The Incomparable Israel-India Alliance

"It is a privilege and an honour for me to stand before this distinguished House. I do so as the Prime Minister of India, and as a representative of one ancient civilization addressing another."

"I bring with me the greetings of 1.4 billion Indians, and a message of friendship, respect, and partnership."

"India has also endured the pain of terrorism. We feel your pain. We share your grief. India stands with Israel, firmly with full conviction, in this moment and beyond."

"Like you, we have a consistent and uncompromising policy of zero tolerance for terrorism, with no double standards."

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi 

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem on February 25, 2026. (Photo by ilia YEFIMOVICH / AFP via Getty Images)

 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi just concluded his second visit to Israel. His first took place in 2017, becoming the first prime minister of India to visit Israel. He spoke of the acknowledgement of much in common, historically, culturally and politically between the two nations. In speaking of India's high alert over terrorism, addressing the Knesset, it is clear that Islamist terrorism that has kept Israel on guard since 1948, is the very menace that India too has faced, and from that very same year-before, when Pakistan divided from India and a mass exchange of population took place through partition.

 

The Partition offer made by the United Nations between Israel and those calling themselves Palestinians failed to conclude with two states side-by-side, when Israel gratefully and ebulliently took up the offer and the Arab Palestinians rejected it. That rejection has continued with each offer Israel has made through negotiations where concessions were never enough for the Palestinians demanding the ultimate concession of  Israel's dissolution and the land 'from the river to the sea' turned over to the Palestinians; land historically and ancestrally Judean. 

 

India and Pakistan continue to confront one another over the disputed border of Kashmir. India aspires to live in peace with its combative neighbour, while knowing that there will be eruptions of violence emanating from Pakistan into India. Internally, India hosts the third largest Muslim population globally as citizens, about 14 percent of its population. Distrust between the fractious nature of Muslim vs Hindu can flare at any time. India with its vast population base and huge ethnic/religious/ideological groups must also grapple with threats from its Sikh population that promotes a geographic schism in the Punjab called Kalistan. 

 

But it was a fundamentalist Islamist Pakistani group that launched a massive attack on India's financial hub in south Mumbai that brought home the extremist hatred of religious domination through jihad when a dozen coordinated attacks in 2008 shut the city down for three days while Indian security forces battled with murderous armed terrorists shooting and setting off explosives in a catastrophic scene of pandemonium and bloodshed, where in total 175 civilians, security personnel, and nine attackers, were killed. Bodies of many of the dead hostages showed signs of torture or disfigurement. 

 

Thursday, Nov. 27, 2008, fire engulfs a part of the Taj Hotel in Mumbai, India. Teams of gunmen stormed luxury hotels, a popular restaurant, hospitals and a crowded train station in coordinated attacks across India’s financial capital,taking Westerners hostage and leaving parts of the city under siege. The terror lasted for three day which killed 195 people. (AP Photo/Gautam Singh)

"[India honours the ancient Jewish communities of India]: the Bene Israel of Maharashtra, the Cochini Jews of Keralam, The Baghdadi Jews of Kolkata and Mumbai, and the Bnei Menashe of the North East have enriched India."

"In my home state, Gujarat, there is a school set up by a Bene Israeli family -- Mister and Missus Best. It is an excellent school, and of course, it is called the Best School!"

Prime Minister Modi  

Cochin Jews, c. 1900.

 

India is forced to arm itself in readiness for the prospect of defending itself against further violence from Pakistan. Like Israel, India is also a nuclear power ... as is Pakistan. Pakistan battles its own insurgent Islamists as it happens, as well as preparing itself for conflict with Afghanistan where skirmishes have already taken place between the two through accusations by Pakistan that Afghanistan is giving haven to Pakistan's Taliban that threaten Islamabad. The irony being that Pakistan had sheltered and its Intelligence Services had trained the Afghanistan Taliban.

 

According to the Stockholm International Research Institute, 34 percent of Israel's total arms exports between 2020 and 2024, valued at roughly $20.5 billion have gone to India. Israel supplies India with "missiles, seekers, radars, sensors, electronic warfare suites, UAV technologies, and a host of force multipliers." 

 

India represents one of the few geographies where persistent antisemitism has not made its way into the culture; Jews have lived safely in India for centuries; unlike the Jewish experience throughout Europe where diaspora Jews have lived for millennia. In India no pogroms threatened the security of Jews living there, no expulsions took place, nor state-institutionalized persecution. Much less ghettos imposed upon Jewish-Indian enclaves.  

 

Times of Israel

"Israel is often called the 'startup nation'." 

"Our aspirational spirit aligns naturally with Israel's innovation ecosystem. I see a lot of synergies in areas such as quantum technologies, semiconductors, and artificial intelligence."

"We are also working with Israel on creating cross-border financial linkages using our Digital Public Infrastructure." 

Prime Minister Modi 

Infamously, War Criminals and Islamist Terrorists Find Haven in Canada

"The CBSA [Canadian Border Services Agency], subsequent media reporting, went and obtained an instance of this video from the dark web."

"It's part of the review we're asking ourselves you know, questions about the procedures."

CBSA executive vice-president Ted Gallivan 

"Those decisions were made with the information that [CSIS and CBSA] had available to them at that time. That's why we've asked [Immigration Minister] Mark Miller and I, for them to review a process that may be able to  yield access to certain information in a different way."

"We recognize the understandable questions that Canadians had when they learned following the RCMP news release of these arrests. I think it is reasonable for the government and for Canadians to ask how could this sequence of events ... take place and what can we learn from that sequence of events to ensure the very best measures are in place."

"The fact that these two individuals are in jail and face serious criminal charges reflects the outstanding work done by the RCMP and their partners."

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc

"What happened here is we were within a hair's breadth, minutes, hours, potentially days away of a mass casualty."

"I'm sorry to all the witnesses, you failed in your responsibilities to keep us safe. You didn't do your job. By the grace of God and good French intelligence, they are behind bars where they should be."

"[Canada's intelligence agencies should fire those who] didn't do their job."

Conservative MP Larry Brock

Canada’s public safety minister faced tough questions in Ottawa on Wednesday about how a father and son accused of plotting a Toronto terror attack ended up in the country.

 

Both the Canadian Border Services Agency and Canadian Security and Intelligence Service [CSIS] failed miserably in their function to vet individuals claiming refugee status in Canada, to ensure that they are genuinely entitled to haven in Canada, that there are no outstanding warrants for arrest, nor evidence available that they have criminal or terrorist backgrounds. The recent intelligence received from French agents alerting Canada to an impending attack by Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi, who just a month earlier had been granted citizenship, and his son Mostafa Eldidi, resulted in their arrest.

The immigration screening process that is meant to ensure that Canada does not welcome would-be immigrants with unsavoury and worse backgrounds appears to be mired in incompetence. Little wonder that a recent poll concluded that almost half of Canadians oppose the Liberal government's plan to accept up to 5,000 refugees from Gaza who have family members already living in Canada. They are skeptical of the government's claim that such newcomers are screened thoroughly by government officials.

It was investigative journalists with Canadian media who conducting their own investigation discovered an ISIS propaganda video in which Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi featured. Immigration and security failed themselves to uncover the presence of the video that was available on the Dark Web, showing Eldidi engaged in what ISIS loved best to do; shock Westerners with gruesome videos demonstrating live crucifixions, decapitations and other modes of barbaric death-delivery to their enemies, mostly Westerners caught while ISIS was consolidating its geographic Islamist 'Caliphate'.

In this instance it was the morbidly grotesque views of Eldidi dismembering an ISIS prisoner. Investigative reporters took the initiative of visiting the Dark Web with a specific purpose in mind, but presumably seasoned intelligence professionals were too limp-wristed to make their own definitive investigations of discovery of a video produced in 2015. The father-and-son duo was discovered to have been in the advanced stage of plans underway to launch a violent terrorist attack in Toronto. It was only by means of the intelligence alert by France that Canada escaped a potential bloodbath.

A month ago, the RCMP announced nine charges against both men; participation in the activities of a terrorist group and conspiracy to commit murder on behalf of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant among them. Eldidi senior was given refugee status in 2018 and three years later became a Canadian citizen. The House of Commons standing committee on public safety and national security voted unanimously to investigate the flawed process enabling the terror-duo to gain entry to Canada.

Either CSIS or CBSA screened Ahmed Eldidi, 62, in 2018, 2021 and 2023 while the son, Mostafa, 26, had been screened in 2020. The screening resulted in "favourable recommendations". According to the IRCC, a temporary resident visa was approved for Ahmed Eldidi in January 2018, who then entered Canada a month later, via Toronto. A year later he was granted permanent residence status in September of 2021. Mostafa Eldidi entered the United States in January 2020 on a student visa, then crossed into Canada at a land border to make an asylum claim, and he was granted refugee status on July 2022.

"Jihadology.net, a U.S. website that catalogues Islamic State communiqués and propaganda, posted what appears to be the video in question on June 16, 2015 — the same day it appeared on an ISIS-affiliated website."

"CBC News has viewed the four-minute video, which features the interrogation of a bearded prisoner wearing an orange jumpsuit. The video shows the prisoner lit by a bright light and sitting in a cell as he answers questions shouted by someone off camera."

"After a section of readings from the Qur'an, the prisoner then appears hoisted on a wooden frame in the desert, bound tightly with load straps. It's unclear from the video whether the prisoner is alive or dead at this point."

"A man dressed all in black, with a cap that features the white Islamic State symbol, then uses a long, square-edged sword to hack at the prisoner's outstretched limbs. The man's red-bearded face is briefly visible as the video cuts from one angle of the attack to another."

CBC News

Canada's Dismal National Security System

"This is a colossal failure of Trudeau's national security system."

"Canadians have a right to know what went wrong. How did this individual gain entry into Canada and obtain Canadian citizenship?"

"Canadians also have a right to know if ... there's anyone else in Canada with similar backgrounds who were granted entry into our country."

Parliamentary House Leader Andrew Scheer 

Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer is calling on the Bloc Québécois and NDP to support a committee recall to investigate the father-son Toronto terror plot. Scheer says the Trudeau government owes Canadians answers on how the duo  were allowed into the country. CBC

 

A probe is being called by Canada's Opposition Conservatives for a parliamentary committee to discern how it was possible that a man with a terrorist background was able to enter Canada despite his ISIS ties. A report a week ago from Global News revealed that 62-year-old Ahmed Eldidi, who was involved in committing violence with the Islamic State was able to immigrate to Canada.

 

The demand was made that a hearing was required in a recalled parliamentary committee to conduct an investigation and question Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc along with immigration Minister Marc Miller. The RCMP announced last week that its officers laid terrorism related charges against Ahmed Eldidi and his 26-year-old son Mostafa Eldidi. Both "In the advanced stages of planning a serious, violent attack in Toronto", prior to their arrest in a Richmond Hill hotel, north of Toronto. 

Nine different terrorism charges have been laid against the two men, including conspiracy to commit murder on behalf of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant  [ISIL]. Most charges relate to actions that occurred in Canada, but there are also charges against the elder Eldidi on a count of aggravated assault outside Canada. That was related to an ISIS video showing a man dismembering a prisoner with a sword.

Despite this background, including a video the pair had recorded holding bladed weapons standing before an Islamic State flag, immigration officials, the RCMP, CSIS and border security seemed satisfied that this man would make an ideal Canadian citizen. Leading them to allow Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi to become a bona fide member of Canadian society. His son, it has been ascertained, is not a Canadian citizen.

Under the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau temporary residents in Canada have risen to 2.5 million individuals -- six percent of the Canadian population. Immigration itself has risen in numbers under this administration to never-before levels of well over a half-million entrants annually. A process that has critically strained the country's social and medical services, alongside housing inadequacies to service the needs of incoming populations.

The usual argument is the low Canadian birthrate and the perceived need to augment the population with immigration, as well as the country benefiting from an increased workforce. Statistics Canada figures fail to support the workforce argument when foreign workers' unemployment was 22 percent in June even as the general unemployment rate stood at 6.4 percent. 

 

The critical issue is becoming increasingly apparent; an insufficient background check protocol is allowing a critical mass of criminals entry to Canada.

Specifically, Islamists whose agenda is upheaval and the spread of anti-democratic values while working toward societal divisions where celebrations of Islamist terrorism have become common occurrences on Canadian streets and universities. U.S. officials announced apprehending 233 terrorist suspects attempting to enter the U.S. recently from Canada. 

 

A warning was issued by a group of American Senators that the Trudeau policy on refugees from Gaza could end up allowing terrorists access to Canada.

A newly formed group, Lawyers for Secure Immigration, is advocating for improved security screening measures for temporary or permanent applicants for residence in Canada. That would include the 5,000 or so applicants from Gaza, inited by the Trudeau government to seek haven in Canada. The group's co-founder states they do not oppose authentic refugees but "won't stand for terrorists like Hamas and now Hezbollah taking advantage of the kind Canadian system".

"The era of uncapped programs to come into this country is quickly coming to an end. This is a big shift."

You cant just slam on the brakes and expect it to stop immediately."

Immigration Minister Marc Miller

Canadians can still expect their Liberal-Trudeau government to accept 485,000 immigrants for this year, and an additional 500,000 both for 2025 and 2026. That adequate security screening is taking place is not assured given those unwieldy numbers, as evidenced by the presence of Ahmed and Mostafa Eldidi, among many other malevolent figures who abuse Canada's hospitality and create chaos in their disruption of the social contract of equality and justice, in favour of their own malevolent agenda.

Father Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi, left, and son Mostafa Eldidi, right, both appeared in virtual court sessions Thursday. The pair face a total of nine charges, including one count each of conspiracy to commit murder for the benefit or at the direction of a terrorist group. (Alexandra Newbould/CBC)

American Justice Forwarding Returns to the U.K.

"While the presumptive President-Elect Joe Biden is advocating for pursuing appeasement policies with Iran's ruling mullahs as did his former boss, President Barack Obama, it should be noted he will be assisting a regime that has close ties not only to Shia militia groups but also to the terrorist group Al Qaeda."

"Some people might attempt to convince you that Iran and Al Qaeda are enemies because the Iranian government is Shia and Al Qaeda is Sunni, but evidence shows strong collaboration between the two based on a recent report by The New York Times, which cited information from intelligence officials."

"Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, also known as Abu Mohammed Al-Masri, was killed on August 7. He was reportedly gunned down, at the behest of the US, by two Israeli operatives in the streets of Tehran along with his daughter, the widow of former Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden's son, Hamza."

Majid Rafizadeh, Gatestone Institute

Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, also known as Abu Mohammed Al-Masri, was reported assassinated in Tehran, Iran on August 7. Al-Masri was accused of taking part in the bombings of two US embassies in Africa on August 7, 1998. Pictured: Rescue workers search for survivors of the bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

"Bary is very much a busted flush. He is pretty old and pretty obese and has been in prison for a very long time."

"How credible his contacts are remains to be seen but having spent so many years behind bars, his contacts book has dried up."

Unnamed source

This would be Adel Abdel Bary, now sixty years of age, Egyptian born, and a charter member of al-Qaeda, trusted, dedicated and sufficiently integrated as a senior member to have acted as a spokesman for Osama bin Laden. His official mouthpiece, in other words. He has spent the past 21 years imprisoned resulting from his involvement in the bomb attacks by al-Qaeda on American embassies located in Kenya and Tanzania, where 224 people lost their lives.

 

Adel Abdul Bary  PA Media

He was released early from his U.S. prison sentence on humanitarian grounds. In reflection of his age and his obese state, both of which place him at high risk for contracting COVID-19 in the crowded conditions of a prison. His release in consultation with British authorities saw him return to the United Kingdom, with no official restrictions on his activities, authorities considering him too old, too health-compromised and too out-of-touch with al-Qaeda affairs and operatives after his decades in a cell.

 

His return to and resettlement in Britain has MI6, British external intelligence, and counter-terrorism police reviewing the situation. Appropriate electronic surveillance is likely to be imposed, in a routine monitoring of his communications. A year after the bombings at the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam which signalled the emergence of al-Qaeda on the world stage, Bary was arrested by Scotland Yard detectives, in 1999.

A request for extradition from Britain to the U.S. was stalled for years, eventually leading to Bary's removal to the United States to stand trial, conviction and imprisonment. After a plea bargain he was sentenced to 25 years in prison, before the novel coronavirus led to his early release and return to British soil. He had applied for political asylum in Britain in 1991 having fled Egypt where he said he had been tortured as an opposition lawyer. Two years later he secured asylum, granted indefinite leave to remain.

His wife and three children joined him in the United Kingdom in 1993. The couple had three more children while living in Britain. One of the couple's children, Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, 28, had traveled to  Syria to fight with the Islamic State of the Levant and Syria. He had been notoriously photographed holding up the head of an executed prisoner of ISI, in its heyday. Clearly, life in Britain had not produced civilized offspring to the man who obviously groomed another recruit for Islamofascism.

Bary returned to the U.K. to be reunited with his wife, to live with her in the council flat allotted to her, a residence located in Maida Vale, northwest London, which has a real estate property value of 750,000 pounds (about a million dollars American) as one of many such families reliant on social welfare. And there he will have access to Britain's free universal medicare system, and despite his past will be free to roam about on London streets.

The US embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, was targeted by a bomb in August 1998  EPA

 

From Terrorist to 'Model Citizen' : Past Error in Judgement

"I'm just so thankful. You will not be sorry."

"I know that you're taking a risk and this is going to be highly mediatized, but in front of all these people and in front of God -- I know I said I was not a religious man, but I do believe in God -- I will not disappoint you."

"You will never hear from me again."

Shareef Abdelhaleem, member of 'Toronto 18' terrorist group

Muhammad Shareef Abdelhaleem. Photo by File

Now 45 years of age, imprisoned for the past 14 years, Abdelhaleem has been granted six months of day parole so he may study in Montreal.There, in an enclosed facility, he will be living for that period. It was noted that the halfway house that had accepted him as a resident later withdrew its support. No reason for that withdrawal was given, but it should have been. Similarly, the Correctional Service of Canada did not recommend this man's release from prison, yet at the hearing, the Parole Board of Canada took its own advice, assenting to parole.

Cautionary conditions accompany that parole; Shareef Abdelhaleem  must not associate with anyone involved in crime or radicalized activity. He must not travel to Toronto without permission from parole officials, and must not accept a position of responsibility "In any spiritual or religious activities or groups that share the same beliefs, this includes the mosque", enumerated the parole board. As well he was ordered to take part in de-radicalization treatment and was limited to ownership of a single cellphone and one SIM card which parole officials were to be given access.

A total of 18 people were arrested in sweeping national security raids in that took place in 2006. They stood accused of plans to detonate powerful truck bombs at key financial, military and intelligence targets. The group had formulated other plans, to storm Parliament, the CBC, to take hostages, and to behead the prime minister. A series of plans which, when revealed publicly sent a deep shiver of shock through the Canadian community.

A young Muslim-Canadian had infiltrated the group to gather human intelligence and evidence, alerting the RCMP to details of the plot, plot rehearsals and where the explosive materials could be found. He was a paid informer without whose cooperation much of the information that ended up in court might never have been gathered. While those of the 18-member terrorist group that were tried and convicted were imprisoned, the young informer completed his university education and is now a professor of terrorism studies at a Canadian university.

Shareef Abdelhaleem was the last of the Toronto 18 to be tried and convicted, named a "key architect" of the bomb plot, given a life sentence without opportunity for parole for a decade ('life sentence' under Canadian law). At his hearing, he stated that he had spent those 14 years in prison ruminating on the actions that brought him to that state. He had been a software developer earning well, spending it all. He drove a BMW convertible, and spent thousands on clothing. "I felt like my presence in the universe had no meaning."

 

"I felt like an overgrown, fat pig whose main purpose in life was to consume more, more, more. And I looked at the whole world around me and there is disasters and suffering." Which was when he decided to take Islam more seriously and began attending mosque, where he met Zakaria Amara, the ringleader of the plot. "He presented what I now think is a ridiculous plot to try to change the world. It seemed like a very fast way to bring about change. It seemed like the right thing to do, I hate to say, back then. Definitely the wrong thing to do from all angles; moral, political, practical, anything. Thank God we were stopped", he said.

 

He may have spent that 14 years in prison carefully rehearing precisely all the notes he had to hit to impress a parole board. He thinks, he went on, of the people of Toronto who woke to read the newspapers "and thought their city was under attack". He feels particularly bad for those who worked in the targeted buildings and read that they might have been victims of a deadly plot. Interesting he could empathize, but would have proceeded with the plot had the opportunity not been interrupted.

 

His time in prison was unpleasant, he said, describing how socially isolating it was for him, shunned by his plotter companions, (who presumably continued to cling to their terrorism obsession, while he did not?)  refusing prison culture and shunned by other prisoners as well, as a result. He had been assaulted physically on several occasions. And never had he made any attempt to radicalize, to convert, or to influence other inmates negatively. The parole hearing took place remotely, audio only. 

 

Temporary release from Cowansville Institution.  

Adrian Humphreys/National Post

There had been a previous parole hearing, at which time his request for parole had met with denial. That was when he was asked if he remains a terrorist, and responded "Not any more, I would rather die than reoffend", leading the questioner to further ask whether he was making reference to martyrdom or suicide attacks. "No, no, it's just an expression, that's not what I meant", he hastily said. On this second parole hearing, he promised: "I will be the model citizen". 

 

That, he promised to be, for to remain in prison would be to 'wither away', a condition  to be avoided at all costs; he would prefer a dreadful illness be visited upon himself rather than to reoffend -- he promised.

France, Under Siege

"I'm from Nice and this is a tragedy once again."

"We're a free country. Let's love freedom -- that's a message to the world. No god should kill."

Frederic Lefevre, 50, Nice, France

 

"Macon is leading Islamophobia."

"The Muslim world will not let this go in vain. We'll rise and stand in solidarity against him."

Akramul Haq, Dhaka Bangladesh demonstrator

 

"We want the truth about how my son carried out this terrorist attack. I want to see what the surveillance cameras showed."

"I will not give up my son's rights outside the country. I want my son, dead or alive."

Mass Murderer Ibrahim Issaoui's mother Gamra  

"We are Muslims, we are against terrorism, we are poor."

"Show me that my brother committed the attack and judge him as a terrorist. If he was the attacker, he will take his responsibility."

Mass Murderer Ibrahim Issaoui's brother Wissem

 

"Obviously, we give precedence to people who are signalled by law enforcement or by Tunisian authorities."

"The number of spots are not infinite, and he could not therefore be placed inside a repatriation centre [in custody, after Issaoui was issued  an Italian expulsion order when he arrived at the island of Lampedusa, the closest European point of entry from Tunisia]."

Italy's interior minister, Luciana Lamorgese

A policeman stands guard in front of the Notre Dame church in Nice, France, Friday, Oct. 30, 2020. A new suspect is in custody in the investigation into a gruesome attack by a Tunisian man who killed three people in a French church. France heightened its security alert amid religious and geopolitical tensions around cartoons mocking the Muslim prophet. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

Thousands of soldiers have been deployed by President Emmanuel Macron to protect places of worship and schools in France with the country at its highest level of security alert following the second deadly knife attack in two weeks. A Tunisian extremist group not previously known has claimed responsibility for the knife attack on Notre-Dame Basilica following on the grisly murder and beheading of French schoolteacher Samuel Paty the week before. That the assassin who murdered a 60-year-old woman praying a the Nice church and beheaded her, slaughtered the church sextant and mortally wounded a 44-year old woman, a mother of three, committed an act of Islamist terrorism is clear enough. He had with him a copy of the Koran, and shouted 'Allahu Akbar!' repeatedly.

 

French, Italian and Tunisian investigators are attempting to investigate whether the accused, Ibrahim Issaoui, acted with collaborators and whether the attack was premeditated. Overnight yesterday a 35-year-old man was arrested, while a 47-year-old who had met with the assailant the night prior to the attack was already in custody. More latterly, a third suspect was placed in French custody. The attacker himself is in a French hospital, critically wounded when he was shot by police.

France is host to the largest Muslim population in Europe. It also has the largest Jewish population in Europe, although Jews are increasingly leaving France for Israel, where they feel they will be safer. The influx of Muslims in France has resulted in ever growing anti-Semitic attacks against the country's Jews. Jewish social centres, schools and synagogues have for years lived under protective police presence, the result of deadly Muslim attacks. Interior Minister Gerald Damarnin stated "We are in a war against an enemy that is both inside and outside".

"We have to be vigilant, we have to be attentive", said Nice Police chief Richard Gianotti, pointing out that increasingly any symbol of Christianity or the Republic must be considered now a potential target for Islamist jihadists. In Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Palestinian territories tens of thousands emerged from Friday prayers to stage anti-French riots. Police in Islamabad briefly fired tear gas at protesters breaking through security blockades to reach the French embassy.

Raging marchers in Dhaka chanted "Boycott French products", carrying banners pronouncing Macron "the world's biggest terrorist", while burning effigies of the French present. Protests in India, Lebanon and Somalia saw the Islamic world condemning France for effectively identifying Islamist terrorism as a threat against civil non-Muslim society whose cultures and values are clearly at odds with those of Islam. In its secular embrace of free speech and the European nation with the greatest number of Muslims where constant displays of violent anti-Western rejection take place, France is indeed between a rock and a hard place; challenged both externally and internally.

The French government, well aware of the threat that French Muslims pose to the French Jewish population sent 7,000 troops to be deployed for Yon Kippur at synagogues, schools and social centres after the September stabbing at the former offices of Charlie Hebdo. Now it is clear that the enormous number of churches and cathedrals in France will also require protection. In essence, it is as though France is succumbing to martial law to protect its citizens. It is, in fact, how French Jews feel they have been living for years. 

And for years attacks have taken place on French churches with graffiti and vandalism and arson, with between two and three incidents taking place daily on an annual basis. The second-largest church in Paris, St.Sulpice, was torched last year. President Macron is perfectly right; he said it before and he's saying it again: France is under attack. And he promises to take action. Perhaps at this point it is futile. France may be under attack but an attack of another kind long preceded the violent attacks when France absorbed millions of Muslims.

Islam is a religion that demands full and total surrender to its divine precepts, its sharia law, its expectation that the faithful must commit without question or qualm to Islam's demands of its faithful. As such it was never a good candidate to join the citizens of a Western, democratic, secular nation -- for Islam will never  surrender its authority to those of a non-Muslim government, bringing with it all the traditional founding values of ultimate conquest by any expeditious means.

"So I understand and respect that people could be shocked by these cartoons, but I will never accept that one can justify physical violence over these cartoons, and I will always defend the freedom in my country to write, to think, to draw."

"My role is to calm things down, which is what I’m doing, but at the same time, it’s to protect these rights."

French President Emmanuel Macron

A policeman carries flowers in front of the Notre Dame church in tribute to the victims of a deadly knife attack in Nice, France, October 30, 2020. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

 

 

Death By Islamist Ideology

"What can I say? We wee all sad. But we didn't have time to mourn him, because we were so busy surviving ... We were told right away, 'You're next!'."               "They had guards watching us all the time, keeping us awake on purpose, just to break us down physically and mentally."                                                              "The weaker we become, the more they laugh. They think it's funny like hell."  "John [Ridsdel] and me ... we became like soulmates. We were thinking about -- planning is not the right word -- maybe dreaming, what we were going to do when we got out of there."                                                                                            Kjartan Sekkingstad, Norwegian, permanent resident of Canada

"His [Abu Sayyaf terror suspect Anduljihad Susukan] giving himself up to Mr. Misuari [Muslim rebel leader Nur Misuari] is not the surrender contemplated under the law and does not make him immune from arrest."                                    Maj.Gen.Edgard Arevalo Philippine military commander

Abduljihad Susukan, linked to the beheadings of hostages including two Canadians in the Philippines, surrendered on Friday, officials say. (Davos City Police)

Like the Islamic State's propensity to publicize the atrocities they committed on their victims by video taping sophisticated theatricals of horror leading up to the beheading of the 'infidels' they captured, the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group, aligned with ISIL in the Philippines took the same apparent pleasure in terrorizing, tormenting and ultimately beheading those they took prisoner for ransom. In September of 2015, two Canadians along with a Norwegian with Canadian connections and a Filipino woman were abducted from a marina operated by the Norwegian in Davao.

Canadians Robert Hall, centre, and John Ridsdel, right, were taken hostage by Filipino militants in 2015. (Site Intelligence)

The terror group demanded a hefty ransom for the lives of John Ridsdel of Calgary along with fellow Canadian Robert Hall. It wasn't the first time Canadians were captured as they went about their business. There was a precedent to the Philippines' event, when Robert Fowler, a Canadian diplomat on assignment with the United Nations and his colleague Louis Guay were captured by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in 2008, held hostage in the Sahara Desert for 130 days. On their release, facilitated by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Mr. Fowler stated: "I owe a debt to Mr. Harper ..."

He also made a statement regarding the Liberal Party of Canada in March of 2010: "I believe the Liberal party has, to a significant extent, lost its way, at least in policy terms, and of course I mean, in particular, my area of foreign policy terms, and is in danger of losing its soul...To this observer, it seems that Liberals today don't stand for much in the way of principles...I have the impression that they will endorse anything and everything which might return them to power and nothing which won't, whatever the merits of either. It's all about getting to power, and it shows...I believe Liberals seem prepared to embrace an infinite array of special interests in order to shill for votes rather than forging a broad-based principled alliance founded in deep Liberal traditions, one with a distinct social contract and an independent  Canadian character, which would protect, project and defend core Liberal values at home and abroad..."

This was before the Liberals were returned to power in 2015, but it was a statement recognizing the Liberal hunger for power, determined to reassert their entitled place in Canada as the perpetual governing party. Robert Hall, 66 and John Ridsdel, 68, were out of luck when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took Stephen Harper's place. For he announced that Canada would not sully itself by negotiating with terrorists, paying ransom to release two Canadians. That 2010 statement was prescient; five years later, the government of Canada stood firm on 'principles' and left two Canadians to die horribly.

Spavor, Kovrig, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Manuel Balce REUTERS

In 2020 there is another episode with another two Canadians, this time abducted by the Chinese Communist Party, charged with a nebulous, evidence-lacking crime of 'espionage' against China: one, business man, Michael Spavor, the other a diplomat-on-leave, Michael Kovrig, both left to fend for themselves, trapped by circumstances whereby the CFO of Chinese technology giant Huawei being held in British Columbia on an extradition warrant issued by the United States has made them vulnerable to Chinese-style prisoner-chess. And there they languish, imprisoned, since December 2018, awaiting rescue from their nightmare, while the Liberal government continues to play footsie with Beijing.

The three men, Ridsdel, Hall and Sekkingstad, along with Hall's companion Marites Flor were abducted in Septmeber 2014 from the Davao Holiday Oceanview Marina on Samal Island. Ridsdell was executed in April, and Robert Hall was beheaded in June, but before that happened the terrorists teased him, telling him he was heading back to Canada. Then they placed handcuffs on him, allowed him to hug Flor, and led him to the place where the decapitation took place.

Susukan had been involved in a conflict with another Islamist group where he sustained a wound, losing an arm. He surrendered to the rebel leader Nur Misuari of the Moro National Liberation Front which signed a tentative peace agreement with the government back in the mid-1990s. Misuari then flew to Davao with Susukan where he was handed over to the government of President Rodrigo Duterte to face justice for the murder of the two Canadian men and stand trial in kidnappings and executions on the island of Borneo.

Another Abu Sayyaf terrorist implicated in the murder of Robert Hall and John Ridsdel has yet to be brought to justice. As another Abu Sayyaf commander involved in the deaths of the two Canadians, Moammar Askai had died in a battle on the island of Bohoi, killed by Philippines troops. Eventually after the two Canadians were executed Flor was given her freedom in June of 2015. A few months later, Kjartan Sekkingstad was also released; Norway had secured his freedom.

Philippine police escort funeral parlour employees carrying the body of one of two suspected Abu Sayyaf militants killed by authorities during a failed kidnapping in Bohol, central Philippines, May 2017. AP

Waiting ... Waiting ... Waiting

"The group has certainly been decimated in terms of territorial ownership, but the ideology is ... thriving."
"The Islamic State affiliates, wannabes, inspired, are still around and they're going to do what they can, whenever they can."
"We have a tendency to think that current events dictate future events. But I see nothing to suggest this is the new normal."
Phil Gurski, former senior strategic analyst, Canadian spy agency CSIS

"[The Easter Sunday Sri Lanka attacks represented one added manifestation of ISIL's opportunism to spread terror to] whatever venues are available."
"The fact of the matter is that [ISIL] suffered grievous setbacks in Western Iraq and Syria. But severely damaging a terrorist group is not the same as undermining its ideology or destroying its raison d'etre."
Revenge and retaliation for the lost caliphate has now infused [ISIL] with newfound purpose and energy."
Bruce Hoffman, terrorism analyst, Georgetown University

"I think that what our security systems have to really get on top of is that, if you have small groups ... they can mobilize quickly nowadays."
"It's such an interconnected world, and once they believe this poison, it's very virulent."
Anne Speckhard, head, International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism

"[Extremists inspired by terror groups such as ISIL and al-Qaeda remain the No.1 national security danger to public safety in this country."
"[ISIL] has lost significant amounts of territory due to the military actions of an international coalition which includes Canada. It has now shifted away from a focus on statehood to rebuilding its capacity and influence, and conducting insurgencies in both Syria and Iraq, and CSIS assesses that [ISIL] will continue its efforts to inspire and encourage operations abroad."
"The phenomenon of radicalization to violence, both offline and online, remains a great concern to Canada and its allies."
John Townsend, CSIS spokesman

A statue is pictured next to shrapnel marks at St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo on April 22, a day after the building was hit as part of a series of bomb blasts targeting churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka. Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images

According to Kamran Bokhari, director of the Center for Global Policy in Washington, sole focus on ideology and radicalization diverts from an equally vital issues eluding intelligence analysts and law enforcement: tradecraft. An entire "middle management layer" and funding stream that operates behind the scenes has not yet been fully comprehended, much less explored. "We haven't mapped out the ISIL creature, this entity."

"We don't have a good map of who's who. We don't know how this thing operates", he insists. Perhaps he could direct them to re-read Dore Gold's Hatred's Kingdom for starters, and then peruse the Koran, go to the Hadiths, sit on on Friday prayers at any local mosque....

What terrorism analysts are saying is that the central command of ISIL is taking credit for at the very least, inspiring the Sri Lankan Islamist group that carried out the massive co-ordinated bombings at three mosques and three hotels on Easter Week Sunday, killing up to 250 people and injuring another 500, as yet another victory in their jihad against Christianity and the West. More to come. Wherever opportunity leads.

Islamic State is, in essence, celebrating its new, re-energized brand, its virally lethal repudiation of all that is not strictly in adherence to an original Islamic code of exclusion, domination and conquest. Sleeper cells, loyal to and dedicated to the martyrdom ideology are everywhere. Just as the Muslim Brotherhood and arms loyal to Hamas and Hezbollah have infiltrated civilized societies manifesting their presence during occasional 'protests' where their flags are seen, ISIL's influence is also present.

"I think it's fundamentally true we will be encountering much more than lone wolf attacks in the coming years in Canada and beyond", cautioned Amarnath Amarasingam, senior research fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. For just as Islamic State succeeded in drawing thousands of recruits from abroad to their caliphate sites in Syria and Iraq to its front lines, additional thousands absorbed by their strident militarism remain in situ to eventually disclose their presence through terrorist attacks.

Captured ISIS wives in Syria. What will become of the radicalized children? (Photo: DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Its propaganda machine will not be silenced. Defying the success of the international military coalition that managed to erase its regional geography, its ideological attraction has no boundaries and many receptors. According to a November report issued by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, as many as 230,000 Salafi-jihadist and allied fighters around the world are in place, in 2018 figures representing an 270 percent increase from 2001.

That's an impressive number of the ideological faithful favouring martyrdom and mass slaughter. Those numbers representing broad constituencies linked to the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and affiliates, assorted other Salafi-jihadist and allied groups, their inspired networks and loyal individuals. But not to be too concerned; most of the bloody damage is being done within countries of the non-West where global intelligence levels are low as is intelligence-sharing.

"We have to be worried about those who have come back", cautions Kyle Matthews, executive director of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Concordia University. "Are they prepping the next generation of young Canadians to their cause? Have they given up their world views? I'm not too sure". CSIS figures have it that about 190 "extremist travellers" from Canada travelled abroad.

The 2018 Public Report on the Terrorism Threat to Canada stated that close to 60 of that greater number had returned. And how to "contain" them? "The real battlefront is on the ideological level", states Matthews, with Canada and its allies urgently required to be more aggressive in the prosecution of ISIL fighters, domestically and through an international tribunal.

And . good . luck . to . that.

An American citizen and former college student, Hoda Muthana, left the US four years ago to join ISIS. She is currently being held in a refugee camp in northeastern Syria. President Donald Trump has tweeted that he had directed Mike Pompeo “not to allow Hoda Muthana back into the Country!” Hoda Muthana’s story is not unique – it reflects a widespread issue around the world, as democratic nations try to figure out how to deal with hundreds  of returning ISIS fighters.