Reaction to CSIS report on Canadian Islamists

BY DANIEL PROUSSALIDIS ,PARLIAMENTARY BUREAU

FIRST POSTED: FRIDAY, JANUARY 04, 2013 05:55 PM EST | UPDATED: FRIDAY, JANUARY 04, 2013 06:18 PM EST.

CSIS Director Richard Fadden. (ANDRE FORGET/QMI Agency)

OTTAWA — A Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) report on Sunni Islamist radicalization within our borders sets off alarm bells for author and journalist Tarek Fatah.

"We, Muslim Canadians, know the truth," Fatah told Sun News Network. "We know much more than CSIS does and I can tell you this is a very watered down version of reality that they've let out. There are people in this country who would wish and hope to die if they could so something to destroy Western civilization."

Fatah says his native Pakistan is the focal point for Islamist terrorism and that Canada should be very wary of young men who travel there and then come back to the country.

His warnings come after CSIS released a heavily-censored threat assessment that says Islamist radicals occasionally come to Canada from abroad.

The assessment also warns radicalization is happening in Canadian prisons, families, and through jihadi websites.

Even so, the Council on American-Islamic Relations Canada takes a more measured view of the assessment.

"In terms of judging CSIS's conclusions or not, that's very difficult to do," said the council's executive director Ihsaan Gardee. "They're obviously operating with a lot more information than we are."

Gardee says studying radicalism is important, but he's worried the CSIS assessment could "lead to a general re-emphasizing of stereotypes and myths that people hold against people from a Muslim background."

Fatah says Muslims themselves need to marginalize those who are willing to kill themselves and others.

"This is a war between Muslims and Islamists," he said.

— With files from Faith Goldy