A study shows that Canadian Islamic schools and mosques are filled with extremist literature

Image from BigStockPhoto.

The following information is summarized from this Star article:

A study by a Thomas Quiggin, a former Canadian intelligence analyst, and Saied Shoaaib, a journalist originally from Egypt, shows that many Mosques and Islamic schools in Canada are espousing extremist teachings.

The authors of the study entitled “Lovers of the Death? Islamist Extremism in Mosques and Schools” say that what worries them the most is not so much the presence of the extremist literature, but the fact that they found nothing but such writings in several libraries.

They say the amount of openly available material and their analysis of social media postings confirm their views that many Canadians, including its politicians, are turning a blind eye to the dangers.  They also warned that many young Canadians have become radicalized to violence.

The Canadian government will soon announce details of its creation of a National Office of Counter-Radicalization for conducting research and coordinating actives in Canada.

Last year the Senate defense and security committee issued a report saying that a number of foreign-trained Imams had been spreading extremist Islamic ideologies in Canada.  It called for the government to work with Muslim communities to “investigate the options that are available for the training and certification of imams in Canada.”

The report was not supported by liberal senators on the committee and it was denounced by the National Council of Canadian Muslims as stigmatizing and failing to offer effective solutions for the challenge of violent extremism.