They arrive at Courtroom No. 37, emptying their pockets and taking off their shoes like the rest of the observers going through the security at Momin Khawaja's terrorism trial. The middle-aged couple sits in the centre section of the near-empty courtroom. The tall, balding white-haired husband looks composed as lawyers pore over surveillance transcripts, electronic component diagrams and case law. His petite wife sits at his side, her hijab scarf framing a face lined with worry. Since the start of their son's trial in late June, Mahboob and Azra Khawaja have listened to prosecutors describe how their 29-year-old son allegedly built a remote-control detonator to help a terrorist group blow up landmarks in the United Kingdom. This week, they heard their son's lawyer explain that Momin isn't technically a terrorist since he wanted to wage jihad in Afghanistan, not the U.K., and use his so-called "Hi-Fi Digimonster" against Western soldiers, including Canadians.
While the guilt or innocence of the software designer will hinge on the definition of terrorism that Ontario Superior Court Justice Douglas Rutherford eventually makes in the precedent-setting case, Momin's father says his son doesn't harbour any hostility toward Canadians.
"He's not the guy who would have any hatred for anybody here in Canada," Mahboob told the Sun yesterday in his first interview since the start of the trial two months ago. "He's not the guy who'd have any hatred for anyone. That's not the way we brought up our children, living here and being born in Canada and seeing different parts of the world," said Mahboob, a college administrator who lived in Saudi Arabia with his wife and children when Momin was a child.
While the trial has heard the computer programmer explain in e-mails that he wanted to devote himself to "the J" -- violent jihad against the non-Muslim world -- Mahboob says it's simply the angry talk of a young man upset at the invasion of Afghanistan by U.S. and U.K. forces. "All kids are emotional at this stage of their life and they're going through developmental processes. They are changing, shifting on a weekly, monthly basis," said Mahboob of an e-mail where Momin tells his then-fiancee "the actions of 19 men on Sept. 11 are the most accurate, effective and honourable way of conducting economic J."
While defence lawyer Lawrence Greenspon says Momin wanted to fight with Islamic insurgents in Afghanistan, his father called Momin's interest in jihad "a hobby." "This could be considered a hobby but not a professional pursuit in any way I could imagine," said Mahboob, who views jihad as "a struggle" involving "self-development and making good changes for you and developing for the good of the society."
In one e-mail to his fiancee, Zeba Khan, in the fall of 2003, Momin said his mother wanted to make sure that his future wife was "down with the J, and knew of my involvement with it. I told her that I had explained myself to you in regards to the J, so I in trust (sic) Allah with all my affairs of life."
"It's news to me," said Mahboob of his wife's views. "I don't think my wife has any comment on jihad. It's just a general concept," he said. "I don't think we have any hatred. We have harmony, respect and consideration," he added.