Killing Game

de Mark Bourrie

Here is an examination of the lives of two men, framed by the war that lured them from comfortable, ordinary lives in a quiet corner of Ontario. Why were both of these men radicalized - one by the most extreme form of Islam, the other by a desire to fight it? Why did they travel to the most dangerous part of the world to fight against each other as members of foreign armies? Bourrie delves into the lives of these two young men as a framing device to examine what draws young men and women to join violent social/political movements. It looks at the psychology of young men and women today and the propaganda used by all sides in the Middle East conflicts, as well as the security laws and the political initiatives that have been designed to stop Canadians from being radicalized. This book also investigates what it is that draws young people to join and fight for causes as different as the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s and the Red Brigades of the 1970s, but with an emphasis on the attraction of ISIS and radical Islam in our own time.