Blame Canada for "Yahya" Maguire's Folly? Nuh Uh

Is it Canada's fault that a loser named John Maguire "reverted" to Islam and ran off to wage jihad with ISIS in Syria, where he is said to have met his end? I think not, but Stephane L. Pressault, who is billed, somewhat grandiosely, as the "Project Communitas national co-ordinator at the Canadian Council of Muslim Women" (according to his twitter feed, he is also an "aspiring archer" and loves the Prophet Muhammad) sees fault a mari usqe ad mare. (Pressault's op-ed piece appears in the National Post. I quote from my paper paper because the link has not yet appeared online):

Canada failed him. Maguire was raised in our society. He knew our culture, our history our ideals, our politics and policies. Maguire decided to join a fringe ideology because there was an aspect of Canada that dissatisfied him. Political issues such as Canada's military intervention in Libya and its indifferent approach to Syria leaves one wondering about our government's integrity and apparent hypocrisy. Did we give him a voice as a Canadian? Did he perhaps feel that Canada had failed to live up to its ideals on the international stage? Alongside many Canadians, was Maguire disheartened by the politics of our leaders?

Yeah, I'm sure that that--and not the siren call of jihad--must have been behind it.

Just kidding, of course. I have no idea why Maguire did what he did. I'm pretty sure, though, that the aspiring archer has it backwards. The way I see it, "we" didn't "fail" Maguire. He failed us. "We" gave him everything, including the freedom to be whatever he wanted to be. Apparently, it wasn't enough. Apparently, there was a hole in his soul that "we" could never fill; that could only be filled by the absolutes of by-the-book Islam and its jihad imperative.

Update: Remembering a younger John Maguire

Update: Jihad "a fringe ideology"? Nice try, Stephane. The reality: it's more "core" than "fringe." Always has been.