivated them is evidently fodder as well for others who view their commitment to jihad, their experience fighting abroad, and their deaths as martyrs inspirational to fulfill their own destinies. What Imam Metwally should perhaps deeply ponder is why so many are drawn to Islam with that end in mind?

And then Imam Metwally appears to have suffered second thoughts in the anguish of perhaps not having said the 'right' things about converts to Islam, and he wrote, days later: "I spoke to the Ottawa Citizen this week to share my observation that more people than ever have come to the main Ottawa mosque to convert to Islam.
"It is true that 15 to 20 people have come to the mosque to convert to Islam since this past fall; however, they have included both men and women. It also must be said that most people who make the weighty decision of converting to a new faith do so after having researched the religion a great deal in advance Even if I do not see the vast majority of these converts again in the mosque, it does not mean that they are involved in any suspicious behaviour On the contrary, the vast majority of converts continue to live life as they always have -- as contributing members of society. They may simply attend a mosque closer to where they live.
"Muslim communities do have a responsibility in ensuring that enough supports exist to provide correct information about Islam, and assisting those who want seek understanding on how to live their lives as a Canadian Muslim. That is true for both converts and those who are born in the faith."

Interpret that as you will.