Intrigues Unveiled Intriguingly

"He immigrated to Montreal, Canada, in 1988 and went back to Qom, Iran, to continue his religious studies. [A] Few years after he came back to Canada to serve the community."
"[Shi'ite cleric Sbeiti founded] associations and community centres all Across Canada."
"He is an] active member of several committees and bodies involved in the community and religious activities across North America."
Centre Communautaire Musulman de Montreal website

Web

"[He described] his personal and community experiences of harassment [by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service."
"He has been interviewed tens of times by CSIS (starting well before 11 September 2001) often for hours at a time."
"Eventually, he found out that he had been placed on the no-fly list in the United States and that this was affecting him even when he was flying in Canada."
Interview with People's Committee on Immigration Security Measures

Gaby Andraos/YouTube    Imam Ali Sbeiti speaks during a Toronto appearance in May 2012.

From the description of his presence within the Shi'ite Muslim community in Canada, this is a distinguished cleric. One who has travelled widely, spreading the message of Islam far and wide, having obtained an academic eduction as an expert on Islam. Born in Iraq, he studied his religion in Lebanon and Iran. The Centre Communautaire Musulman de Montreal identifies him on their website as their imam.

A hugely respected member of the Canadian Islamic community. At least the Shia community. But someone has been spreading rumours about this scholar and cleric. Or he has left a security-alert trail behind his activities; furtive ones?

He has a "Security Case History Sheet" at Passport Canada. That history details his having damaged his passport in attempting to remove "a sticker"; obviously a visa-related affirmation of his having travelled somewhere he would prefer not be available to the next country that scrutinized his passport. Sunni Wahhabist Saudi Arabia, for example, which would surely view him with extreme suspicion, perhaps even turn him away with that sticker indicating his travels to Iran.

On attempting to enter the United States on one occasion, he suffered quite an indignity, when he was "arrested, handcuffed and put in a cell for six or seven hours" before being unceremoniously returned to Canada. On his return to Canada his passport was taken into the possession of Passport Canada at Trudeau airport in Montreal on the grounds that it had been altered. In 2009 the RCMP Integrated National Security Enforcement Team in Montreal informed the passport office that Imam Sbeiti was "of interest" to the section and the man "flagged" as a result.

His entry and exit stamps on his passport were from Lebanon, Iran, with travel to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey. So this is a well-travelled man, perhaps not a sophisticate in the ordinary meaning of the world, but he has been around, and he obviously knows his audience as well as he does his religious sect. Do his actions include something other than purely Islamic mentoring? Obviously travel is of vital importance to the imam.

So it comes as a blow that federal officials have revoked his passport. He is, after all a Canadian citizen, one who has been notified his passport has been "invalidated" with Passport Canada in the process of reviewing his "eligibility for passport services". He was ordered to surrender his passport, the order paperwork citing federal regulations, but omitting any explanation for the action.

This, obviously, will not be the last the public will hear of this situation. And most certainly it will be of particular interest to hear further the whys and wherefores leading to the revocation of a citizen's passport, effectively holding him hostage to suspicion of his activities at a time when Islam and the world at large have been menaced and plagued by a ferociously wide swath of Islamist terrorism through the call to the ummah of jihad.