Why Did an Ordinary Middle Class UK Lad, An Atheist, WASP and a "Class Clown," Revert to Islam and Run Off to Join ISIS?

According to this report in the Daily Mail, the silly boy fell under the spell of some schoolmates:

MailOnline understands 'Jihadi Jack' is now a frontline fighter for the brutal terror group and lives with his Iraqi wife and his son Muhammed after moving to the Iraqi city of Fallujah from Raqqa.

It is a far cry from his comfortable upbringing at the hands of Canadian father, John, an organic farmer and archaeobotanist and his mother, Sally, a books editor.

Friends today said he was a 'class clown' who converted to Islam after being egged on by his Muslim classmates.

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, one friend - who asked to remain anonymous - said: 'I feel like he has been exploited. No one wants to fight in ISIS unless they've been brainwashed. It's really alarming how powerfully he has changed.

'He was always an atheist, pretty liberal, typical middle class kid. At school he was the class clown but didn't take it too far, he was still smart and got fair grades.

'Then he started befriending a group of Muslim boys at the school and that exposed him to Islam. I noticed he started becoming very preachy and was using Arabic, which was strange because I only ever saw him as a typical Oxford boy.

'Then he started growing a beard, becoming more reserved, deleting his photos on Facebook, he sort of disappeared into a world where he only associated with like-minded people...

So much for that "he embraced jihad 'cuz was poor and marginalized" narrative.