The leftist/Islamic alliance is longstanding and generally strong, although it has been showing some signs of strain in recent years over the left’s insistence upon embracing gender madness and celebrating every deviant behavior that human beings can decide to spend their time doing.
For the most part, the alliance has persisted simply because both groups seem to have agreed to ignore their differences, and to focus instead upon destroying patriotic movements and attaining as much political power as possible. It's rare to see someone on one side embrace other aspects of the other’s agenda — that is, one rarely sees a leftist praising Islam’s morality (polygamy, child marriage, female genital mutilation, etc.), or a Muslim endorsing the left’s climate fantasies. One just did, however, in a most imaginative way.
The Western Standard reported Thursday that “it has been revealed that the man suspected of stealing a plane in Victoria and flying it to Vancouver described himself as a ‘messenger of Allah’ sent to ‘save humanity from climate change.’” Yes, really. “Shaheer Cassim was arrested shortly after touching down at YVR,” that is, Vancouver International Airport, “on Tuesday and subsequently charged with hijacking, which under Canada’s criminal code could implicate him in terrorism.”
Less than a day before he decided to fly the friendly skies of British Columbia, Cassin wrote on Facebook, in a message that, contrary to the usual practice, still hasn’t been taken down: “I am Sam Carana, editor of the Arctic news blog. I am Shaheer Cassim, editor of ShaheerCassim.com.” That site does appear to have been taken down.
Cassim, however, has plenty more to say on Facebook. “I am a messenger of Allah,” he continues. “I am the messiah sent to save humanity from climate change and usher in an era of world peace.” He didn’t add “I’m an absolute nut driven to the point of madness by fanaticism in the cause of bad ideas,” but that was clear enough without his having to say so.
Sounding like Al Gore in a particularly apocalyptic mood, Cassim continued: “The Arctic sea ice is going to disappear within two years. When that happens, huge amounts of methane are going to erupt from the Arctic Ocean, triggering abrupt runaway global warming, turning Earth into Venus. Humans will go extinct within the first few years.” Well, at least we won’t have to worry about the deficit.
The messenger of Allah/messiah/hijacker did, however, offer some hope: “We must begin geoengineering immediately to stabilize the Arctic ice sheet and prevent human extinction. People of the world, mobilize. Mobilize now!” And apparently he determined that stealing a plane would get that message out, and lo and behold, he was right. After all, if he hadn’t purloined the aircraft, you likely would never have heard about his important message for humanity at all.
And that message came from a personage of some considerable authority. It seems that “The angel Gabriel appeared before me and gave me a message from Allah. You can find that message at ShaheerCassim.com,” which seems to be no more, so alas, we may never find out what the angel Gabriel told Shaheer Cassim.
Cassim does, however, still have no fewer than fourteen blogs on blogger.com, including “Quit Smoking Cannabis”; “Will Terrorists Receive 72 Virgins in Heaven?”; “To A Sustainable Future”; “On The EXTREME Risk Of Societal Collapse From Solar Flares”; “Was Jesus Crucified”; and one that Cassim may have been able to write from considerable personal experience: “Psychiatric Ward Reforms.”
Apparently energized by his divine mandate, Cassim entered the Victoria Flying Club in British Columbia, of which he was not a member, and zeroed in on a Cessna 172 aircraft. According to the Richmond, British Columbia detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, reports the Western Standard, “the plane belonged to the Victoria Flying Club and was flown across the Strait of Georgia to Vancouver after being stolen by a non-member. The suspect and sole occupant of the aircraft cooperated with police, and was arrested ‘without incident.’”
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The plane theft did, however, cause a lot of trouble at the Vancouver airport: “Numerous flights were delayed and a total of nine inbound aircraft were ‘diverted to alternate airports’ during the 39-minute ground stop.”
Shaheer Cassim may be someone who genuinely deserves the designation of being mentally ill that is given to so many Islamic jihadis to avoid calling them what they really are. Whatever the true state of his mind may be, however, he demonstrates anew the danger of leftist propaganda: some people are going to believe it, and get the idea that they have to take drastic action. He’s a case study in the danger of the climate hysteria, besides the boiling oceans and melting ice caps and whatnot.