Islamic Terrorism in the West ( Mega thread)

[GAP]

Is this any different than a Catholic predominate area, a predominate Jewish area, a Hutterite colony?

It depends on the restrictions...

 

[dangerboy]

The difference from what I can tell is with a predominate Catholic or Jewish area these occurred because people decided to move in those areas, they were not exclusively Catholic or Jewish anybody could live there but non-whatever religion (or group) chose not to.  With this it sounds like only Muslims can live there and if you are not Muslim you can't live there. 

 

[George Wallace]

The difference from what I can tell is with a predominate Catholic or Jewish area these occurred because people decided to move in those areas, they were not exclusively Catholic or Jewish anybody could live there but non-whatever religion (or group) chose not to.  With this it sounds like only Muslims can live there and if you are not Muslim you can't live there.

Sound familiar......Only a few days ago, University upholds Muslims only can attend classes on Islam.....A trend seems to be developing........Not a good one.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Is this any different than a Catholic predominate area, a predominate Jewish area, a Hutterite colony?

It depends on the restrictions...

The British suffered through a terrorist war in NI spurred largely by the centuries old practise of the ghettoization of Catholics and Protestants. The people who lived in these 'Tribal Areas' as they were called were supposed to be safe, but in reality were preyed upon by extremists and gangsters from their own communities who extorted money from them and did everything a good old fashioned protection racketeer would do to get money, and reluctant volunteers, to support the 'cause'.

If they allow this to happen, it will likely be horrible for both the people within and outside of the Get-to

 

[CougarKing]

At least they caught him before he could leave...

National Post

U.S. reservist arrested after allegedly trying to enter Canada on his way to Syria to join Al-Qaeda-linked group

Before he boarded a Greyhound bus to Vancouver on the weekend, U.S. Army National Guard reservist Nicholas “Assad” Teausant boasted that he would one day be an infamous Al-Qaeda terrorist.

“I’m going to be on the front of every single newspaper in the country. Like I want my face on [the] FBI’s top twelve most wanted. Because that means I’m doing something right,” he said.

But Mr. Teausant’s Al-Qaeda fantasy came to an abrupt end late Sunday when U.S. Customs agents arrested him on a bus in Blaine, Wash., as he was attempting to cross the border into Canada.

The 20-year-old private has been charged with attempting to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an armed faction that wants to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad and impose its brutal version of Islamic law in the region.

(...EDITED)

 

[OldSolduer]

At least they caught him before he could leave...

National Post

He must have felt totally excluded....... :facepalm:

 

[tomahawk6]

How about the digger that went to Syria to fight with the rebels and was killed ?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-18/serving-australian-soldier-killed-in-syria/5329184

 

[CougarKing]

A copycat terrorist?

Military.com

FBI Hunts Army Recruit Suspected of Plotting Jihad

Fox News | Apr 01, 2014 | by Jana Winter

The FBI is searching for a recent Army recruit believed to be planning a "Fort Hood-inspired jihad against U.S. soldiers," FoxNews.com has learned.

The alert, whose legitimacy was confirmed by military and law enforcement officials, stated that a man identified as Booker had told friends of his "intention to commit jihad." Booker, who is also known as Muhammad Abdullah Hassan, was recruited by the U.S. Army in Kansas City, Mo., in February 2014 and was scheduled to report for basic training on April 7. But he was discharged last week, apparently after law enforcement authorities learned of his alleged plan.

Both the FBI and the 902d Military Intelligence Group at Fort Leavenworth are involved in the hunt.

(...EDITED)

 

[CougarKing]

Babbar Khalsa in the news again.

How can one be called "comparatively moderate" while maintaining their membership in a terrorist group?  :

Canadian Press

Immigration board orders member of Sikh terror group deported from Canada
The Canadian Press

By Keven Drews

VANCOUVER - Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board has ordered the deportation of a British man for belonging to Sikh separatist group that was engaged in terrorism.

Board member Geoff Rempel said in a ruling released Friday that Gurmej Singh Gill was a prominent member of Babbar Khalsa, which was also known as Babbar Khalsa International, and was personally connected to the group's international leaders, travelled extensively, attended conferences and engaged the media.

Rempel said Gill was likely aware of Babbar Khalsa's terrorist activities during his tenure with the group, whether or not he supported them.

"It is difficult to believe that Mr. Gill could have been unaware of the terrorist activities perpetrated by the BK/BKI in the 1980s and early 1990s, yet he remained a prominent member of the organization for many years," said Rempel.

"Even if Mr. Gill was comparatively moderate and did not approve of those tactics himself, he continued to belong to the organization."

As a result, Gill is inadmissible to Canada under the Immigrations and Refugee Protection Act, ruled Rempel.

Sukhjinder Grewal, Gill's lawyer, was not immediately available for comment.

When asked if Gill had been deported, the Canada Border Services Agency said it doesn't speak to individual cases because of privacy laws.

"The decision to remove someone from Canada is not taken lightly," the agency stated in an email. "The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act states that removal orders must be enforced as soon as possible. The CBSA is firmly committed to doing this."

Babbar Khalsa has been linked to the 1985 Air India bombing that killed 331 people on two flights that originated in Vancouver, and the Canadian government added it to a list of banned terror groups in 2003.

(...EDITED)

 

[Brad Sallows]

Depends on who you're being compared to.  Every oddball political faction needs a couple of members who are really out there so that the remaining members can be billed as "comparatively moderate".

 

[Edward Campbell]

Another group, a 'charity,' is recognized as (or declared to be, if you like) a terrorist entity according to this article which is reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the Globe and Mail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/charity-that-worked-in-palestine-added-to-canadas-terrorist-list/article18320497/#dashboard/follows/?click=drive

Charity that worked with Palestinians added to Canada’s terror list

DANIEL LEBLANC AND COLIN FREEZE
Ottawa and Toronto — The Globe and Mail

Published Tuesday, Apr. 29 2014

A Mississauga charity that has worked in the Palestinian territories has been added to the federal government’s list of terrorist entities.

On Tuesday, the government said it had reasonable grounds to believe that the International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy Canada (IRFAN-Canada) has “knowingly carried out, attempted to carry out, participated in or facilitated a terrorist activity or is knowingly acting on behalf of, at the direction of or in association with such an entity.”

IRFAN-Canada had already lost its licence to issue tax receipts in 2011. The federal government pulled the status after years of tax audits and legal battles over allegations that the charity is tied to Hamas terrorists.

According to Public Safety Canada, IRFAN-Canada transferred approximately $14.6-million to various organizations associated with Hamas between 2005 and 2009.

“The Government of Canada is unwavering in its commitment to protect Canadians from the threat of terrorism,” Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney said in a statement. “By listing IRFAN-Canada, we are sending the strong message that Canada will not tolerate terrorist activities including the financing of terrorist groups. IRFAN-Canada has knowingly financed Hamas, a listed terrorist entity, for many years. The well intentioned and charitable Canadians who sought to support humanitarian relief through this organization deserve better.”

According to the Canada Revenue Agency, IRFAN-Canada “provided resources to operating partners that were run by officials of Hamas, openly supported and provided funding to Hamas, or have been listed by various jurisdictions because of their support for Hamas.”

As of now, it is a crime to “deal in the property or finances” of IRFAN-Canada, according to Public Safety.

Yavar Hameed, a lawyer representing IRFAN Canada, said in an interview that “I think it is very much a political decision where there is no due process.”

He pointed out that the charity has a May 6 date where it had hoped to appeal the revocation of its charitable status.  “We're days ahead of the first time we're going to the Federal Court of Appeal," he said, adding that “this just slams the door” on the outcome.

Mr. Hameed said that the charity has effectively ceased to function since losing its tax status. “The office exists but there’s no paid staff. Just essentially a physical location."

He stressed that the charity has never been accused of abetting any terrorist acts. Rather, the government allegation, which IRFAN-Canada disputes, is that the charity had allowed some money to be diverted to entities controlled by Hamas in the Gaza strip.

The blacklisting of IRFAN-Canada is an incremental story that has taken place over the backdrop of more than 10 years .

Ten years ago, the charity sued MP Stockwell Day -- later the Conservative Public Safety Minister -- for libel after he publicly alleged the group was tied to Hamas. The matter was settled out of court.

In the early 2000s, the Canada Revenue Agency first explored whether the charity had ties to Hamas. While the initial answer was no, the agency went back at the question between 2008 and 2010, and determined that it was sufficiently tied to Hamas to be blacklisted. This finding appears to set the stage for both the ongoing appeal and the criminal designation.

There was no Federal Court case involving-IRFAN Canada. In Canada, charitable revocations are appealed directly to the appellate court.

Records show the charity spent nearly $10-million in 2009, the year that a United Nations agency credited it for helping to build a school for Palestinian girls.

Ottawa has long targeted groups that are linked to terrorist activities in the Middle East. In 2006, the Conservative government announced that Canada would be the first state to suspend aid to the then-newly elected Hamas government.

The Conservatives went on to block British MP George Galloway from entering Canada, saying he had violated terrorism laws by being an outspoken Hamas supporter. (Judges overturned the measure and allowed Mr. Galloway to enter.)

In 1993, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation secretly monitored a meeting of mostly Arab men in a Philadelphia hotel. The FBI came to harbour suspicions that the purpose of the meeting was to set up a vast network to funnel money to Hamas.

One attendee of the meeting, Canada’s Rasem Abdelmajid, went on to work as a general manager for IRFAN-Canada.

 

[George Wallace]

Do statements by a few such as these necessitate more vigilance and perhaps proactive measures?  Is this the credible threat that demands immediate government action or just a symptom of the times?  (Link in Title)

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

LINK

Jihad becoming ‘as Canadian as maple syrup’ says Calgary man who joined armed extremists in Syria

The National Post
Stewart Bell | May 7, 2014 | Last Updated: May 8 7:35 AM ET
More from Stewart Bell | @StewartBellNP

A Canadian foreign fighter in Syria taunted the “evil, despotic and Zionist Harper government” on Wednesday, claiming it was losing the battle against extremism and that fighting jihad was becoming “as Canadian as maple syrup.”

In a blog post, Abu Dujana al-Muhajir, part of a small circle of Calgary youths who left for Syria to join armed extremist groups, said “so-called radical Islamists” were gaining in popularity and the number of Canadian jihadists was growing.

He denounced leading Canadian Muslims opposed to extremist violence, naming writer Irshad Manji and imams Muhammad Robert Heft and Syed Soharwardy, calling them “deviant” and saying they were outnumbered by militants.

“Know very well that for every single sellouts [sic] like Tarek Fatah or Mubin Shaikh, we are gaining hundreds of brave Damian Clairmont and Andre Poulin from amongst you who are willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of Allah,” he wrote.

Mr. Clairmont, who lived on social assistance in Calgary, and Mr. Poulin, who had brushes with the law in Timmins, Ont., were troubled youths who converted to Islam, became radicalized and died soon after arriving in Syria.

Quoting pro-Al-Qaeda ideologue Anwar Al Awlaki saying that jihad was becoming as American as apple pie and as British as afternoon tea, Abu Dujana wrote it was “high time that we add to his statement ‘and as Canadian as maple syrup.’”

Responding to the blog post, Mr. Fatah called Abu Dujana an “Islamist promoter of a death cult” but said he agreed with him that those who subscribed to his extremist views should depart Canada to die for their cause.

“I say hallelujah,” said the author and columnist. “I urge all Canadian Islamists to follow the footsteps of this jihadi and leave Canada, permanently by burning their passports on arrival in Syria, Somalia, Pakistan or Afghanistan or whatever jihadi hellhole they wish to live in, but leave us alone and stop being the parasites that you are, eating away at Canada like termites.”

Mr. Shaikh, who helped bring down the Toronto 18 terrorist group in 2006, called Abu Dujana and his group “losers with no prospect of meaningful employment and even marriage.” He said they “depict Islam as a religion of terrorism” when “in reality, they are not even Muslims but parade around in its garb.”

Said Imam Soharwardy, founder of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada: “There is no reward for this from Allah. Their war against innocent Muslims in Syria is not jihad at all. They are committing crimes and will be punished by Allah eternally in their graves.”

A naturalized Canadian citizen, Abu Dujana, made his comments in a tribute to Mr. Clairmont, who died in Aleppo in January. Written to counter what he called the “devil’s mouthpiece of Western media,” he wrongly claimed Mr. Clairmont had been “kicked out of his house” after his conversion.

He said a “brother” had introduced Mr. Clairmont to the lectures of Al Awlaki, who was killed in Yemen by a U.S. drone. Abu Dujana and Mr. Clairmont later started a prayer group at the Downtown 8th & 8th Musallah, a Calgary Islamic Centre.

He said most members of the group “have already made it to various fronts of jihad by the grace of Allah and some have even been awarded with martyrdom like the brother Mustafa [Mr. Clairmont] while the rest of us are waiting for that honour.”

The National Post revealed last month that the RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service were investigating a small group of Calgary men believed to be fighting in Syria. CSIS says about 30 Canadians have joined extremist groups in Syria.

National Post

• Email: sbell@nationalpost.com

More links and photos from LINK:

Related
RCMP tracking ‘high-risk’ Canadians to prevent radicalized youths from joining foreign terrorist groups
The story of how a young man from Calgary ended up dead in Syria
German program that reaches out to young men caught up in radicalism could be template for Canada
Syrian extremists threaten to ‘destroy’ Canada in online video
RCMP raids Muslim relief group’s offices as Canada declares it a terrorist organization

 

[Brad Sallows]

I checked my fridge.  Maple syrup, but no jihadis.  Oh well.

I concur with Mr Fatah.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

We need more Mr Fatah"s!  :nod:

 

[larry Strong]

Moving on to stage 2:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/muslim-group-takes-next-step-in-libel-suit-against-stephen-harper-1.2654252

Reproduced under the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.

Muslim group takes next step in libel suit against Stephen Harper

A national Muslim organization is proceeding with a lawsuit against Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his chief spokesman for a comment it says linked the organization to a terrorist group.

The National Council of Canadian Muslims is filing a statement of claim in Ontario Superior Court after failing to get an apology from the Prime Minister's Office for the January remark.

Lawyer Jeff Saikaley says the council is seeking a public retraction and damages of up to $100,000.

The comment in question came after the council criticized the inclusion of controversial rabbi Daniel Korobkin in a delegation accompanying Harper to the Middle East.

In January the council took its first legal step by filing a notice of libel which quotes Harper spokesman Jason MacDonald as saying, "We will not take seriously criticism from an organization with documented ties to a terrorist organization such as Hamas."

The comment was "categorically false, offensive and defamatory," Ihsaan Gardee, the council's executive director, said at the time.

'No choice'

Discussions between the parties have not resolved the matter.

"We did have conversations with the lawyer representing Stephen Harper and Jason MacDonald, and we weren't able to reach a satisfactory agreement. So we have no choice but to proceed to the next step," Saikaley said.

"We're still hopeful that something can be done to avoid an actual trial, but for the time being this is what's been required to protect our client's interests."

The council describes itself as an independent, non-partisan, non-profit group that has worked for 14 years on human rights and civil liberties issues on behalf of Canadian Muslims.

A half-dozen other rights groups, including the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Association of University Teachers, have offered support to the Muslim group.

Larry

 

[Journeyman]

A half-dozen other rights groups, including the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Association of University Teachers, have offered support to the Muslim group.

Should that be a "rights' group" or a "Harper-hating -- regardless of cause -- group"? 

 

[The Bread Guy]

More like "USED TO Walk Among Us"....

Reports from Lebanon say that a Lebanese-Canadian, who has been on the FBI's most-wanted list of terror suspects, has been killed in Syria.

One media report published online says Faouzi Ayoub was killed in an ambush by members of the Free Syrian Army in Aleppo last week.

Ayoub, 48, was a commander of the Islamic militant group Hezbollah, which Canada and the United States have classified as a terrorist organization.

Before moving back to Lebanon, Ayoub lived in Toronto and Dearborn, Mich ....

A bit more from Egyptian media here.

 

[Edward Campbell]

"Non-violence" is an oxymoron to this religion.  They have so many "excuses" to be violent.

I responded to this post before, but this, in the Globe and Mail, offers a better explanation. The author ecplains that

    "The practice of murdering daughters and sisters who defy familial wishes and supposedly muddy the ‘honour’ of the family is practically a social institution in the tribal belts of South Asia and the Middle East. But before the reflexive
      Islam bashers begin clearing their throats, it is useful to remember that such crimes have no basis in Islam, which teaches that marriage is a consensual and equal partnership.

      The tribal practice is grounded instead in an antediluvian, violent hatred of female sexuality. Not a fear of sexuality, mind you, but a deeply entrenched loathing of it; where the clan’s entire sense of esteem is defined by the chastity
      of its women. Thus, the woman’s right to self-determination must be negated. Her genitals must be controlled. Her sexuality must be denied. She is to abide by the dictates of her father and brothers or face violent punishments.
      What we call ‘honour killings’ – a placid and useless term – should actually be called human sacrifice, because such murders-of-shame are relics from our premodern days when humans sacrificed one another based on various superstitions.
      Notice the almost universal correlation today between honour killings and illiteracy or general lack of education.

      The extreme patriarchy of Parveen’s father and brother – of countless fathers and brothers around the world – is rooted in a fundamentally totalitarian understanding of male-female relations. For ultratraditional, ultraconservative men
      like Parveen’s father, only absolute dominion over the daughter’s reproductive choices will suffice. Anything short of this is warrant for murder. The logical conclusion of this grotesque thinking is genital mutilation or murders so horrific
      one wonders how such crippling inhumanity poisoned the patriarch’s mind in the first place."

Can we change those "tribal practices?" Yes, but not with a few thousand soldiers in some dusty, dirty, poor country over, say, a dozen years. It is the work of civilization and it is also the work of centuries.

 

[jollyjacktar]

This caught my attention on the drive in today. 

Suicide bomber killed in Iraq part of wider jihadi base in Calgary
Salman Ashrafi, killed in 2013 suicide attack, lived in same building as 4 other extremist fighters

CBC NewsPosted: Jun 03, 2014 8:59 PM ET|

Homegrown extremism abroad has a new face, and CBC News has learned it belongs to yet another Calgary man, a development that points to the West as a hotbed for exporting jihadis.

His name is Salman Ashrafi, and when the Al-Qaeda splinter group ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) released images of him last month following a double suicide bombing in Iraq in November that killed 46 people, he was celebrated in a martryrdom notice.  Only then, he was known as Abu Abdullah Al Khorasani.

CBC News has confirmed that Al Khorasani was Ashrafi's nom de guerre and that he was a Canadian citizen who grew up in the Stampede City, where he went to school and worked.  The Calgarian's story is one of as many as two dozen others, most of whom left to battle alongside rebel militants in Syria.  At one time, Ashrafi led a lifestyle many would have envied, with jobs at Talisman and Exxon and huge downtown Calgary firms.

Calgary imam stunned

Much has changed since then. The revelation that he killed himself and others as part of an attack for ISIS — a group known for such grotesque violence it has even drawn condemnation from Al-Qaeda — has stunned people who spoke with CBC News and knew him.
Among them was Syed Soharwardy, the prominent Calgary imam."Oh, I know him! Oh my God," the cleric said, upon seeing a photo of Ashrafi and being told the militant was killed in the 2013 Tarmiya, Iraq, suicide attack.

Soharwardy was a longtime acquaintance of the family and had watched Ashrafi and his siblings "grow up in front of me."  Shocking though it may have been, Ashrafi's journey from being a University of Lethbridge student who organized anti-racism rallies to a violent end as a suicide bomber is not an anomaly.

Calgary connection

Calgary is earning a reputation as a breeding ground for jihadi fighters.  'It is impossible for me to think the intelligence people do not know who is radicalizing Muslim youth. It is going on undercover; it is going on openly sometimes.'- Syed Soharwardy, Calgary imam

The Muslim convert Damian Clairmont, who later took the name Mustafa al-Gharib, was killed while fighting with Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda-affiliated rebel group in Syria whose membership is made up largely of European, Australian and North American extremists.

Clairmont was also raised in Calgary, as were as many as two dozen other young men who, according to sources, have travelled to Syria to join rebel extremist groups to wage jihad in the last two years.Understanding the relationships between five men in particular — Ashrafi, two Canadian brothers, Clairmont and his roommate — could be key to unravelling how they became radicalized. CBC News is withholding the identities of the other three men until more information surfaces.

But they were all friends who dined at the same restaurants, prayed at the same mosque and lived in the same apartment building in downtown Calgary.  According to one source who knew all the men, they had meetings, sometimes in Ashrafi's apartment, where he reportedly instructed them that the only way to live with non-Muslims was to either convert them or subjugate them, and failing that migrate to a land of Islam.  They all left Canada at roughly the same time late 2012.

Path to violence

One man who knew Ashrafi in 2009 said he was "both surprised and not surprised" to hear of his path to violent extremism.  Canadian-born Muslim convert Damian Clairmont left Calgary in 2012 for Syria, where he was killed during battle against a faction of the Free Syrian Army.

"Salman had, within his personality, kind of … two sides to his personality," said the man, who did not want to be named because he is afraid of the consequences of speaking out. "On the one hand, he was an extremely kind and gentle person, but he also had a very black and white view of the world. A kind of simplistic view of the world."

Ashrafi's views troubled him.  "I tried to bring it up with him in conversation on a few occasions, but my own feeling was that he's just going to learn on his own as he grows older," he said, characterizing Ashrafi as "impressionable."  "He might have been around certain charismatic preachers in the community that might not have had his best interests in mind," he added.

It's a thought shared by Soharwardy, the Calgary imam, who has received death threats for speaking out about this topic, but feels compelled to in order to stop men in his city from killing and dying on jihadi missions abroad.  "It is impossible for me to think the intelligence people do not know who is radicalizing Muslim youth. It is going on undercover; it is going on openly sometimes," he said.

"The thing is they are recruiting Muslims to go and fight in Syria and getting them killed. It is horrible.… What is the Canadian government doing? Nothing. I mean this guy died, many, many … people died from our country. For what?"

Soharwardy said he has told police and university administrators, warning them about lecturers who might be preying on vulnerable young minds and that he believes he knows which organizations may be radicalizing young men. So far, he said, there has been no response.

CBC News reached out to the city as well as local police, who declined to comment.

As for what might have motivated Ashrafi to carry out such a deadly attack in Iraq, his family are perplexed, and still have many questions of their own. In emails to CBC News, a family member said the reports were "shocking and unbelievable," and that the family have still not accepted "that this is how Salman's life ended."
With files from Nazim Baksh, Adrienne Arsenault

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/suicide-bomber-killed-in-iraq-part-of-wider-jihadi-base-in-calgary-1.2663890

 

[d_edwards]

I checked my fridge.  Maple syrup, but no jihadis.  Oh well.

I concur with Mr Fatah.

Now that is funny.