CANADIAN JIHAD
The Montreal college at centre of the storm
MONTREAL • An east-end Montreal college is gaining a reputation as a breeding ground for jihadis after four of its students were arrested at the airport Friday, allegedly on the verge of taking off to join an overseas terror group.
The latest arrests bring to 11 the number of Collège Maisonneuve students who since January have either left to join jihadi groups overseas or have been arrested on suspicion of planning to leave.
The four were among 10 students from various CEGEPS — post-secondary institutions unique to Quebec — and high schools arrested at Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport Friday, the college confirmed. They are “suspected of wanting to leave the country to join jihadist groups,” the RCMP said in a statement.
They had their passports confiscated and were released without charge. The police said they spoke to the families and friends of those arrested and the investigation is ongoing.
In January, five Collège Maisonneuve students were among a group of seven Montreal-area youth who left for Syria.
Last month, another two of the CEGEP’s students, 18-year-olds Mahdi El Jamali and Sabrine Djermane, were arrested and charged with trying to leave Canada to commit terrorism.
“Over the past months, it must be noted that the phenomenon of youth indoctrination has taken a turn that we could not have suspected,” the college said in a statement Wednesday. It said its powers are limited because its students’ lives extend well beyond the school walls. “It appears clearer and clearer that the recruitment of young people goes through their activities on social media,” the statement said.
One student who left for Syria in January was revealed to have been taking classes in Islam offered at the CEGEP by Adil Charkaoui, an imam who in 2003 was arrested under a federal security certificate as a suspected sleeper agent. Charkaoui successfully fought the security certificate in court and last year was granted Canadian citizenship.
The CEGEP suspended its contract renting space to Charkaoui’s École Les Compagnons following news of his connection to the departed student, but it subsequently allowed him to resume weekly classes with a monitor present.
On Wednesday, the Islamic centre that operates the École Les Compagnons issued a statement in response to a Radio-Canada report that one of the people arrested Friday had also registered for Charkaoui’s courses.
The centre said it had no information about the identities of the 10 arrested. It added that it “takes very seriously the question of radicalization of young people and reiterates its commitment to contribute to the harmonious integration of the Muslim community in Quebec and Canadian societies.”
The latest case raised alarm at all levels of government about the threat of radicalization.
Premier Philippe Couillard called the news of the arrests “profoundly troubling” and said his government will soon be announcing details of a plan to combat religious radicalization, including “elements of prevention and detection.”
Federal Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney announced Wednesday that he will invite his provincial counterparts to an early summer meeting to discuss terrorism and radicalization.
“There is no profile of terrorists. You can come from whatever (income), whether Canadian-born or foreigner, the profile of a terrorist is very diverse,” he told CBC News Network.
“What we need to work on is the motive. We need to be able to identify at an early stage those individuals who are being radicalized and, more importantly, we have to work on the radicalizers.”
He said Friday’s arrests were made possible by a tip from a family member concerned about the behaviour of one suspect.
Haroun Bouazzi, co-president of the Association des Musulmans et des Arabes pour la Laïcité au Québec, a Muslim group in favour of state secularism, said three factors combine to inspire young Westerners to join jihadi groups: a feeling of exclusion, a desire to fight imperialism and the attraction of a fundamentalist strain of Islam.
In Quebec, he said, anti-Muslim sentiment fuels the exclusion felt by would-be jihadis.
“Imagine for a kid who is today 17,” he said. Since 2007, there has been almost constant debate in Quebec over the accommodation of the Muslim minority. “For eight years in a row, everything surrounding his community is a problem. How do we expect these kids to actually feel part of the Quebec nation?” Bouazzi asked.
“They are born here. They’re not Algerians. They’re not Syrians. They’re really from here, but they feel lost, and religion can be a way out to feel part of a group.”
What we need to work on is the motive. We need to be able to identify at an early stage those individuals who are being radicalized