“Mujahedeen are regular people, too.” He found life in Canada, says the Times, “not religiously fulfilling,” and converted to Islam. There is no program in Canadian mosques to teach young people who convert to Islam that they should reject the understanding of Islam represented by the Islamic State, even though those mosques ostensibly reject that understanding of Islam. Now, why is that? And why do law enforcement authorities never ponder that question?
“Canadian Killed in Syria Lives On as Pitchman for Jihadis,” by Michael S. Schmidt, New York Times, July 15, 2014:
WASHINGTON — Shortly after the video begins, a man in his 20s dressed in camouflage appears on screen and begins a recruitment speech.
His pitch is fairly straightforward: Come join the fight — you don’t need to be a radical to be a jihadi.
He says he was just a normal teenager growing up in Canada, fishing and watching hockey, before he left it all for the battlefields of Syria.
“It’s not like I was some social outcast, wasn’t like I was some anarchist or somebody who just wants to destroy the world and kill everybody,” he said. “No, I was a regular person. And, mujahedeen are regular people, too.”
But while the young man in the video, Andre Poulin, cast himself as just a typical Canadian, the authorities there say he lived a far different life from the one he described. In his late teens and early 20s, according to a Canadian prosecutor, Mr. Poulin learned how to build explosives online and considered becoming an anarchist or a Communist, before converting to Islam.
And the video goes on to show where his beliefs ultimately led.
After Mr. Poulin — later known as Abu Muslim — finishes his monologue, he is seen running through a field in Syria during a siege of an airport, then dying in the battle. A graphic picture of his corpse is shown, and he is hailed as a martyr. He was likely 24 at the time of his death last year.
The video is believed to be one of the first pieces of media in which the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria — or ISIS, the group that controls large parts of both countries — used an English-speaking North American to try to lure others to fight on its side. It was distributed recently by a propaganda arm of ISIS, known for having one of the slickest and most aggressive media operations in the Islamic world, according to experts who track jihadist materials.
As its fighters have gained more territory in Iraq and Syria, ISIS has taken over World Cup hashtags on Twitter to spread propaganda screeds and used Facebook to generate death threats….
Law enforcement officials in Europe, Canada and the United States have uncovered evidence that many of the foreigners who have traveled to Syria to fight have been inspired by online media they have seen from jihadis. Through chat rooms, email and text messages, the groups arrange for them to travel to Syria to begin militant training.
The recruitment video featuring Mr. Poulin is called “The Chosen Few of Different Lands” and starts with picturesque footage of the Canadian countryside as he describes his childhood.
“Before I come here to Syria, I had money, I had family, I had good friends, I had colleagues,” Mr. Poulin said. “You know I worked as a street janitor — I made over $2,000 a month at this job. It was a very good job, a very good job.”
He added: “And even though I wasn’t rich beyond my wildest imaginations, you know I was making it. It was good, and you know I always had family to support me, and I had friends to support me.”
But life in Canada was not religiously fulfilling, Mr. Poulin said, and he asks his fellow Muslim “brothers” on the video how they can please God when they are living in countries where their taxes are being used “to assist the war on Islam.”Appealing for help, he said that the jihad in Syria needed engineers, doctors, fund-raisers and others. “If you cannot fight, then you can give money,” he said. “And if you cannot give money, then you can assist in technology. And if you can’t assist in technology, you can use some other skills.”
He said that those who came to the expansive territory his group controls in Syria “will be very well taken care of here — your families will live here in safety just like back home.”
The video then shows Mr. Poulin on the battlefield. A narrator describes how Mr. Poulin was jailed in Canada, but did not let that stop him as he was “patient and firm.” He then rushed to Syria, married and had a child but took to the battlefield anyway.
According to the prosecutor in Timmins, Ontario, Mr. Poulin’s hometown, Mr. Poulin was arrested twice before converting to Islam in 2008. The prosecutor, Gerrit Verbeek, said that in 2009, Mr. Poulin moved in with a Muslim couple in Timmins who had a child. Shortly afterward, Mr. Poulin began having an affair with the wife and threatening the husband because he was not religious enough, Mr. Verbeek said.
At least twice in 2009, Mr. Poulin was arrested on charges of making violent threats against the husband. On one occasion, Mr. Poulin had a box cutter and another weapon on him, the prosecutor said.
After one of the arrests, Mr. Poulin admitted to making the threats and also described other activities to the police.
“He talked about making bombs — he admitted he looked on the Internet at ‘The Anarchist Cookbook’ about how to build bombs with materials you buy at the grocery store,” Mr. Verbeek said. “He said he doesn’t care if he went to jail. Then he says that nobody is going to help him and that everybody is out to get him. He said something had to be done and he talked about sacrificing himself.”…
KrazyKafir says
Good riddance you, P.O.S.
Tradewinds says
Ditto. One less Islamic psycho in the world.
Peter Buckley says
Excellent. The more these deluded people go abroad to seek “martyrdom”, the fewer the West has to worry about. Just take this “trend” to its logical conclusion: if MILLIONS of Western muslims went off to Syria/Iraq to wage jihad, does anyone seriously think this would be a BAD thing….?
Tradewinds says
No! Hope they all blow themselves up for allah their non-existent moon deity.
What a scourge on the world is Islam.
Elsee says
This is what happened during Afghanistan war with Soviet Union. There was a mass recruitment in Saudi Arabia for young people to go Afghanistan not to fight with enemies but to have fun with the martyrs wives. Thousands of Afghanistan fighters lost their life and their widows were entertained by the Saudi youngsters. In Islam it is not sin it is help in distress.
Tradewinds says
“And, mujahedeen are regular people, too.”
Seriously? Seriously? My God you’re a deluded idiot. No wonder you were attracted to Islam as psychopaths and the mentally-challenged are.
Oliver says
western countries where taxes are used to ‘assist in the war on Islam”.
IF ONLY this were true.
the west kisses asses of Muslims, and is afraid to say anything.
by the way, good ridance to this slime, and all others killed in Syria and Iraq.
Mr. Buckley,
I don’t think all abd if western Muslims go to Syrian and/or Iraq to fight, as long as they get killed, and buried (or burned) there. Don’t need their bodies polluting our soil.
My views
RG says
Another mindless idiot goes straight to hell! So how’s that workin’ out for ya? Y’all don’t come back now, hear?
Rojm says
Sad, sad. He is young. Did he not know how to use the internet? There are so many websites such as this that would have enlighten him about islam. Violence begets violence. Sad that he did not search the internet more. Education is failing in the west in that it does not allow differences of opinions. Speakers at colleges will not allow ex-muslims or critics of radical islam. This is the end result of this censorship. Young people who think islam is good because older people do not allow any criticism of islam. Sad, sad, sad.
Jay Boo says
“considered becoming anarchist or a Communist”
TRANSLATION: Hollywood movies inspired him to be (Leftist)
boinked wife of a couple he befriended and threatened husband
TRANSLATION: (Hedonist) finds advantage of being (Islamic terrorist)
Apparently his “Muslim Brothers” boinked him by filming from a safe vantage point.
Strange though, that his glasses are perfectly in place and not damaged.
Silvia says
I will never understand why people adopt any form of extreme religion, let alone Islam.
I think it’s mostly people who are deranged somehow – males who are social rejects, feel powerless and this violent, supremacist-in-its-own-mind ideology makes them feel worthy.
As for women, it’s also the ones with low self esteem and those who have a “Lawrence of Arabia” image of Islam in their minds, that do it.
Tradewinds says
What other “extreme” religions are you referring to?
Silvia says
Judaism and Christianity have their own nuts (way less than Islam), although they are not violent for the most part which is obviously better than Islam any day but it doesn’t make those people sane in any way.
Nobody has to convince me how awful Islam is (in case you were thinking I wasn’t aware).
Tradewinds says
Yes, I did have a problem with your comment as Jews and Christians aren’t going around mass-murdering people in the name of their Gods. Neither are Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, etc. ONLY MUSLIMS. Islam has a deity that commands them to kill, and that such killing is meritorious and rates martyrdom, paradise and 72 virgins. That’s the enormous problem with Islam.
Islam has Jihad. Which is what disqualifies it from being a religion, in my and many others opinion. Islam is simply insane. We are dealing with an insane ideology which is why it’s so hard to fight. These people will use their own children as suicide bombers. The only way is force, sheer force, to stop the Islamic Barbarians.
BW022 says
Canadian passports should include the words “Not valid in Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Algeria, Iraq, Iran, … “
Richie says
He’s in Hell now, Im sure his god Satan welcomed him with open arms
pumbar says
There’s that name – abu – again…
mark says
He made a slip of the tongue when he said that before joining the terrorists he was ‘a good person.’ The implication is that he had since become an evil one. It is sad that persons can be so ignorant that they would believe in the Koran’s lies and the lies of Muslim terrorist recruiters. But if he went over there to be a terrorist, it is good that he is dead now so that he can’t return.
Citizen Warrior says
Once again, cannon fodder for ISLAM, that’s all they are; deluded with a definite
death wish. Daniel Greenfield writes in his blog: Muslim Converts
1. They are expendable
2. They are suicidal
an excellent article on Converts.
http://sultanknish.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Islam
dumbledoresarmy says
I wonder whether the RCMP had his name on a list of People To Watch And Worry About?
Probably not. But if they *did* have his name on such a list, they can now scratch it off.
One less to worry about.
Petey says
Sooooo…. let me get this straight, he moved into a muslim home (Rented the basement I assume?) converts to Islam, then starts screwing this muslims wife? Soooo…. if a muslim is not religious enough I can screw his wife then? Is this how this religion works? All you have to do is come up with an excuse then all rules for adultery are gone? Savages!
Uncle Vladdi says
As a Canadian myself, all I can say is: “Good riddance, VERMIN!”
Uncle Vladdi says
A real problem is that most people – even Robert here – consider islam to be “a religion” and limit themselves by comparing it to “other” religions, when it’s not.
Islam is ONLY an ancient, ongoing extortion-racket CRIME syndicate, and the only “religious” part in it, is where it’s holy mobster “muslim” members say:
“God told us to commit these crimes!”
(CAPISCE?)!
gravenimage says
“Mujahedeen are regular people, too.”
……………………………
So are wife beaters, narco-terrorists, and child-murderers, in a way…
More:
He found life in Canada, says the Times, “not religiously fulfilling,” and converted to Islam.
……………………………
Yes—a place with full religious freedom is “not religiously fulfilling”, but a bloody Jihad battlefield *is*. That’s Islam for you…
More:
His pitch is fairly straightforward: Come join the fight — you don’t need to be a radical to be a jihadi.
……………………………
This rather skews the idea of what constitutes “a radical”—you can run off to wage violent Jihad and not be radical at all…
More:
“It’s not like I was some social outcast, wasn’t like I was some anarchist or somebody who just wants to destroy the world and kill everybody,” he said. “No, I was a regular person. And, mujahedeen are regular people, too.”
……………………………
Yup—Jihad, just as Canadian as maple syrup…sarc/off
And yes, I *did* note the freudian slip where he uses the past tense here…
More:
…considered becoming an anarchist or a Communist, before converting to Islam.
……………………………
I’m surprised he didn’t give the neo-Nazis a shot, as well…but in any case, he finally settled on the most evil of the three…
More:
After Mr. Poulin — later known as Abu Muslim — finishes his monologue, he is seen running through a field in Syria during a siege of an airport, then dying in the battle. A graphic picture of his corpse is shown, and he is hailed as a martyr…
……………………………
More of that damn Muslim snuff porn—*Ugh*. At least it wasn’t lovingly focused on the *murder* of others, though this is no doubt implied…
More:
“Before I come here to Syria, I had money, I had family, I had good friends, I had colleagues,” Mr. Poulin said. “You know I worked as a street janitor — I made over $2,000 a month at this job. It was a very good job, a very good job.”
……………………………
A minor point, but this guy’s bragging about his job as a janitor? Now, I worked as a janitor myself when I was first in college, but it was never a final ambition of mine…
More:
…in 2009, Mr. Poulin moved in with a Muslim couple in Timmins who had a child. Shortly afterward, Mr. Poulin began having an affair with the wife and threatening the husband because he was not religious enough, Mr. Verbeek said.
……………………………
More of that fine “Muslim morality”…
Oliver says
Someone else made this point, but I did ntos ee an answer.
Perhaps (if it was answered) someoen could point me in the right direction.
How come his glasses are still on, and in the same postion, as at the begining? I would think that being shot (I am guessing that he was shot in the back, as he is laying face up—his glasses would have at least moved or been blown off.
OR are the jihadists glasses made by the same people who make furniture for Palestinians and other terrorists? Furniture that does NOT break even when a bomb comes through the ceiling?
(Priro invasion of Gaza-picture I believe AP or Reuters, neither, in my opinion, a good source of unbiased journalism/reporting.
Uncle Vladdi says
And so:
Lo! His father was posthumously honoured with the holy title of “Abu Retard!”
😉