Kind: captions
Language: en
one day I was walking and I saw some
guys from afar beards
turban as I started to come close I
realized these guys are
armed they have rocket Propel grenades
machine guns belts of
ammunition and so I gave them my Spiel
of this is how you change the
world they listened politely and then he
picked up his k-47 he says this is how
you change the world and we're doing
that right
now and I thought to myself wow and I
was completely enamored by them at that
stage I I was bit by the the Jihadi bug
as I call
it this is where I grew up
I lived on the fifth floor of that
building the son of immigrants from
India bubin Shake grew up and still
lives in the Silverthorn neighborhood
about 10 mi from downtown Toronto it's
actually largely Italian Portuguese uh
like European background um but you have
now people from all over blacks Asians
uh Brown
Asians he lived in several
worlds his parents are observant
conservative
Muslims you know I lived a like a cliche
high school
life I wasn't bullied I wasn't picked
on we were the cool kids in that at the
school he was also a young Army Cadet he
was on his way to being a multicultural
alloy Forge in the Canadian Melting Pot
but then a seemingly minor event changed
everything in his life he threw a party
behind his parents' back and got caught
and I thought to myself how can I
possibly Salvage my reputation and then
it clicked I have to get religious
because I could see looking back in my
cultural context people who were
religious were looked upon with
respect who traveled to
India and
Pakistan for 6 months he interacted with
Muslims exploring his
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faith you know you would stay in the
mosque you would encourage people to
come and pray to listen to your talks
walk around the local area you know
prizz to other
Muslims telling them look the way to
succeed in this life and the next life
is to follow the Commandments of Allah
as shown by the way of the
Prophet one day I was walking and I saw
some guys from afar beards
turban as I started to come close I
realized these guys are
armed they have rocket Propel grenades
machine guns belts of
ammunition and so I gave them my Spiel
of this is how you change the world
they listened politely and then he
picked up his AK-47 he says this is how
you change the world and we're doing
that right
now and I thought to myself wow and I
was completely enamored by them at that
stage I I was bit by the the Jihadi bug
as I call
it they're offering a a this
totalitarian solution that has very
neatly defined boxes and who's leg
legitimate and who's not it's very
orderly and for somebody who is in this
chaos that order is worth its waiting
gold when mubin Shake came home in
1995 he was far down the road to
extremism and possibly violence I move
into more politically active extreme
Muslim types further deepening and
solidifying an anchoring of My
Views uh I recruit other kids I'm you
know preaching this Jihadi mentality for
the next six years he devoted himself to
the cause and wondered how he might join
the fight he saw friends go to the
Middle East some did not return and he
had the opportunity to go himself now I
was exposed to people who could get me
to Yemen just say the word muin and
we'll we'll have you go
and I was on that line and I could have
at any point gone he was a radical but a
radical with some nagging
doubts the things that kept me from that
was the you know stable home environment
both my parents were there I had a
relatively good ex education I had a
very good cross-cultural experience so
the idea of hating kufar non-muslims to
the point where I can just kill them
wantedly that was difficult to to get
around because they were my friends they
were people that I knew and I interacted
with on the morning of September 11th
2001 mine Shake woke up a radicalized
extremist he had not committed any acts
of violence but he was a True Believer
in Islamic inspired
terrorism everyone remembers where they
were I mean it was a life-changing event
I was watching it on TV my wife you know
people were calling my house saying Hey
do you see what happened to the joke was
are you sure my wife says you sure you
didn't have anything to do with
this I was back and forth with even my
bad friends and even from them there was
this awkward silence where somebody says
yeah but but those are innocent people
how do you justify that and there was
this moment where nobody knew what to
say but that was the moment I decided
I'm out of this I it's
ridiculous so he booked another trip to
the Middle
East this time to Syria to further study
Islam he met the right Imam at the right
time muine Shake had what psychologists
call a cognitive opening we started
talking and he realized that you know I
was this Western kid looking the way
that they look big beard long robe
for whatever reason decided hey I'm
going to work on this guy and uh you
know I spent a lot of time with him and
led me through the Quran man verse by
verse by verse as he learned the context
of these critical verses he saw the
Quran in an entirely different
light I always give this example of
chapter 9 verse 5 you know it says kill
the unbelievers wherever you find them
the Sheikh who taught me said to me do
you know normally start from verse 5 or
do you start from verse one let's start
from verse one and then you get the
context this is about the treaty that we
had with the
pagans at that
time oh so it's a very specific context
then verse four the one right before
five says this does not apply to those
polytheists who did not break the treaty
and did not fight you because you were
Muslims by the end of the two years I
realized man I had it wrong all along uh
now I'm in uh I'm empowered with this
new understanding that I have and uh the
guy told me he says go back go back and
teach the people and keep your people
safe this is not our way and show them
the
way he went back to Toronto with every
intention to do just that but then
another unexpected twist
March 29th 2004 British police foiled a
plot to plant fertilizer bombs
throughout the United Kingdom buin shik
watches the news and is shocked to learn
he went to kurran school as a young
child with one of the terrorists Ming
kaaja I contacted the intelligence
service to say listen this must be a
mistake like I know the family I know
these people this has to be a mistake so
of course on the other end the
intelligence service was like well it's
no mistake but now that you're saying
that you know the family maybe we could
come and talk to you about that they
recruited him to be an undercover
operative in late 2005 he infiltrated a
group of wbe terrorists who would later
become known as the Toronto
18 the idea was three 1 ton ammonium
nitrate truck bombs two in the city of
Toronto one hit the stock
exchange the other hitting the
intelligence service building that was
one idea another idea was to have some
car bombs go off in downtown Ottawa in
the capital city distract First
Responders and then we in a small team
would assault the Parliament building we
would take members of parliament hostage
we would behead them one by
one for 6 months former Army Cadet muine
Shake helped would be terrorists learn
how to fire
weapons build a
bomb and conduct combat training in a
remote area of
Ontario they were arrested as they
unloaded what they thought were bags of
ammonium
nitrate so at the end of the day you
know if they were able to do all these
things on their own it would have been a
catastrophic terrorist attack and even
if they just decided to go with with 50%
you would have still had many people
dead so are you proud of your
accomplishment then absolutely of course
we don't we don't put up with this stuff
I mean this is why when we say we mean
it Islam is against terrorism we will
stop Muslims from doing
it in Toronto mubin shakes days as an
undercover operative for the authorities
are over he is a family man a father of
five children his purpose now seems
clear he is pursuing a PhD in Psychology
and tactical decision making he
Advocates and advises deradicalization
programs you're right it is intervention
aimed at those who feel the same pull he
did in high school you have to show them
that what they're doing is actually not
Islam at all it's this other thing that
they've created thinking that it's Islam
thinking that it's a solution but in
fact it's the
problem my intention here is to uh put
seeds of Truth inside so that later on
when they you know go over these things
in their head they'll come back to these
these arguments
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