There are so many better things to be “stressed” over here than feigning victim-hood over the investigation. At the very least, they could be concerned about their co-religionists whose sons have disappeared on them. Better yet, they could be concerned for the potential victims of the Winnipeg jihadists. And most of all, they could and ought to be deeply “stressed” over the Islamic teachings that drive young Muslim men to wage jihad at home and abroad. If there’s so much “misunderstanding” of Islam going on, why not get right on that?

But they’re busy, along with being stressed, you see. Busy reminding you who the “real” victims are here. “Winnipeg students said to have joined jihad,” by Nick Martin and Bruce Owen for the Winnipeg Free Press, October 1 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Three Winnipeg students who have disappeared in Pakistan have joined the international jihad, a Muslim student leader at the University of Manitoba says he was told by investigators from the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS).

“They specifically said they are going for the jihad, they are going for religious fighting,” Shariq Kidwai, former president of the U of M Muslim Students Association, said yesterday.

Mr. Kidwai said CSIS investigators interviewed him about students Ferid Imam, Muhannad al-Farekh and Miawand Yar shortly after he became association president in 2008.

They had disappeared in 2007.

“I was told [by the federal agents] they [the three students] wrote some notes, which were very discouraging: We are saying final goodbyes to our families, we won’t see them again,” Mr. Kidwai said.

The Globe and Mail reported yesterday about an international search for the young men involving CSIS, the RCMP and the FBI. The students flew to Pakistan in 2007 without notifying their families, according to the paper.

“Ferid, he was president [of the association] before me,” said Mr. Kidwai, who said he did not know the three young men very well, but encountered them while attending daily prayers on campus. He said he was not certain what they were studying.

The officers from the federal spy agency were friendly when they interviewed him, and seemed especially interested in discovering whether the three men had left Canada voluntarily, Mr. Kidwai said.

He said it troubles him to hear reports that the RCMP may be interviewing young Muslim men on campus randomly. “It portrays every Muslim this way, which is absolutely not true,” he said.

Community activist Shahina Siddiqui said yesterday that the young men’s decision to leave, and the subsequent investigation by the RCMP, have left some Muslim families in Winnipeg feeling stressed.

“It’s been going on for three years. Families have come to me for stress and counselling,” said Ms. Siddiqui, executive director of the Islamic Social Services Association.

She said the RCMP have repeatedly interviewed other young Muslim men in the city. “It’s the persistence that was the most troubling — it was show up at home, show up at school. Are they themselves under investigation?” she said….