Muslim Communities: Al Shabab

Al Shabab: What happens when some of these prodigal militants return home? Canadian security forces, Muslim communities and indeed all Canadians have reason to be worried about that eventuality. The potential for such returnees to conduct attacks inside Canada, and to recruit others to their cause, is very real, according to The Star. Of course, not all Kenyan Al Shabab recruits leaving the Somalian battlefield come back as deserters; some are bringing with them their guns, grenades and ideas, likely intent on committing attacks within Kenya. As the disillusioned returnees point out, however, the Kenyan government is losing opportunities by aiming to kill all former Al Shabab fighters rather than taking steps to identify and rehabilitate those who want to renounce violence and Its getting to be a familiar theme that Canadians global origins and global mobility can intersect frighteningly with currents in Islamist terrorism. Two Canadians were killed in this months Al Shabab attack on a Nairobi shopping centre, and a Canadian teenager maimed in the attack is recovering in a Toronto hospital. Early rumours that some of the Kenyan militants were Canadian now appear to be unfounded. However, it is known that some Canadians perhaps up to 100 have travelled to Syria to join rebel forces fighting against the Assad government and one of the former Toronto 18 terrorist plotters has apparently died fighting there. That said, it is worth bearing in mind the possibility that some Islamist militants might return home thoroughly disillusioned by the disparity between the religious ideology they embraced and the brutal reality they saw. An article published earlier this year in Foreign Affairs recounts the experience of six Muslim Kenyan men who were recruited into Al Shabab, sent off to fight in Somalia and fled back to Kenya as deserters from the cause. Many other Kenyans who are still with Al Shabab in Somalia, the article reports, are disillusioned with the group. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.