1. Police say there is no evidence to date that the Toronto shooter was linked to ISIS. A family friend just confirmed to me that the coroner has informed the family that Faisal Hussain shot himself in the head. Suicide is a major no-no in jihadist circles.
2. But the fact that ISIS claimed the attack - and no, ISIS doesn't claim every attack (they have been right more than they have been wrong) - has reignited the debate on whether someone that is mentally ill can in fact be acting at the behest of a terrorist group?
3. What the data shows is that a significant portion of the terrorist attacks linked to ISIS between 2014 and 2016 - almost one-third, according to the study below by @CTCWP - were carried out by people who had a history of mental instability: ctc.usma.edu/is-there-a-nex…
4. Some of the most famous ISIS attacks were led by young men whose families rushed to say their sons were psychotic, depressed, suicidal, or otherwise displaying signs of mental distress. They include the Nice attack which killed 86. The Orlando attack which killed 49 & so on
5. In fact, officials in the UK & in Australia have gone so far as to say that ISIS specifically targets mentally-ill people. That shouldn't surprise us. ISIS is like a farmer throwing its violent seeds over a wide field. The terror group doesn't care where those seeds take root
6. A short history of ISIS' outreach to mentally-ill people is enclosed below, written alongside the great @porterthereport. Takeaway: There's no contradiction between being mentally unwell and acting in ISIS' name: nytimes.com/2018/07/25/wor…
