[LINK] "How three Canadians graduated from a rebellious high school friendship to the world of Islam

[rfmcdonald]

Over the weekend the National Post posted a detailed article describing how three young men in the southwestern Ontario city of London, recently high school graduates, managed to join the circles of international terrorism. Two, Ali Medlej and Xristos Katsiroubas, died during the recent In Anemas attack in Algeria, while a third, Aaron Yoon, is currently in prison in Mauritania.

The article seems to suggest that what the three had in common was alienation from their environment, perhaps especially within their school but also their family and the wider community. It might not be wrong to classify the reasons for the participation of Medlej and Katsiroubais in the In Anemas attack, at least, as being akin to the reasons of school shooters.

While the geography is somewhat clear — from London to Edmonton to Morocco, Mauritania, Mali and, ultimately, to the ill-fated gas plant in In Amenas, Algeria — it is the psychological journey, from suburban rascals to jihadi commandos, that leaves friends befuddled.

The men, along with Aaron Yoon, who was convicted in Mauritania last year of membership in a terrorist group, were all part of a larger group of friends, mostly Muslim, at London South Collegiate Institute, a high school in the southwestern Ontario city.

The boys emerged from adolescence immersed in twin obsessions with Islam and hip-hop music.

And if those influences offer a cultural contrast, the lives of the three men portray a similar duality, said family, many friends and former schoolmates, some of whom were close to one or more of the men since kindergarten.