[CBCnews.com] Suicide bomber killed in Iraq part of wider jihadi base in Calgary

[SFUVancouver]

Suicide bomber killed in Iraq part of wider jihadi base in Calgary
Salman Ashrafi, killed in 2013 suicide attack, lived in same building as 4 other extremist fighters

CBC News Posted: Jun 03, 2014 8:59 PM ET | Last Updated: Jun 03, 2014 9:31 PM ET

Homegrown extremism abroad has a new face, and CBC News has learned it belongs to yet another Calgary man, a development that points to the West as a hotbed for exporting jihadis.

His name is Salman Ashrafi, and when the Al-Qaeda splinter group ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) released images of him last month following a double suicide bombing in Iraq in November that killed 46 people, he was celebrated in a martryrdom notice.

Only then, he was known as Abu Abdullah Al Khorasani.

CBC News has confirmed that Al Khorasani was Ashrafi's nom de guerre and that he was a Canadian citizen who grew up in the Stampede City, where he went to school and worked.

The Calgarian's story is one of as many as two dozen others, most of whom left to battle alongside rebel militants in Syria.

[...]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/suicid...gary-1.2663890

This is the first I've heard about any of this. Is there anything to the CBC's contention that Calgary is becoming known as a source of jihadi terrorists?

[Aegis]

This is truly shocking. I don't think we can pretend like this isn't a local issue now. It's easy to comfort one's self in saying "this is only happening elsewhere"..but that's clearly not the case.

People need to speak up and tell law enforcement before something as horrific as this happens.

[Rusty van Reddick]

I lived in that building.

[horrorshow]

This is extremely troubling as I knew this guy. I went to University with him in Lethbridge and he would have been the last person I would ever suspect to do something like this...

The scary part is how easily some minds can be warped and influenced.

[freeweed]

If someone wanted to kill large numbers of people in this country, tomorrow, via terrorism - they could do it easily.

The fact that it does not happen tells you exactly how much of a threat this is. 911 was 13 years ago and since then we've had what amounts to generic criminal acts, nothing more. Mass shootings in the US kill far more people than anything remotely approaching terrorism these days.

We've really got to stop jumping at our shadows here.

[Calgarian]

I agree with freeweed, I think we have far bigger problems in our society than a very, very small number of religious extremists going over to the middle east to fight for some cause.

[Aegis]

Originally Posted by horrorshow

This is extremely troubling as I knew this guy. I went to University with him in Lethbridge and he would have been the last person I would ever suspect to do something like this...

The scary part is how easily some minds can be warped and influenced.

Thanks for posting. Given your personal experience with this person, how do you think he went from working a job downtown to strapping explosives to himself and killing 46 people in Iraq?

[Jimby]

I nominate him for the Darwin Awards.

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by Jimby

I nominate him for the Darwin Awards.

I think the homeless guy who dies while trying to climb under a moving train a couple weeks ago has that pretty much locked up...

[Jimby]

Originally Posted by Calgarian

I think the homeless guy who dies while trying to climb under a moving train a couple weeks ago has that pretty much locked up...

True, but he was older and may have already left some future Darwin Award winners behind. To remove themselves from the gene pool they can't have offspring.

[Calgarian]

Are there specific rules for a Darwin Award? I just thought someone had to die in a really, really dumb way lol, and climbing under a moving train certainly qualifies lol.

[Rusty van Reddick]

Originally Posted by Calgarian

Are there specific rules for a Darwin Award?

One is that the stories are fake at least half the time and have already been debunked on Snopes before the "award" is handed out.

Another is that women never receive them, ever, because woman+ death = tragedy but man + death = punchline.

I fucking hate the "Darwin awards" concept.

[Jimby]

Originally Posted by Calgarian

Are there specific rules for a Darwin Award? I just thought someone had to die in a really, really dumb way lol, and climbing under a moving train certainly qualifies lol.

To qualify, a contender has to end their gene line by their own stupidity. If they have kids then they can't qualify but their kids could!