10 Mar 2019

Mubin Shaikh: Mark Taylor is at the "most extreme level of risk assessment"

From Sunday Morning, 7:11 am on 10 March 2019
Mubin Shaikh before as a supporter of Jihadi culture (L) and after (R)

Mubin Shaikh before as a supporter of Jihadi culture (L) and after (R) Photo: supplied

Mubin Shaikh is a former Taliban sympathiser who underwent a drastic identity crisis which led him to become an intelligence and counter-terrorist operative for Canadian law-enforcement services. He has since become an expert in radicalisation, de-radicalisation and counter-terrorism, and has been following the story of the 'bumbling jihadi', New Zealander Mark Taylor, since first tracking him in 2014. He explains why he doesn't have a great deal of sympathy for Taylor, because of the age he was when he travelled to Syria to join Islamic State (IS), the amount of time he has spent there, and the fact he engaged in combatant activities -- putting him "on the most extreme end of risk assessment"