A Montrealer suspected of joining violent Islamist groups overseas says he was radicalized by his treatment at the hands of Canadian authorities.
Wassim Boughadou spoke to La Presse from Turkey.
He was born in Montreal to Algerian parents, grew up in Cote des Neiges and went to high school in Outremont, then to College de Maisonneuve. He says as a teenager, he was greatly affected by the "Herouxville Affair", which generated much discussion about the reasonable accomodation of immigrants and minorities. He says he was often made to feel like a second class citizen.
Boughadou says as a young man he was interested in martial arts and weapons not for terrorism purposes but as part of his belief that a Muslim man should be ready to defend his family. He says his firearms training at a suburban gun range put him on the radar of the Mounties and they ended up seizing his weapons and putting him under surveillance. Boughadou says that is what radicalized him and convinced him to leave the country that he'd grown to despise.
He says to be a Muslim in Canada is to be deprived of the right to exist, especially if you have political views of Islam that are considered out of the mainstream. He says he arrived at the conclusion that a military solution was needed and he had to leave Canada.
The 25-year old refused, however, to talk to La Presse about exactly what he has been doing overseas since he left Montreal in 2012.
He is suspected of taking part in the kidnapping of two American journalists in Syria that year.