"We need urgent action by our government to protect all Canadians now. Designate Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization now."

"[The Muslim Brotherhood is a] real and immediate threat [to Canada's democracy]."

"Canada will undoubtedly fall [if the government does not act against] Canadian Islamist organizations connected to the Muslim Brotherhood."

Amir Epstein, Tafsik executive director

 

"Chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood purport to be legitimate civic organizations while, behind the scenes, they explicitly and enthusiastically support terrorist groups like Hamas."

U.S. Treasury Department  

The White House

"The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, has developed into a transnational network with chapters across the Middle East and beyond.  Relevant here, its chapters in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt engage in or facilitate and support violence and destabilization campaigns that harm their own regions, United States citizens, and United States interests. "

"For example, in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, attack in Israel, the military wing of the Lebanese chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood joined Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian factions to launch multiple rocket attacks against both civilian and military targets within Israel."

"A senior leader of the Egyptian chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood, on October 7, 2023, called for violent attacks against United States partners and interests, and Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood leaders have long provided material support to the militant wing of Hamas.  Such activities threaten the security of American civilians in the Levant and other parts of the Middle East, as well as the safety and stability of our regional partners."

The White House  

B'nai Brith and other Jewish groups have called on the government of Canada for years, to list the Muslim Brotherhood as a  terrorist organization. Those calls have increased since the terrorist attack in southern Israel of October 7, 2023, when six thousand Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PLFP and Fatah streamed across the border from Gaza in an orgy of sadistic mass rape, torture and slaughter of 1,200 Israelis, along with the  hostage-taking of 250 children, women, the elderly civilians, soldiers and foreign farm workers.  

"Unlike Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood has evolved and learned the hard way that the use of violence will be met with superior violence by state actors. The clever thing to do, it now turns out, was to be patient and invest in a bottom-up movement rather than a commando structure that risked being wiped out by stronger forces."

" Besides, the gradualist approach is far more likely to win the prize of state power. All that Khomeini did before he came to power in Iran was to preach the merits of a society based on Islamic law. He did not engage in terrorism. Yet he and his followers took over Iran – a feat far greater than bin Laden ever achieved. In Iran the violence came later."

Ayyan Hirsi Ali, resident scholar, American Enterprise Institute, Washington 

Policy Alert: New Report Sheds Light on Muslim Brotherhood Terror Ties  Foundation for Defense of Democracies

 

More latterly, members of the Jewish advocacy group Tafsik called on Canada's Liberal government to finally follow the lead of the United States in designating the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. While the MB does not itself act as a terrorist group, it is the founding enterprise that has launched countless terrorist groups whose violence on display with the hard power of jihad complements the MB's jihadist soft power. Hamas itself is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. 

 

By stealth and presenting as a reasonable alternative to democracy's secular rule, the Muslim Brotherhood portrays Islam as a gentle, peace-loving religion, omitting its instructions to the faithful to dedicate themselves to jihad, Islam's deep drive to convert the world to the worship of Islam through a type of proselytism unique to its founder, the Prophet Mohammad who launched countless wars of conquest, a heritage that encompassed the Middle East, stretched into North Africa, India, Spain, France and the Balkans.

 

Originating in the 1920s in Egypt, the century-old movement employs gentle 'suasion, establishing mosques, hospitals and social centres in the non-Muslim-majority countries it enters to extend its goodwill and influence as far as its  tentacles can reach. And they reach the very heart of governments, social welfare, elite society and the news media through operative contacts made by its adherents with key sympathizers.  

 

The U.S. took the step last month of designating the Lebanese, Egyptian and Jordanian branches of the Muslim Brotherhood, giving them the status of Specially Designated Global Terrorists. A report prepared last year by two French civil servants for the government of France issued a warning that the Muslim Brotherhood movement represented a "threat to national cohesion within the country". France is a country overrun with Muslims, and among them are ample numbers of groups hostile to French values, laws and culture. 

 

Groups linked with and originating from the Muslim Brotherhood, recognized as terrorist organizations, have been listed as such in Canada, including Hamas which, according to the listing identifies Hamas as having "emerged from the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1987". According to Middle East researcher Thomas Juneau, the Muslim Brotherhood is a complex movement with individual chapters in multiple countries worldwide. Its very complexity in relation to its offshoots makes it difficult to list the MB. 

"[Some of those offshoots are] undeniably [terrorist organizations, but others are not]." 

"Even individual chapters are often more loose movements than unified groups."

"Some Muslim Brotherhood groups are clearly not violent, they are clearly not terrorists."

"They adhere to a fairly conservative and pious version of political Islam, but they are not terrorists."

Prof.Thomas Juneau, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa  

Imam Mohammad Tawhidi/Imam of Peace, while acknowledging the complexity of designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist entity, nevertheless pressed Canada to make the move to identify it formally as a terrorist group as a reflection of its stealth influence, its undeniable links to violent groups that reflect its totalitarian quest for dominance using the hard power of jihadist terror, while behind the scenes as an innocent, well-meaning interlocutor for Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood does its part on the 'diplomatic' front. 

 

 

"Just because they are difficult to put a finger on, and it's somewhat technically challenging to designate the entire organization ... it does not mean that we do nothing about it at all."

"Ultimately, the Muslim Brotherhood will be designated. The question is, when will the courageous people, the lawmakers, take this stand?"

Mohammad Tawhidi, Imam of Peace 

"Australia ... warns against any 'phobic' association of Islam with extremism. Indeed, in recent months, as the killers of Bondi were reportedly in the Philippines learning how to murder Jews, Aussie officials were poring over a new report titled 'A National Response to Islamophobia'."

"It proposes, among other things, challenging 'narratives that depict Islam as being 'intrinsically associated with ... extremism'."

"You couldn't ask for better proof of the moral corrosion and wilful blindness of the West than this vision of Australia's ruling class fretting over Islamophobia, as two men were plotting an apocalyptic act of Islamist violence."

"The fear of offending Muslims has had deadly consequences."

"Radical Islam directly benefits from this snivelling culture of cowardice. As we gag ourselves, it takes root and spreads. Our self-censorship creates the dark corners in which it can fester -- uncommented on,  uncriticized, even unnamed."

Brendan O'Neill, chief political writer, Spiked 

Candlelight vigil at Bondi Pavilion, December 16, Sydney, Australia,. Audrey Richardson, Getty Images

 

Naveed Akram made a brief video court appearance from the Sydney hospital while being treated for an abdominal injury. He has since been transferred to an unnamed prison. Australian police on Monday released documents outlining the two men, father and son, had recorded footage justifying the planned Bondi Beach attack that killed 15 people and wounded 40 others. Akram himself had been wounded on December 14 when the duo committed their mass atrocity while Australian Jews were celebrating the first day of Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, at the popular beach.

 

The attack by the 24-year-old and his father began when they threw four improvised explosive devices at the crowd of families, children and friends bathed in a communal euphoria of remembrance that light dispels the darkness surrounding us. For the children it was the epitome of a joyous holiday, where sweets were in abundance, playgrounds beckoned, face-painting and animalia balloons were available and a general aura of peace and tranquility prevailed. The IED devices failed to explode. But the staccato of gunfire took their place, shocking the celebrants and killing some immediately.

 

The Bondi Beach shooting suspects seen leaving a rental in Campsie

New South Wales Police

 

The Islamist jihdists had rented a room in Campsie, a suburb of Sydney, for three weeks, refining their plans of attack. On the day of the attack they left for the short journey that would take them to the destination they had carefully chosen as their attack venue. CCTV revealed their arrival, bearing two shotguns, a rifle, five IEDs and two Islamic State flags wrapped in blankets. The IEDs were comprised of three aluminum pipe bobs and a tennis ball bomb filled with an explosive, gunpowder and steel ball bearings, described as 'viable' by police.

 

Images of the two killers shooting from a footbridge -- overlooking the beach below, which also provided them a raised vantage point, along with the protection of waist-high concrete walls -- were released by police. Akram was charged with 59 offences ranging from 15 counts of murder to 40 counts of causing harm with intent to murder and one count of committing a terrorist act.

 

Still from video

 

Draft laws were introduced by the New South Wales government to Parliament, promising to be the toughest in Australia, according to Premier Chris Minns. Among them new restrictions included a condition of qualifying for a firearms licence requiring Australian citizenship beforehand. Sajid Akram was an Indian citizen living in Australia on a permanent resident visa. He had purchased the six long guns in his possession legally. No word, however, of the Australian government's permissiveness of the years-long 'pro-Palestinian' marches to 'globalize the intifada'. 

 

The memorial that had quickly been mounted near the Bondi Pavilion as an expression of grief and mourning following the massacre, with thousands of mourners bringing flowers and cards as an expression of sorrow and solidarity, was no longer to be seen on Monday, removed as the beachfront returned to normal activities. The jarring vision of a memorial to murdered Jews no longer visible to shock the gaze of beachgoers. Part of the memorial is set to be installed at the Sydney Jewish Museum as a permanent exhibit. 

 

Birds fly over police cordons at the scene of the mass shooting at Bondi Beach on December 14, 2025 in Sydney, Australia.   George Chan/Getty Images

 

"[A video on Naveed Akram's phone shows him and his father expressing] their political and religious views and appears to summarize their justification for the Bondi terrorist attack."

"[The men are seen in the video] condemning the acts of Zionists [while they also] adhere to a religiously motivated ideology linked to Islamic State."

"[October video shows them] firing shotguns and moving in a tactical manner [on grassland surrounded by trees]."

"There is evidence that the Accused and his father meticulously planned this terrorist attack for many months."

New South Wales Police 

That Elusive Peace Between Totalitarian Islam and Israel

"[International mediators, led by the U.S. are working] to force the way forward [to the second phase to cement the deal]. What we have just done is a pause. We cannot consider it yet a ceasefire."

"A ceasefire cannot be completed unless there is a full withdrawal of Israeli forces, there is stability back in Gaza, people can go in and out, which is not the case today."

"There is a root for this conflict. And this conflict is not only about Gaza."

"It's about Gaza. It's about the West Bank. It's about the rights of the Palestinians for their state."

"We are hoping that we can work together with the U.S. administration to achieve this vision at the end of the day." 

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatari prime minister 

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani shakes hands with White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, as they speak with President Donald Trump before a state dinner at Lusail Palace in Doha, Qatar, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

 

In actual fact, this conflict is about Israel refusing to depart from its resumed geographic seat on a mere portion of its ancestral homeland. It is about surrounding Arab/Muslim countries apoplectic at the presence of a Jewish state reborn on land that the Arab conquest consecrated to Islam. It is about over four millennia of historical existence of Jews being wiped off the slate of history to argue that 'Palestine' is a deserved homeland for Arabs who migrated from Syria, Lebanon and Egypt in the last century to claim it as their own, when 'Palestine' always denoted a Jewish presence.

 

It is about repetitive bouts of conflict forced on the Jewish state by hostile, aggressive neighbours in a sectarian-tribal-clan tradition of competition and conflict. And it is, above all, the collective Middle East Arab councils of those governments inciting Arab Palestinians to believe that the land in question is theirs and theirs alone. The Arab Palestinians in fact, serve as a device to convince the international community that a human rights violation of immense proportions took place when Arab Palestinians were displaced when Jews reclaimed their patrimony.

 

And while most of those surrounding states -- who forcefully exiled a greater number of Jews who had lived in Arab countries for millennia, greater in number than the Palestinians who fled 'Palestine' in 1948 -- have now softened their stance and are prepared to accept that the Jewish presence which predated their own is permanent and its presence can enhance future prospects for peace and prosperity, the Palestinians themselves see the imperative of denying Israel's presence as cast in stone. They have, of course, had great assistance from Aryan-Muslim-Shiite Iran and from Qatar and their satellite Shiite militias. Iran has provided the theological impetus and Qatar the funding for terrorist groups dedicated to Israel's annihilation.

 

The Hamas charter pledge of destroying Israel alongside that of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Fatah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are the Palestinian instruments of terror that Iran and Qatar rely upon to produce the coveted goal of Jewish annihilation. Hezbollah, Yemen's Houthis and Shia militias loyal to Iran have collectively done their utmost in that direction. Despite all odds, Israel's military has met them all in combat and remains immovable. Even so, Qatar, aided by Turkey, has no intention of allowing Israel to defeat the combined forces of Islamist jihadists.

 

US President Donald Trump hosts a trilateral phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani of Qatar in the Oval Office, September 29, 2025. (The White House)

 

Qatar is alerting the United States, Israel's powerful backer, that the Trump peace plan is in a 'critical moment' with the first phase 'over', and the second soon to begin. Actually, it is not over until it is over; the first phase is incomplete, not only because the last of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza has not yet been returned, but critically, Hamas will not, as 'agreed upon' surrendered its arms. It has actually been busy in the interval between 'phases' of the peace plan, rearming, recruiting, reordering priorities and digging in as it resumes its control over that portion of Gaza it still occupies.

 

And this not-unexpected turn of events is being engineered and supported by Qatar, Iran and Turkey, for Gaza to remain in Hamas control, despite powerful rival clans in Gaza opposing Hamas's return to power and the conflict in that sector is ongoing. Gaza 'health officials' -- which is to say Hamas health sector operatives -- warn the international community of Palestinians still being targeted by the Israeli military, but further elaboration explains that these are Hamas operatives approaching Israeli troops in areas off limits to them as per the agreement.

 

The second phase relies upon the deployment of an international security force in Gaza, formation of a new technocratic government, disarmament of Hamas which would in theory lead to an eventual Israeli forces withdrawal. There are no expectations that such an international security force will deploy to Gaza; no foreign countries are anxious to have their military personnel placed in the kind of danger facing Hamas would entail. And since Hamas leaders have stated time and again they will not surrender their arms, Israeli troops will not withdraw.

 

People walk amid the rubble of destroyed buildings as the Cold Moon, the last supermoon of the year, rises over the Nuseirat camp for displaced Palestinians in the central Gaza Strip on December 4, 2025.   Eyad BABA / AFP

 

 

Sacrificing Israel to Appease Hamad's Jihad and Conquest

"The name Palestine, in its Geek form Palaistine, was both a  transliteration of a word used to describe the land of the Philistines and, at the same time, a literal translation of the name Israel."

Historian David Jacobson, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 

 

"The Palestinian people does not exist ... there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese."

"We are all part of one people, the Arab nation [...] Just for political reasons we carefully underwrite our Palestinian identity. Because it is of national interest for the Arabs to advocate the existence of Palestinians to balance Zionism."

"Yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity exists only for tactical reasons[...] Once we have acquired all our rights in all of Palestine, we must not delay for a moment the reunification of Jordan and Palestine." 

1977 interview with PLO's Zuheir Mohsen  

Caanan/Palestine/Israel NASA

Palestine in the ancient world was part of the region known as Canaan where the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah were located. The term `Palestine' was originally a designation of an area of land in southern Canaan which the people known as the Philistines occupied a very small part of.

The Canaanites, Canaanite-Phoenicians, and the Israelites, among others, established themselves in the area much earlier. The Philistines are thought to have come to the area toward the end of the Bronze Age c. 1276 BCE and established themselves on the southern coastal plain of the Mediterranean Sea in an area afterwards known as Philistia.

The whole of the region was referred to as `Canaan' in Mesopotamian texts and trade records found at Ebla and Mari as early as the 18th century BCE while the term `Palestine' does not appear in any written records until the 5th century BCE in the Histories of Herodotus. After Herodotus, the term `Palestine' came to be used for the entire region which was formerly known as Canaan.

Joshua J. Mark, World History  

 

Hamas is fulsome in its praise for the definitive statements on Palestinian statehood issued by France, Britain, Australia and Canada, among others. All of these countries formerly while supporting Palestinian statehood as an aspiration were supportive of the diplomatic channels between Israel and Palestinian leaders to reach a joint agreement on such a declaration in support of statehood for 'Palestinians'. Time and again efforts to reach that historical agreement failed. And time and again it was those calling themselves Palestinians that rejected that two-state solution, just as they had in 1947.

 

It took a cataclysmic event to convince Israel's purported allies to jettison their historical approach to Palestinian statehood. With the full knowledge available to them that it would take a final and absolute agreement on the part of the Palestinians to recognize Israel's existence, and to no longer challenge that existence. That event was the October 7, 2023 savagery that Palestinian terrorists - from Hamas operatives to the PLFP, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and Palestinian civilians themselves breaching the border from Gaza to Israel to launch a well-planned raid of farming communities; raping, mutilating, murdering and  hostage-taking.

 

That wholesale sadistic barbarism led inevitably to the launch of a military invasion by Israel, which responded as any other country that would have reeled in shock and disbelief at the scope and depth of the depravity of terrorism targeting their civilian population by marching into the enemy territory from whence wholesale death emerged to destroy the structure, weaponry, and leaders, alongside the foot soldiers of terrorism in a determination that never again would that source commit such a mass atrocity. A source more than committed to offering up its own civilian population as protective shields.

 

The victimhood plight of Palestinians used as a public relations tool whereby Palestinian  terrorist groups could arrest and manipulate international public opinion to damn Israel and support Palestinian statehood aspirations. "We're under no illusions that this [recognition of a Palestinian state] is any sort of panacea, but it's necessary, in our judgment and the judgment of most other countries in the world, that we have to push on this now. So, we're doing what we can, but recognizing limitations", offered Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney. 

 

A prime minister and a government in Canada that has permitted its own Muslim population and Palestinian student groups to maximize the pressure of threats on Jewish Canadians for two years, since October 7, violating the very hate laws of the country in the process, and committing continual civic infractions of the public and social and law-and-order weal with impunity, because Jews are expendable and all the more so, Israeli lives under ongoing threat of the Middle East Islamist threat to the existence of a Jewish state. 

 

Hamas itself, the instigator and perpetrator of the mass atrocity that ultimately spurred Europe and other 'allies' of civilized, democratic Israel to abandon justice for the sake of their sanctimonious perceived need to avoid the spirit of 'genocide' purportedly threatening Palestinians, is delighted with those allies and indeed the entire reaction of the United Nations' membership. Aside from continuing to attack Israel, alongside its other Iran-sponsored-and-armed surrogates Hezbollah and the Houthis, Hamas fairly chortles with delight over the success of its propaganda war uplifting its agenda of Jewish annihilation and territorial conquest.  

"[Recognition, representing reward for] years of struggle, perseverance, and sacrifice."

"This action [of state recognition] is an important step in establishing the right of the Palestinian people to their land and sanctities and on the path to establishing n independent state with Holy Quds [Jerusalem] as its capital, which is the result of years of struggle, perseverance, and sacrifice of our people on the path of freedom and return."

Hamas statement

 

"We welcome these developments and consider them in the right direction toward isolating the fascist Israeli government globally, and ending the longest-ever occupation in our modern time.
"[Israel] constitutes a security, military and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation, and must be finished."

Ghazi Hamad, Hamas spokesman 

"There is no solution to the Palestinian question except by Jihad. All initiatives, proposals, and International Conferences are all  waste of time and vain endeavours." 

"The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [endowment] consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up." 

"The question of the liberation of Palestine is bound to three circles: the Palestinian circle, the Arab circle and the Islamic circle. Each of these circles has its role in the struggle against Zionism."

"Arab countries surrounding Israel are asked to open their borders before the fighters from among the Arab and Islamic nations so that they could consolidate their efforts with those of their Muslim brethren in Palestine. As for the other Arab and Islamic countries, they are asked to facilitate the movement of the fighters from and to it, and this is the least thing they could do."

"Writers, intellectuals, media people, orators, educators and teachers, and all the various sectors in the Arab and Islamic world - all of them are called upon to perform their role, and to fulfill their duty. Jihad is not confined to the carrying of arms and the confrontation of the enemy." 

"The Zionist project is a racist, aggressive, colonial and expansionist project based on seizing the properties of others; it is hostile to the Palestinian people and to their aspiration for freedom, liberation, return and self-determination. The Israeli entity is the plaything of the Zionist project and its base of aggression."

"Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea."

"Hamas welcomes the stances of states, organizations and institutions that support the rights of the Palestinian people."

Hamas Doctrine, Wilson Center 

ECOWAS Threat of Niger Invasion

"A military intervention with no end in sight risks triggering a regional war, with catastrophic consequences for the vast Sahel that is already plagued by insecurity, displacement and poverty."

Mucahid Durmaz, senior analyst, global risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft 

"What we are witnessing today is both jihadi warring factions, the Islamic State group and [al-Qaeda affiliate Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin] marking their territory because of the security void caused by the coup."

"This definitely should be seen in the context of the ongoing war between the two groups."

Wassim Nasr, journalist, senior research fellow, Soufan Center think tank

Mohamed Toumba, one of the soldiers who ousted Nigerian President Mohamed Bazoum, addresses supporters of Niger's ruling junta in Niamey, Niger, Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023. (Sam Mednick/AP)

 

The standoff between Niger and ECOWAS, the West African regional bloc, and the Niger coup leaders grows more tense day by day. Niger was viewed as one of the final democratic countries in the Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert, a partner in the effort to counter growing jihadi violence linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group. Until the junta coup led by anti-Democratic forces in the Niger military who unseated the democratically elected Niger President Mohamed Bazoum.

ECOWAS had demanded that the junta, three weeks after the mutiny that ousted the president, release him and allow the country to return to its pre-coup state. The deadline passed, and ECOWAS issued fresh warnings that military intervention represents an option should their demands continue to be ignored. Leaving Nigeriens preparing for a possible invasion by regional countries.

A "standby force" has been activated for the purpose of restoring order in Niger. There are no signs the standoff is anywhere close to being defused, since the coup leaders remain defiant and ECOWAS determined to restore the presidency, although both sides have given signals of an openness to resolving the crisis through peaceful means. After rebuffing the bloc's efforts at talks, the junta claimed to be open to dialogue.

Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum smiles before a working lunch with French President Emmanuel Macron, Feb. 16, 2023 at the Elysee Palace in Paris.  (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

 

Instead of arriving at a bargaining table, the coup charged President Bazoum with "high treason", and took to recalling its ambassador from Ivory Coast. Should the bloc determine it will proceed with an invasion, it would likely be comprised of several thousand troops. The consequences, according to conflict experts, would have devastating results. Former colonial occupier of Niger, France and the U.S. have some 2,500 military personnel training the Niger military.

France and the United States, since the coup have suspended military operations, resulting in an increase in jihadi attacks. In an extremist ambush in the Tillaberi region, 17 soldiers and nearly two dozen more were wounded on Tuesday afternoon when a military detachment travelled between villages, representing the first major attack against the Niger army in six months; a worrying sign of potential escalation.

According to analysts, the longer the coup carries on, the less likely it is that an intervention will materialize, while the junta cements its grip on power. In the final analysis, forcing the international community to accept the status quo, much as it has done in Afghanistan. The 25 million Nigeriens live in one of the poorest countries in the world where residents hoped the new regime would forge a new path for the nation.

In the event, however, residents in the capital Niamey are being called upon to volunteer in assisting the army in the face of the threat by the West African regional bloc. An initiative spearheaded by locals in Niamey plans to recruit tens of thousands of volunteers from across the country to register for the Volunteers for the Defense of Niger.

Such volunteers would be expected to help with medical care and provide technical and engineering logistics, as well as fight, should the junta require that of them. "It's an eventuality. We need to be ready whenever it happens", Amsarou Bako, one of the volunteer group founders explained to Western media. Any Niger citizen over 18 years of age is asked to register, the list to be given to the junta to call upon volunteers if needed.

"We do not give a damn about ECOWAS. ECOWAS has been tailor-made for the presidents in power. And we do not need it." 

"Whether ECOWAS intervenes or not, Niger is ready for all options. We are ready. Whatever ECOWAS decides, we are ready."

Omar Amadou, Niamey resident

Supporters of Niger’s ruling junta gather at the start of a protest called to fight for the country’s freedom and push back against foreign interference in Niamey, Niger, Aug. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick)

The Issues: Parole for Plotting Violent Jihadist Attack: Current Risk to Society

"You voluntarily engaged in actions that could have resulted in the death of dozens of people. You have chosen terrorism to target human rights, democracy and the rule of law. By your acts, you have threatened the dignity and security of human beings."

"You acknowledge your responsibility for the crimes you committed, although you tend to minimize your responsibility and to be defensive when your actions are questioned."

"Since your return to the community, you have demonstrated a willingness to avoid using violence and forcing  your ideas in your exchanges."

"You do not express any deep commitment to an extremist ideology .. you do not demonstrate strong and pervasive political views likely to have an impact on risk."

"You wanted to be considered by the Muslim community as a hero who stopped the war in Iraq."

"Given your overall progress, your CMT [case management team] is of the opinion that your release plan is realistic, structured, gradual and can be endorsed because it currently contains the necessary steps to achieve your objectives."

"After a careful analysis of your case, the board grants you full parole. It is the board's opinion that you will not present an undue risk to society if released on full parole."

Parole Board of Canada -- June 28, 2023

Muhammad Shareef Abdelhaleem, key architect of the Toronto 18 terrorism plot. Photo by Postmedia 

In their great wisdom the Parole Board of Canada decided that 'an undue risk avoidance' is manageable for this 47-year-old Muslim-Canadian whose deep resentment against Canada for engaging with its peer nations in the joint effort to contain the deadly violence threatened and carried out by extreme Islamist groups, justified plotting against the country in a determined strategy to wreak havoc and death as divine punishment. A more prosaic, preventive punishment was meted out to Shareef Abdelhaleem, a software engineer who transformed himself into a vengeance-dealing jihadist.

He was sentenced to life in prison after a jury found him guilty of a plot to detonate truck bombs in and around Toronto, to storm Parliament in Ottawa, to take hostages and to behead the prime minister in the infamous Toronto 18 terrorist plot of 2006. A young Muslim man had volunteered to infiltrate the jihadist plot group and to gather evidence for the investigating RCMP, a move that helped investigators to gather the evidence required to round up the plotters and bring them to justice before any of their plans saw action.

Now, according to the parole board, this man has made satisfactory progress in rehabilitation, rejects extremist ideology, attended deradicalization programs and is prepared to reintegrate into society. He has enrolled in a college course and there has gained good grades. The Government of Quebec has been paying him financial assistance of $650 weekly. In another year and a half his courses will be complete, it seems. He will graduate and become independent of social assistance.

On parole, he is enjoined by two conditions imposed, not to be in a position of responsibility or leadership in any spiritual or religious activities or groups who share the same beliefs; and he is not to associate or communicate with anyone he knows or has reason to believe is involved in criminal activity or radicalized activity. Taqiyya -- (literally "prudence, fear") is a precautionary dissimulation or denial of religious belief and practice...

 

Arrested in 2006, Abdelhaleem was convicted in 2011, granted day parole in 2021, and graduated to living in a Quebec halfway house. His day parole was extended for another three months, followed by a hearing before his request for full parole was decided. He appeared before the parole board on June 27 by videolink, the decision announced the day following.

 

Born in Egypt, his was "a typical Middle Eastern family". His family moved around to different locations in the Middle East, travelled to England, and then emigrated to Canada. They had permanent resident status, and in 1993 Abdelhaleem became a Canadian citizen. A year later he enrolled in a four-year university computer science program but dropped out to establish a computer software business in 1995.

 

Attending a mosque regularly to reconnect with his Islamic background, he met other young Muslim men who were agitating for jihad against the West, and was attracted to their radicalized terror plots. A recent psychological assessment found his risk of general violence was reduced to low, noting positive progress since his release on day parole and making note of his acceptance of democratic values. 

 Notable: in a previous assessment, his case management team advised against his release.

"It was the opinion of the Board that the seriousness of your actions and their potentially devastating nature called for caution."

"The Board concludes that you will present an undue risk to society and your release will not contribute to the protection of society by facilitating your reintegration into society as a law-abiding citizen on full parole."

Parole Board of Canada, September 14, 2022

"Abdelhaleem talked about fleeing the country 15 days before the attack [perhaps to his sister’s house in Cleveland] in order to avoid suspicion. In the next, he talked about being sentenced to ten years at Kingston Penitentiary, where he will be considered a leader by other Muslim inmates. He also explained to me that when he thinks about being arrested, it is only after the fact, after the bombings. He never imagined that the arrests would happen before the bombs were detonated." "Abdelhaleem relished in the carnage they would cause. One of the three selected targets, the CSIS headquarters in downtown Toronto, 'will be affected from the main floor to the top floor', Abdelhaleem said. 'There will be blood, glass and debris everywhere.' In his words, the attack will be dubbed 'The Battle of Toronto'."

Informant's testimony at Abdelhaleem trial

Shareef Abdelhaleem watches as a Crown attorney questions a witness during a Toronto 18 trial in 2010.