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The Day We Lost Our Innocence
10-22-2014
Wednesday, October 22nd, Canadians from coast to coast woke up in an absolute horror, shocked, and disbelief. A gunman had shot point blank, a Canadian soldier at the War Memorial in Ottawa, and had entered into the parliament building few hundred meters away, where more shots were fired inside the parliament inside the Hall of Honour, where Parliament Security Personnel, and the RCMP exchanged Gun Fire with the assailant. The assailant also injured a Parliamentary Clerk, before being taken down.
The soldier died of the gunshot wounds. He is described as Corporal, Nathan Cirillo. 24, a reservist from Hamilton area whom had volunteered to be the ceremonial guard at the War Memorial. Our condolences, prayers, and sympathies are with the deceased soldier, his family, and his regiment.
The Globe and Mail reporter, Josh Wingrove, managed to capture a brief video of gun fire exchange inside the Hall of Honour. The assailant was eventually taken down by Parliament Sergeant-at-Arms, Kevin Vickers, a former, 29 year veteran RCMP Officer.
The assailant is described as Michael Zehaf- Bibeau, 32, of Montreal Quebec, a recent “Convert Muslim.” However, media speculations were already pointing fingers at a possible ISIS connection, “Radicalized Convert Muslim.” This in light of a similar incident which took place, October 20th, just two days earlier where another “Radicalized Convert Muslim” Martin Rouleau, linked with ISIS, was shot down after Two Canadian Forces soldiers were critically injured in a hit-and-run in Saint-Jean-Sur-Richeliu, Que, by him. “He called the 911 operator, telling him he performed the act in the name of Allah,” reported Heavy.com Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent died after being a victim of Hit and Run.
It is also important to know that after October 20th, incident Canadian officials were aware of further attacks on Canadian military personnel and possibly the parliament, and provincial legislatures.
Not much information has been released about Mr. Bibeau by the authorities. However, Mr. Rouleau, was known to federal authorities, including RCMP integrated national security investigations team in Montreal, who along with other authorities were concerned that he had become radicalized," the RCMP said in a statement Monday evening. As reported by CBC, which also reported that according to the neighbours, he had converted to Islam about a year ago. Mr. Rouleau, was among the ninety or so individuals whose passport had been seized by the RCMP, as his family was concerned about him being radicalized.
Authorities have not confirmed whether or not Mr. Bibeau is among the ninety or so considered youth at risk of being radicalized. Heavy.com however reported that his passport was seized by the RCMP. What could be piece together about him through Google search, social media, and media reports. Mr. Bibeau, shortly after the incident, an ISIS Media Account Tweeted a picture purporting to be Bibeau. An hour later the account was suspended. Heavy.com reported that this now suspended account was being followed by Mr. Rouleau.
CBS also quoted that Canadian officials have exchanged information about Mr. Bibeau with the FBI.
Also according to Heavy.com had a long criminal history dating back to 2004, and more recently in 2011 and 2012 right here in Vancouver from Marijuana possession to uttering threats.
In light of the above, there remains many questions unanswered which are being raised by the media as to how could this have occurred? Why the security was not beefed up? How individuals considered dangerous who may carry out such attacks are not being monitored closely? Was the failure of the intelligence or law enforcement agencies? What the authorities doing to deal with these possible “Radicalized Convert Muslim whom have converted just merely six months to a year ago, and are now so passionate about Islam, that they are willing to kill and die for it? Are these individuals acting alone, or under a broader apparatus? Is ISIS providing a cover for disenfranchised youth, a platform, recognition, and attention they seek? These and many more questions which need to be addressed and answered.
Global ECCO's (Education Community Collaboration Online) mission, a global organization aiming to build and strengthen the Combating Terrorism Fellowship Program's (CTFP) global alumni network of Combating Terrorism (CbT) in on online in-depth scholarly paper VIOLENT CONVERTS TO ISLAM: GROWING CLUSTER AND RISING TREND, Authored By: Jahangir E. Arasli looked at series of such incident around the world and summarized his conclusion as, “It is safe to state that the cases detailed here display evidence of the rise of violent Islamic converts and their significant roles in both homegrown terrorism and the global jihad movement in the past decade. The vast reservoir of open source information makes it easy to find details of such cases. Harder to determine are the answers to three key questions arising from these findings: who are the converts? Why some of the converted Muslims are radicalized? and how does that process take place?”
Mr. Arasli drew a characteristic profile of a typical “Radicalized Convert Muslim.” He concluded, “A careful investigation of personal profiles of violent converts does reveal a common characteristic evident in most: a crisis in their lives before their conversions. The problems causing this crisis might be psychological, personal, social, or of a combined nature. But whatever the source of the problem, the individuals came to see conversion to Islam as a remedial solution to their troublesome life experiences. In simple terms, the pre-conversion crisis creates a trigger factor leading to conversion. Such a move marks the first stage of the conversion-radicalization-activation (CRA) loop.”
He writes, “Several examples of violent converts illustrate this idea. For instance, all three of the most notorious German convert jihadists—Fritz Gelowicz, Daniel Schneider, and Eric Breinninger—came from dysfunctional families, and their parents all divorced when the trio were in their early teens. Muriel Deagauge, a Belgian convert "she-bomber," had experienced both sudden and persistent life crises.
In essence, the federal and provincial government needs to allocate resources immediately if they are truly committed to curb this problem, before it is becomes uncontrollable.
So far, there is enough evidence to demonstrate that this homegrown terrorism is almost attributed to a recently convert Muslim. The question we need to raise loudly, are there disenfranchised citizens who are angry or frustrated with the state and are willing to get back to the government, finding ISIS, which in itself a terrorist organization is capitalizing on these disenfranchised youth. Ultimately, to get back at Canada for their role in supporting United States in their decade old War on Terror, which seemed to be not ending anytime soon. In fact producing more terrorists that are better equipped, resourceful, and far more sophisticated than we believe they are.
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