Full Circle

"The burial was done in the way of his religion, of Islam: they prayed for him with prayers for the deceased, then laid him to rest. Michael is a good person on the inside, and he's kind and affectionate."
"It does not justify his attack toward the head of government, and doesn't make it right to kill a soul. Because in our religion, we believe that if someone kills one person, it's as if they killed all of humanity."
"As for the public opinion in Libya, there are some here who call him a hero, there are some who consider it a big crime, and some who don't care about the situation. I think that this is very normal in any country, because not all people know the whole truth about the story."
"The Canadian government is primarily responsible for all of this. Of course [Zehaf-Bibeau] thought that Canada was thinking to attack a Muslim country, Iraq, and he didn't know the reality of ISIL. He thought ISIL was the Islamic country he wanted; that it was what every real Muslim, or any lover of peace, wanted."
"But he was cheated by ISIL. Even us Muslims don't want ISIL because it does not represent peace. Even I was cheated by their Islamic symbols -- but when I saw the killings, I knew they were not Muslims."
"Canadian media is twisting the story and I have seen many journalists lie and relate the issue to religion when there are no ties to religion. They ruined the image of Islam and ruined the image of Abdullah [Zehaf-Bibeau] with their narratives."
"We want you to know that all Muslims aren't evil; some are good and some are not good."
Ashraf Zehaf, cousin of Michael [Abdullah] Zehaf-Bibeau

Michael Zehaf-Bibeau was buried in Libya, a cousin says.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Michael, aka Abdullah Zehaf-Bibeau, 32 years old, a Canadian citizen whose mother is Canadian and father Libyan, shot to death Cpl. Nathan Cirillo on October 22, as the reserve soldier stood guard at the National War Memorial. That accomplished, the armed man rushed to the nearby Parliament Buildings, to enter the great hall, and search out others to kill, presumably the Prime Minister and any other officials he might come across. He was killed by Parliamentary security guards.

Now, he has returned in death to Libya, although he was born in Canada. It is where his father, Bulgasem Zehaf, took his son's body for a traditional Muslim burial, after release by the Canadian coroner's office, with the permission of the Ottawa-based Libyan mission, according to consular official Khalifa Alghuwel.

In 2011, Canada took part in UN- and NATO-sponsored aerial bombing of the military forces of Moammar Ghaddafi when a civil war broke out that succeeded eventually in removing the Libyan tyrant from his seat of power. The result was not as the West had envisioned; the freeing of a people from the talons of a totalitarian government, leaving them the capacity and the will to install another government modelled on democratic principles.

Libya was and is too beset by tribal, clan, sectarian animosities, too ingrained by centuries of hate and conflict, with each element jostling the other through violent clashes while persecuting the minorities among them. The weapons caches abandoned by Ghaddafi's military to the marauding Islamists taking advantage of the country's upheaval have substantially benefited the Islamist jihadists across North Africa and the Middle East.

Little did Canada visualize that their part in the effort to bring peace and security to a far distant country would result in one of their own nationals of Libyan heritage attacking the very seat of government in their own country. Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, who had been flagged by Canadian intelligence as a possible threat, had been refused a passport to enable him to travel out of Canada and into Libya. His vengeance for that denial was the killing he perpetrated. That, according to his cousin's narrative.

"As for Abdullah -- or 'Michael Zehaf-Bibeau' -- his family has accepted the (fact of what happened October 22) and they believe that Abdullah carried out this act as a result of his own narrow-mindedness, and that it was wrong", said his cousin. And in the same breath held Canadian authorities responsible, by denying the man the passport he wanted, for the calamity which unfolded when he rampaged in Ottawa, killing a soldier and threatening Parliament.

ISIL is now well established in Libya, even in the city where the cousin lives, Zawiya. Ashraf Zehaf, glad to see the last of Gadhaffi, holds countries like Canada responsible for the chaotic patchwork of armed thugs in his country roaming about, destroying and killing. Even so, he speaks for Libyans claiming that the ISIL video of the slaughter of 21 Egyptian Copts was an invention.

"Libyans mostly believe that the ISIL video was fabricated, and (we're) not convinced by it because as you know, there are two parties in Libya conflicting for power. Since Islamic terrorism became a scapegoat for governments around the world, (ISIL) became something that the government can control. The government describes it as terrorism in order to allow it to remove those groups by force, although what qualifies as terrorism is still determined by -- who knows -- Ms. America?"

Muslims know terrorism when they see it, and they don't see it in Islamic State, nor evidently do they recognize it in the 'good person on the inside' ... 'kind and affectionate', who killed a Canadian soldier at the country's national memorial to the tragedy that is war.