While the mainstream media is running with the contention that he was mentally ill, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Bob Paulson is saying something very different: he was “radicalized,” had connections to at least one jihad terrorist, and wanted to travel to Syria. “Ottawa Gunman’s Actions Were ‘Linked To His Radicalization,’ Authorities Say,” by Eyder Peralta and Scott Neuman, NPR, October 23, 2014:
…During a briefing with reporters, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Bob Paulson said while they still don’t know the full extent of Bibeau’s motivation, his actions were “linked to his radicalization.”
According to Paulson:
— There is no evidence that Bibeau was linked to Martin Rouleau-Couture, the newly radicalized man who ran over two Canadian soldiers on Monday.
— Bibeau was not on the list of 90 or so Canadians that authorities consider to be a risk and are monitoring for national security reasons.
— Bibeau’s email address, however, was found on the computer of a man, Paulson said, who was arrested on a terrorism charge.
— Talking to his mother, police learned that Bibeau had intentions to travel to Syria. He had applied for a passport and authorities were in the midst of investigating his application.
— Bibeau was a Canadian citizen and he may have also held Libyan citizenship.
NPR’s Jackie Northam reports that Zehaf-Bibeau has been described as “a fairly recent convert to Islam” who had a criminal record in multiple provinces. “He was also the son of a very senior official of Canada’s immigration department,” she says.
The Globe and Mail says he was “a labourer and small-time criminal — a man who had had a religious awakening and seemed to have become mentally unstable.”
The newspaper reports: “Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau was born in 1982 and was the son of Bulgasem Zehaf, a Quebec businessman who appears to have fought in 2011 in Libya, and Susan Bibeau, the deputy chairperson of a division of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board. The two were divorced in 1999.”
The Globe and Mail quotes an acquaintance of Zehaf-Bibeau’s who said the alleged attacker had frequently spoken of the presence of devils or demons in the world and had recently expressed a desire to go back to Libya to study. He apparently had been blocked from getting a visa to Libya by Canadian authorities “who have been taking measures to prevent Canadians from joining extremists overseas,” the newspaper says.
Paul says
What was Islam like when, back in the day, every Muslim was “a fairly recent convert to Islam”?
Diane Harvey says
Good point. Bill Warner has made it was well.
“Many Westerners are confused by Islam, [Bill] Warner said. This confusion comes from the fact that there are in essence two Islams and two Korans. Warner explained that by the time Mohammed had preached for 13 years in Mecca, he only had managed to attract about 150 followers. However, when he went to Medina and became a warrior and a politician he converted about 10,000 per year. Violence and threats of violence produced many converts.”
from, http://actjonesboroar.wordpress.com/2011/06/23/1282/
See also Warner’s famous Mohammed’s Hockey Stick graphic on converts and violence,
http://www.politicalislam.com/blog/mohammeds-hockey-stick-march-12-2010/
TNT says
U are staring at it today , no different
Salah says
” Violence and threats of violence produced many converts.”
That’s exactly why I keep saying: Most Muslims came to be Muslims because their ancestors bowed to Islam out of fear. They are still Muslims for the same reason: fear.
Add to that a lot of ignorance and we get the perfect recipe.
Most Muslims are Muslims out of
Salah says
Most Muslims are Muslims out of ignorance and fear.
That’s why we should not blame all of them. We must not trust them either.
forthfaran says
Many pagan Arabs converted to Islam originally because they were promised,and received,booty ,women and a sense of power in this world and much the same in the Islamic version of paradise,probably is still a big pull today.The women had no choice once the males of the family converted.
voegelinian says
While the mainstream media is running with the contention that he was mentally ill, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Bob Paulson is saying something very different: he was “radicalized”…
Unfortunately, the “Radicalized” Meme used by the PC MC Mainstream isn’t much better than the Mental Illness Meme they’ve cooked up. Both are calculated to cordon off all suspicion and intelligent criticism of Islam itself. The former is actually worse, insofar as it is more attractive to those Westerners who are still asleep but whose bourgeois beauty sleep is being incipiently disturbed by a bit of tossing and turning over what their semi-conscious (the only rational part of them left) dreads — a global revival of the West’s former perennial enemy who relentlessly attacked and terrorized the West in frank manner (no stealthy pretense to moderation needed back in the Golden Age of Islamic Expansion) for over 1,000 years from the 7th to the 17th centuries: Mohammedans.
Mirren10 says
‘Unfortunately, the “Radicalized” Meme used by the PC MC Mainstream isn’t much better than the Mental Illness Meme they’ve cooked up.”
I agree it’s not *much* better, but it *is* a start. We just have to keep insisting that islam is islam, and what these murderers are doing, is *following the commandments of the Koran to the letter**.
voegelinian says
Well, being better sometimes isn’t saying much (considering how bad the worse thing is). The problem with the ‘Radicalized’ Meme is that it tends to reinforce the exemption of Islam itself as the problem. I suppose it is possible that this meme could paradoxically prove to be the undoing of the PC MC paradigm it continues to reinforce; but somehow I think there’s a better, more robust and honest way to call a spade a spade.
BW022 says
This “recently converted” is nonsense.
Ignoring the fact other reports now say he was a Muslim three years ago and now seven years ago, exactly how could one make such a statement unless they knew for a fact that he wasn’t a Muslim on X date and on X+1 date he was a Muslim?
His father was a Muslim as was his mother (AFAIK) when he was growing up. Exactly what proof is there that we was not a Muslim growing up? That in itself would be unusual as most children get their parents faith. Did he give a high school speech stating he was an atheist? Did he go to a Catholic school and take confession? Did he write Facebook posts where he stated he was agnostic, Buddhist, Hindu, or Amish? If you don’t have such evidence… how can you saying he converted?
If someone said I recently converted to atheism… I’d like to know what proof they have I was ever something other than an atheist.
So… I’d like the media to explain…
a) If he converted to Islam… what religion was he prior to his conversion?
b) What proof do you have that he was of another faith (or atheist/agnostic) prior to this conversion? One would think this proof to be fairly extraordinary as he was presumably raised Muslim.
c) What evidence do you have that this conversion was “fairly recent”? You’d need a specific event, announcement, etc. to make the “recent” claim.
Sorry… AFAIK, he was raised Muslim, was always Muslim, and never converted. He may have suddenly become serious about his religion, attending mosques, etc. but unless I see proof he claimed to be a Christian, atheist, Hindu, Jew, etc. on X date and then a Muslim on Y date… I see no way of saying he “converted”… let alone “fairly recently converted”.
voegelinian says
I agree with all your points; although on another level the distinction is moot: the Muslim born a Muslim, the long-time Muslim convert, and the recent convert to Islam — all are (or should be if we were rational) under equal suspicion.
Uncle Vladdi says
This “Radicalization” nonsense is nothing but an attempt to pretend
“NOT ALL MUSLIMS ARE really MUSLIMS!”
See, everyone knows that:
NOT ALL Germans were NAZIS;
NOT ALL Italians are MAFIOSIS;
NOT ALL Whites are HELL’S ANGELS;
…and
NOT ALL Arabs are MUSLIMS.
…but… BUT:
ALL NAZIS WERE NAZIS;
ALL MAFIOSIS ARE MAFIOSIS;
ALL HELL’S ANGELS ARE HELL’S ANGELS;
…and … AND:
ALL MUSLIMS *ARE* MUSLIMS!!!
The pretense du jour seems to be to try to find some fake sub-categories of “muslms” (i.e: “Radical” versus “Moderate” ones) to “prove” that
“NOT ALL MUSLIMS ARE (really) MUSLIMS!”
Whee!
But of course the only “real difference” between “Radical” and “Moderate” muslims, is:
“Radical” muslims want to murder us (simply for not being muslims)!
“Moderate” muslims want “radical” muslims to murder us (ditto)!
Bottom line:
There are no “moderate” muslims, simply because there is no “moderate” islam!
😉
See more, here:
http://unclevladdi.wordpress.com/2014/10/25/what-the-hell-is-this-radicalization-anyway-2/