The flag of Canada. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

A Canadian couple, self-described converts to Islam, who were convicted of planning to bomb the British Columbia legislature, also intended to infiltrate a synagogue and kill Jewish children, according to court documents and the Victoria Times-Colonist, reports the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA).

John Nuttall told an undercover officer that his wife, Amanda Korody, believed that “grown-up Jews” go to “eternal hell” and that she would be doing Jewish children a favor by killing them and reaching paradise, police records revealed in British Columbia’s Supreme Court show.

“I asked Nuttall how he thinks he will have access to Jewish kids and he said [he and his wife] were both white and could pass for Jewish…They will be regulars in the synagogue. They will gain the trust of everybody. And once they have everything they will get enough guns and ammo to go ahead with their mission,” read the March 2013 record from an undercover RCMP officer.

Nuttall admitted that Jewish children were noncombatants in his view, but believed they would grow up to hate Arabs and Muslims. However, Nuttall stated that “you never know, they may convert [to Islam] in their adulthood.”

Earlier this year, Nuttall and Korody were found guilty of planning to explode homemade pressure-cooker bombs at the British Columbia legislature during Canada Day celebrations in 2013.

During the investigation, police obtained a hard drive including a “terrorist plan, as well as videos and recordings of Osama Bin Laden lectures and shortcut to Inspire magazine and the Anarchist Cookbook”, according to a British Columbia Supreme Court document outlining details of the investigation and terrorist plan.

Terrorism experts often warn that converts to Islam may be more likely to embrace radical jihad. A 2004 Canadian Security and Intelligence Services (CSIS) report warned that “converts in particular are prone to extreme views because of their newfound zeal.” The report, “Canadian Converts to Radical Islam,” shows that al-Qaeda and other jihadist terrorist groups were “aware of the usefulness of converts for a variety of purposes” including propaganda and evading Western security authorities.

Understanding that Canada faces a growing threat from radical Islamism, Public Safety Canada is now funding its first study devoted to Canadian converts to Islam.

Steven Emerson is the Executive Director the Investigative Project on Terrorism (www.investigativeproject.org) where this article first appeared.