Meet the Canadian 'cheerleader' for ISIS

Canada, you have a problem:

This is 'Abu Turaab'—an ISIS Twitter cheerleader. We revealed his true ID today. He's Canadian http://t.co/O9MZNhwa9C pic.twitter.com/pllKXUQ57f

— National Post (@nationalpost) September 16, 2014

Here’s the opener to the piece:

Adept at using social media and fluent in English, Abu Turaab is part of the new generation of jihadists who have stormed the Internet to spread the dark message of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham. On Twitter, he cheerleads ISIS atrocities, quotes terrorists like Anwar Al-Awlaki and tries to coax others into joining him in Syria. He eulogizes dead jihadists and mocks U.S. troops as “criminals and high school dropouts.”

“Can’t wait for the day IS [as he calls ISIS] beheads the first American soldier. Soccer anyone?” he wrote in August. After ISIS beheaded American journalist James Foley, he added, “I guess it’s time to play soccer boys :)”

Media outlets ranging from The New York Times to the Daily Mail and Vice.com have quoted his missives, and the U.S. State Department recently singled him out as part of its Think Again Turn Away campaign to disrupt terrorist recruiting.

While he has been careful not to reveal his real identity, posting only photos of himself wearing ski goggles or with a scarf covering his face, the National Post has learned he is a 23-year-old Canadian citizen named Mohammed Ali.

The former resident of Mississauga left the country in April, telling his parents he was flying to Turkey for a tour. He said he’d be gone two weeks but after arriving in Istanbul, he crossed the border into northern Syria.

His Twitter page now says he is in the “Islamic State,” the name ISIS calls the areas it roams. He is the first suspected ISIS member from the Toronto area to be publicly identified so far. He did not respond to requests for comment.

The news of yet another Canadian’s alleged involvement in ISIS comes as Western and Arab allies are mobilizing against the terrorist group, which has capitalized on the security vacuum in Syria and Iraq to carve out a safe haven.

After years of investigations and a trial that began 12 months ago, Reza Moazami, an Iranian-Canadian pimp, was found guilty of exploiting, coercing and assaulting almost a dozen young women, most of them minors, all of them abused.

He was convicted of 30 of 36 prostitution-related counts.

One of his victims, an Afghan immigrant, started working for Moazami when she was 14 years old. When police eventually found her, she was dressed in blue lingerie, waiting for her next “date.” Another girl, also recruited at 14, was forced to sell herself about five times a day.