Category: Canada

Canada: One of the Toronto missing Somali youths believed to be dead

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

One down and four or so to go.  Well, at least five had been identified here in a story we reported in December of last year about Toronto Somali, former refugees, who are believed to have gone to Somalia to learn the Jihad trade.

From the National Post:

A Toronto man has been killed in Somalia while fighting with the al-Qaeda-linked militant group Al-Shabab, according to a message posted on the Internet.

The message, which accompanies a video posted on YouTube, identifies the man as “Mohamed al Muhajiri” and says he worshipped at the Abu Huraira Mosque in Toronto.

The death could not be verified last night.

It was first reported yesterday by the SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S. terrorism research company that monitors extremist Internet sites.

The RCMP and CSIS have been investigating a half-dozen Somali-Canadians suspected of joining Al-Shabab last fall. Several of them worshipped at the Abu Huraira mosque.

The federal government announced last week it had outlawed Al-Shabab under the Anti-Terrorism Act because of concerns the group had been recruiting in the Somali-Canadian community.

Are they coming back with their newly acquired skills?

The Canadians who left Toronto last October have not been heard from since their disappearance, although one apparently called home to say he was in Kenya and was on his way to Somalia to fight.

Police fear the youths could receive training and indoctrination in Somalia and return to Canada and carry out terrorist attacks in either Canada or the United States.

For more on former refugees leaving Canada or the US to join radical Muslims in Africa or elsewhere, use our search function for “missing Somali youths” and it will probably take you a day to read everything we have written on the subject!

Canada: Somalis “young, angry, radicalized”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Canadian former refugees are fighting among all factions in Somalia.  From the National Post:

TORONTO – Somalia has long been one of Canada’s top sources of refugees. Between 1989 and 2006, it ranked fourth after Sri Lanka, Pakistan and China.
About 150,000 ethnic Somalis now live in Canada, the largest population outside Africa, according to a federal report released under the Access to Information Act.

Many Canadian Somalis, particularly those over age 30, maintain close ties to Somalia, said Ahmed Hussen, president of the Canadian Somali Congress.

“They will open businesses in their area, they will go and serve in political office for their clan, they might even fight for their militia,” Mr. Hussen said.

Canadians are active in all three major warring factions in Somalia: the Transitional Federal Government, Al-Shabab and the Sufigroup Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama.

Somalia’s interim prime minister, Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, is a 49-year-old Canadian who studied political science at Carleton University in Ottawa.

At the same time, the al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab, which is fighting to overthrow the government and impose Taliban-like extremist rule, has been recruiting Canadians, one of whom was reported killed this week.

Somali Canadians are also active in a relatively new player in Somalia’s seemingly never-ending armed conflict: Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama, a Sufi Muslim group that took up arms last year to fight Al-Shabab.

Edmonton taxi driver Sharaf Ali is an Ahlu Sunna supporter. He served on the board of directors of the United Cabbies Association of Edmonton and has debated Somali issues on the local campus radio station CJSR.

In January, some Canadian Somalis said they were shocked when photos appeared on the Internet showing Mr. Ali at the aftermath of a skirmish between Ahlu Sunna fighters and Al-Shabab militants.

[…..]

“In Edmonton, most of the Somalis who are in Canada, not most of them but a lot of them, they are kind of pro-Al Shabab, unfortunately, and I don’t know why, these people are causing chaos situation in Somalia and they are linked to al-Qaeda.”

The government report, by Canada’s Integrated Threat Assessment Centre, said the doctrine of al-Qaeda and Al-Shabab has little appeal among Canadian Somalis, who are predominantly Sufi moderates.  [So much for government reports!]

What should Canada do? If they leave the country they don’t come back—dead or alive.  It is that simple.

Canada: Somali refugee thug on the lam

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I have a bunch of stories from Canada and its Somali problem today.  I’ll try to get them posted back to back this morning.

Here is the first from the Winnipeg Sun:   Somali criminal on the lam after “sucking in a naïve and somewhat delusional immigration official hook-line-and-sinker.”   Ho hum, so what else is new.

A dangerous Somali refugee with a history of violence who was released in Winnipeg last month by an immigration official is on the lam, the Winnipeg Sun has learned.

A Canada-wide warrant has been issued for Mohamed Said Jama, the Somali refugee slated for deportation last fall but returned to Canada after a failed attempt to remove him.

[…..]　

 Jama, who was released Feb. 5 by Immigration and Refugee Board member Leeann King following a hearing, was supposed to check in with CBSA officials on the first Wednesday of each month.

But he failed to make his first appearance March 3 and CBSA officials have been unable to determine his whereabouts.

[…..]　

 Jama was freed on statutory release from prison in 2008 after he was convicted of assault with a weapon, aggravated assault and robbery. Jama took part in a violent home invasion where he stabbed a man in the face.

He had numerous offences prior to that.

[…..]　

Meanwhile, while awaiting deportation, Jama was relentlessly pursuing his release from custody in Winnipeg by trying to convince the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada he was not a threat to society and not a flight risk.

His wish came true.

As we reported Wednesday, Jama succeeded in doing so when he came across a soft Immigration and Refugee Board member — Leeann King from British Columbia — who presided over the Feb. 5 hearing.

King concluded Jama was not a threat to society nor a flight risk. She was wrong.

He obviously had no intention of sticking around to see what might happen with his deportation order.

And at the first opportunity — after sucking in a naïve and somewhat delusional immigration official hook-line-and-sinker — he took off. Big surprise. Nice going, Ms. King.

Canada faces Somali assimilation problems, gang violence

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

With this post I just want to bring a few things to your attention (some articles and a report that I have not much to say about, just didn’t want to lose the links!)

First, here is piece from the Ottawa Citizen about how church groups are trying to dissuade young Muslims from joining gangs.  Frankly, I think the ACLU-types (CAIR too!) would go wild in the US if roving Christians distributed leaflets in Somali communities and set up church activities in Muslim neighborhoods.

Maybe religious leaders can’t reach Ottawa’s hard-core gang members, but they believe their teachings can divert younger kids headed that way. The snag is often a parent who objects.

Crime prevention officials, police and Christian and Muslim community volunteers recently addressed the city’s new faith and gangs group to explore how congregations might keep kids from a gang lifestyle. 

[…..]

“We set up in a playground doing stuff kids love to do.” Bethel’s “Sidewalk Sunday School” offers a story with a life lesson, “Bible-related but not preachy, tract stuff.” If the kids want more games, a bus will take them to the church near Fisher Avenue and Prince of Wales Drive “where there’s a little more teaching.”

To counter problems with Somali kids not making it in public schools, I see some have turned to homeschooling.

Wahid pulled some of his own seven children out of public school and home schooled them. His youngest, twin sons, have graduated at age 19 from the University of Ottawa. He said the Somali community has formed homework clubs and support for home schooling parents, as well as a mentoring system for people in trouble with the law, either a youth with a minor offence like shoplifting or a man getting out of jail who needs a job.

Coincidentally the Washington Post has a long story yesterday about how many Muslims are turning to homeschooling in the US.

Also, in my inbox this morning was a 2003 report from Canada about how Canada had opened its doors too wide and didn’t check carefully those refugees and immigrants they admitted willy-nilly to their country. Hat tip: Richard

Sounding an optimistic note in the introduction (remember this is now 7 years ago),the author of the Mackenzie Institute report says:

That peaceful, civil, and cosmopolitan society we want has not vanished, nor is it really endangered – provided that we become intolerant about one particular point. We must become absolutely intolerant of those who come here to perpetuate other people’s wars and prey on our citizens who share their background. Our future depends on it.

Here is one section of the report that I’m posting because again I don’t want to lose these links or some of this information.  I’ve heard here in the US that citizens in communities (Lewiston, ME for instance) were baffled that Somalis arrived knowing all their rights and what they were entitled to receive from government programs (and how to play the race card!).  The same appears to be true in Canada.

“Perhaps one of the most spectacular Canadian uses of the welfare system to fund other
peoples’ wars came as a result of the Somali civil conflict of the early 1990s. Canada
soon became a destination of choice for Somalis fleeing the country, and Canadian
immigration officers and social workers in the Toronto area were often to find that many
of them had a precise knowledge of all their entitlements before they landed in Canada.
Moreover, at that time, the Province of Ontario (then under an NDP government) was
operating with a very relaxed attitude towards new claims, accepting most of them at face
value.

It soon turned out that many Somalis soon started making multiple claims, usually by
traveling into the United States and then turning around and making a new refugee claim
under an assumed name on re-entering Canada.

However, few of these multiple claims were for personal benefit, as money from social welfare payments was diverted to Africa to buy arms and supplies for clan militias back in Somalia.

To compound matters, the favored wife of the most notorious Somali warlord, Mohammed Farah Aideed (who was already working with al Qaeda in 1993), was living in London, Ontario with four children. When challenged on this, she predictably accused the Canadian reporters who were trying to interview her of being racist.”

Al-Amriki, American Al-Shabaab, says they have big plans for the world

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update January 30th, 2010:  The NYT has a lengthy story on Al-Amriki reported here at Jihad Watch. 

The Toronto Star has a lengthy detailed article yesterday about Omar Hammami – known to followers as Abu Mansour “Al-Amriki” (the American) — whose fluent English and flamboyant style may be responsible for some recruitment of Somali refugees living in the West to join the Jihadists in Somalia.

Born and raised in Alabama he spent a year in Canada learning Somali ways and marrying a Somali girl before joining Al-Shabaab in the Horn of Africa.  We have reported on him previously when he mocked Obama’s Cairo speech on Islam, here.*

Read the whole article, it is very interesting.  The one part I wanted to point out today is this section of the news feature—for those of you thinking this is just an issue for far away Africa, Al-Amriki makes it clear that their Jihad is about creating a worldwide caliphate!

Al-Shabab’s stated goals are to take power from the fragile government backed by African Union troops and turn Somalia into an Islamic state friendly to Al Qaeda. Ultimately, its leaders say, the aim is to establish a global Islamic state.

“We are striving to establish the Islaamic Khilaafah from East to West,” Hammami writes in an Internet posting of Jan. 8, 2008, “after removing the occupier and killing the apostates.”

That last part means you—unless you are a devout Muslim, you are the occupiers and the apostates.  And, by the way, the stealth Jihad can be accomplished through the political process more easily than with guns.  In Africa it might be guns, in America and Canada it is the political process (while you sleep!).

* For more information use our search function for ‘Al-Amriki.’