Mr. Chaudhry said in the “Caliphate” podcast that the brutal civil war in Syria, which began in 2011, woke him to the plight of Muslims around the globe and spurred him to action. At first, he told The Times that he had flown to Turkey from Pakistan and crossed into Syria on foot, sneaking through a hole in a border fence to join the Islamic State in February 2014. But suspicions arose when The Times, while reporting “Caliphate,” found no stamps for Turkey in his Canadian passport and determined that his Pakistani passport had long expired. Confrontation, and a Changed StoryBefore “Caliphate” was broadcast, The Times confronted Mr. Chaudhry with some of the inconsistencies in his account. But his transcript shows that he was awarded grades for the 2014 fall term, which ended in January 2015.

Source: New York Times December 18, 2020 11:00 UTC