Posted on 06/30/2006 2:15:59 PM PDT by fanfan
MISSISSAUGA — More than anything, Zakaria Amara wanted to serve God. But it was never easy, especially not while living in Canada.
During the summer of 2004, the then-18-year-old felt disgusted by women who were immodestly dressed. For the same reason, he couldn't watch television. He and his wife Nada Farooq stopped going to movies. One of his devout friends in England sent him a desperate e-mail asking for help in beating an addiction to pornography.
But the forces tugging at Mr. Amara -- who now stands accused of being one of two leaders in a terrorist plot -- in the years leading up to his arrest this month extended well beyond those annoyances.
In 2004, he had just married a woman whose own take on Islam was often far more extreme than his own. His wife would soon become pregnant with their first child and, on little income, he struggled to balance the needs of his family and his dreams for the future. Some of his closest friends, and later fellow suspects, were also becoming more extreme. The preachers he admired -- both on-line and in Mississauga's mosques -- expressed often anti-Canadian sentiments.
While Mr. Amara found a close circle of like-minded friends and mentors, his attempts to sell others on his beliefs were often futile.
"Trying to convince these people is like trying to subdue the Mercury Guy from Terminator 2, impossible," he once wrote on his personal blog, adding: "Unless we can get some liquid Nitrogen that is (CSIS, I was just joking)."
Mr. Amara now is accused of plotting to blow up Canadian landmarks using massive amounts of ammonium nitrate.
The Globe and Mail has uncovered thousands of on-line posts made by Mr. Amara and his friends on his personal blog and other forums in 2004 -- around the same time the young man showed up on the authorities' radar screens. This is the story of a teenager's transformation from outgoing high-school student to high-profile RCMP suspect.
The GO train is late. Apparently, it has run over someone in Cooksville in suburban Toronto.
It is the spring of 2004 and, sitting alone at the train station with some time to kill, Mr. Amara pulls out his hand-held computer and begins playing a game of Risk. By the time the train finally shows up two hours later, he has conquered the world.
Like so many teenagers, Mr. Amara has a thing for video games. Whenever he is at his in-laws' house, he forgoes polite conversation in favour of playing Halo, a hugely popular real-time shoot-'em-up.
But video games poison the mind, according to an article Mr. Amara eventually finds on a website called FocusIslam. Taking the article to heart, he reposts it on his own blog.
(All posts are as they appeared on-line.)
"Why do you want to destroy yourself with useless things?" the article says. "Life is to short, if you don't act, work and behave now, then life will fly like an arrow."
Mr. Amara is, after all, a teenager, and despite his sombre tone his posts often reflect a juvenile side. In the middle of a heated post about the perfection of God's message and Islam's superiority to Western culture, he takes a swipe at the chastity of non-Muslim women. Except he does so using one of his favourite forms of communication: freestyle rap.
"OUR SISTERS ARE PURER THAN YOUR JENNY AND YOUR HEAHTER," he composes. "THE ONLY GOOD THING ABOUT YOU IS YOUR TIM HORTEN"S MUFFIN FRITTER."
Temptation is everywhere for Mr. Amara -- wherever he turns, someone is disobeying God's will, including his parents.
Judging by the few references he makes to them on his blog, Mr. Amara's parents don't appear to be the main influence on his life. Indeed, while he makes his love for them clear, they incur his wrath when they buy a house using an interest-paying arrangement and when they ask him to cut his hair after he returns from a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in late 2003. His Cypriot mother and Arab father are now believed to be separated.
Thank you, fanfan.
Thank God for all FReepers.
FreeRepublic and the FReepers are making a difference.
No wonder this guy went bonkers, his wife was a nothing
Thank you GMMAC.
I dunno, this article seems to be standard MSM fare--humanize the monster and blame something nameless and faceless for his monstrosity, like decent, law-abiding citizens.
I think you slipped G- that's a different article, different paper and different subject with a VERY similar headline.
As I noted in when I forwarded this article to a friend in the USA, I regard this as a cautionary tale. If this young man had the opportunity to hear and respond to His message, he would probably still be free and we would be a bit safer. Teenagers with a spiritual void are open to all kinds of destructive behaviour whether it's crime, drugs, promiscuity or cults. We all need to be vigilant and we should all be prepared to point someone in the right direction if the opportunity arises, before someone else seizes to opportunity to point them in the wrong direction. In most cases we'll fail but I'd rather try first before writing off a soul.
Hmmm....Let's see, guilty b/c you're a habitual wanker?
Christianity's answer: Pray about it. Go to confession. Try to stop.
Islam's answer: Do your penance by plotting to murder Westerners who are 'responsible' for the blue movies that get you all hot and bothered.
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