Our Own, Our Very Own Jihadist!
Weren't we shocked, good burghers and residents of Ottawa, the capital of Canada, to discover that we harboured in our midst, living in a nice quiet street in a leafy suburb of this city, our own, our very own jihadist. Wow, wow, wow!At the time of Momin Khawaja's arrest (was it really two years ago, good grief) newspaper readers were treated to photographs of a very nice-looking young man, his brothers, and pictures of a attractive house on a middle-class street in the eastern section of Ottawa. Seeing photographs of such nice-looking young people who would not harbour doubts: could this be a mistake, a result of jittery law-enforcement officials, still in shock in the aftermath of 9/11? Not only on this side of the Atlantic, but by law-enforcement officials in Great Britain, as well. The RCMP, Mi5, for heaven's sake!
Well, anything is possible, after all. After all, his mother tearfully denied her son could possibly be involved in anything so nefarious as planning for terrorist activities. And his father, contacted where he was living and working in Saudi Arabia, was scornful, belligerent, forcefully denying any conceivable wrong-doing by his son who was involved in other ventures: a fledgling cell-phone business.
Oh yes, and consider this: Momin Khawaja was a contract employee, working as an IT specialist for the Department of Foreign Affairs. Although it is true that some alarm was raised over the fact that this alleged conspirator aspiring to terrorist violence was working at Foreign Affairs, that august body was quick to point out he hadn't had exposure or access to sensitive files and documents. Hmmm, they doth protest.
Some little while later it was divulged through the news media that papa Khawaja had his own virulent anti-Semitic web site and that sent disturbing signals. Now that British co-conspirators arrested in London just after Khawaja had been taken into custody, are on trial interesting new details are emerging about our own, our very own jihadist. It would seem that more damning evidence is being unveiled pre-trial about our little jihadist than that for his co-conspiritors in England.
We learn much about the earnest young jihadist by evidence unveiled at this trial relating to his many correspondences, where he discusses his profound love and admiration for Osama bin Laden, where he describes the anticipated deadly attacks in crowded public places within London as "fireworks", where he describes the time he spent in a mujahedeen training camp as the best things besides his spiritual link with Allah (victory or martyrdom), where he is quoted as having stated that:
"engaging in jihad requires the best preparation, not only spiritually but in warfare and weaponry"He certainly has a way with words, that young man. "It would tear my heart out knowing these filthy kaafir dog Americans were bombing our Muslim brothers and sisters." He was working his tender heart out on producing detonators to be used to trigger 600 kilograms of ammonium nitrate fertilizer - to such very good effect, tendering a message to all those kaafir dogs intent on doing harm to brother Muslims. Those sites included London nightclubs, trains and Europe's largest shopping centre, near London. Yes that most certainly would have made an impact. People most definitely would have straightened up and taken notice. Momin Khawaja would make his mark.
Just a nice kid from a nice family growing up in a nice house within a nice community in Canada.
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, July 20, 2006
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