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The tall, slim teenager asks a question that’s on the minds of many of the young people gathered around the cloth-covered tables in a small meeting room at a mosque in northeast Calgary.

“If someone from ISIS or ISIL approaches you, how would you respond to them, so that you’re not attacked any further?” wonders Zubair Tariq, 16.

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“If they approach, you should be smart enough to know that ISIL/ISIS is very big criminals in the eyes of Islam,” answers Imam Syed Soharwardy, founder of Muslims Against Terrorism and the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada.

“These people reach out through the internet. These people reach out through a local community. Understand this is not somebody who is a nice Muslim or a good Muslim or a true Muslim. This is someone who is disguised as a Muslim. ISIL is a disguised Muslim.

“They say they are good Muslims but to us they are a bunch of thugs and criminals,” he continues. “They are terrorists.”