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Saturday, March 7, 2015, Falgun 23, 1421 BS, Jamadi ul Awwal 15, 1436 Hijr


Jihad in Syria
Canada concerned over four BD origin youths? role
Diplomatic Correspondent
Published : Saturday, 7 March, 2015,  Time : 12:00 AM,  View Count : 109

Four Canadian youths of Bangladeshi parents who have joined the jihad war on the call of Islamic State have alarmed the Canadian authority.
Inspired by Andre Poulin's apparent charisma and his message, the Toronto youths fled their homes from Scarborough in Toronto.
Poulin, a Canadian, converted to Islam and went by the name Abu Muslim. He joined the jihadist fight in Syria in 2012, in the process creating an 11-minute recruitment video for IS aimed at Westerners. He died while fighting in northern Syria in the summer of 2013 at the age of 24.
Born in Canada, their parents immigrated from Bangladesh to give their children a better life. The parents are worried whether their sons are alive and safe.
The worried parents are further embarrassed after state-run Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) broadcast news of the suspected youths to have joined the jihad war in Syria.
CBC News has learned that Poulin also had a direct role in recruiting at least five young Muslim men from the Toronto area to go to Syria.
The CBC news broadcast claim that Tabirul Hasib, Abdul Malik, Adip and Nuru (whose last names are not known.) have joined the IS.
Hasib studied in Scarborough Monark Park Collegiate. He was active in his school's athletic program, participating in long-distance running competitions before enrolling in Centennial College.
Malik's parents did not admit him in any public school after they were landed-immigrants in Canada. He was instead admitted in a Quranic school and memorised holy Quran.
His parent's could not provide satisfactory response for the reason of getting Malik to a regular school.
As young boys they worshipped at one of several mosques in Toronto's east-end and participated in programs geared to Muslim youth.
In late 2012 the foursome left their home and reached Lebanon after reservation of flights to Beirut. .
Their panicked parents filed missing person reports with Toronto police. Soon officers with the Canadian crime investigating agency RCMP's Integrated National Security Enforcement Team were knocking on their doors and asking difficult questions.
Abdul Malik's father told CBC News that his son called home a few times after leaving to say he and his friends were safe and "in the course of the conversation revealed they were in Lebanon, not yet in Syria."
He discussed the urgency of the situation with another father and they realized they had to move quickly to rescue their sons.
The fathers of Abdul Malik and Nur got on a plane in February 2013 and headed to Lebanon. They met with their sons and convinced the four young men to return to Canada.
After being persuaded by family members, the foursome were rescued and returned home before they could cross over from neighbouring Lebanon.
Recently CBC disclosed that at least three are presumed to have returned to Syria to join the ranks of Jabhat Al-Nusrah, an al-Qaeda front fighting to topple the regime of Bashar Al-Assad.
On July 6, 2014, three of the men, possibly all four, suddenly and without warning, disappeared once again. This time there would be no telephone contacts with their parents.
Late last November, Tabirul Hasib called home. His mother recorded the date and exact time. "He said, 'Hi Mom.' I asked him where he was and he wouldn't answer and then I was overtaken by grief and couldn't speak to him," she said.
For now, all they seem able to do is grieve and spend sleepless nights wondering whether their sons will ever return home.







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