From Jihadi to @CaliphateCop

Mubin Shaikh was the average Western teen. He grew up in Toronto, raised as Indian-Canadian by parents from the United Kingdom. He attended attended public school, joined the Royal Canadian Army Cadets (Canada’s oldest youth program), and dated cheerleaders.

Mubin Shaikh was the average Western teen. He grew up in Toronto, raised as Indian-Canadian by parents from the United Kingdom. He attended attended public school, joined the Royal Canadian Army Cadets (Canada’s oldest youth program), and dated cheerleaders. After getting caught throwing a party with alcohol, marijuana, and girls, Shaikh felt pressure from his local Muslim community to “get religious,” he said at an event at New America, where he spoke along with Dr. Anne Speckhard. He felt guilty and wanted to show that he could be a better Muslim. So at 19, in the midst of an adolescent identity crisis, he took a religious trip to Pakistan to re-connect with his cultural history. While he was there, a he stumbled upon the Taliban and decided that he didn’t want to be an average Western teenager any more. He re-invented himself as a jihadi.

So how did Shaikh get from point A in Toronto to point B in Pakistan, and later Syria?