Whose Values Are These?

"We come from a broken home, a really bad broken home. The older he got, the worse he got."
"I want to say he would not do something like that [murder], but I know he would. I told him someone's going to kill you or you're going to kill someone."
"My brother's been troubled since he was very young."
Sister of Khalid Mohammad, 26, Ottawa

Khalid Mohammad, 26, (right) is charged with second-degree murder. Abdulaziz Abdullah, 28, is charged with accessory after the fact for allegedly helping Mohammad flee. Both appeared in Ottawa court May 7. Laurie Foster-MacLeod/OTTAWA SUN

Perhaps it is too easy to assume, on superficial but somewhat convincing evidence, that the impetus to thuggery is bred in the bone, courses through the blood of migrants settling into the West from countries like Somalia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Palestinian Territories, as example. Else why are they overrepresented in the commission of crimes, relative to the size of their community within the greater community of pluralist societies?

And always and forever it seems, when they are mourned by their grieving families, there are the statements in defence, that this is uncharacteristic of who they are, what they are, how they are. That it is not their dearly departed who are guilty of crimes that in the end have brought them to death, but others, and most particularly malign influences in the society which they have joined. Islam, their defenders insist, is a religion of peace.

But there they are, their lives revolving around guns, gangs, drugs, violence. Despite their exposure to opportunities never afforded them in their places of origin. And while some are more than capable of excelling academically and seeking out respected professions, they turn instead to the allure of criminal activity. So the answer to this condundrum is ... what? That the fact they are Muslim is incidental to their proclivities?

Judging from the above, not all who succumb to living their lives in the excitement of the commission of criminal acts are so readily forgiven by family members. These are those who reject crime and radicalism and turn to the normalization of societal and lawful parameters of which they intend to be a part. She and those like her will take their place in the society they have joined and become part of the pluralistic backbone that gives it strength in diversity.

Her brother will stand trial for murder, a lengthy criminal record behind him, even before this latest charge of having murdered 21-year-old Sharif Said -- another petty criminal who spurned a full academic education --  over a presumed drug deal 'gone bad'. Arrested as well is 28-year-old Abdulaziz Abdullah, in relation to the same homicide, as an accessory. The gunman in the event, Mohammad is known to police, was a suspect in multiple shootings in 2014.

His lengthy criminal record includes convictions related to a home takeover, of sexual assault, of firearms possession. And perhaps a suspect as well in the earlier murder of another acquaintance, 23-year-old Malik Adjokatcher. As for Abdullah, he was convicted of firearms possession, of a six-hour standoff with police.

Abdul Hassan, uncle of Ottawa homicide victim Sharif Said, said the "killers are victims" of gang culture and senseless violence. (CBC)

Abdulaziz Abdullah was involved in a drive-by shooting that involved Yusuf Ibrahim, who was later shot dead inside a home in the south of Ottawa, in a gang-land style killing. Sharif Said's uncle Abdul Hassan has stated that "we believe the killers are victims. They're victims of senseless violence. They have no clue that life is precious".


Are they not taught this by their families, by the values the religion they hold dear is said to espouse?