Toronto, Canada – Canada’s Muslim community, which alerted police to an alleged plot to attack a passenger train that led to two arrests this week, said on Tuesday imams were ready to report radical members who seemed ready to cross a line.
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Police arrested Raed Jaser of Toronto and Chiheb Esseghaier of Montreal on Monday and said they had been investigating them since last fall after a tip from the Muslim community in Toronto. The men appeared in separate courts on Tuesday.
Muslims comprise around one million of Canada’s 34.5 million population.
While relations between Muslims and law enforcement are generally not as tense as they can be in the large Muslim communities in France and Britain, Canadian spy agency officials have often expressed concern about the dangers posed by radicalized youth.
Naseer Irfan Syed, a lawyer who initially approached police on behalf of a Toronto imam who was concerned about Jaser, said community figures had to figure out what was just angry talk and when there was a real threat.
“People have to realize that the community leaders and imams are concerned about these accusations and are responsible people and they will report to the authorities when necessary,” he told Reuters.
“But at the same time they will also exercise judgment so it is not done frivolously or in a knee-jerk fashion,” he said. Syed declined to name the imam who spoke with police over the train plot.
Both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Public Safety Minister Vic Toews stood up in Parliament on Tuesday to thank the Muslim community.
MUSLIM “PARTNERS FOR PEACE”
Canada’s commitment to protecting minorities is enshrined in the country’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as a number of Supreme Court judgments.
Ihsaan Gardee, executive director of the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations, also stressed the importance of the imam’s decision last year to tip off police.
“This is a clear demonstration that Canadian Muslims, whose welfare is tied to that of our fellow citizens, are in fact partners for peace,” he told a news conference in Ottawa.
“We think it’s an important thing to acknowledge the role that Muslims are playing and regularly play in outreach work. We have regular contact with security agencies.”
Canadian police briefed Muslim representatives before publicly announcing the arrests on Monday, something they have done in similar cases in the past.
The most serious Canadian plot involving Muslims occurred in 2006, when police arrested and charged nearly 20 Toronto-area men accused of planning to plant bombs at various Canadian targets. Eleven of them were convicted.
Gardee said the community was aware of the risks of radicalized youth and noted that groups of imams had in 2005 and 2010 condemned terrorism in any form.
“It’s a concern that we take very seriously and it’s something we’re continuously working to address. Can more be done? More can always be done and that’s why we’re reaching out to security agencies,” he said.
Christian Leuprecht, an expert in terrorism at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, said the tip-off reflected extensive efforts by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to improve ties with Muslims.
“One of the key things, and what makes us very different from the United States, is that the RCMP has always very explicitly separated building relationships with local communities from the intelligence gathering side of the house,” he told Reuters.
Gardee said he was confident Canadians would see the plot as the “alleged criminal and misguided actions of a few” who did not reflect or represent Muslims as a whole.
“Our message to anyone who espouses this ideology of violence is this: you have nothing to do with our faith,” he said.
Brave, good man this Imam guy…..of course now there is surely a fatwa and his life expectancy is probably about 3 weeks.
I wait the cry of mesira amoung the faithful
He did the right thing. Muslims like this imam are the only ones who can defeat militant Islam.
It’s an Oxymoron.
You can’t be a Good Galach, if your intent is the opposite of what the religion calls for.
I guess he will be out of business now or he will be put out of business because all fellow Muslims will hate him now and no Muslim will ever trust this Imam, ever again.
This guy is sooo toast!
let’s set up a fund for this imam, for the witness protection program.
1.6 billion Muslims
10 percent are radicals
equals 1.6 million radicals
we are forced into major wars with these animals!
Ihsaan Gardee executive director of the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations … ““This is a clear demonstration that Canadian Muslims, whose welfare is tied to that of our fellow citizens, are in fact partners for peace,” …”
He sounds like a real Tzaddik.
Is this true?
If it is, why is he involved with CAIR?:
“… “unindicted co-conspirator” in the recent Texas terror trial that found one of CAIR’s founding directors, Ghassan Elashi, and four other Muslim men guilty of using a charity to raise monies for a terrorist organization in the Middle East. A court filing by the U. S. Justice department that listed three Islamic groups as conspirators described CAIR as a present or past member of “the U. S. Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee and/or its organizations.”
However, neither the “unindicted co-conspirator” label nor the conviction of its former director, has affected CAIR. Thanks to funding from Saudi Arabian and Gulf Arab sources, CAIR is expanding across North America with its website claiming it “has 32 chapters in 20 states and one in Canada.”
It looks like he is trying to piggyback on the act of a well-meaning Imam for his own political gain.
#8  211; try again 10% of 1.6 billion =?  211; do u pull your statistics out of a hat? remember that 100% should be terrorists. it 217;s just that whoever isn 217;t is a frya muslim, not following the koran small letter k
First off, there 2.2 billion Muslims in the world, and even if your numbers are correct, ten percent of 1.6 Billion equals to 160,000,000 million people.
Good for him!! He gives a good name for his religion.
I’m happy I was corrected. that is a big number difference, my haymeshe math.
Canadian Muslims turn against their own if they are a threat to society. By contrast, we turn against the accusers.
To #10 Can you find a way not to let them in?
Wow, its amazing what a group of racists we have here.
Someone muslim does something right, and all you can say is he must be covering up for something bigger, he must be a terrorist, all muslims are terrorists ,ect.
you people are pathetic, get your head out of the sand.
Most people of any race/religion are generally good people who try to do the right thing. The fact that you cant even credit them for that is probably why they all hate us.
and who can really blame them