In Canada, Prosecuting Funders of Islamist Terrorism -- While the Liberal Government Funds Terrorism-Enablers

On May 12, 2025, at the Superior Court of Justice in Toronto, Khalilullah Yousuf (36), of Toronto plead guilty to two charges relating to the largest terrorism financing scheme in Canadian history.

Between September 2019 and December 2022, Mr. Yousuf used cryptocurrency and money transfers to fund terrorism overseas. Yesterday, in an agreed upon statement of facts, Mr. Yousuf admitted to the financing of terrorism, contrary to section 83.03 of the Criminal Code of Canada.

"As part of the plea agreement, Khalilullah Yousuf has admitted to raising over $15,000 through the platform "GoFundMe" and contributing over $35,000 to multiple receivers for the benefit of Daesh, a listed terrorist organization."

"Regarding the second charge, Mr. Yousuf has plead guilty to participating in the activities of a terrorist group, contrary to section 83.18 of the Criminal Code of Canada. He has admitted to creating and distributing a collection of over 3,800 internet-based hyperlinks. These links were curated with the purpose of radicalizing, indoctrinating and recruiting for the benefit of Daesh, a listed terrorist organization. Between October 2020, and March 2021, Mr. Yousuf communicated with an individual in the United States who was later convicted there for attempting to provide material support to the same listed terrorist organization."

"This is the largest terrorism financing conviction to date in Canada in terms of monetary value. This conviction is also the first successful terrorism financing conviction in Canada where the accused used crypto currency and the first where they used online crowdfunding."

"The success of this RCMP-led project would not be possible without the contributions of the following Canadian partnerships: RCMP Federal Policing Central Region (Ontario) The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), Forensic Accounting Management Group (FAMG), Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC), Ministry of the Attorney General (MAG), and the Toronto Police Service (TPS)."

"The RCMP would also like to recognize and thank our international partners that were instrumental in this file: The Spanish Guardia Civil Special Central Unit 2, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Maldives Police Service."

Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 15 May 2025 report 

An RCMP patch is seen on the shoulder of a Surrey RCMP Officer in Charge on Friday, April 28, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

"At its core, terrorism is violence that seeks to justify itself. But the violence needs support by advocates, recruiters, and financiers as essential parts of the cycle of intimidation and destruction."

"The verdicts and sentences… represent how Canadian society in accordance with the rule of law, emphatically holds to account those who make the violence possible."

George Dolhai, director public prosecutions, Public Prosecution Service of Canada

 A 12-year prison sentence was handed down to a man, now 36 years of age, who has Canadian citizenship and was a resident of Toronto. Khalilullah Yousuf pleaded guilty to involvement and taking part in financing a terrorist group named as the Islamic State. He admitted to crowdfunding on such sites as GoFundMe on behalf of Palestinians in Gaza and for Muslim religious events, all the while collecting the funding by Canadian contributors to send what he collected to ISIS group supporters in the United States, Spain and other countries.

 

He had applied for, and received pandemic COVID Emergency Response Benefits (CERB) and contributed that money too that he received from the government of Canada under false pretenses. Supporters, on receiving the tens of thousands he provided for ISIS benefit, forwarded to him as proof ISIS was receiving the funding, photographs of weapons and ammunition provided by the funding, along with an ISIS flag.

 

Crowdfunding, or raising money from several investors over the Internet, has made websites like GoFundMe and Kickstarter popular. Photo: Karissa Donkin/Telegraph-Journal

 

This man and his schemes do not represent the rare and only incidents of funding collected in Canada by groups and individuals portraying themselves as legitimate charities whose only concern is raising funds for charitable programs to benefit Palestinians or other so-called marginalized groups, or civilian groups caught up in conflict in the Middle East, sending funding collected in actual fact, to the very terrorist militias that cause sectarian, tribal and anti-Western, along with anti-Israel war situations. There are a multitude of such groups masquerading as humanitarian while financially supporting Islamist terror groups.

 

In this instance, Khalilullah Yousuf, who was closely embroiled in an international ISIS funding network, communicated with the group through encrypted messages online, while taking part in recruitment and creating propaganda while providing methodology to supporters on how to mount successful attacks on behalf of violent Islamist culture. A two-year investigation on this man's activities involved intelligence forces in Canada, the U.S. and Spain, leading to an arrest in July of 2023. 

 

Cryptocurrency, increasingly being used for funding terrorism, may have signalled to authorities that there was something to investigate there. Samidoun, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hezbollah and Hamas, have all received funding through Canadian sources that have successfully exploited the Canadian public to fund terrorism both abroad and internally.

 

Popular fundraising sites encourage crowdfunding in various and mostly specific categories that include patient medical needs, support of school teams, raising funds for Palestinian children, with sky-high funding goals. And while the platforms emphasize their trust that users will collect funds only for the stated reasons and not resort to illegally collecting funding in support of proscribed terror groups, any kind of actual policing of the results is not followed as being unfeasible.  

The Government of Canada itself sends mixed messages on the funding of terrorism; on the one hand decrying terrorism, and on the other continuing to fund it with taxpayer money. As with the Liberal government overturning the previous Conservative government's cutting off of UNRWA funding in recognition of its complicity in Palestinian terrorism where UNRWA-run school curricula teach Palestinian children to hate Jews and to visualize themselves as future martyrs in the 'struggle' against Israel.

 

Proven reports that UNRWA staff were actively involved in the October 7 attacks on southern Israel, and that almost two hundred were, while on UNRWA staff, also Hamas or Islamic Jihad operatives. UNRWA teachers glorify terrorism, encourage martyrdom, demonize Israelis and incite to antisemitism among their Palestinian pupils, modelling them in the vision of Hamas. Despite all of this, known and yet excused, the Liberal government continues its funding of UNRWA.

 

Photo sent by ISIS facilitator to show donated funds were going to fighters. U.S. Department of Justice

 

 

 

The Monstrous Ideology of Mass Destruction and Murder Lives On

"Do not be happy America."
"Don't you see, America, that the [Islamic] State is now on the threshold of Europe and Central Africa?"
Islamic State audio message post-Baghdadi's death

"Baghdadi built a brand that enables anyone to jump aboard the ISIS bandwagon, claim allegiance to it, and stage an attack, maybe not now, but next year."
"That powerful brand is still alive and well."
Michael Pregent, former intelligence adviser

Photo: How can Islamic State fighters be prosecuted for their crimes? (ABC TV)

The moral malignancy that emanates from Islam's injunction to the faithful to heed Koranic principles and accede with stern determination to the basic tenet of jihad as a sacred duty that must be embraced has contaminated huge swathes of the global community. Islam, after all, is a major religion second only to Christianity for the huge number of followers it commands. And among those followers there exists a large number who have every intention of obeying the sacred scriptures convincing them that mass murder represents a religious duty not to be avoided.

Which must lead to the question whether Islam in and of itself is a mass corrupter of the human soul, instructing those who claim the faith to believe that psychopathy, unreasoning, unsympathetic, dedicated to destruction, represents a duty of the highest order. Or that people suffering from dementia, those who are labelled psychopaths in any society who indulge in the psychotic violence of hatred and slaughter are drawn to Islam. Whichever is the truth must hold Islam to fault for inciting worldwide chaos, terror, and widespread atrocities.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, like Osama bin Laden and Yasser Arafat before him, along with lesser lights with more power and followers than either ever had, like Saddam Hussein and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, rose to the occasion through a mixture of personal charisma and the powerful allure of promising that there would be no penalties to follow in the wake of murder in the name of Islam, Allah and the Prophet Mohammad, but joy and celebration, and the status of martyrdom and a welcome in Paradise would await their success.

Like Mohammad, a 7th Century merchant in Mecca, who ingeniously co-opted an already-existing religion, Judaism and its offshoot Christianity, lifting major prophets and scriptures for his re-purposing process in the creation of Islam to become a world-wide religious devotion -- meant originally to unify Bedouin desert tribes under a single religious banner celebrated for its primacy, denying the legitimacy of all others -- Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi re-invented himself from a lowly Koranic teacher to the "caliph" of Islam.

Followers flocked to his message of hatred, jihad and persecution of area minority groups and those adhering to religions other than Islam. Baghdadi was simply reverting to a latter-day Mohammad and demanding of his followers the veneration of the memory of his predecessor invoked among the faithful. His incitement and encouragement of violent looting, unspeakable atrocities, vile depravity, slaughtering men, taking women and children as slaves to be raped and sold to finance the caliphate recalled the dark age of merciless Islamic conquest by the scimitar, assassination and terror.

His death, however, does not translate to victory and peace in the offing, because although he sold himself as a saviour of Islam and conqueror of the world community, the impetus of Islam as the world's only legitimate religious voice, calling people to surrender to the inevitable and loosing the darkness of evil destruction by any means conceivable on those refusing to be absorbed by the miasma of fear, hatred and death-deliverance exemplifying Islam will continue unless some unfathomable miracle strikes Islam from the panoply of global religious devotion.

Fleeing Iraqi civilians walked past the heavily damaged al-Nuri mosque in Mosul, Iraq   .Credit...Felipe Dana/Associated Press

Wrong Move, Trump!

A U.S. military commander, second from right, walks with Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units (YPG) at Mount Karachok near Malikiya, Syria, April 25, 2017.

"In one decision, the Trump administration abandoned two allies: Israel and the Kurds."
"The American forces operating in the northeastern region of Syria, especially near​​ Al-Bukamal, bordering Iraq, constituted a final buffer between Iran and the Mediterranean Sea."
"Iran has a presence in Iraq and in Lebanon, of course, as well. The US buffer in Al-Bukamal stopped the connection between the two."

"The departure of US forces foreshadows the construction of a 'highway' that will offer a direct route for Iranians and Shiite militias between Tehran and Beirut. As a senior Arab diplomat explained to The Times of Israel, the development will allow Iranian Revolutionary Guards al-Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani to drive straight from Tehran to the offices of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Dahiya, Beirut."
"Beyond Israel, it is impossible to ignore the future of the Kurdish region of Syria [and in Turkey as well]. The United States has abandoned those who were its most important allies in the war against the Islamic State."
"At one point the Kurds were the only force that managed to stop the Islamist terror organization.
After the Iraqi and Syrian armies suffered losses at the hands of Islamic State, the Kurdish YPG forces endured fierce battles, fought until their last drop of blood, and managed to stop the terror organization on a number of fronts [most notably, in the northern Syrian city of Kobani]."
"It is difficult to find fighters [both male and female] more heroic than the Kurds as they acted in the name of human rights and women’s rights. They were heroes, and especially heroines, who sacrificed themselves for humanity."
Avi Issacharoff, The Times of Israel

"I think it's fair to say Americans will remain on the ground after the physical defeat of the caliphate, until we have the pieces in place to ensure that that defeat is enduring."
"Nobody is declaring a mission accomplished. Defeating a physical caliphate is one phase of a much longer-term campaign."
U.S. special envoy Brett McGurk, December 11

"We're not going to leave as long as Iranian troops are outside Iranian borders and that includes Iranian proxies and militias."
John Bolton, U.S. national security adviser, September

"Pulling troops out of Syria in an ongoing fight is a big mistake. Like walking away from a forest fire that is still smouldering underfoot."
"...Big winner is Iran, then Russia, then Assad. Wrong move."
James Stavridis, former U.S. Navy admiral, former NATO commander

Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units (YPG) head a convoy of U.S military vehicles in the town of Darbasiya next to the Turkish border, Syria, April 28, 2017.

Yet another impulsive determination by U.S. President Donald Trump, ignoring the advice of his top-flight military advisers, and leading to the resignation of his Defence chief James Mattis. The Trump decision to withdraw two thousand American military members from their vital role in supporting the Syrian Kurdish-led militias against the presence of Islamic State in their last remaining stronghold while successfully appealing to Islamofascist jihadis to join them, to the point where despite losing thousands of their fighters their fighter strength is back to where it was when their geographic caliphate was still intact, leaves both the courageous Kurds and the Israelis in the lurch.

A scant two weeks earlier General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff declared there was still a long way to go for the U.S. in training local Syrian forces in prevention of an ISIL resurgence and to ensure the gradual stabilization of the country remains on track. It would require, he stated with the conviction of one who knows his trade and the situation before him intimately, 35,000 to 40,000 local troops in Syria's northeastern region to maintain security levels over the long term, while a mere 20 percent had yet undergone training. That speaks of long-term commitment.

Commitment is a will-o'-the-wisp concept to Donald Trump, he relies on his never-failing intuition to guide his decision-making, no hard facts on the ground need intrude on this instinctive, deep-seated process that reflects the certainty of his reliance on his inner moods and convictions. Expert opinion, boots and observations on the ground be damned. Everyone must fall in line behind his behind, preferably humbly if not obsequiously as befits a commander-in-chief's infallible and cunning decision-making, for his decisions are all of that; infallible and cunning and no one can persuade him otherwise.

He is the President of the United States of America. Look on his mighty works and despair -- with apologies to Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Despair is what the Kurds, the sole local fighting forces, both men and women, who have never hesitated to meet the Islamic State terrorists in fierce combat, determined to protect themselves from the jihadis' barbarian influx and intentions must be facing at prospects for their future. Sometimes surprises should surprise no one. Trump, after all, broadcasted just that intention -- to withdraw U.S. troops during the presidential campaign that brought him to the Oval Office. His decision was made not because he consulted with his advisers but because he disagreed with his advisers whom he failed to consult, knowing their advice and opinions and contemptibly dismissing them.

"This is, of course, an American decision", stated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, no doubt as taken aback and concerned as anyone else, with how this will impact on the Islamic Republic of Iran's ongoing controlling and dominating inroads into Lebanon and Syria. A decision which will inevitably bring closer to reality the potential of an all-out war with Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Iranian Republican Guard Corps and their Shiite militias enlisted by Iran at the Golan Heights in a presumed effort at a pincer movement that would animate Hamas in Gaza in a concerted, three-pronged attack on Israel.

Aside from Iran, however, another country, a NATO member, Turkey, whose volatile Islamist president Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to get on swimmingly well with Trump, will be delighted. For Trump's decision gives Erdogan the green light he has long agitated for; that the U.S. discontinue its partnership with the Kurds, in essence protecting them by the presence of American military, from the intention of Erdogan to destroy the presence of Kurds adjacent the Syrian border with Turkey and as far beyond as he can manage.

A senior US official has revelead the US decision to withdraw from Syria was made following a Trump-Erdogan phone call last Friday, despite Trump administration denials.  EPA

"This is a clear declaration of war. We take Erdogan’s threats against us very seriously. He has repeatedly expressed his desire to occupy our land in northeast Syria."
"Our partners in the U.S.-led coalition are well aware of these Turkish moves because a Turkish attack against us can also impact the U.S. efforts to defeat [IS] terrorists."
Nuri Mahmud, YPG spokesperson

Now, it won't. The U.S. efforts have been summarily dismissed. And Erdogan has his green light. U.S. forces will be returning home. The Islamic Republic of Iran has free reign. Israel can prepare once again for its never-ending future of war. And the Kurds have once again been abandoned.

Securing the Safety of Canadians

"We would like to take this opportunity to thank the public for all of their ongoing support and concern for us in this past year. We are aware that so many people reached out to the police to provide information and we were so grateful for that."
"We would also like to thank the media for all of their attention to Marrisa's case. Lastly, we would like to thank the police for all their hard work and specifically IHIT [Integrated Homicide Investigation Team for their perseverance."
"We hope that justice will now be served and that Marrisa can finally be at peace in heaven."
Shen family, Burnaby, British Columbia

28-year-old Ibrahim Ali has been charged in the first degree murder of Burnaby teen Marrisa Shen, whose body was found in Central Park in July 2017. (Supplied by family)

"When a tragedy like this happens, it can and does impact public opinion and it's unfortunate that entire communities can be white-washed by the horrific alleged behaviour of one individual."
"We have found the vast, vast majority have left all of that behind -- the trauma, the war -- and just want to live a peaceful and productive life in Canada, paying taxes and supporting their kids in school."
Chris Friesen, director, Immigrant Services Society of B.C.

"[Marrisa Shen's case was] one of the biggest, if not the biggest murder investigations that IHIT has had [in terms of hours and effort by officers and the] leading edge [investigave techniques used]."
"The investigative path was extraordinary and I couldn't be more proud."
Eric Stubbs, RCMP assistant commissioner, criminal investigations, B.C.

Marrisa Shen was reported missing by her parents on July 18, 2017 in Burnaby, British Columbia. The city's Central Park was where the child's body was found the next morning. In the investigation police had identified and eventually eliminated over two thousand "persons of interest". It took over a year, but eventually police closed in on a suspect, and named 28-year-old Syrian refugee Ibrahim Ali, accusing and charging him of first-degree murder. Details of what caused Marrisa's death have not been revealed. The arrested man had no criminal record, and it was not revealed how the police were led to identify him as a suspect in the murder.

He had been in Canada for three months at the time of the murder. When he was arrested and charged he had the status of a permanent resident of Canada, was employed, and had family living in Burnaby. Immigration and Refugee Board authorities have been unable to find records of any public proceedings where this man was involved, but it is known he hadn't arrived at a port of entry to claim asylum. He is only one of 3,500 Syrian refugees living in 69 communities in British Columbia. Another Syrian man with the same name, in prison, was confused with the man arrested for the murder.

Over 1,300 residents of the city had been canvassed resulting in over 600 interviews, with more than a thousand hours of video footage. The public responded to a website the police launched in hopes of receiving tips, and that site had 80,000 visits. Although the RCMP's behavioural sciences group had developed a likely criminal profile of the-then unknown killer, no details have been released indicating what led them to identify this man as the murderer of 13-year-old Marrisa. The local Syrian community has expressed sadness and their full support in finding justice for the girl.

When the government of Canada set out to respond to a UN appeal for countries to absorb Syrian refugees, the decision could have been made to rescue women and children, Christians, and Kurds, all of whom are threatened Syrian demographics. Single Muslim men are known to have been a cause of criminal activities and in particular, violence against women where they have settled in great numbers in Germany, for example. Through both government and private auspices, an estimated 40,000 Syrian refugees were brought into Canada.

In Syria's Kurdistan, the Kurdish military have long since arrested and placed in prison Western nationals who had travelled to Syria to join Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Among them is a number of Canadian nationals, deeply involved in ISIS terrorist activities. One in particular, is known to have brutalized and murdered captives of ISIS, and to have been one of their 'voices' for narration of the horrifying videos of atrocities committed by the terrorists.

A screen shot from the ISIS execution video Flames of War, showing the narrator.
SITE Intelligence Group

One of the Muslim Canadians had informed the New York Times podcast Caliphate that he had executed captives while serving as a loyal ISIS operative. That man is known to have since returned to university studies in the Toronto area and has not been charged with any crime. Of the Canadians known to have joined ISIS and returned to Canada, few have been charged, despite that Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale announced that Canada and its allies were collaborating to "assemble evidence from the battlefield that will be usable in courts of law".

That glib assurance aside, thus far no Canadian investigators have yet spoken with Ali, captured by the YPG armed group in northern Syria four months ago, even though he declared he had been interrogated by American, British and Kurdish officials. "From a recruitment perspective, it actually speaks to the people here saying, 'Hey, if that wanker from Mississauga or Hamilton or Calgary can do it, well then so can I'," said Phil Gurski, formerly an analyst with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, who now heads Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting.

Protesters gathered outside the B.C. provincial courthouse protesting the government's refugee screening process; the man accused of killing 13-year-old Marrisa Shen, Ibrahim Ali, 28, is a Syrian refugee.  Photo: Tessa Vikaner, StarMetro

Consciously Running a Risk

"We run a huge risk: seeing people leave prison at the end of their sentences who will not have reformed at all, who are potentially even more extreme as a result of their time inside."
Paris prosecutor François Molins 

"The stakes are much higher for government because people are focusing on this issue."
"Now the government is much more afraid than before."
Farhad Khosrokhavar, sociologist, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales  

"If you look across the globe, the cohesive nature of the enterprise for ISIS has been maintained. There's not been any breaking up, at least not as yet."
"I worry about very seasoned fighters who will pop up periodically."
"It does appear that the possibility of this kind of use [inciting to violence through social media sites, along with recruiting for jihad] is growing. [Including floating the use of chemical weapons and other poisons, in jihadist attacks]. And that is a concern to all of us."
Russell Travers, acting head, National Counterterrorism Center, United States

Many people convicted in France on terrorism-related charges are set to be released this year and next. Djamel Beghal, pictured here on his way to court in 2007 after being jailed on an earlier terrorism conviction, was released on Monday; French media reported he was to be sent to his native Algeria. Photo: Stavel Christian/Maxppp/Zuma Press

France, acting in a spirit of forgiveness -- hoping for positive outcomes on the release of radicalized jihadis, perhaps banking on gratitude to France for their release will indemnify the nation from attack and the focus of hatred will turn elsewhere -- may be in the throes of delusion. Hoping as well that their already overtasked security services will be able to keep track of and react to impending violence to keep the country safe seems to reflect a kind of stunned oblivion to the very real nature of jihad's influence on the faithful committed to martyrdom.

In any event, French authorities have committed themselves to the release of some fifty individuals currently serving sentences linked to terrorism crimes along with an additional 400 candidates classified as being 'radicalized' while imprisoned. The end of 2019 is to see the conclusion of a program for their release, according to the French Ministry of Justice. France has, at the present time, over five hundred individuals incarcerated for crimes linked to Islamofascist terrorism representing a threefold increase in such prisoners in four years.

As though those numbers aren't sufficiently impressive, an estimated 1,200 additional prisoners are considered as having been radicalized, a figure representing an increase of 70 percent since 2015, government data reveal. It isn't quite that French authorities are indifferent to the dangers involved in releasing these hard-core jihadis. They have no illusions about their threat to France. Anti terror authorities have braced themselves for the likely resurgence of a violent security threat deemed to be on the low end since European Islamic State terror cells were disrupted.

As a cautionary but wholly necessary reaction to the release of these jihadis, police in France have taken steps toward the formation of a new monitoring unit attending to former inmates' activities. French security will have its work cut out in staying abreast of the terrorist threat increase resulting from these incomprehensible releases. These are, after all, dedicated Islamists, totally focused on their hatred of non-Muslims, their governments and their goal of intercepting jihadi threats. So luck will be as important as vigilance in apprehending threats.

The public will not be aware for the most part that plots are constantly being hatched which intelligence agencies have the good fortune to detect and prevent from occurring. Both in France and in Germany terrorist plans in the use of the deadly poison ricin have been thwarted. Even while Islamic State appears in final retreat under assault by Kurdish militias and the national military in Iraq and Syria, new recruits are rising elsewhere, in Yemen, Somalia and Libya. While ISIS has a diminishing presence on the battlefield, its long tentacles stretch to recruit elsewhere.

"Europe faces an intense, unrelenting and multidimensional international terrorist threat", according to Andrew Parker, head of Britain's MI5. Social media has helped Islamic State immeasurably in its sophisticated presence around the globe, now using Bitcoin and encryption communications in their underground conspiracies to attack the West in all its vestiges of governmental and social life. Having most of its territory lost in Iraq and Syria, it yet remains in control of some 2,600 square kilometers of territory.

And though many of ISIS's senior commanders have been eliminated, European officials caution the group is hugely successful through its social media campaigns with adherents responding to agree to take on attacks wherever they happen to be, throughout Europe. Although thousands of the estimated 40,000 jihadis who streamed out of some 120 countries to fight alongside Islamic State since 2014 were killed many more are thought to have been fighting in Libya, Yemen or the Philippines, while some remain in Turkey, and yet thousands more have returned to their European countries of origin.

Wherever they remain apprehended, rounded up as prisoners of war as in camps operated by Kurdish militias in northern Syria, those camps have become virtual breeding grounds similar to prison environments in the West, for extremist recruitment and sharing of experiences from which it is entirely possible yet another barbaric group such as Islamic State might be formed and go on to distinguish themselves as a serial copy of al-Qaeda and ISIS, drawing greater numbers to their campaigns of conquest.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique and Tanzania are all showing signs of jihadi contamination, with groups similar to al-Shabab, linked to ISIS, being formed to raise alarm among those they target for attacks. In France, authorities intercepted a ricin plot by an Egyptian-born student when social media messages caused an alert. In Germany, their intelligence service received a warning from their U.S. counterpart that enabled them to arrest a Tunisian planning to make and use ricin in an attack.

So yes, Mr. Travers, you're perfectly right, global intelligence must take note of this new direction, new series of ongoing threats and remain not only vigilant but actively involved, stretching their inadequate resources past their limits in interests of self-protection from the threat that has no intention of dissolving its virulent appeal among the Muslim faithful.

Smoke rises behind an Islamic State flag after Iraqi security forces and Shiite fighters took control of Saadiya in Diyala province from Islamist State militants, November 24, 2014.. © REUTERS

Islamist Terrorists Threatening The Druze

Beyond a doubt, it is interesting that the only Jewish state in the world, which is accused by its detractors of practising apartheid, is prepared to defend not only its citizens who are non-Jews, but at the insistence of those non-Jewish citizens, distant relatives living in another country entirely, from the viciously malign assaults of Islamist predators.

"I expect Israel to assist the Druze, just like it helps Jews all over the world", stated Ayoub Kara, an Israeli citizen, a member of the Knesset from within the Likud party who leads a campaign to convince Israel to become involved in aiding threatened Syrian Druze, in a proposed intervention which he describes as "major humanitarian aid".

Israel's Druze citizens have been fully involved in defending Israel. They serve in the army proudly and with distinction, accepting it as their duty as citizens of the country, in contrast to most Arab citizens of the Jewish state. Druze hold senior government positions. And Druze living in the Golan are supportive of Israel's authority. 

A member of the Druze community holds a Druze flag as he speaks to an Israeli soldier near the border fence between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, near Majdal Shams June 18, 2015.   Reuters/Baz Ratner

Islamist jihadists are threatening Israel's Golan Heights border with Syria. And the Druze population there are in the direct line of fire in the sense that Islamic State terrorists have made minority ethnic and religious groups a target of cleansing; raping and enslaving women and children, slaughtering men in their sweep to amass larger Iraqi and Syrian territory for absorption into their Islamist 'pure' Sharia "caliphate".

In 'apartheid' Israel, citizens of the country who are Druze demand aid for their co-religionists. A group from the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front created a bloodbath in a recent attack on a Druze village. In launching an offensive against the Syrian regime's positions close to the Golan Heights, Syrian rebels surrounded the Druze village of Khadr.

The Southern Front alliance rebels together with the Haramoun Army targeted towns and villages in the Golan that are Druze communities. The Haramoun Army includes the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham as well as the al-Qaeda Syrian affiliate. It shelled the area encompassing those villages while Southern Front fighters advanced the battle on the ground.

The IDF may be preparing for the establishment of a "safe zone" for Syrian Druze on the Golan northern Israel frontier, according to security officials. The Prime Minister informed parliament his government is "closely following all developments on our borders", and that "my inclination is to take any action that is necessary."

Though officially neutral in the civil war that has engulfed Syria, should Israel respond to the plight facing the Druze, Israel could see itself flooded with a stream of refugees seeking safe haven.

An offshoot of Shiite Islam, About 700,000 Druze live in Syria. Smaller communities in Israel and the Israeli-held Golan heights have become integrally involved in Israeli politics, social life and the military. Family ties across borders represent another dimension. Protests were staged by thousands of Israeli Druze to demand that Israel give assistance to the Syrian Druze through military action, or humanitarian aid or the establishment of a safe zone.

"I'm pretty sure the government is looking into ways to get weapons to the Druze, if they're not already doing so", stated Moshe Maoz, professor emeritus of Middle East Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. MK Kara visited Jordan for assurance from Jordanian officials that safe passage would be provided to the Druze.

A member of the Druze community uses binoculars to watch the fighting in Syria, from the Israeli side of the border fence between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, near Majdal Shams June 18, 2015.  Reuters/Baz Ratner

Exceptional Terrorism

Suleyman Shah was a tribal leader and grandfather of Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman Empire which lasted for six centuries. Travelling through what is now Syria around 1236, Shah, as the legend has it, fell from his horse, drowning in the Euphrates close to the site of his tomb. It is believed that followers of the Shah travelled into modern-day Turkey where Osman I founded the empire in 1299.

  The shrine, pictured here in 2006, is in an area that has seen heavy fighting

Turkey signed a treaty with France at a time when it ruled Syria in 1921, the Treaty of Ankara which granted Turkey the land -- sitting across the border from Turkey in Syria -- surrounding the tomb. That small area spitting into Syria has been considered part of Turkey ever since, much as an embassy in a foreign country is considered by internationally-recognized convention to represent the territory of that country represented by the embassy.

Turkey's sour relations under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with Syria's President Bashar al Assad related to the civil war there, reflects in part Turkey's similar critical view of Kurds whose longtime quest for a homeland of their own that would encompass part of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran has garnered enmity for the Kurds. In the sectarian wars raging within the Middle East, the Syrian Shiite Alawite regime's brutal assault on its Sunni majority (echoed in Iraq) has deeply offended the Sunni Turkish government.

Leading Turkey to give haven and support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham in its no-holds-barred-by-humanitarian-concerns battle against Shi'ite Muslims and Christians and other minority ethnic and religious groups, even as a member of NATO. A more polarizing conflict of interests would be harder to find. When, as a NATO member, Turkish troops sat immovable on the border between Turkey and Syria while ISIS was slaughtering Kurds for possession of Kobane, its actions were universally condemned.

Now, however, Turkey saw fit to send 600 Turkish troops backed by tanks and drones into Syria to 'rescue' dozens of Turkish soldiers standing guard over the tomb of Suleyman Shah. Archaeological artefacts memorializing Turkey's Ottoman Empire crucible were worth defending and protecting, but not helpless Syrian Kurdish civilians whose town ISIS was devastating, and whose Kurdish defenders were undermanned and under-weaponized.

Soldiers raise a Turkish flag in the Esme region of Syria where the remains of Suleyman Shah have been relocated. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Vacating the Mausoleum of its contents, the Turkish troops exploded the building itself, to prevent its use by jihadists. Suleyman Shah's new resting site sits in the Syrian district of Eshme, about 650 feet from the Turkish border. Once a new Mausoleum has been erected the archaeological remains will be interred there. The danger was that the terrorist jihadi group that Turkey gave haven to would destroy the tomb as they have done other religious sites whose presence offends them.
The final passage in this unsavoury message of Islamist dysfunction is that it was only after Kurdish forces succeeded with the aid of NATO airstrikes in taking Kobani, forcing the ISIS forces' withdrawal, that the Turkish military was enabled to enter Syria; through Kobani no less. Turkish soldiers coordinated their passage through the kindly auspices of Enver Muslim, leader of a Syrian Kurdish group controlling Kobani.

The Kurds are capable of extending such courtesies denied them by the Turks who view the People's Protection Units of the Syrian Kurds representing an extension of Turkey's Kurdistan Workers Party, which it has designated a terrorist organization. A sovereign territorial threat merits the designation of terrorism, but not ISIS whose credentials as a jihadi terrorism fount of brutal atrocities cannot be sufficiently abhored.

I never thought I’d be an ordained imam, I was studying the faith for myself.  I come from a pretty diverse background. My older brother and two sisters are Catholic and my mother’s family are Jewish, so I’ve mixed my traditions well."
"Politics does play a role, but I say the problem isn’t that. It’s the ideology. There’s a problem with the ideology of these people [ISIS]...Every religion has people who align themselves, even though they have nothing to do with faith. ...You can’t rationalize delusional thoughts. This is brainwashing just like what happened with the Nazis...there’s no honour in killing, there’s no nobility in killing..." 
"They’ve made it so difficult for us and have nothing to do with our faith. I’d go so far as to say they don’t believe in God. Someone who would rape, murder and destroy can’t have faith."
"That will lead a person to believe in a God that’s angry or hateful and the people who believe these things will translate it into violence."

"I’ve been speaking out about this sect for over 10 years. People said let them believe what they want, but when your belief translates into transgressions against others, that’s a problem."

"[Who benefits from those atrocities?] ...Not Islam. The biggest hurt is to Islam. We lose the most amount of people to terrorists...the scholars of Islam call this sect a cancer in the heart of the Islamic world. We not only have to deal with them, but have to answer for them."

Ashley Kulp/METROLAND Mohamad Jebara, imam and Muslim scholar with Ottawa’s Cordova Spiritual Education Center, speaks during a Jan. 28 presentation at St. James Anglican Church in Carleton Place.

"Islamic scholars have been very strong and very vocal that suicide bombings and attacks are against Islam. Over two million Islamic scholars signed a petition about this terrorism against Islam, but you didn’t hear anything about it on the news or CNN because (the media) won’t respond to it because they don’t want to hear it."

"Right now, they (mosques and churches) operate in much the same way. There is the holy area at the front and a congregation and the structure is multi-cultural. The dome of the mosque is from the Orthodox-Christians. There was no dome in early Islam. And the tops of churches in North Africa are no different than the bell towers you have in churches here. We also take the pulpit from the Christians." 

"[Quran teaches you to] replace wickedness, oppression, tyranny and evil and replace it with kindness, mercy, love and compassion. When people throw hate to you, don’t replace it with hate, replace it with love."

"If you can do so, the Lord will transform the hurt of those who did to you. ...If you are able to do that, you’re the most successful of all people.

“The power of love and the power of compassion is what is victorious in the end. No matter how long the darkness lasts, the light of compassion will shine through."

Mohamad Jebara, chief Imam, Cordova Spiritual Education Centre, Ottawa

Here, then, is a man who is uniquely placed and gifted by circumstances, coming from a truly ecumenical background -- as the child of a Jewish woman he is regarded as being Jewish in the Judaic tradition; as someone whose siblings have chosen the path of Roman Catholicism to satisfy their need for spirituality; as a man who has himself selected the option to study Islam and follow its teachings, presenting himself as a scholar and a cleric -- his diverse background and intimate family relations place him uniquely in the position of a peacemaker.

He acknowledges in part that Islam -- a religion brought to Bedouin tribes of the 6th Century Middle East by a man whose vision imagined that the religion he would introduce to the world would be recognized as the ultimate theism and take precedence over the two preceding religions from which the Prophet Mohammad selected those portions of its traditions and values that appealed to him -- owes much to its predecessors, Judaism and Christianity. But he glosses over the history well known to Muslim scholars that Islam was spread by the scimitar, not by its serene vision of brotherhood and peace.

A Mughal painting representation of Muhammad's slaughter of the Banu Qurayzah, a Jewish tribe

It is that very history, one of battles and conquests and assassinations and sectarian divisions that those whose brand of Islam the good Imam deplores, that he also overlooks as being the inspiration of Islamist Salafists like Islamic State. And nor does he address the vast, unending rage against Jews in the Koran. Nor acknowledge that Mohammad in his rage against the Jews of Medina, slaughtered them. In the tradition of Islam, crucifixion and beheading form part of its history as does the call to the faithful to engage in jihad on behalf of Islam and its desired conquest of other religions, leading to the caliphate that ISIS seeks to renew.

The futile signing of a fatwa by the imams to which Mohamad Jebara refers does not appear, for all the religious authority that they represent, to be changing very many attitudes among Muslims themselves, so many of whom support the ascendance of Islam throughout the countries of the West that they migrate to. How can peace be established when an medieval Eastern religion that is introduced to countries of the West with their established heritage, culture and religion is being challenged by Muslims refusing to regard indigenous values in equality with their own?

Islam insists that fear be inspired in the hearts of non-believers to entice, encourage and bully non-believers to accept and submit to Islam. This is not a tranquil, serene religion of human dignity fully respecting the rights of others to make their choices of free will, not coercion. And it is that Islam which the Islamic State and al-Qaeda exemplify, so Imam Jebara's pleas for non-Muslims to understand that ISIS does not represent Islam, is rather precious under the circumstances.

The media haven't 'recognized' in bold capital print the condemnation of ISIS's atrocities to his satisfaction, because they've been busy publishing the ongoing and myriad accounts of inhumane slaughter, rape, ethnic cleansing and religious oppression that those proponents of Islam are exhibiting to the world, as Muslims obeying the edicts of their religion demanding that as faithful Muslims they proselytize and use any means toward that end that work.

For it is only by expanding the vast numbers of the existing ummah of the Muslim diaspora that the final goal can be achieved, of one religion above all others viewed as sacred and implacably in command. Imam Jebara may be preaching a religion of love, but what the world sees write in large letters is that religion celebrating itself not in peace but in war, all over the geography where it first surfaced before inexorably spreading worldwide. That Muslims themselves happen to be the primary victims speaks volumes about the respect for human life in Islam, despite that oft-repeated knock-off of Judaism's appeal that one life lost is a tragedy that afflicts all of humanity.

Imam Jebara is so confident of his brand of Islam, he speaks of ISIS and other terrorist Islamists with scorn as not reflecting the Islam he represents. Does he speak too of the vast, ancient country of Persia and its pure Islamist agenda of nuclear bombs and threats against the Jewish State of Israel, where the Prophet Mohammad took inspiration for his religion to which all must surrender, according to his plan? Does the good Imam, speak too of the violent sectarian divide between Sunni and Shia?

"Good on Behalf of Islam" 

"[What lies ahead] will be worse -- with Allah's permission."
"[Attack] disbelieving [Western countries to] target the crusaders in their own lands and wherever they are found. [Use explosives, guns, knives, cars, rocks] or even a boot or a fist."
"Indeed, you saw what a single Muslim did with Canada and its Parliament of shirk [?], and what our brothers in France, Australia and Belgium did, may Allah have mercy upon them all and reward them with good on behalf of Islam."
"And there were many others who killed, ran others over, threatened, frightened and terrorized people, to the extent that we saw the crusader armies deployed on the streets in Australia, Canada, France, Belgium and other strongholds of the cross."
Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, ISIS spokesman; al-Furqan

AFP / Getty Images  An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube on July 8, 2012, shows a man identified as Abu Muhammad al-Adnani,

This is an incitement to violence against the West, it is not a preamble to exhorting Muslims living in the West to act as good citizens of the countries to which they turned for haven when life in their countries of origin was unbearable due to ongoing conflicts, sectarian violence, government oppression, poverty, unemployment, fear and the aspiration to live a life promising of human advancement and liberties.

Human advancement and freedoms, justice and equality may have been found in the West, along with opportunities denied them elsewhere, but the bored, impressionable youth among the immigrant Muslim populations in Europe, North America and Australia, have also heeded in significant enough numbers, the call to jihad, that all faithful Muslims are exhorted to respond to. The latest nine-minute audio clip appearing on Twitter will doubtless inspire others to respond as newborn mujahideen.

The threats expressed against the West are clear enough; their intention more than graphically supplied in events taking place in France, Canada and Australia most recently and before that elsewhere in the world with brutal regularity. Let alone the shock value of recent videoed beheadings. The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, and al-Qaeda are in the business of terrorism and they pride themselves on doing that job well, and in inspiring through their successes, new recruits.

Their successes are their calling cards. In Canada, the calling cards have been read, weighed, and the government has responded to their portent by dispatching a number of Canadian special forces soldiers on the ground in Iraq, and warplanes to join the U.S.-led coalition which has pledged to aid Iraq in its battle against ISIS. There are also ongoing air assaults in Syria, notably to assist the Kurds in their existential fight against those same malign forces.

Canadian solders "acting in self defence, effectively returned fire, neutralizing the threat" of attack against them as part of Operation IMPACT, as described by Captain Paul Forget of the Canadian Armed Forces. The rules of engagement, explained Capt. Forget, have not changed since the Canadian special forces arrived in Iraq in September. "I don't think I would characterize that as the new norm, but rather as more of -- a bit of a state of evolution of our role in the advise-and-assist capacity", he clarified.

Canadian soldiers are actively engaged in teaching their Iraqi counterparts more than merely "the basics of warfare". Truth to tell, the Iraqi armed forces need instruction on more than the 'basics' of warfare. They seem hardly capable, despite American tutelage in defence, to respond forcefully to ISIS advances. Canada's CF-18 warplanes since last Monday completed a dozen air strikes, helping to achieve momentum against ISIS in northern Iraq by Iraqi forces, in their efforts to attempt to restore national command of Mosul, the second largest city in the country.

A Canadian Armed Forces aircrew member waits for the arrival of the CP-140M Aurora aircraft in Kuwait. The Auroras , with their cutting-edge sensors, have been a boon to coalition forces. Photo: Canadian Forces Combat Camera, Department of National Defence

And although the government of Canada had stated initially that this was not an active combat position that Canada was undertaking in joining the coalition against ISIS, Canadian forces will strike back with effectiveness if and when they come under attack. There are no illusions that this is anything but a war zone in which they have been tasked to aid the Iraqi government to forestall and defeat any further ISIS advances. And it is abundantly clear that the Iraqi forces on their own are fecklessly incapable.

The mass killings, rapes, abductions and the creation of hordes of new refugees across Iraq and Syria, the critical oppression of Christians and Yazidis and attempts to overtake Kurd militias on the part of the Islamic State call upon other countries of the world to aid invaded countries in their desperate efforts to combat the cult of death and destruction favouring the ideology of an Islamist Caliphate setting out to conquer first the Middle East, then the Globe.

Islam's Binding Obligation

"Nobody gives a damn. They don't. They didn't know this kid as a child. This is not the kid I raised. I'm going to leave it at that, OK?"
Patricia Earl, Ottawa resident

"[Muslims are obliged to either john ISIL or] follow the example [of the jihadists who killed in Ottawa and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec in October]."
"You  either pack your bags, or prepare your explosive devices. You either purchase your airline ticket, or you sharpen your knife. Waging jihad represents a religious obligation binding upon every Muslim."
John Maguire, aka Yahya, Abu Anwar Al-Canadi

Site Multimedia   John Maguire, a former University of Ottawa student who converted to Islam and became radicalized.

She mourns alone, her son a convert to Islam, dedicated to jihad, naming himself Abu Anwar al-Canadi, he exhorted other Canadians through ISIS-released video propaganda, to follow his sterling example, and defy Canadian values because they are inimical to Islamic tenets and purposes. She can hardly expect other Canadians to feel badly that her son, once called John Maguire before his conversion as a passionate Islamist, is now dead.

Death claimed him close to the Syrian/Turkish border town of Kobani, long under siege by the Islamic State of Iraq and Al Sham, defended by the Kurds, and more latterly and effectively bombed by the U.S.-led coalition battling ISIS. He will no longer be available to host ISIS propaganda videos, his message sending eager conscripts to jihad abroad to join the killing fray.

News of his death at age 24 surfaced on a Twitter account reflecting a pro ISIS stance. The anguish of a mother who watched a son transform to someone she thought she knew and most certainly loved, to a fiercely hate-filled terrorist is sad, and she may be in need of emotional support, but there are few who will share her sense of loss and grief. Her son represented the nemesis of those who detest bloodshed.

The simple fact is that these young men leaving their Democratic-centric havens to respond to the call to duty as Muslims for whom jihad is claimed to be a responsibility of the faithful, have met their timely end by their very decisions to go abroad and challenge civilizational norms in favour of bloody carnage. Air strikes by the international air flotillas have killed hundreds of ISIS jihadis in the past several months over Kobani.

Many of those whom death has taken made their choice, to live as jihadis and die as martyrs. It was this man's decision to convert to Islam and change his name to Yahya; it was his decision to travel to Syria, to post violent tirades calling on Christians and Jews to convert to Islam or be slaughtered. He decided to deal death, and death claimed him. Wasn't that his ultimate goal, after all?

To serve Islam in jihad and to make his mark as a martyr. "You either pack your bags, or prepare your explosive devices. You either purchase your airline ticket, or you sharpen your knife. Waging jihad represents a religious obligation binding upon every Muslim."

Threats Aimed At Western Diplomats

"There's been an increase in threats from ISIS-aligned terrorists to Western interests in Egypt."
"With the changing nature of threats and the evolving security posture of our allies, Canada's mission becomes an even more attractive target. Canadian diplomats are currently working from an alternate location."
"The ability to provide consular services may occasionally be limited for short periods due to unsettled security conditions."
Government of Canada diplomatic source

"We take the safety of our personnel and our mission overseas very seriously. We are monitoring events closely and taking appropriate security measures. We don't comment publicly on security precaution specifics at our missions."
"As a security precaution, and to ensure the protection of Canadian staff, we have closed our embassy in Cairo for the day."
Adam Hodge, spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird

An Egyptian policeman stands guard outside the Canadian embassy in Cairo Monday after Canada joined Britain in closing its embassy in the Egyptian capital to the public for security reasons, with neither country providing details about specific threats. The move comes amid increasing attacks by militants in Egypt. Ahmed Sayed/AFP/Getty Images

Canada closed its embassy permanently for the originating source within the Middle East of danger to Western diplomatic missions. At the same time, Canada invited the Islamic Republic of Iran to vacate its presence within Canada. Canada's patience with the manipulatively intrusive measures undertaken by Iran's representatives to undermine security and propagate false intentions positioning itself to persuade volunteers among its expatriates to infiltrate the government, had finally come to an end.

Exacerbated by Iran's activities in support of violence and terrorist activities through its launching of attacks abroad by its Republican Guard agents and its Lebanese-based terrorist militias of Hezbollah, along with its horrific human rights abuses at home, Canada saw no utility in maintaining a diplomatic presence in a country that legitimized assaults against diplomatic foreign missions, beginning with their 1979 Iranian Revolution attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

The standoff between revolutionary Iran under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the U.S. saw 52 American diplomatic personnel held in captivity for 444 days. There were additional attacks on American embassies, notably in Lebanon when that country was at war with itself and Syria and Iran and Israel all occupied various parts of the country, marking the evolution of Hezbollah under Iranian tutelage into a martyrdom movement of jihadist terror.

The embassy of the United Kingdom, threatened as well, and situated near the Canadian embassy in Cairo, was closed a day earlier following "reports of possible targets in Cairo", according to Deepak Obhrai, Parliamentary Secretary to Minister of Foreign Affairs Baird. Three Egyptian security officials reported suspected militants who had been arrested recently "revealed plans to target the embassies, abduct foreign nationals and assassinate public figures."

Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Champions of Jerusalem), formed several years ago to target Israel, with links to the Muslim Brotherhood and the Palestianian terror group Hamas refocused its attention on Egyptian security forces with the removal of Mohammed Morsi, president under the Brotherhood. That terrorist group had taken credit for bombing Egyptian police headquarters in Cairo.

"In February 2014, ABM expanded its targets to include foreign tourists, and claimed responsibility for the bombing of a tour bus in the Sinai Peninsula, killing the Egyptian driver and three South Korean tourists", according to the U.S. State Department. Speaking in admiration and support of Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis spoke of its presence as the "emergence of a new dawn".

In attacking Westerners they are responding to the call for attacks -- against Canadians to retaliate for Ottawa's decision to join the international U.S.-led anti-ISIS military coalition -- by ISIS spokesman Abu Bakr al-Adnani.

The growing threat of fanatical Islamism with its jihadist thrust and antagonism toward the West emanated with the Iranian Revolution, and the irony of Shiite Iran now joining with Iraq, Syria and Lebanon/Hezbollah to battle Sunni ISIS, which grew out of the same sacred mission to elevate Islam and conquer the West, has few parallels.

Who is the Real Chickenshit? by Bassam Tawil November 4, 2014 at 5:00 am http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4845/who-is-the-real-chickenshit Judging by their actions, most Arab leaders do not want to create yet another terrorist Islamist state, dedicated to the Muslim Brotherhood's ideology and to toppling their regimes. We do want a Palestinian state, but please, only one that will provide responsible governance. According to the "Arab street," it is the Americans and Europeans who are cowards, afraid to take significant steps against Iran, and terrified of the Islamic ghettoes in their cities, which have been exporting terrorists to fight for the Islamic State, and providing housing to the seasoned fighters who return. To Arabs, the ultimate irony is that America is paying Qatar to have its airbase there, while Qatar is paying terrorists to kill Americans. When John Kerry claimed it was the unresolved Palestinian issue that caused a ripple effect that crated ISIS, he simply inspired the Palestinians to use Al-Aqsa mosque as a religious trigger for future bloodshed. There is a civil war currently under way between radical Islam -- motivated by imperialist fantasies of restoring the Islamic Caliphate -- and the more moderate secular Muslim regimes that are seeking the path to modernization and progress. At the same time, Sunni Islam is in the midst of an increasingly violent crisis in its dealings with Shi'ite Iran, which looks as if it is about to be granted nuclear weapons capability, and which for decades quietly has been eyeing neighboring Arab oil fields. Into the middle of this explosive disarray, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his supporters have thrown the accusation that it was actually Israel's so-called refusal to reach a peace agreement that was responsible for the ripple effect that led to the creation of ISIS. This incorrect diagnosis of the situation merely postpones the West's efforts to find a real, workable solution for the Palestinian issue. Does Kerry really blame Israel for ISIS? Above, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, Israel, on July 23, 2014. (Image source: U.S. State Department) It is easy for the leaders of the Arab world to latch onto Kerry's accusation and use it justify their weakness and unwillingness to enter into a direct battle against terrorism; to let America do the dirty work, and conveniently to relieve the Arab world of having to recognize Israel and establish a Palestinian state. They would also be able to avoid dealing with Israel's demand for the Palestinian territories to be disarmed and the Palestinians' demands for concessions from Israel. Judging by their actions, most Arab leaders have no desire to see the Palestinian issue resolved. They seem to prefer preserving the status quo. They blame Israel for refusing to make concessions to the Palestinians and hope that this refusal will weaken Israel, even though Israel is their strategic defense against Iran. Most Arab leaders do not want to create what is bound soon to become yet another terrorist Islamist state, dedicated to the Muslim Brotherhood's ideology and to toppling their regimes. The Arab leaders already have to contend with ISIS, Al-Qaeda and the Al-Nusra Front in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen, which are enough for them, to say nothing of Africa from Nigeria to Somalia and everything in between. But if Israel can be blamed for another of world's ills, with Kerry's blessing, why waste the opportunity? When Jordan's King Abdullah called the current Islamic civil war a cry of distress, he was not speaking randomly. There is a genuine problem. No examples are better than Turkey, Qatar and Iran. Turkey, led by its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, hosts Hamas's overseas command center; is supported by Qatar and would apparently like to take control of more Sunni territory by subverting the Sunni Arab monarchies. Such a move would enable Erdogan to realize his outspoken dream of recreating an Ottoman Empire and Caliphate. Turkey and Qatar, its partner in plotting the return of the Caliphate, have left their fingerprints on most of the terrorist attacks and catastrophes currently visited upon the Middle East, especially in the fields of subversion, incitement to terrorism, and the arming and training of terrorists. The Middle Eastern Sunni Islamist terrorist organizations, meanwhile, are being incited and indoctrinated by Al-Jazeera TV, a Muslim Brotherhood megaphone that belongs to Qatar's ruling al-Thani family. It was Al Jazeera's Arabic channel that created the "Arab Spring" by taking the story of a fruit-seller who merely wanted a permit, and whipping it up, non-stop, until it grew into a revolution that brought down Tunisia's government. The Middle East's terrorist gangs are now armed and trained with funding from Qatar. Recently, in yet another savored irony, Turkey agreed to help train Syrian rebels and allow the U.S. to use its military bases -- but for Turkey, the plan is probably to bring down Syria's non-Sunni President, Bashar Al-Assad, and not, as the U.S. might imagine, to bring down ISIS. In the past, Persian Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia joined in training Islamic terrorist cadres, but currently, as the Arab proverb goes, "The magic spell boomeranged," and Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies have to defend themselves from the very groups they helped create. Terrorist organizations are now generously funded by Qatar and NATO-member Turkey, which inspire them to attack the regimes of Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Jordan, and various regimes in the Persian Gulf and Africa. Of course, they are all also inspired to attack Israel, as Hamas has done. Turkey and Qatar are also exploiting the naiveté of the Western world, encouraging ISIS operatives to make preparations to attack Europe and the United States. Preachers of "political Islam" incite susceptible Islamic youths in the West and prepare them for a terrorist campaign. They use the West's political correctness, free speech and support for "pluralism," all the while insisting they are not preaching terrorism. Turkey and Qatar, along with Iran -- which does its utmost to export the Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic Revolution throughout both North and South America, as well as Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen -- are aided by a mechanism known as the da'wah, or "outreach," Da'wah, technically the preaching of Islam, is used by political Islam for indoctrinating, enlisting and handling Islamist terrorists worldwide. Perfected for terrorist purposes by the Muslim Brotherhood, its mouthpiece is Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who, like Hamas's leader, Khaled Mashaal, is based in Qatar. While Iran's rivals, the Sunni states, conduct their civil wars, Iran only becomes stronger. Not only is it turning itself into a nuclear power, it is also strengthening all its outposts in the Middle East and around the world. It supports the Shi'ite regime in Iraq against ISIS; it arms and funds the Houthis in Yemen and the Hezbollah in Lebanon; and it supports the Syrian Alawite regime against its Sunni opponents. When it comes to terrorism, Iran does not draw partisan lines. It also supports the Sunni groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, both of which seek to destroy Israel and attack the Egyptians in the Sinai Peninsula. In response to the colossal threat of radical Islam, the whimpering voice of the West can barely be heard. The U.S. administration targeted Israel for condemnation. A "senior official," most likely the current White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, called Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "chickenshit," for being afraid to make peace with the Palestinians. According to the "Arab street," including the Palestinian street, it is the Americans and Europeans who are cowards, afraid to take significant steps against Iran, and terrified of the Islamic ghettoes in their cities, which have been exporting terrorists to fight for the Islamic State, and providing housing to the seasoned fighters who return. The Sunni states under Shi'ite threat cannot even reach an agreement among themselves about what is to be done; and the Palestinians, in their folly, have chosen the worst possible moment to ignite violence in Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa mosque. The Palestinians seem not to understand that the Arab regimes that might support them are currently busy fighting for their own survival, and have no desire to fall prey to Palestinian provocations about what they realize all too well are fictional threats to Jerusalem. Given the current situation, Turkey's regional political actions are dangerous, underhanded and hypocritical. To achieve their ends, Turkey's leaders seem to have no qualms about sacrificing their minorities, such as Christians and the Kurds (most of whom are Sunni). Turkey's leaders were the first to cry "humanitarian crisis" when Israel imposed a closure on the Gaza Strip to prevent Iran from sending Hamas arms. Turkey sent the Mavi Marmara flotilla to protect the Gazans, who were never in any danger in the first place. Turkey's leaders then weakened Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who, at least at that time, showed himself willing to reach a peace agreement with the Israelis. But when Syria's Kurds are being killed in Kobani on a daily basis, the Turks are silent, perhaps secretly comfortable seeing a group that wants a state of its own apart from Turkey, being attacked. Thus, when John Kerry claimed that it was the unresolved Palestinian issue that caused a ripple effect that created ISIS, he simply inspired the Palestinians to use Al-Aqsa mosque as a religious trigger for future bloodshed. The idea is not new; it was used in 1929 by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and led to anti-Jewish riots and the massacre of the Jews in Hebron. It was used again by PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat in 2000, to incite the Palestinians to the second intifada, which killed untold numbers of Jews and Arabs. Today, Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas's Khaled Mashaal are doing the same thing to incite a jihad that this time will truly be religious and not based on real estate. The more Kerry accuses Israel of having had a hand in creating ISIS, the more the Palestinians will use Al-Aqsa mosque to stir the fire burning under the bubbling cauldron of the Middle East. The Palestinians' religious incitement campaign is currently being waged primarily by Mahmoud Abbas, the man who stood in front of the UN and accused Israel of fomenting a religious war. This is the same Mahmoud Abbas who calls on Palestinians to use every means available to fight Israel, while at the same time denying that he is doing so. Meanwhile, Qatar lurks in the background, instructing Al-Jazeera TV to incite the Palestinians against Israel, Egypt and Jordan, and encouraging terrorist attacks that lead only to justified Israeli reprisals. Qatar's royal family hides behind the security of having a major U.S. airbase on its soil, while supporting Hamas, the Islamic Movement in Israel and the terrorist organizations in the Sinai Peninsula. To Arabs, the ultimate irony is that Americans are paying Qatar to have an airbase there, while Qatar is paying terrorists to kill Americans. Qatar also still finds time nonsensically to accuse the wakf in Jordan, responsible for Al-Aqsa mosque, of collaborating with Israel to eradicate all signs of Muslim presence on the Temple Mount. Qatar's only plan with that at the moment, however, is to cause riots in Jordan to oust Jordan's king. Inspired by Western accusations against Israel and the West's enthusiastic recognition of a Palestinian state -- without requiring the direct negotiations with Israel, as obligated by international treaties -- the Palestinian leadership has become more radicalized. Mahmoud Abbas has gone so far as to abandon his pretense of moderation: if the Israelis can be accused of creating the ISIS with no mention made of the culpability of Hamas, whose ideology is the same as ISIS's, Mahmoud Abbas has been freed of any commitment to peace and can actively pursue the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state. In addition, witnessing Russia's abrogation of its 1994 Budapest Memorandum with the Ukraine, with virtually no adverse consequences, must have seemed a precedent too tempting to ignore. Thus, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas do truly speak with one voice, but it is the voice of Hamas. Khaled Mashaal, head of Hamas's political bureau, called on all the Palestinians to take up arms to defend Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. The mosque, he said, justifies jihad and the sacrificing of shaheeds [martyrs] to liberate it, and, as in the Hamas charter, that "resistance" is the only solution for the problems of the Palestinian people. Mashaal was echoed by Mahmoud Abbas at the 14th Fatah conference. Abbas said that under no condition were Jews to be allowed into Al-Aqsa mosque or the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, because any Jewish presence would defile them. On whose authority did he take possession of the Christian holy sites? A short time earlier, Abbas had even claimed that he had no intention of inciting a third intifada against Israel. Somehow, John Kerry has managed to link to Israel the Shi'ite-Sunni civil wars, radical Islam's Muslim Brotherhood-inspired global plot and the creation of ISIS. Then he linked the failure of the Palestinian issue to have been resolved to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The unpopular and inconvenient truth is: if there is to be peace, Hamas has to be disarmed, the Palestinian Authority and the Gaza Strip have to be demilitarized, Mahmoud Abbas has to recognize the State of Israel as the homeland of the Jews, and Netanyahu has to recognize the Palestinians state. Israel will then compensate the Palestinians with land in return for the land on which the three large blocks of settlements stand, as has already been agreed. It is not Israel but the Palestinians who are trying to avoid negotiating a final agreement. They see themselves, with the backing of the UN and Secretary Kerry -- and in a final breakdown of any trust in future international agreements -- as able to achieve their desired result without having to make any concessions. People who repeat infamies, as Kerry has done, not only encourage radicalism, they are just delaying the establishment of a Palestinian state. We do want a Palestinian state, but please only one that will provide responsible governance. Related Topics:  Bassam Tawil