Jewish reactions to media reports last week about a study claiming many Canadian mosques and Islamic schools are espousing – or at least not condemning – extremism were mixed.
The report – titled Lovers of the Death? Islamist Extremism in Mosques and Schools and co-authored by Thomas Quiggin, a former intelligence analyst with the Privy Council Office and the RCMP and Saied Shoaaib, a journalist from Egypt – concluded that many mosques and Islamic schools in Canada are putting young people at risk, Canadian Press reported Aug. 22.
Shimon Fogel, CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), said in a statement that the study “speaks to alarming trends that have long concerned the Jewish community, and which CIJA has raised with officials over the years.”
He raised an example of the Toronto East End Madrassah, which he said in 2012 was found to be teaching materials containing anti-Semitic themes.
“All of this underscores the need for an effective, comprehensive counter-radicalization strategy. This requires more than just identifying and engaging at-risk individuals…it requires confronting the presence of extreme teachings among elements of the Muslim community,” Fogel said.
Amanda Hohmann, national director of B’nai Brith Canada’s League for Human Rights, told The CJN she hadn’t read the original study but reports of extremist ideology existing in mosques and schools are not “particularly surprising.”
In recent months, B’nai Brith Canada has been investigating materials written in several Arabic language newspapers in Ontario that, Hohmann said, “show extremist ideology, extreme anti-Semitism and anti-Western language.”
According to Canadian Press, the authors of Lovers of the Death? based their findings on research they “conducted quietly” in mosque libraries and Islamic schools and said they were worried not by the presence of extremist literature, but “that they found nothing but such writings in several libraries.”
They also said that “openly available material and analysis of social media postings” helped confirm that many Canadians are “turning a blind eye to the dangers” of this espousal of so-called extremism and noted that further research is needed to better understand the problem.
Reports of the study, which has been denounced by the National Council of Canadian Muslims for being stigmatizing and failing to offer solutions to the challenge of violent extremism, do not mention which mosques or schools the authors looked at.
Barbara Landau, co-chair of the Canadian Association of Jews and Muslims (CAJM), questioned the validity of the study.
“I haven’t read the actual study, but I am dismayed that a prominent [publication] would publish what appears to be inflammatory fear-mongering with no credible evidentiary basis. It would fail all tests of research methodology… the ‘study’ is not designed to apply any scientific methodology,” she said.
“Rather [it] appears to be an attempt to ‘prove’ a pre-existing bias – namely that Muslims are to be feared and preventative action taken to impose surveillance or curtail their actions,” she said, adding, “[It’s like] people going surreptitiously into a bookstore and looking at the titles with no sense they got a reasonable sample size.”
Landau said that she’s worked extensively with the Canadian Muslim community for over a decade and has had numerous conversations with Muslim leaders about issues like violence against women and the need to combat racism.
On the issue of youth radicalization, Landau said, “All whom I’ve talked to seem as concerned about this as other citizens. I’m sure there are individuals – as in any group – that we wouldn’t support, but by and large the groups I’ve dealt with – the Canadian Council of Imams, the National Council of Canadian Muslims…are concerned with being good citizens and standing in solidarity against racism and violence.”
The federal government has said it will create a national office of counter-radicalization and last year, the Senate defence and security committee called on the government to work with the provinces and local Muslim communities to look into the training and certification of imams in Canada.
The committee had issued a report saying that some foreign-trained imams had been disseminating extremist ideology out of step with Canadian values and potentially contributing to radicalization.
Quiggin and Shoaaib’s report was not supported by any Liberal senators from the committee.
