Tribute To A Thinking Warrior

"A Canadian fighter was martyred by a terrorist suicide bomber who detonated an explosives belt during fighting in Hasakeh [northern Syria]."
Talal Ali Sello, spokesman, Syrian Democratic Forces coalition

"I'm prepared to give my life in the cause of averting the disaster we are stumbling towards as a civilization. With some fortitude and guts, we can purge the sickness that's poisoning our society, and come together to defeat this ultimate evil. I've been fighting this battle in one way or another for my entire life. I hope for success. the rest is in the hands of the gods."
"The war that is ongoing in the Middle East is a war against theocracy. In many ways it is a civil war, and I believe more depends on its outcome than anyone in power is prepared to face."
"We have the ability to eradicate jihadism in our lifetime. Only by destroying [ISIL] without mercy can we discredit the idea, and force the would-be jihadis and fellow-travellers to give up their insane dreams of a new Mecca and join the modern world."
John Gallagher, 32, 'martyred' in Syria

Facebook    John Gallagher, who has reportedly been killed by a suicide bomber, was one of about a dozen Canadians to have volunteered to fight alongside Kurdish forces

His background in Ontario, John Gallagher had a future before him, aspiring to a doctorate after achieving his master's degree in political science. He had been a member of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. And then things changed for him. He sold everything he owned and travelled to northern Iraq to fight with the peshmerga before crossing into Syria to join the YPG.

His admiration and sympathy for the Kurds as the world's largest ethnic group without a homeland of their own in the geography where they had always lived, led him to want to support them in their existential battle with Islamic State jihadis.

He had written an essay before he left for the Middle East, and titled it "Why the War in Kurdistan Matters", in which he laid out his introspective thoughts on the violent spectre of Islamism roiling the world with its aspirations to vanquish other religions, other cultures, other political systems, and achieve a dominating role, to impose their values and their religion on all others.

From Syria, he wrote on his Facebook page: "If you ever have the chance, I strongly recommend fighting terrorists as a great way to get yourself out of your various existential funks. ... Maybe I won't come back. I kind of like it here."

He had nothing good to say about pacifism and "the appeasement left", delicately tip-toeing around the issue of violently militant Islam. In his opinion their reluctance to offend, their anxiety to avoid being termed 'Islamophobic', was reason enough to accuse them of "apologism for barbarity". 

"We live in a society that's grown around a very basic philosophical principle: That the world around us can be understood using our senses and our minds. From this simple insight comes the moral revelation that all human beings are equal in this capacity, and therefore equal in dignity."

"The Muslim world has been dominated by theocratic politics for decades now, and that war has overflowed to engulf the rest of the world. We are all on the front lines of this conflict, whether we know it or not. We can measure the casualties not only in the body counts of deadly terror attacks; we can also measure it in the terror produced among cartoonists, satirists, publishers and booksellers, news media and educators who are being prevented from doing their necessary work of maintaining the machinery of the enlightenment", he wrote in this estimable essay.

John Gallagher's mother was informed of the death of her son, with condolences conveyed to her from the People's Protection Units [YPG], alongside whom her son had been fighting since early July in Syria. An estimated dozen Canadians have taken to volunteering to fight alongside Kurdish forces in conflict with ISIL; Mr. Gallagher's death represents the first death of a Canadian volunteer fighter.

His final post, last Friday, featured a photograph of himself dressed in camouflage, holding a rifle. "Striking a pose", read the caption. A suicide bomber working for Islamic State martyred himself by choice, and in the process also martyred this Canadian man who had stated he was prepared to die for his ideals and his choice, to defend liberty.

He admired the Kurds for establishing a community to protect their own, while never hesitating to take in and protect other regional minorities under threat.

He hoped that by his actions he would spur others to support the Kurdish yearning for a homeland of their own, and to actively engage in turning the tide against the brutish Islamists who revel in committing atrocities, citing as they do so, their undying devotion to Islam and its precepts.

"He [YPG commander offering sympathies] told me not to cry because he's a hero. He thought this was such an important fight and he has always been a man of principle, who believed very strongly in human rights and justice. I am very, very proud of him and his sisters and I love him very much."
Valerie Carder, John Gallagher's mother