En somalier ved navn Abdulahi Hasan Sharif blev arresteret efter at have kørt en betjent ned og derefter knivstukket ham. Han kørte også fire andre personer ned, da han forsøgte at stikke af fra politiet. Somalieren skal være kommet til Canada som flygtning.

Edmonton har en gruppe af radikaliserede muslimer og politiet tror, at dette var medvirkende eftersom Sharif havde IS-flag med sig. Mange jihadister er rejst fra Edmonton til Syrien.

Det skal en professor til for at undskylde dem. Professor Dawson ved Ontario’s University of Waterloo siger, at det somaliske miljø har kæmpet en tapper kamp med traumatiserede flygtninge :

 “There is a cluster of young people who radicalized a number of years ago in Edmonton. The Somali community has struggled valiantly with this. They have tried to prevent their own people from radicalizing, but they are dealing with refugees who have experienced trauma.”

Terrorangrebene i Edmonton kan komme af, at IS-leder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi opfordrede jihadister til at brænde fjenden – uanset hvor de er, siger professor Dawson.

Ved University of Alberta finder vi terrorforsker og professor John McCoy. Han er, sammen med professor Dawson, mest bekymret for et mulig backlash mod det somaliske miljø.

He and Dawson worry the attack could lead to a backlash against Canada’s overwhelmingly law-abiding Muslim community.

Canadisk politi har udsendt denne overvågningsvideo, som viser det øjeblik, hvor jihadisten kører betjenten ned:

En kollega til den arresterede Sharif siger, at han var IS-sympatisør og meldt til politiet.

«He had major issues with polytheists. He said they need to die. That sort of thing. I only had a handful of conversations with him about it; those only occurred when there were just two of us in the work room.»

To år tidligere var Sharif blevet efterforsket som mulig jihadist, men de manglede beviser. Konklusionen blev derfor, at han ikke udgjorde nogen national trussel.

RCMP Assistant Commissioner Marlin Degrand said the investigation concluded that he was not an national security threat. «At the end of that exhaustive investigation, there was insufficient evidence to pursue terrorism charges or a peace bond»

Edmonton Journal