you were a jihaddist why did you become one? it s a mix of ideology and foreign policy grievances. for me i was made to feel guilty about the western lifestyle that i was living, trying to find my way my identity who am i supposed to be, how western am i supposed to be? how islamic am i supposed to be? are the two incompatible, as i tried to answer these questions, i find myself moving towards more extreme views. why did you stop being a jihadist? well, it really came down to studying the religion properly. i mean, these extremists they cherry pick verses. i spent two years studying islamic and arain bic studies. i went h. a professor that went through and debunked them. was it difficult to leave? i assume had you friends in syria, right? yeah. when i was still in canada and with these extremist individuals, i mean, yeah, there were people that they were with me, three of my friends, two of them went to