By Tom Godfrey
Al-Qaida-inspired domestic terrorism by young Muslims poses the largest single threat to Canadian security agencies, a sweeping new study says.
“Canada has been identified repeatedly in al-Qaida propaganda as a legitimate target because of its involvement in Afghanistan,” according to a 250-page report, The Edge of Violence by a group of researchers in the United Kingdom. “The idea of being part of an international jihadi movement can be exhilarating.”
The report, released Wednesday, took researchers Jamie Bartlett, Jonathan Birdwell and Michael King two years to complete and involved interviews with hundreds of Muslims and others in Canada and Europe.
They studied the differences between violent and non-violent Islamic radicals, including the so-called Toronto 18 terror cell, and conducted focus groups in Toronto and Montreal with 70 Muslim youth last year.
One group made up of young men between the ages of 18 and 30 “was unanimous that brainwashing was taking place.”
Young Muslims “had a distrust of government, a hatred for foreign policy and many felt a disconnection from their local community,” the report found.
There “was a high level of distrust towards policing and intelligence agencies.”
Canadian Muslims fare better than their western European counterparts on a number of socio-economic indicators, the report said.
Signs that young Muslims are becoming more radical, the report indicates, include the distribution of jihad videos, clashes with existing mosque authorities and debates between “doers and talkers.”
“The unemployment rate of Canadian Muslims is double the national average,” the study said. “Discrimination, and the perception of discrimination, has been a problem in both Canada and Europe.”
Taha Ghayyur, of DawaNet, a Muslim help group in Mississauga, said Muslims face a hard time getting jobs and moving up in Canadian society.
“There are always members of the community who feel isolated or alienated,” Ghayyur said. “Any level of radicalization being placed on anyone in the community is a big concern for us.”
Khaled Mouammar, national president of the Canadian Arab Federation, said many young people say they don’t have hope or see a future.
“Our young people find many obstacles being placed in their way,” Mouammar said. “Unemployment in our community is twice as high as any other group in Canada.”
[Published in the Toronto Sun, December 8, 2010]
