| It was a dark and stormy night... |
 TORONTO -- They came to Canada as children when their homeland Somalia fell into war and chaos. They now stand accused of taking part in a terrorist plot against the country that gave them refuge. Two of the 17 Toronto men charged with terrorism-related offences over the weekend, Yasin Abdi Mohamed, 24, and Ali Mohamed Dirie, 22, are Somali refugees who came to Canada with their families in the early 1990s.
"Forget about me, my children! Take Dondi and flee to the Great White North! There are those there who will care for you until you can... you can... avenge me! [RATTLE!]"
"Father! Oh, father! I swear by Allen, I will have Dire Revenge™ for the slights done to you! Come, Ali! Bring Dondi! Let us flee!" |
Both men are scheduled to appear in court north of Toronto on Wednesday to face charges related to an RCMP investigation into a terrorist bombing plot in southern Ontario. The two friends, college students who made money selling jeans to friends, have led remarkably similar lives marked by war, migration and now alleged involvement in terrorism.
| "Please, sir? Buy my jeans?" |
Mohammed was five when his family arrived from the Somali capital Mogadishu via Italy. "We were pretty much raised here," said Mohamed's brother Abdul, standing in the doorway of the small apartment they shared in Toronto.
| "It's been a good life. Canada is just like home. Except for the warfare. And the snow. And the Lutherans. And the Esquimeaux..." |
"Yasin (is) very religious. Every day he prays," his mother, Asha Muhayadin, said, pointing to the holy book she said her son read every morning. Mohamed would admonish his siblings for not praying more often, she recalled. "He told his brothers, `You wake up, you never say thanks to God. Are you animals?"' |