Co-Opting Canada for Islam

"[The] Islamophobia industry [is enabled by] self-proclaimed Muslim dissidents, reformers and ex-Muslims [who] act as instigators and propagators of anti-Islamic narratives as well as validating and authorizing the circulation of these tropes."

"[I have] comprehensively outlined the machinations of Canada's Islamophobia industry."

"[Moderate Muslims and mainstream Jewish organizations] share political and ideological mandates that involve the demonization and vilification of Islam and Muslims and often work in concert to foment controversies and spread Islamophobic narratives and conspiracy theories."

Jasmine Zine, Professor, Sociology and Muslim Studies Option, Wilfred Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario

BDS protesters at McGill University FILE PHOTO

 

Religious studies professors, sociology professors,  history professors, they dominate increasingly in Western institutes of higher learning, and bring to academia and to the public, their perspective and narratives focusing on the legitimacy of Islam as a religion of peace, while painting with a broad brush of Islamic condemnation any individual or group that dares point out that Islam today represents offshoots of extreme religious devotion wreaking havoc worldwide as Muslim terrorist groups.

Fundamentalist ideologically-driven fanatics on a mission to force the greater Muslim population to a more 'pure' and authentic vision of Islam excising all the relaxed, Western- and democracy-ringed versions of the original that may blur the stark distinction of Islamic values, precepts and mores from those of any other religion, laws, cultures or value systems. In the process, to demonstrate just how serious they are, these groups known more familiarly as Islamist terrorists rampage through non-Muslim and Muslim societies alike, intent on vengeance against those failing to place Islam on the pedestal demanded for it.

In a country like Canada which, like any other has its home-grown bigots and racists, but which is not even marginally culturally and socially racist, the current government has been pleased to demonstrate its progressive credentials by describing Canada as a 'racist country', and with this attitude from the executive branch of the federal government, it is hardly surprising that Muslim academics feel free to slander the country and to accuse Canadians of anti-Islam bias described as "Islamophobia", a term coined by the Muslim Brotherhood after the public impact and reaction stemming from the 9/11 attacks in the U.S.

Even more shocking is the presence of a growing number of mosques throughout Canada, reflecting the growing number of immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East bringing their social culture, religious devotion and Islam-inspired system of justice with them, and where in the mosques incendiary messages of hatred against others are frequently spewed. It has been those messages that have been responsible for recruiting Muslims to the concept of jihad, persuading some to go abroad to fight alongside terror groups like Islamic State.

Yet with all this activity of fanatical Muslim terrorists cutting a swath through the Middle East and Africa with their agenda of slaughtering non-Muslims and Muslims alike in the performance of their martyrdom missions in jihad, people like sociology professor Zine feel free to preach against "Islamophobia", condemning the general population, both non-Muslim and moderate Muslim who abhor the violence engendered by some of the Islamic texts and hadiths along with interpretations of the Koran inimical to peace between people, as "Islamophobia".

Professor Zine recently released a report she titled The Canadian Islamophobia Industry: Mapping Islamophobia's Ecosystem in the Great White North, where she gives insights into "how Islamophobia manifests and is purveyed: in Canada"; a totally skewed perspective of anti-Msulim bigotry in Canada, besmirching wide groups of people as racist, inclusive of Canadian Muslims who practise a moderate Islam. 

Raheel Raza, president of the Council of Muslims Facing Tomorrow, a rational, intelligent and moderate movement within Canada representing the interests of integrated Muslim-Canadians, has been singled out by Professor Zine for special condemnation. Raheel Raza points out that the term "Islamophobia" has no clear definition, unlike the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's antisemitism definition; clear and concise. She points out that Islamophobia is meant to connote heresy.

Ms. Raza also speaks of the mosques that were found to be spreading radical messages, with links to known terrorist groups, for spreading 9/11 conspiracy theories, for refusing to denounce terrorist attacks; indeed promoting them as reflective of the faithful committing to martyrdom on behalf of upholding Islam's sacred injunction to its faithful to spread the word of Islam, committing to proselytizing. What also takes place is hateful attacks against others in the community. 'Solitarity with Palestinians' sees radical groups in Canada mounting slanderous attacks against Israel and Canadian Jews.

 

Children hold anti-Israel signs at the al-Quds Day at the Alberta Legislative grounds in Edmonton (Credit: Facebook: Radical Citizen Media)

The BDS movement, Israel Apartheid Week and Al-Quds Day creates divisions between Canadians of various origins and cultural heritage. Islamists in Canada have infiltrated Canadian universities, as student groups mount verbal and violent conflicts against their Jewish counterparts. Muslims are prone to complaining about Islamophobia and attacks against Islam and Muslims in Canada, yet as Statistics Canada and police reports point out, Jews are the single most-persecuted religious/ethnic group in Canada through antisemitic attacks, followed by Blacks, and then Muslims. And it is Muslims who lead the way to antisemitic attacks.

Al-Quds Day Rally in Toronto, 2022. (Credit: B'nai Brith Canada)

Terrorist Attack in Norway, But Don't Jump To Conclusions....

"My youngest daughter was a couple of meters in front of me when she suddenly stopped as there were lots of blue lights."

"We saw a police car with sirens on come, and it stopped at the top of the street. Two policemen jumped out of the car with weapons and ran into the shop here, and they were shouting, 'armed police, put down the weapon.'"

"Then we were told to move away, that we had to get to safety. So we ran to the corner there, and stood there on the corner. There, we met another man who said that it was he who had called the police, and that the perpetrator had shot after him, down here, and then we saw that there was an arrow down there in the road. There was no crossbow only a long arrow lying there."

Linda Ostergaard, attack witness, Kongsberg, Norway

 

"The man has been apprehended ... from the information we now have, this person carried out these actions alone."

"Several people have been injured and several are dead." 

Oeyvind Aas, police chief, Kongsberg

 

"This is a gruesome incident, there is nothing else to say."

"Now we must try to take care of the inhabitants as best we can."

"[This town is] a completely ordinary community with completely ordinary people. [Everyone has been deeply shaken by] this very tragic situation."

Kari Anne Sand, mayor, Kongsberg

Police officers cordon off the scene in Kongsberg on October 13.

"We have during last night, this morning and this afternoon learned more about what atrocities have taken place, what cruel acts innocent people were exposed to, what unrest and fear hit the community in Kongsberg, and spread to the whole country."

"This shows that our society is vulnerable. It is not good for us to conclude what is the motive, what is behind this action. The police must be allowed to finish their work and clarify, but it emphasizes again that preparedness is a complex task for a society."

Labour leader, Norway Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store

Despite having said which, police readily and early declared the longbow attack that killed four women and a man, injuring several others, was a terrorist attack. Committed, as it happens, by someone whom the police had previously interacted with, a Dane living in Norway who had converted to Islam and who was known to have been radicalized. Espen Andersen Bråthen, 37, is slated to appear in court Friday, charges levelled against him not yet revealed.

Obviously, no one is leaping to conclusions; the evidence seems fairly straightforward, yet the government itself walks on tippy-toes over declaring the obvious, not wanting its citizenry to draw from the shocking news any hint of caution required against the country's immigrant Muslim population. A situation which could easily get out of hand, after all, leading to suspicion from indigenous Norwegians about how trustworthy their relatively new demographic of immigrant Muslims can be in their loyalty to their welcoming country.

How many 'radicalized' Muslims could there be? How much of a threat do they pose to the general population? Norway has already dealt with a much more shocking terrorist event when one of its own conceived and acted on a plan to illustrate just how dangerous hatred of the other can be, when he murdered 8 innocent people in Oslo detonating a bomb, then stormed an island to slaughter 69 more in a gun rampage. All together Anders Behring Brevik, a right-wing idealogue, killed 77 people.

 

A bow and arrow cannot claim as many lives as a bomb and guns, but the damage to society through the 'gruesomeness' of the event is monumental. Although police consider the deadly attack to be an instance of terrorism, they are as yet without an explanation as to what motivated the convert to Islam, although commitment to jihad seems a reasonable enough conclusion; it is what 'radicalization' results in, responding to the call to jihad.

The first call to police by bystanders reporting a man with a bow and arrow came in at 6:15 pm, the rampage was over, the man arrested 35 minutes later. The municipality of Kongsberg, 68 km from Oslo, has a population of some 28,000 people. There were, said police,  "several crime scenes" that took place over "a large area" of the town. Resulting in large areas of the west side of the town cordoned off. 

 

The attacker first opened fire in a supermarket. At the supermarket an off-duty police officer was shot and wounded. With one of the lowest crime rates in the world, unarmed Norwegian police respond to few crimes. Last year there were only 28 occasions when police used or threatened to use firearms to apprehend a criminal situation. Not that there aren't occasions of violence erupting. When restaurants, bars and nightclubs were reopened following the loosening of pandemic restrictions dozens of mass brawls broke out.

Celebratory occasions marking the end of pandemic lockdowns in cities across Norway. Certainly not comparable to the sinister threat of stalking killers setting out on a mission of lethal violence in a country known for its tolerance and calm reaction to adverse events. Where public and social mores are invested in quiet everyday civil diplomacy among people.

Residents have placed tributes for those killed in Kongsberg town centre   EPA

Jihadi Lone Wolf Mental Illnesses

"As part of our investigation into the homicide, we came across evidence that led us to believe there may be a terrorism-related offence."
"And that’s what’s brought us to today where the updated charge was laid in court this morning."
Toronto police spokesperson Meaghan Gray

Saad Akhtar has been charged with the terrorism-related murder of a 64-year-old Toronto woman. Family Handout

"[There were two reasons to apply the charge].One, signalling, and calling it what it is, if authorities think it’s terrorism. And two, it gets you from second degree murder to first-degree murder without having to prove that the murder was ‘planned and deliberate’."
"That in turn gets you a longer sentence in terms of the parole ineligibility going from 10 to 25 years, but still life in prison."
Michael Nesbitt, law professor, University of Calgary

64-year-old Hang-Kam “Annie” Chiu, the victim of a deadly hammer attack

In Toronto on Friday evening, 64-year-old Hang-Kam Annie Chiu happened to be strolling along Sheppard Avenue in the north-east end of the city. She was accosted by 30-year-old Saad Akhtar wielding a hammer with malice aforethought, killing the woman who was, according to the murderer's mother, unknown to both him and his family. He had chosen her to die at his hands.

According to the Toronto Police Service, Akhtar voluntarily turned himself in to police who charged him with first-degree murder. And then new information came to light which led to an updated charge, that of first-degree murder including terrorist activity. Upon discovering new evidence the Toronto police had turned to the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team -- an RCMP team specializing in terrorism cases -- for advice, and this presumably was the outcome.

A note was evidently discovered tucked under the slain woman's body, revealing that the murder, albeit random and puzzling in nature, had been committed in the fulfillment of 'terrorist reasons'. In a later interview after the arrest of the obvious Islamist jihadist, his mother revealed that her son had been studying computer programming at Ryerson University, that the woman he killed was a stranger to him, and that her son suffered from a mental illness. Diagnosed with ADHD and obsessive -compulsive disorder.

He was not, she emphasized, capable of a violent act such as he has been charged with. A trial and jury will most certainly reach their own conclusions on the evidence which will exclude a mother's trust in a son she described as troubled but refusing help. His usual Friday evening mosque attendance last week did not see him returning home immediately afterward. Instead, he had decided to fulfill a mission incumbent on the faithful in Islam; personal jihad.

Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network

Society hosts an awful lot of people of all ages, backgrounds and cultures diagnosed with ADHD, who somehow learn to lead fairly normal lives. Many people suffer from many types of 'abnormal' mental states to which they learn to adjust their lives; among them people with obsessive personalities, those whose compulsive passions would never lead to violence, much less plotting to murder perfect strangers leaving explanatory notes behind.

A flower memorial where Hang-Kam “Annie” Chiu was murdered

Clearly, though purportedly mentally unstable, he had no wish to become a martyr to claim his reward in Paradise. Under the Canadian Criminal Code, a suspect can face charges of first-degree murder irrespective of whether the killing was 'planned and deliberate' as long as it resulted from an offence considered to represent a terrorist action. A first-degree murder charge merits a longer prison sentence. Parole eligibility is ten years for second-degree murder; 25 years under a first-degree charge if found guilty.

"On behalf of the RCMP, I would like to extend our thoughts and prayers to the victim's family and to the communities that are affected by this horrific event."
Superintendent Christopher deGale, O Division, RCMP 

How strange it is that whenever an Islamist jihadist works themselves into a religious frenzy of hatred against those Islam considers enemies within Western society deserving of death, and executes a personal plan with or without like-minded accomplices, friends and family come forward to attest to the attacker's character, that such a diabolical act of deliberate violence ending the life of some poor innocent does not reflect who the killer really is. That in fact, a mental state is responsible for the crime, and as such appealing for sympathy, not condemnation.



 

When There's a Will, There is the Jihad Way

"If you can’t make a bomb because family, friends or spies are watching or suspecting you, take a knife, molotov, sound bombs or a car at night and attack the tourists (crusaders), police and soldiers of taghut [tyranny], or western embassies in every country you are in this planet."
"[ISIS] can never die. [There is a] reward [awaiting those who wage jihad]."
"[I would] rather blow myself up [and would like to know] how to make bombs."
Sudesh Amman, 20, Convicted terrorist

"Much of his fascination with conducting an attack was focused on using a knife but reference was also made to committing acid attacks on mopeds."
“His fascination with dying in the name of terrorism was clear in a notepad we recovered from his home. Amman had scrawled his ‘life goals’ in the notepad and top of the list, above family activities, was dying a martyr and going to ‘Jannah’ — the afterlife."
Crown Prosecution Service 

"[I've come] to the end of patience [with the early release policy and lack of supervision of offenders like Amman]."
"I think the idea of automatic early release for people who obviously continue to pose a threat to the public has come to the end of its useful life."
"We do think it’s time to take action to ensure that people — irrespective of the law that we’re bringing in — people in the current stream do not qualify automatically for early release."
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson 

"We cannot have the situation, as we saw tragically in yesterday's case, where an offender - a known risk to innocent members of the public - is released early by automatic process of law without any oversight by the Parole Board."
"[New legislation would mean people convicted of terrorism offences will no longer be released automatically after they have served half of their sentence]."
"[Because we face] an unprecedented situation of severe gravity, [the legislation will also apply to serving prisoners],"
British Justice Secretary Robert Buckland

London’s Metropolitan Police said that the incident in the south London suburb of Streatham was terrorism-related. Photo: Hollie Adams/Getty Images

"He came out towards the end of January. He was under very strict licence terms. He was also under surveillance and that is what allowed the police to do their job so quickly. It meant that it could have been worse than it was had he not been under this surveillance."
"There were concerns about this individual when he was in prison - around things he was saying - but there were no powers available to any of the authorities to keep him behind bars."
"He had reached the automatic halfway point, halfway release point in his sentence and there was nothing that could be done to keep him locked behind bars.This is why there need to be changes brought forward because the public will look at this case and say: 'Why was this individual not kept not kept behind bars?' The PM shares that view."   Whitehall Sources

Yet another convicted terrorist out on early release, returning to what he knew best and longed to engage in, to hasten his martyrdom and ascent to Paradise as befits an Islamist jihadist. Britain prides itself on being a 'tolerant' society, and Britons pay the price for that 'tolerance'. Sudesh Amman, formerly convicted of terrorism, out on early release from prison, feeling free in that tolerant society to resume his dearly-held convictions and act on them. All of 20 years of age, deeply ensconced in the death-and-martyrdom syndrome of jihad.

Shot dead on Streatham High Road a day ago, but not before he stabbed two people, calling Allahu Akbar! as  he lunged. Wearing a pseudo suicide belt the while. All a week following release from prison after serving half of his three-year, four-month sentence for publishing graphic terrorist videos online and stockpiling bomb-making instructions and the current favourite of ISIL-approved tactics, knife attacks. . His early release did not go without concern on the part of Metropolitan Police which had placed him under direct police surveillance.


Followed by armed officers on foot reflecting a "proactive counter-terrorism surveillance operation" according to Scotland Yard, the response to the knife attacks on two people perpetrated by the man was close to instant. He was closely watched as he entered a shop on Streatham High Road around two in the afternoon, and there he stole a knife. Exiting the shop with his prize, he attacked two people. According to the Metropolitan Police, the officers' response was within 60 seconds of the attack, when he was fatally shot.

One of the stabbed people was immediately treated for life-threatening injuries, while a woman sustained less serious wounds than the man whose injuries were critically severe. A third person was injured by broken glass, following a weapon being fired by an officer.

Video footage following the stabbing showed two men in civilian clothing, one wearing a hoodie, the other with a police baseball cap, pointing their guns at a body on the nearby pavement.

"The incident was quickly declared as a terrorist incident, and we believe it to be Islamist-related", declared deputy assistance commissioner in the Metropolitan Police, Lucy D'Orsi. Hard to see how they could have concluded otherwise, given the classical jihadi shout-out to Allah.

Amman had admitted to 13 terror related offences, which included the dissemination of terrorist material, and collecting instructions meant to be of use in planning terrorist attacks. "People just came running in, screaming and upset, shouting about a gun. We ran to the back of the shop and were locked in", explained Chris Wells, shopping in Streatham with his daughter when gunshots were heard outside. "We tried to leave to get away and I saw a man in a hoodie with a gun, which I now know was a plainclothes officer. And another officer shouting at us to get back inside because there was a bomb threat."








As for Sudesh Amman, it's hard to say who will miss him. Of course, his exploit will resonate as a successful terrorist attack, not a complete failure, since at least two people were badly injured and he did his best to make it two deaths, not merely injuries. His action and following notoriety will instill admiration in some, and no doubt incite additional wannabe jihadis to action. At his family home in London, he had left a combat knife, air gun and black flag. No parental concern? His girlfriend had received videos of beheadings from him. He had advised her to kill her "kuffar" parents. Beyond grim.

Perspectives of Compassion, Condemnation

"[The Senate Intelligence Committee study of the CIA program found that waterboarding and other techniques were] brutal and far worse than the CIA represented."
"[Its use induced convulsions, vomiting and left Zubaydah] completely unresponsive, with bubbles rising through his open, full mouth."
Report of the U.S.Senate Intelligence Committee, 2014

Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn

"They kept pouring water and concentrating on my nose and my mouth until I really felt I was drowning and my chest was just about to explode from the lack of oxygen."
"[Some guards] noticed the colour of my hands, [moved me to a chair] and the interrogation vertigo resumed -- the cold, the hunger, the little sleep and the intense vomiting, which I didn't know whether it was caused by the cold, the 'Ensure' or the noise."
"[Agents used a method of] horizontal sleep deprivation [involving shackling flat on the ground in a painful position making it impossible to sleep]."
"[I was deprived of sleep for] maybe two or three weeks or even more."
"It felt like an eternity. To the point that I found myself falling asleep despite the water being thrown at me by the guard."
Abu Zubaydah [aka Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn, Palestinian jihadist imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

The man known as Abu Zubaydah, held for four years in secret prisons overseas by the American Central Intelligence Agency in the years directly following the attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania by jihadists on that unforgettable day of 9/11, is the subject of a 61-page report, "How America Tortures", produced by a professor at the Seton Hall University School of Law, Mark P. Denbeaux. Mr. Denbeaux -- who acts as Abu Zubaydah's lawyer -- aided by some of his students used a firsthand narrative of his client, along with Bush internal administrative memos, prisoners' memories and the 2014 Senate Intelligence Committee report in their analysis of the interrogation method used on his client.

Zubaydah, now 48, had drawn sketches of the torture and interrogation methods used on him and other prisoners at Guantanamo Bay prison and they too were included in the finished report. He had been submitted 83 times to waterboarding, among other forms of torture and he documented them all through his detailed sketches. He had been captured during a gun fight that took place in Faisalabad, Pakistan in 2002. Injured badly, he was given medical treatment, then sent to a network of CIA overseas prisons.

Abu Zubaydah, Courtesy Prof.Mark Denbeaux, Seton Hall University School of Law

There, the agency hired two CIA contract psychologists to come up with a form of inquisition to determine Zubaydah's role in the 9/11 terrorist attack. The formula the CIA psychologists came up with was isolation, sleep deprivation and the violence associated with waterboarding, to elicit data useful to the CIA in their investigation. A hundred prisoners were subjected to these methods in secret sites which some have described as dungeons staffed by secret guards and medical officers.

Zubaydah was the first of the detainees to be subjected to the waterboarding technique and he endured it for no fewer than 82 repeats along with "a constantly rotating barrage" of methods whose purpose was to break his resistance to interrogation. Including being boxed within a small confinement. Zubaydah, it turns out was indeed a  jihadist, but had no knowledge of the 9/11 attacks, and hadn't been a member of al-Qaeda. Subsequently, he has never faced charges related to a specific crime.

Abu Zubaydah, Courtesy Prof.Mark Denbeaux, Seton Hall University School of Law

The man continues to be held at Guantanamo Bay at the secretive Camp 7, his release forbidden. He portrays himself in one drawing, immobilized, water pouring on his hooded head, right foot contorted with pain. Other detainees held in various black sites had their own descriptions, but Zubaydah drew himself nude, shackled at wrists to a bar over his head as he was still recovering from a thigh wound, attempting to balance weight on his uninjured leg.

"Long hours went by while I was standing in that position. My hands were tight to the upper bars", he divulged to his lawyers. Sleep deprivation was justified by the CIA, such that it "focuses the detainee's attention on his current situation rather than ideological goals". His ideological goals, as a jihadist would have been to engage in the slaughter of infidels and Jews, as enjoined by his faith's highest calling for martyrs to dedicate themselves to Islamic conquest. To that end, almost three thousand people were killed in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

Rehabilitating Jihadists

"I was on the bus coming southbound over London Bridge. We had just pulled away from the bus stop when the bus came to a sudden stop, because there were people running across the bridge into the road, sort of looking over their shoulders and filming behind them."
"It looked like there was a fight going on ... people tussling with each other. And then you realize it was police wrestling with one tall bearded man. I had my baby with me, so I moved her behind the stairwell to be safe. Then there was two shots or two loud pops. I think they were gunshots."
"[I saw the attacker lying on the ground and pulling his coat back, revealing] some sort of vest underneath. The police then really quickly moved backwards."
Karen Bosch, London stabbing aftermath witness

"I jumped in and kicked him [the knife-assailant] in the head to make him release his knife. A few others did so."
"He was shouting 'get off me, get off me'."
Stevie Hurst, London tour guide

"Our Counter Terrorism detectives will be working 'round the clock to identify those who have lost their lives, to support all the victims and their families."
"We are also working at full tilt to understand exactly what has happened and whether anyone else was involved."
London police chief Cressida Dick

"I ... want to pay tribute to the extraordinary bravery of those members of the public who physically intervened to protect the lives of others."
"This country will never be cowed, or divided, or intimidated by this sort of attack."
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson

A police officer cordons off a street close to the scene of Friday's deadly stabbings at London Bridge. (Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA-EFE)

Police Chief Cressida Dick might want to have a conversation with the head of MI5. Which was ostensibly tracking the knifer, a known Islamist terrorist whose early release from a lengthy prison sentence for conspiring to bomb on behalf of al Qaeda, the London Stock Exchange, allowed him to attend a workshop designed to guide wannabe terrorists such as he back from the dark to the light taking place at Fishmongers' Hall, which he used as a launching point for his obviously planned knife attacks.

Earlier this month Britain had decided, likely on the advice of its Intelligence services, to lower the national alert status from "severe" to "substantial", the lower rating not necessarily an opportunity to relax, but that the terror threat level in the U.K. rated somewhat less vigilance. While the new rating still judged an attack to be likely, it was not quite so much as the previous level. One step behind the mindset of those who fester in bleak hatred, anxious to kill innocents to prove to themselves and others that jihad is serious business, downgrading aside.

Uzman Khan, the 28-year-old from Birmingham, had more all-encompassing plans than merely stabbing unfortunate passersby in central London; he envisaged his grand role in co-sponsoring a "terrorist military training facility" for the greater glory of Islamist jihad. What he is now known for is killing two people, wounding three others, while wearing a mock suicide belt. His victim count is remarkably high, but would have been far more so, had it not been for the response of witnesses to his attack.

Witnesses were widely praised for intervening in the attack  
@HLOBlog/Twitter/PA Wire

One man had hauled down from the wall at Fishmongers' Hall a narwhal tusk, a long, straight,  twisted spiral of a 'tooth', reminiscent of a Unicorn's fabled horn, meaning to use it as a cudgel as he responded to the attack. Khan was wearing an ankle bracelet as part of his pre-release conditions, and presumably he was being tracked. That he was able to arm himself, plan and mount an attack of this magnitude in a public place surely means that he wasn't being monitored as closely as he should have been.

While this can be viewed as a fault of Intelligence services, it can also be viewed from the perspective of staff shortages. As many people on staff to do the required due diligence to ensure that none such as he run amok, terrorizing and slaughtering, there will never be sufficient numbers for the job at hand. Polls taken in Great Britain attest to the large number of sympathizers among the much larger number of British Muslims who feel violence in the name of Islam and its mission to jihad is perfectly acceptable.

As for the proposed "terrorist military academy", in the case of Khan, his Pakistani-born family proves that old adage of the apple never falling far from the tree. Khan's family owns land in Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan geography between India and Pakistan that has been a flashpoint for conflict since India was partitioned for the creation of Pakistan in 1947. A mosque was built on the land and plans were to proceed to "establish and operate a terrorist military training facility" there.

Khan busied himself with the thought of producing "more serious and effective terrorists". Charges against the man and another suspect were of attending operational meetings, fundraising and preparing to travel abroad for the purpose to "engage in training for acts of terrorism", earning him a 16-year-sentence, which British jurisprudence obviously saw fit to reduce by half, giving him early pre-release and the opportunity to practise what he was so eager to preach.

One of the people he stabbed to death was involved as a university graduate student with the Cambridge University conference on prison rehabilitation, which Khan was instructed to attend. For his troubles as a course coordinator for Leaning Together, a prisoners' rehabilitation program hosting the conference at Fishmongers' Hall, Jack Merritt became a sacrifice to Islam, making his killer a martyr whose death and daring exploits in murdering those who attempted to help him, a hero in his native Pakistan.

Usman Khan appeared as case study in a report by Learning Together

In the event, as things played out, when the bystanders to this London stabbing atrocity tackled the knife attacker to bring him down and remove his knife, the police arrived to take charge. They hauled one of the courageous witnesses off the prostrate Khan who then revealed the fake suicide belt he was wearing. Its revelation caused his death. Police shot him dead to stop him from detonating the bomb vest, and completed his mission to become a martyred hero of Islam.

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

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.

Forewarned, Unprepared, Stricken

"The reality is that inevitably this group has links outside. My assessment is that the motivation, the masterminds, are outside the country."
"I think their aim is global, it's not in Sri Lanka. Wherever they can get a soft spot they hit because they need recruits all the time and the only way that they can get recruits is by doing these kinds of spectacular activities."
"This is essentially a recruiting tool for them."
Madhav Nalapat, professor of geopolitics, Manipal University, India

"These attacks appear to be quite different and look as if they came right out of the [ISIL], al-Qaeda, global militant jihadi playbook, as these are attacks fomenting religious hatred by attacking multiple churches on a  high religious holiday."
"It is not about a separatist movement. It is about religion and punishing."
Anne Speckhard, director, International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism

"Given the gradual but steady growth of radicalization in Sri Lanka and more importantly the emergence of the Islamic State in Sri Lanka, this could pose a serious threat to the security of Sri Lanka."
"Continued marginalization of the Muslim community in Sri Lanka has produced a conducive environment for extremist elements to breed. These extremist elements could exploit the fault lines within the Muslim community and use the situation akin to how the Rohingya crISIL in Myanmar was used to foment and create extremist groups elsewhere in the region."
"This situation could ideally present the jihadist groups such as the Islamic State with a window of opportunity to plant their footprint in the Sri Lankan soil."
Geopolitical Monitor

Dead bodies of victims lie inside St. Sebastian's Church damaged in blast in Negombo, north of Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday. (Chamila Karunarathne/Associated Press)

There it is in bold letters, former ISIL fighters returning to their  home countries intent on setting up regional terror hubs, a preoccupied concern of Europe and North America come to roost, its first showing since the destruction, but not complete demoralization of Islamic State, to turn to alternate means of evidencing its malign existence and its higher purpose, to slowly and steadily infiltrate and wreak destabilizing chaos through terror and slaughter, leaving the impression on vulnerable populations that they will never know where and when the next strike will appear....

The National Thowheeth Jamaath, a local Sri Lankan Muslim extremist group was a powder keg only needing the spark to set it in motion to create a devastating blow against government disinterest and inaction, its attention diverted by other pressing problems of political upheaval, separatist determination and violent terrorism by Tamil Tigers. The irony here is that the Tamil Tigers were credited with being the first such group to invent suicide bombing. An effective tactic of terror and mass slaughter enthusiastically embraced by jihadists.

The Tamil Tigers are a spent force in the wake of the destructive civil war and its ignominious defeat at the cost of untold numbers of Sri Lankan lives. Yet the Sri Lankan government and intelligence focus remained fixed on the Tigers, overlooking the more viral promise of Islamist jihadists revelling in their reawakening to the joys of Islamic martyrdom in service to the Koran's injunctions to the faithful. Friday mosque prayers are not complete without the customary jog to Muslim sensibilities of the sacred principle of jihad.



Out of Indian intelligence came a warning to Sri Lanka of imminent attacks, eliciting slightly more than a shrug, but not much more. And then came a whirlwind of action out of Muslim-majority Kattankudy in eastern Sri Lanka, reflecting detailed planning leading to a surprise multi-pronged assault where Christians and Westerners were both the message and the targets. In the aftermath, the realization that Thowheeth Jamaath aligned itself with global terrorism; ISIL or al-Qaeda on the Indian subcontinent (AQIS).

It was predicted. Analysts spoke of the "localization" of terrorism, reminiscent of Islamic State grooming its recruits to remain where they are, and to attack there,  using whatever means available. Small, local groups and individuals inspired by the magnificent exploits of those affiliated with global jihadi networks. And thus was outlined the future of Asia. Of Europe. Of North America. In this instance, with the Christian Sri Lankan churches and Western-style hotels targeted and the deaths of over three hundred innocents, the wounding of over five hundred, the message was sent, and received.

"The Bloody days in your church has begun", was the message alongside videos of the Sri Lankan bombings from an Indonesian Instagram account supporting Islamic State, reported SITE.

A Sri Lankan police commando enters a house suspected to be a hideout of militants following a shoot out in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Sunday. Thirteen people were arrested and three officers were killed during raids in search of suspects following the attacks. (Eranga Jayawardena/Associated Press)

Canada's Home-Grown ISIL Terrorists

"We need to get ready in case they come back sooner than what we had expected."
"The reason why we’re doing all of this is because any information on any individual that could pose a threat to Canadians, we will investigate fully. But it may take time. We may not be in a position, as each and every one of them comes back to Canada, that we’re at that stage where we can arrest them."
"[The RCMP is] looking at what’s out there, what’s been reported, what’s on social media [trying to determine how to use it as evidence]. What can we do with that information? How much of it do we need to corroborate? All of that aspect is key."
"[There are also] pockets of intelligence [that were under discussion with the Crowns]. Here’s what we have. How much can we push? What does it mean for us in laying charges?. That engagement with PPSC [Public Prosecution Service of Canada] has been ongoing."
"Because some of these folks [women and children of ISIL] may come back and we may not have enough to charge them, or it may not be they need to charge them either, but they will require some social services."
"We take care of our own. Basically, they are Canadians and I think it’s our responsibility."
Deputy Commissioner Gilles Michaud, head, RCMP federal policing branch

Still from video: ISIL Women and children from Bagruz being transported to Kurdish-controlled holding camps

It's not as though Canadian government security agencies haven't been very well aware that some Canadian Muslim citizens have been taken into custody -- protective custody on the part of Islamic State wives and children -- as the Kurdish-led Syrian Defence Forces mop up the last remaining territory held by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, in the dying days of their dynastic ambitions, a period where the former Islamic Caliphate has shrunk from territory comprising at least a third each of Syria and Iraq, and growing, to its present parlous state of disappearance.

Disappearance only in the sense that the territory Islamic State celebrated as their growing Islamist imperialist caliphate is now defunct. Not that the deathly violent strain of fundamentalist Islam bequeathed to the world by the Prophet Mohammad in the 7th Century as the final rendition of god's omnipresent benevolence for the human race would or could be so readily suppressed. The jihadists held in prisons awaiting repatriation to their countries of origin to be dealt with there as those countries see fit; and the larger majority indigenous to the region, to be dealt with a trifle more expeditiously under their own system of law and justice remain committed to their death cult.

One that they were proud to display in the slick production of videos and magazines celebrating the terrorist exploits in ghoulishly imaginative ways, promoting the horrors of crucifixion, beheadings and any number of ghastly methods of torture preceding death, from drownings to immolations, explosives strapped to victims, or exhibitions of close-range shooting executions. Wholesome sacrifices to Allah as proof of faith; tickets to exaltation and welcome to Paradise as blessed martyrs to the cause. Of course, on the other hand, a few Muslim nations utilize similar means of capital punishment.

These are the psychopathic, soulless, Medieval minds Canada is preparing to receive. And despite the fact that these 'citizens' plotted to illegally leave Canada to join the growing ranks of like-minded cretins who celebrated the brave new world of the caliphate dedicating themselves to all the ritualistic, sadistic, murderous exploits of the group, Canadian authorities staunchly characterize them as Canadians worthy of return. How perfectly sympatico. Accepting their return, but uncertain whether sufficient evidence will be found to appropriately apply justice for the countless slaughtered victims of the caliphate.

As for the women and children to be repatriated, the women who had full knowledge of the desperate straits imposed upon other women, mere Yazidis and their children forced into slavery after having witnessed the butchery of their husbands and sons, placed into the debauched hands of Islamists whom sacred screed justifies having sex slaves and killing wantonly, what kind of moral, just punishment will be meted out to them? Why of course; social services. Canada the good has compassion.

Canada is unprepared for the return of these model citizens, scrambling now in the wake of the SDF taking more Canadians into custody around the last pocket of ISIS territory in northeast Syria, to ensure that the federal police force, the RCMP, shelve the assumption that these monsters were unlikely to come back to Canada. This, despite that the Kurds have awaited patiently action on the part of foreign nations to reclaim their own. It wasn't, in fact, until the United States faulted countries that hadn't moved to repatriate and prosecute their captured ISIS members that Canada roused itself.

Reaching a decision quite unlike that of the United Kingdom whose approach has been to cancel their citizenship. Magic solution ... no citizenship, no return, no worry. Not for Britain, at least. The Kurds can be forgiven for being less sanguine about being left with this wretched dross of humanity. As for Canada whose policy of late until the present was that the government could do nothing because the detainees were in what Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale called a "dangerous and dysfunctional part of the world" where Ottawa had no diplomatic presence, a tactical change took place.

Obviously, this alert Liberal government on the theory that late is better than never, as far as having made plans with respect to the eventual, potential and logical return of Canadian citizens who wore out their role as terrorists with Islamic State, is now rushing -- even as the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in complete disgrace and disarray with internal matters of corruption of the rule of law -- to now chew on this issue. This is the country, not to forget, that endowed Canada's infamous al-Qaeda family's scion Omar Khadr with a $10-million prize for being a Canadian citizen.

So now we have the recently-awakened RCMP preparing for the return of at least a dozen Canadians detained in Syria while Islamic State is in its death throes as a territorial entity. The poison of its ideology not so readily expunged, however. As part of a national strategy now being put in place, police have been detailed to work with prosecutors in preparation of charges and peace bonds against the detainees, the while interacting with 'allies' to manage their return to Canada.

  

The RCMP’s National Security Joint Operations Centre is the fulcrum of the returnee plan, sharing information on Islamists with other federal departments and international allies. Passports of known foreign fighters have been cancelled, so to process their return to Canada they must apply for replacements through a Canadian diplomatic post — a system that will serve to alert the RCMP to their identity and whereabouts, to enable them to direct the return of these Canadian citizens who are the scum of the Earth.

Once released by the Kurds on instruction from Canada, the returnees are likely to cross into Turkey, a reversal of their original entry to Syria. That has resulted in the RCMP negotiating with Turkish authorities to permit the detainees transit through to Canada rather than placing them on trial in Turkish courts. As well, the RCMP has recommended that Turkey not question these Canadians about their Islamic State roles or search their electronic devices, since that might taint evidence required to successfully prosecute them in Canada.

Aha, there we have it! The RCMP is depending on Islamist terrorists who happen also to be Canadian citizens to bring along with them on their return to Canada ample evidence in their possession to enable Canadian authorities to bring them to justice. Typically Canadian expectation. The very fact Canadian authorities believe that these devotees of mayhem and murder are stupid enough to bring along self-incriminating evidence leads one to question the credulity of the RCMP. On the other hand -- they could be right!

The government’s Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence is supposed to support the “disengagement of extremist travellers, and their families, from violent extremist ideologies.”