Local Muslim activist Shahina Siddiqui is desperately trying to save the future of a young University of Manitoba engineering student facing criminal charges for invoking the Islamic State (IS) during an alcohol-fuelled confrontation on campus.
“It always breaks my heart when I see young people in this situation,” Siddiqui, executive director of the Islamic Social Services Association, said Thursday. “I would hate for this young man to lose his future.”
The 24-year-old engineering student, born in Somalia and raised in Winnipeg, said in an earlier interview he’s being unfairly disciplined for making a reference to the Islamic State after he was kicked out of a campus bar two weeks ago.
Siddiqui said she is working with the student and his family, and with both the U of M and the Winnipeg Police Service.
The student was arrested by Winnipeg police and faces two charges of uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm.
“Security, they had me in cuffs, on the ground. Security was laughing at me,” the student said.
“I said, ‘This is, you know, the reason why these kids go join ISIS,’ ” he said, referencing the extremist group accused of committing violent acts in Syria and Iraq. Meanwhile, he said students from a Muslim country with whom he had been playing pool in the bar stood by and said, “You’re a hero.”
But the engineering student said the bouncers and campus security officers are saying he said “I’ll go join ISIS and come back tomorrow and bomb the university.”
The student said going overseas to join the Islamic State and return to campus in the space of barely a day is impossible.
“I’m not religious,” he pointed out, “and what radical drinks in a bar?”
The accused is banned from campus and is falling further behind in his courses. The student acknowledged in an interview he wasn’t sober when he had the confrontation with bouncers and campus security, and that it was not the first time he’s been in trouble while drinking on campus.
“He does have a drinking issue,” Siddiqui said. “He is definitely an intelligent young man… his behaviour is absolutely unacceptable.”
Siddiqui pointed out his invoking ISIS in the situation was “not the smartest thing to do in this environment.”
The student agreed, but maintained he was the victim throughout.
“I brought that word up — maybe that’s why I’m being scrutinized. I know what political correctness is,” the student said, but argued he should not be punished for referring to a terrorist group “when you’re getting beat up and want to go home.”
U of M marketing and communications director John Danakas said privacy rules prevent the university from discussing individual students.
Source: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com
