BRAMPTON, Ont. - The Crown's central witness in the prosecution of an alleged Toronto-area terrorist cell admitted today that he was once a drug abuser who lived in the fast lane.
On his first day under cross-examination, Mubin Shaikh, 32, described his teenaged rebellion from Muslim orthodoxy.
Part of that included getting five tattoos and inflicting 12 cigarette burns on himself.
Shaikh, who was born and raised in Toronto, said he became a devout Muslim at aged 19 after going on a four-month program to India and Pakistan.
His testimony in Ontario Superior Court in Brampton, Ont., comes at the trial of a man charged along with 17 others two summers ago with plotting to wreak havoc against various Canadian targets.
The man, now 20, cannot be identified because he was 17 at the time of the alleged offences.
Shaikh also said he spent two years both studying and teaching in Syria.
"It was after living in Syria that I realized how good Muslims have it (in Canada),'' he said.
At one point, Shaikh said he wanted to go to Chechnya and Afghanistan to fight the Russians and Americans because, like other Muslims, he felt the religion was under attack in those countries.
He also said he sympathized with those who oppose Canada's military role in Afghanistan.
"By definition it would make them an occupying army,'' Shaikh told defence lawyer Mitchell Chernovsky.
As a result, he said, he understood why the Taliban would attack Canadian soldiers.
"If they're going to be attacking somebody, it should be combatants, and not civilians,'' he said.
