Canadian Christians Targeted By Al Qaeda
Many Canadian Coptic Christians recently woke up to some alarming news: more than 100 of them have been made a target by a website linked to Al Qaeda.
Shumukh-al-Islam, a website noted to have frequently carried dispatches from Al Qaida, listed the personal information of more than 100 Arab-Canadian Christians.
It would be bad enough if all that was listed was the names of these individuals. But it’s much more than that: The website also listed the phone numbers and addresses of these individuals, and posted pictures of them to aid in identification.
The purpose of these postings is crystal clear.
"This is a direct threat against our lives," remarked Samuel Tawadrous. Tawadrous is an Egyptian Coptic living in Quebec. He has great cause to be alarmed.
There’s no question that the information listed is a direct threat against these individuals’ lives. This naturally demands a very important question: where did all of this information come from?
One thing is very clear: if this information didn’t come from someone within Canada, it’s clearly being directed to people within Canada. One way or the other, the individuals posting this information seem to believe that they have people in Canada willing to do their murderous bidding.
But who?
The individuals posting this information seem to have provided us with a clue. Dr Salim Naguib, for one, is cited as opposing Shariah law. So perhaps it would be worthwhile for the RCMP and CSIS to pay a little closer scrutiny to some of Canada’s pro-Shariah groups.
As Dr Naguib’s writings on the topic of Shariah law are available globally via the internet, it can’t be casually assumed that it was an individual within Canada who posted his information, and has made him a target. By the same token, it can’t be casually assumed otherwise, either. And this is an important detail.
Canadians have come to the stark realization over the past several years that not all of our Muslim neighbours wish us well. Numerous demagogues are working exceedingly hard at radicalizing Canadian Muslim youths. Some of them, such as the Toronto 18, appear quite willing to answer terrorist calls to action.
Moreover, Canada’s criminal justice system is doing an exceedingly poor job of protecting us from such individuals, although the recent increases in the sentences to several Toronto 18 conspirators has been a welcome improvement.
But the true test of these improvements – as the result of the Air India inquiry reminds us – will be in how quickly law enforcement can investigate these plots and apprehend the conspirators.
Patrick Ross is a Contributing Writer for The Propagandist
