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“To think a person who I used to stand next to in prayer three years ago would turn out like this is unbelievable,” a former university acquaintance, who disagreed with Mr. Maguire’s extremist views, said after watching the video.

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Looking gaunt and sounding alien to those who knew him in Canada, he spoke in English and seemed to read from a script. The camera shots appeared to be staged to show ruined buildings and a mosque dome in the background.

The video is part of a propaganda push by ISIS that appears designed to attract recruits and use the threat of terrorism to deter the U.S.-led air campaign that has killed hundreds of fighters and, according to military officials, stalled the group’s advance.

“It follows quite closely to the theme of a variety of videos aimed at Western audiences, like the video aimed at French Muslims a few weeks ago,” said Professor Amarnath Amarasingam of the Dalhousie University Resilience Research Centre, who is studying Canadian foreign fighters.

“The interrelated themes are of course ones of religious obligation: if a caliphate has been established and Muslims have been persecuted by the state you are living in, you are required to leave the state you are living in. The risk of staying is hellfire. Maguire’s video is similar to the video aimed at French Muslims, asking a simple question: what are you waiting for?”

The video refers repeatedly to the October killings of two Canadian Forces members in Quebec and Ottawa by men who had adopted Islamist extremist beliefs. It said the attacks were a “direct response” to Canada’s military role in Iraq.