That this is a news story for the Jerusalem Post at all shows how widespread the misunderstanding of the current conflict really is. Western analysts continue to discount religious motivations and goals, when for someone like Abu Khalid al-Kanadi they are the only spur to get him from Canada to Syria. He would welcome Israeli Jews who converted to Islam just as he would welcome anyone who converted to Islam, because the hegemony of Islam is the point of the entire enterprise. In other words, the one element denied and disregarded by Western analysts is the one element that is central and non-negotiable to the jihadis themselves.
“Canadian jihadi welcomes Israeli Jews to join ISIS… if they convert,” by Joanna Paraszczuk, Jerusalem Post, August 24, 2014 (thanks to Jerk Chicken):
A Canadian jihadi fighting with the Islamic State (formerly ISIS) in Syria has said that he believes Israeli Jews would be allowed to join the faction and could even fight in Syria – if they converted to Islam first.
The jihadi, who goes by the nickname Abu Khalid al-Kanadi (“Abu Khalid the Canadian”) made the remark this week in response to a question asked to him via social networking site Ask.fm.
Al Kanadi says he converted to Islam in 2010 and that it was not difficult for him to leave his family in Canada to go to Syria. “They reacted mainly with confusion, not understanding why someone would leave Canada to go to a land of war,” he told his Ask.fm followers.
The Canadian-born Islamic convert is also active on Twitter, where he frequently expresses violent, anti-American and anti-Semitic views. In recent tweets, he dubbed the United States “a nation of evil” and the “land of the immoral and home of the cowards”, warning that the flag of the Islamic Caliphate would soon fly over the White House. Regarding the Jews, al-Kanadi tweeted, “There has never been a people more racist in human history than the Jews.”
Al-Kanadi has urged other Westerners to follow his lead and convert to Islam.
“I was one of you, a disbeliever living in the West. Then I converted to Islam and joined ISIS. Praise be to Allah!” he tweeted earlier this month. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) estimates that at least 30 Canadians are fighting with extremist groups in Syria, and warned that they pose an “immediate” threat to Canadian national security.