Entering Paradise

"Mr. Ftouhi believed he had found a 'solution' to his financial and emotional predicament: Become a martyr for Allah and earn a place in Paradise for him and his family as his reward."
"Mr. Ftouhi believed he needed to be killed as a 'soldier of Allah' by a uniformed enemy of Muslims in order to solve his problems of debt, to enter Paradise, and to end his life."
"He did not believe Allah would accept that an armed Canadian officer was an enemy of Muslims, but he believed an armed United States government official would be acceptable to Allah, given his perceived view of U.S. involvement in the Middle East."
"His plan was never to become an indiscriminate killer, attempting to create a mass casualty situation, nor was he trying to be a member of any radical Islamic group."
"Mr. Ftouhi most certainly believed he would have been killed on June 21, 2017, and when he wasn't killed, he was very upset."
Ftouhi defence attorneys Michigan court filing

Amor Ftouhi of Montreal conducting surveillance at Bishop International Airport in Flint, Michigan the day before his planned terrorist attack.

That poor man. Upset that his carefully thought-out and nurtured plan to enter Paradise as a man of faith and good deeds came to nought. Imprisoned, instead of sanctified. Life can be so very unfair when you are a good Muslim, seeking only to follow Islam's precepts and instructions to its faithful.
He is yet another poor misunderstood man who happens to be Muslim in a society that chooses not to fully comprehend the nobility of Islam.

"Tell my children that I love them all; they must be proud of their father, who is fighting the infidel criminals."
"I am not like the other Muslims, who are all talk and no action, who have held on to earthly matters, and stayed away from jihad."
Amor Ftouhi's letter to his wife

"Mr. Ftouhi’s struggle to find employment was not unique to him. He was among many Muslims in Canada [Quebec especially] experiencing discrimination and Islamophobia."
"[Mr. Ftouhi is not an ideological extremist; he felt hopeless as a result of being] wholly unprepared for the challenges he would face both as a first-generation immigrant and as a Muslim in a predominantly Christian city."
Ftouhi defence lawyers' brief to court

Evidence photo showing stabbing injuries to airport police officer Jeff Neville.

Tunisia, an Arab Muslim country said to be among the most religiously tolerant, traditionally as close to Western civilizational values as any such country could be, underwent the first of the Arab Spring events when a humble fruit-seller rebelled against the unfairness of life, unable to afford a requisite street vendor license, torching himself as a hopeless martyr to fate, perhaps hoping like Mr. Ftouhi, to ascend to Paradise and a better afterlife... Mr. Ftouhi emigrated from Tunisia in 2007, arriving in Montreal, later sending for his wife and children to join him.


He worked at a number of "menial jobs", as described by his defence attorneys, which is to say as a school custodian and at pumping gas; necessary occupations and a start. But it seems he kept losing jobs and became a welfare recipient. All because of Canadian intolerance, as his lawyers would have it, in studiously unreligious Montreal. He despaired, they said at being unable to adequately support his wife and children. He was in debt and thought up a scheme where he could achieve immortality as a more-than-willing martyr in Sharia code and at the same time provide for his family.

The divine would look after his needs and a life insurance policy would tend to the living needs of his family. He would not make his move in Canada as it appeared he reasoned that Allah did not regard Canada as sufficiently alienated against Islam. Instead he would travel to the United States where he would stand a better chance at Paradise and achieve his destined afterlife. It is well known that America is the Great Satan after all, the 'enemy' of the One True Religion of Peace.

According to American investigators, Ftouhi's intention -- after his attempts to buy a gun at a gun show failed, leaving him with the alternate option of buying a large knife -- was to attack an American policeman with the intention of having the police respond by killing him. His chances of being killed by an American police officer was greater, in his imagination, than by a Canadian policeman. Perhaps he had absorbed the prevailing legend that Canadians are inherently 'nice'?

He had driven into the U.S. legally at Champlain, New York and five days later arrived in Flint, Michigan. Why Flint? Why do birds fly? According to the investigators it was Ftouhi's intention then to stab Lt.Jeff Neville, and that is just what he did. And then to take the policeman's gun and use it to shoot people there at Flint Bishop Airport. The opportunity eluded him. Witnesses describe Ftouhi yelling "Allahu akbar" as he attacked Mr. Neville who fortunately survived the attack.

Convicted in November on charges in the June 2017 attack, including committing an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries, the man could receive a life sentence. His attorneys have asked for a 25 year sentence to be served in solitary confinement. To ensure he has no opportunity to proselytize?  Is that even conceivable: ...25 years in solitary confinement? On the other hand, perhaps a Medieval mindset deserves a Medieval sentence.

Amor Ftouhi with his family