Calgary Imam Syed Soharwardy Is Stunned--Yes, Stunned!--to Learn He Knew a Local "Yout" Who Blew Himself Up for Allah in Syria Last Year

The "yout," who was actually in his mid-20s when he died, is among a gaggle of Calgary lads--friends or acquaintances living in the same apartment building--who have run off to seek adventure, and maybe score some posthumous nookie, in godforsaken Syria. The one in question was as Calgarian as they come:

His name is Salman Ashrafi, and when the Al-Qaeda splinter group ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) released images of him last month following a double suicide bombing in Iraq in November that killed 46 people, he was celebrated in a martryrdom notice.

Only then, he was known as Abu Abdullah Al Khorasani. 

CBC News has confirmed that Al Khorasani was Ashrafi's nom de guerre and that he was a Canadian citizen who grew up in the Stampede City, where he went to school and worked. 

The Calgarian's story is one of as many as two dozen others, most of whom left to battle alongside rebel militants in Syria. 

At one time, Ashrafi led a lifestyle many would have envied, with jobs at Talisman and Exxon and huge downtown Calgary firms...

Here's where Syed, whom you may recall as the fellow who lodged a complaint with the province's "human rights" racket re Ezra Levant and the Motoons, comes in:

"Oh, I know him! Oh my God," the cleric said, upon seeing a photo of Ashrafi and being told the militant was killed in the 2013 Tarmiya, Iraq, suicide attack. 

Soharwardy was a longtime acquaintance of the family and had watched Ashrafi and his siblings "grow up in front of me."

How could such a think have happened? The imam, who says he's received "death threats for speaking out about this topic," thinks some "radical" preachers likely got their hooks into the lad:

"It is impossible for me to think the intelligence people do not know who is radicalizing Muslim youth. It is going on undercover; it is going on openly sometimes," he said.

"The thing is they are recruiting Muslims to go and fight in Syria and getting them killed. It is horrible.… What is the Canadian government doing? Nothing. I mean this guy died, many, many … people died from our country. For what?"

Soharwardy said he has told police and university administrators, warning them about lecturers who might be preying on vulnerable young minds and that he believes he knows which organizations may be radicalizing young men. So far, he said, there has been no response...

Surely the imam is being a tad disingenuous when he asks "for what?" Surely, as the founder and head of something called, for heaven's sake, the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, he has some notion of the ideology, the supremacist ideology, that motivates these young men, and from whence it springs. So while the imam may consider himself to one of those "moderates" who would never counsel violent jihad, at the very least he should be willing to concede that it's the supremacism inherent in his religion, and a long and storied history of waging jihad on the infidel to further it, that answers the question "for what?" And it's because of that supremacism, and the appeal it holds for young men looking to imbue their lives with "meaning," that Calgary now finds itself "a breeding ground for jihadi fighters."

Update: On his website, Soharwardy invites us to join the Islam club. There's no entry free--and, apparently, no supremacism whatsoever:

The way of life that Allah prescribed for all human beings is called ISLAM.  Islam is a common sense and natural way of life. It has no illogical beliefs. Islam is very scientific and has no ambiguities. It is a pure way of life. Islam provides peace of heart and mind. Islam protects environment, dignity and respect for all human beings. Islam removes all false claims of superiority based upon gender, ethnicity, colour, language, wealth, fame, power, vanity, etc…. Islam very strongly condemns racism, discrimination, hate, oppression, violence, terrorism, extremism, fanaticism, etc.

Actually, I think it's the imam who "very strongly condemns" such things. As for by-the-book Islam...not so much.

Update: Here's the Ceeb's Adrienne Arsenault on Calgary's ISIS crisis.

Update: While the Ceeb is determined to position Syed as a voice of reason within his community, BCF reminded me that this imam is, well, really, really loopy. He believes, for example--and has warned his fellow Muslims--that those behind the radicalization aren't genuine "radical" imams but stoolies in the pay of Islamophobic infidels looking to pull a "gotcha" on unsuspecting youth:

[N]ot many Muslim parents, community leaders and Muslim youth are aware of the traps of informants who are paid by the agencies OR anti-Islam organizations to inspire and motivate Muslim youth to become radical OR say / write something that can be seen hateful or a threat. These informants could be Muslims and know Qur’an and hadith mor e than many Muslims. For them nothing matters except money. The innocent Muslim youth are being trapped by these informants in Internet chatting rooms, discussions, gatherings, phone conversations, etc. Unfortunately, the hateful and violent statements of informants are ignored but any statement that a Muslim youth or elder makes in front of them is recorded and presented as evidence to the court and the media. In fact, the informants facilitate, poke and inspire unstable people to make horrible comments. They put words in their mouths. Instead of arranging help for the venerable people who may have some influence of radical thoughts these informants push them further towards radicalization. Informants get the money and the unstable person goes to jail and become shame for the family and the entire community."