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rfmcdonaldThis news, reported by Stewart Bell for the National Post, suggests worrying trends acting on at least some individuals belonging to the Canadian segment of the Somali diaspora.
Counterterrorism officials are investigating a group of youths who allegedly left Canada for East Africa two weeks ago, amid concerns they may have gone to join the Somali militant group Al-Shabab.
Two sources familiar with the case said investigators had been canvassing Toronto's large Somali-Canadian community for information about as many as five men who departed Canada together in early November.
They are believed to have flown to Kenya, the sources said. Kenya borders the region of southern Somalia controlled by Al-Shabab, an Islamist militia aligned with al-Qaeda and sometimes likened to the Taliban.
[. . .]
A handful of Canadians have fought with armed Somali groups in recent years, including Abdullah Ali Afrah, a former Toronto businessman who was killed last year while leading an ambush against Ethiopian troops.
The directors of the Khalid Mosque, one of the most popular places of worship for Somali-Canadians in Toronto, said in a statement to the National Post in September they had no knowledge of any youths who had traveled to Somalia to fight.
"Members of the Khalid mosque congregation have not reported to us any missing children," the directors said in the statement, a response to questions posed by the Post.
"Our message to the Toronto Somali youth regarding the Somalia conflict is: your parents left Somalia to escape the raging war in the homeland and to provide their families a better life. Do not even entertain the idea of returning to Somalia to fight. Somalia has seen more than its share of bloodletting.
"If you want to help yourself, your family and Somalia, hold fast to your faith, focus on and excel in your academic studies and become a productive member of the Somali community in particular and Canadian society in general."
But since about 2006, the fight in Somalia has drawn several foreign youths. Earlier this year, two young men told a news conference they were Americans and had traveled to Africa "to fight alongside our brothers of Al-Shabab" and "to be killed for the sake of God."
