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Earlier this year, the U.S. State Department added Shirdon to their list of “Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” calling him a prominent fighter, recruiter and fundraiser, as well as a significant national security threat.

The April 19 decision also added Canadian Tarek Sakr to the most-wanted list — believed to be part of a group of Quebecers who left for Syria between 2011 and 2012.

Shirdon landed on Interpol’s most-wanted terrorist list in 2015 for leaving Canada to join a terrorist group, as well as participating in and instructing others to join a terrorist group.

He was also charged-in-absentia by the RCMP in September of that year for participation in the activity of a terrorist group, as well as counselling others to carry out terrorist activity.

Born in Toronto before moving to Calgary with his family, Shirdon — whose uncle was once prime minister of Somalia — was a student at SAIT and worked at the Scotiabank Chinook movie theatre.

While he wasn’t the first Calgarian to flee the country to join ISIS, he was one of the most prominent, said former U of C political scientist and homegrown extremism expert Dr. Michael Zekulin.

“He was a part of what we call the ‘Calgary Cluster,’ ” he said.

“They were not the only cluster, but they were the very first public one.”

Shirdon, he said, was contemporaries with other Calgary extremists including Damian Claremont, Salman Ashrafi and brothers Collin and Gregory Gordon — all of whom died while fighting alongside ISIS.

“He will be very well known, obviously in the Calgary context — but he was actually the public face for ISIS for a very long time,” he said.

“Canada-wide, and not just Calgary-wide, you cannot take past indicators as any prediction of what’s going to unfold in the future with this.

“ISIS is on the ropes, sure, but the ideology and the ideas still exist.”

bpassifiume@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @bryanpassifiume