Canada's Pakistan-Canadian Heroine Journalist Raheel Raza

"In September 2022 Imtiaz was part of a delegation that visited Israel to know and learn with the goal of fostering interfaith dialogue and people-to-people understanding."

"Last year, he bagged the Ambassador of Peace Award for his work."

"Unfortunately, on September 17 this year, Imtiaz was ambushed by armed assailants for voicing his opinion. He couldn't survive the assault and tragically died on September 24, 2025."

"The terrorist group Lashkar e TharAllah [Al-Hsseini Resistance] claimed responsibility, explicitly citing his interfaith work and participation in the Israel peace mission."

"This act was not an act of random violence -- it was a calculated attempt to silence a voice that wanted dialogue and bridge-building."

International Religious Freedom Roundtable 

 

"They hire hundreds of people who do nothing else but track people [like me] and they're paid very well for it."

"How it connects to me [Mir's murder], is that the murderers of Imtiaz Mir were a terrorist outfit closely linked with the Iranian regime. And the day after Imtiaz Mir's assassination, my family and friends received phone calls asking for my whereabouts. Is this a coincidence? I think not."

Canadian-Pakistani journalist Raheel Raza, 75 

Raheel Raza's official Website

 

Raheel Raza is a well-known and -respected critic of Islamic fundamentalism. She had recently lost a friend and fellow journalist in Pakistan, victim of sectarian violence who was assassinated as an enemy of Islam. She heard later, from Iranian dissidents in California that her mail had been infiltrated by hackers associated with the IRGC. The hackers are known as APT35, or Charming Kitten. And they produced a report on her work. "You are on Iran's radar", one of the dissidents warned her. 

 

A profile of Raza was published on an anonymous account known as KittenBusters. Raaznet, a publication specializing in exposing mass surveillance revealed this to be the case. "The Charming Kitten leaks are more than a window into Iran's cyber command, they are a rare glimpse into the bureaucratic soul of digital authoritarianism: structured, methodical, and quietly ruthless", reported Raaznet on October 17. 

"[The IRGC profile of Raza doesn't contain any threats in terms of saying] go out and kill her', or 'we are going to kill her'." 

"But what they do is they expose you. I'm a 75-year-old grandmother who's just had a kidney transplant. Why would they want to have my photo out there?"

"It's the Salman Rushdie syndrome. They put it out there and then some young Islamist looks at it and thinks -- this woman is against Iran and against the regime. Ergo, she is against Islam, so she's a heretic, and I go to heaven if I kill her."

"That's definitely my fear." 

Raheel Raza  

The IRGC hackers' report on Raza has her photograph and explains in Farsi that it was prepared with information taken by infiltrating her emails from 2017 to 2021, noting that among the 23, 938 emails she sent in that time frame they have commented: "She is an advocate for banning the Islamic hijab and burqa in public places. In 2023 Raza called on the Canadian government to block immigration from 'terrorist' countries like Iran. She is a supporter of Islamic reform and is the author of the book Their Jihad, Not My Jihad."

 

Raza's involvement with a group called the Muslims Facing Tomorrow Association is also in the IRGC report: "The motto of this association is to create reforms in Islam, confront violence and bigotry, and defend human rights. She has introduced herself as a liberal Muslim and believes in gender equality, especially for Muslim women".

 

Contacting a senior member of the Toronto police, Raza asked what she should do. That officer told her to check in with her local division about the security breach. "They sent two officers over but they couldn't quite figure out what this ideology is about. One of them asked me: 'Have you reported this to the Iranian embassy?' I just looked at her and said, 'There is no Iranian embassy'." Mind-bogglingly, the Toronto Police Service officer had no idea that Canada has no diplomatic relations with Iran?!

 

The Islamic Republic's notoriety in its support for terrorist organizations led to Canada under the Conservative government of Stephen Harper, closing down the Iranian Embassy and its Consulates in Canada, while recalling Canadian diplomats from Iran, in 2012. Raheel Raza contacted the federal RCMP through a lawyer about the IRGC threats, but heard nothing back from them. 

"This is absolutely consistent with a much broader pattern that we see systematically with Iran."

"The idea of intimidation tactics to silence, tactics to smear, tactics to discredit journalists, activists, human rights militants and so on -- this is something that Iran does on a very large scale."

"[The attack on Rushdie] is an extreme case, in the sense that there was an actual fatwa from the ruler. It came from the very top."

"[But] the intensity of the tactics puts a massive toll on them [their targets] a physical toll, an emotional toll, a psychological toll. It slows down their work. It discredits them." 

Thomas Juneau, professor of public and international affairs, University of Ottawa 

And there is this, about Canada and Iran. Although there are no diplomatic relations between the two, and much hostility, and most Iranian-Canadians abhor and deplore the Islamist regime in Iran, it is well documented that Canada under its current Liberal government makes no effort to remove Iranians from Canadian soil who are connected to the regime, and who harass other Iranians, threatening them and making their lives a constant trial. Reports to the government produce no solutions, even when it has been proven that regime members live in Canada and appear in public.

 

"I have been a human rights activist all my life. My main work has been to speak out against radicalization and extremism and Islamism. This has been the constant battle", she states. Since the October 7 2023 Hamas attacks in Israel, Raheel Raza has "also been a very vocal advocate of Israel's right to exist and to defend itself. I've been there 13 times, and I work very closely with the Jewish community", she explains. Which in and of itself is enough for the Iranian regime to loathe her and work to repress her voice. 

 

  

Writings by Raheel Raza 

Title	Date
Radicalization of Kids: A Global Threat	2019/07/25
When Hate is Promoted by Religious Leaders, Why Blame the Followers?	2016/06/27
No More Hug-A-Terrorist	2016/03/23
Muslim Reform Movement	2015/12/06
The Other Face of Terrorism	2015/04/18
Maligning Malala	2014/10/19
"Boxed and Packaged Islam" Trying to Pass Itself Off as Mainstream Islam	2014/10/17
From Brunei to Boko Haram: Merely Deflection	2014/05/29
The Real Agenda Behind the Push for "Islamophobia"	2014/02/25
Canada: CAIR-CAN, The NCCM and "The Islamic Victimhood Narrative"	2014/02/04
Competing Human Rights in Canada	2014/01/16
The Danger In Our Midst	2013/09/25
What Are We Muslims Doing to Ourselves?	2013/09/06
On Israel's President's Conference	2013/06/07
A Woman's Voice at the Mosque	2013/05/23
Arab Spring vs. Women's Rights	2012/06/21
"A Sick Notion of Honor"	2012/02/06