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WEEKEND, SEPTEMBER 25-27, 2015

Terror charges for Calgarian thought to be an ISIL fighter

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Imam concerned 22-year-old may inspire youth to radicalization

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RCMP in Alberta have laid terrorism charges against a Calgary man they believe has gone abroad to fight with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS). Farah Mohamed Shirdon, 22, faces several offences, including participation in the activity of a terrorist group and instructing others to carry out terrorist activity. Mounties said Thursday that the charges are being laid in absentia because they believe Shirdon remains overseas. A Canada-wide arrest warrant has been issued and a notice was to be issued via Interpol. Police said their investigation — part of what they call Project Staccato — determined that Shirdon left Canada on March 14, 2014, to fight with ISIL in Syria. RCMP Assistant Commissioner Marlin DeGrand said in Edmonton that it’s believed Shirdon served in

various roles with the organization. “Our investigation showed that Shirdon served in a combat role and performed other functions for ISIS such as recruiting, fundraising, encouraging others to commit violence and spreading propaganda — all designed to enhance the activities of the ISIS,” DeGrand said in a release. There were reports he had been killed, but RCMP said that wasn’t the case. Shirdon has featured prominently in western media’s coverage of North Americans travelling overseas to fight with the militant group. Last year, the CBC aired a propaganda video of Shirdon burning his Canadian passport and threatening U.S. President Barack Obama. One of the terrorism charges relates to that video. Another charge relates to threats Shirdon allegedly made in a video interview with media outlet Vice last September. In the video, a man calling himself Abu Usamah, says he’s going to bomb New York and fly the ISIL flag over the White House. “I’m Canadian; well, I was Canadian,” he told Vice’s online magazine, Motherboard, a few months earlier.

22-year-old Farah Mohamed Shirdon HANDOUT/THE CANADIAN PRESS

He said he had talked to a Canadian intelligence agent a few days before leaving Canada and that the “poor girl” who interviewed him probably lost her job. Calgary Imam Syed Soharwardy of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada has said he didn’t know Shirdon, but had seen him at some Calgary events in the past. He said he worried that Shirdon’s actions would inspire other radicalized youth to head overseas. THE CANADIAN PRESS


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