(Toronto Star) Amarnath Amarasingam and Mubin Shaikh are both regarded as experts in radicalization.
Both say they have spent extensive amounts of time getting to know and giving advice to Shehroze Chaudhry, a 26-year-old Burlington, Ont., man now facing a rare terrorism-hoax charge and recently labelled a “fabulist” by the New York Times over his claims that he committed atrocities on behalf of the Islamic State in Syria.
For his part, Shaikh, a Seneca College professor and former counterterrorism operative for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and Royal Canadian Mounted Police, says he now believes Chaudhry never stepped foot in Syria and got caught up in his own “fantasy.”
Yet Amarasingam, a Queen’s University professor, isn’t so quick to dismiss Chaudhry’s claims, noting he’s seen signs of “remorse” and “survivor’s guilt” in the young man.
