'Gang mentality': Former jihadist tells inquiry how he left extremism

Former religious extremist details deradicalisation journey at antisemitism royal commission In short: A former religious extremist has detailed his journey to deradicalisation at the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion. Mubinoddin Shaikh says he was radicalised as a teenager, but became disillusioned after 9/11. He says antisemitism appears to be the "connective tissue" across extremist ideologies. A former Salafi jihadist-turned undercover operative has told the antisemitism royal commission how he became radicalised after an encounter with the Taliban. After radicalising as a young man, Mubinoddin Shaikh became disillusioned with extremism following the 9/11 terror attacks. He said in his work combating extremism in the decades since, he observed that antisemitism appeared to be the "connective tissue" across different ideologies. On Thursday, Mr Shaikh appeared at the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, which has been examining pathways to violent extremism and subsequent disengagement with harmful ideologies. Mr Shaikh grew up in a conservative Muslim household in Toronto, Canada, and said he travelled to Pakistan in mid-1995 on an immersive religious tour with the Tablighi Jamaat Islamic movement. Prior to this, he said he had been shamed by his uncle after being caught "red handed" throwing a house party while his parents were out of town; an incident which Mr Shaikh described as pivotal to setting him on the path to religious extremism. While visiting mosques and interacting with Pakistani locals, Mr Shaikh had a chance encounter with members of the Taliban carrying weapons. "One of them responded, 'If you want to succeed in this life and the next, you do it with this'. And then he picked up the AK-47," he told the commission. He said he "became enamoured" with the men and their beliefs at a time when he was seeking a sense of belonging. "I wanted to be like them, I wanted to join them," he said. "I thought I had found the group that I should have been with." 'Gang mentality' Upon his return to Canada, Mr Shaikh left the Tablighi Jamaat and joined an extremist Salafist group. The group discussed geopolitical events and wars, and talked about going to fight in Chechnya, where Russia had invaded, but were dissuaded from doing so. "Going overseas and fighting the great jihad was that umbrella desire … that we all had," he said. "It became like a gang mentality in many ways when we would walk around with our brothers … we really felt empowered. "We knew that we were intimidating people." Mr Shaikh met regularly with the group between 1995 and 1998, but started to disengage with their activities after he married and started to plan for a family of his own. Path to deradicalisation He said the trigger point for his deradicalisation came after the 9/11 attacks in New York City, saying he struggled to reconcile the acts of mass violence with Islam. "While we were talking about these foreign wars that were happening in the name of Islam and how that was all legitimate, now that fight got brought to the home front," he said. "Especially seeing planes fly into buildings … I could not understand how this fit into the Islamic war tradition." Meanwhile, he said others in his Salafist group were "jubilant" over the attacks, prompting him to sever ties and begin the journey to deradicalisation. In subsequent years, he pursued Arabic and Islamic studies and studies around Sufi spirituality in Syria. He was later recruited to be an undercover operative with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. He was also involved in counter-ISIS activities for the US military. Mr Shaikh now works with Peace for Parents, a not-for-profit that supports families and other groups affected by extremism. He works one-on-one with young people referred to the program by parents, guardians or schools concerned about their behaviour or beliefs. He said the group had recently established a specific intervention strategy for antisemitism-related cases. "Seventy per cent of our cases show some kind of antisemitic influence," he said. "Antisemitism appears to be the connective tissue across extremist ideologies."