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“We’ll see,” he said.

Although there were rumours, nobody was quite sure what had happened to Mr. Maguire until the RCMP showed up at his mother Patricia’s house a few months later. They said he was in Syria. They said he had travelled there on a one-way ticket.

Since then, he has made no secret of his newfound extremism, writing online under the name Yahya Maguire that Canada was “evil” and that what he had done offered “the reward of jihad” and “the opportunity for martyrdom.”

The 23-year-old, who once aspired to play in the NHL, is now one of dozens of Canadians under RCMP investigation after allegedly making their way to Syria, some to join extremist factions such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham.

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As someone who knew Maguire, I have been asking myself, who or what killed Yahya Maguire? Who receives the blame? Many are quick to expect a collective apology from Muslims for the act committed by extremists at home or abroad, and no doubt the Muslim community always hastens to condemn acts of terrorism. But in this case, a young man who joined a community decided to run off and join a despicable organization only to be killed a year or two later, and all people will quickly declare that only Maguire is to blame.

It’s more complicated than that. Homegrown radicalization towards violent extremism is a societal issue in the same way that violence against women, suicide, bullying, drug addiction and gang violence are. Maguire was raised in our society, and in some way, we have failed him.