{"id":290878,"date":"2025-11-18T11:22:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T11:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/290878\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T11:22:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T11:22:08","slug":"joe-adam-george-canada-must-be-more-vigilant-not-less-about-would-be-immigrants-with-terror-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/290878\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Adam George: Canada must be more vigilant, not less, about would-be immigrants with terror links"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a development that went\u00a0largely unnoticed, Liberal MP Salma\u00a0Zahid\u00a0recently tabled<\/a>\u00a0a petition in the House of Commons urging the\u00a0federal\u00a0government to admit members of\u00a0Jamaat-e-Islami\u00a0\u2014 Bangladesh\u2019s\u00a0largest<\/a> Islamist party. The petition noted that in the past, some members of Jamaat-e-Islami had been deemed inadmissible to Canada on security grounds. However, it argued that the group \u201chas engaged in democratic processes and governance in Bangladesh\u201d and that members seeking asylum in Canada are \u201claw-abiding citizens who uphold democratic values.\u201d It urged the government to ensure they receive \u201cfair and just treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u00a0Zahid\u00a0and the petitioners\u00a0conveniently\u00a0overlooked, however, is that\u00a0Jamaat-e-Islami\u00a0is inseparable from a long history of Islamist extremism, terror-financing, and some of the worst mass atrocities committed in\u00a0modern history. So brutal\u00a0were the group\u2019s crimes during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War that\u00a0it\u00a0became only the\u00a0second political organization<\/a> after Adolf Hitler\u2019s Nazi party to face an international tribunal for war crimes. Although Jamaat-e-Islami was outlawed in Bangladesh in 2013, the ban\u00a0was lifted<\/a> following last year\u2019s ouster of prime minister Sheikh Hasina. Russia<\/a>\u00a0remains the only country to ban the\u00a0group as a whole,\u00a0while\u00a0India<\/a>\u00a0has only proscribed its branch in the disputed state of Kashmir.<\/p>\n

Jamaat-e-Islami\u00a0traces its\u00a0ideological roots<\/a>\u00a0to British India in 1941. Founded by\u00a0Maulana\u00a0Syed\u00a0Abul\u00a0Ala\u00a0Maududi\u00a0\u2014 an Islamic cleric\u00a0inspired by<\/a>\u00a0the Muslim Brotherhood, the world\u2019s\u00a0most influential<\/a>\u00a0Sunni Islamist group\u00a0\u2014 the movement rejected Western and liberal democratic values in favour of a rigidly conservative, pan-Islamist project. Its ideological similarities to the Brotherhood\u00a0are\u00a0so striking that it\u00a0is\u00a0commonly viewed<\/a>\u00a0as the group\u2019s \u201csub-continental cousin.\u201d\u00a0Maududi\u00a0opposed the creation of Pakistan on the grounds that it\u00a0would divide\u00a0Muslims, insisting instead that all of India should eventually be reclaimed for Islam.<\/p>\n

Following\u00a0the\u00a0partition\u00a0of India in 1947, the movement\u00a0splintered<\/a>\u00a0into national branches. When East Pakistan became Bangladesh in 1971, the East Pakistan faction reconstituted itself as\u00a0Jamaat-e-Islami\u00a0Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

Its role in the 1971 war\u00a0remains\u00a0one of the darkest chapters in the country\u2019s history.\u00a0Determined to\u00a0prevent<\/a>\u00a0the Bangladeshi independence movement from succeeding, the group\u00a0formed<\/a>\u00a0pro-Pakistani militias that worked hand-in-glove with the Pakistani military to crush Bengali freedom fighters. These militias\u00a0participated\u00a0in killing hundreds of thousands of civilians,\u00a0abducting\u00a0and murdering intellectuals, and orchestrating one of the largest campaigns of mass rape of the 20th century. Between 200,000 and 400,000 Bengali women \u2014 many held as sex slaves in\u00a0Pakistani\u00a0military camps \u2014 were assaulted over the course of the conflict.\u00a0While\u00a0non-Muslim women were specifically targeted,\u00a0Muslim women were not spared\u00a0either.\u00a0According to\u00a0official estimates<\/a>, up to three million people were killed during the course of the war.<\/p>\n

However, the group\u2019s\u00a0tryst with\u00a0extremism did not end in 1971.\u00a0Individuals and offshoots associated with\u00a0Jamaat-e-Islami\u00a0have seeded<\/a>\u00a0or supported some of the region\u2019s most violent terrorist groups, including\u00a0Jaish-e-Mohammed,\u00a0Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen\u00a0Bangladesh<\/a>,\u00a0Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, and\u00a0Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.\u00a0Jamaat-e-Islami\u2019s\u00a0militant arm<\/a>\u00a0in Pakistan,\u00a0Hizbul\u00a0Mujahideen, is a designated terrorist organization in both\u00a0Canada<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0United States<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Just last week,\u00a0alleged terror modules linked to\u00a0Jamaat-e-Islami<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Jaish-e-Mohammed<\/a> were targeted by Indian authorities investigating a deadly car blast in Delhi that killed 13 and injured more than two dozen others \u2014 the Indian capital\u2019s deadliest<\/a>\u00a0terror attack in over a decade.\u00a0The\u00a0alleged\u00a0perpetrators, including the\u00a0driver of the car,\u00a0were\u00a0a\u00a0group of radicalized medical doctors.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s terror-financing allegations are similarly well-documented. Muslim Aid, a U.K.-based charity founded<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0Jamaat-e-Islami\u00a0activists, was\u00a0investigated<\/a>\u00a0by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2015 for its ties to extremist financing. In 2010, it was\u00a0revealed<\/a>\u00a0to have funnelled money to eight organizations connected to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.<\/p>\n

With Canadian intelligence agencies\u00a0warning<\/a> that the terrorism threat environment has significantly worsened,\u00a0Zahid\u2019s\u00a0endorsement of a petition whitewashing\u00a0an Islamist extremist\u00a0group raises troubling questions about her values, judgment, and use of public office. The move appears transparently aimed at appeasing elements within her\u00a0Muslim\u00a0vote-rich<\/a>\u00a0riding of Scarborough Centre\u2013Don Valley East, regardless of the national security implications.\u00a0This\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0her first rodeo though.\u00a0Zahid\u00a0has previously\u00a0criticized delays<\/a>\u00a0in bringing Gazans to Canada, despite the obvious security risks.<\/p>\n

It would be na\u00efve to assume that our allies, particularly the United States, are not paying attention to these\u00a0political\u00a0antics that undermine North American security.<\/p>\n

A senior U.S. official familiar with bilateral security discussions told me last month that Washington has long\u00a0established\u00a0that Canada has admitted \u201cway more undesirables than we\u2019d have liked.\u201d This assessment, the official cautioned, could lead to tighter screening or travel restrictions for Canadians entering the United States \u2014 a consequence the current government seems determined to ignore.<\/p>\n

With Canada\u2019s economy sputtering and\u00a0the Trump administration demanding greater accountability from Ottawa on border and security matters, this U.S. assessment is a damning indictment of the Liberal government\u2019s\u00a0lax\u00a0immigration and security posture.<\/p>\n

Concerns about\u00a0poorly vetted arrivals<\/a>\u00a0from Gaza continue to mount, especially\u00a0in light of\u00a0last year\u2019s \u201csummer of terror<\/a>,\u201d when five terrorism-related arrests occurred in the span of six weeks. Yet,\u00a0instead of recalibrating, the government appears determined to double down.<\/p>\n

The Carney government cannot continue compromising Canadian security by catering to Islamist pressure groups at home or extending safe passage to their ideological allies abroad. The pattern is unmistakable: a reflexive willingness to placate organized Islamist activism even when it collides head-on with the country\u2019s security interests, social cohesion, and international\u00a0credibility.<\/p>\n

This cannot continue. It is not compassionate, prudent, or morally defensible to open Canada\u2019s door to groups with documented histories of mass atrocities, terrorism and radicalization \u2014 no matter how politically convenient it may be in a handful of ridings.<\/p>\n

The madness\u00a0has to\u00a0stop now.<\/p>\n

National Post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a development that went\u00a0largely unnoticed, Liberal MP Salma\u00a0Zahid\u00a0recently tabled\u00a0a petition in the House of Commons urging the\u00a0federal\u00a0government…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2458,131587,49,48,131589,131590,131586,41423,131593,131588,131592,44,9380,131591],"class_list":["post-290878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-bangladesh","tag-bangladesh-liberation-war","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-democratic-processes","tag-islamist-extremism","tag-islamist-party","tag-jamaat-e-islami","tag-jamaat-e-islami-bangladesh","tag-mumtaz-qadri","tag-muslim-brotherhood","tag-news","tag-pakistan","tag-political-organization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}