More Details On The Canadian Jihadis
The New York Times just keeps surprising me this morning. They actually mention that the Canadians arrested over the weekend in an anti-terrorism sweep mostly attend the same mosque. It's not buried at the end of the article, either.
Several of the people arrested by Canadian authorities in a huge counterterrorism sweep over the weekend regularly attended the same storefront mosque in a middle-class neighborhood of modest brick rental townhouses and well-kept lawns.
The eldest of the 17 Canadian residents arrested in the sweep, Qayyum Abdul Jamal, 43, was described by his lawyer as an active member of the mosque, the Al-Rahman Islamic Center for Islamic Education, though not its leader.
"He's on the board, he's there regularly, but he's not an imam," said Anser Farooq, the lawyer representing Mr. Jamal and three other people from this Toronto suburb who were arrested Friday night and who also attended the same mosque. "He's one of about a half dozen people who lead prayers at the mosque."
Authorities in Canada and the United States continued today to piece together information from the lengthy investigation that culminated in one of the largest counterterrorism strikes in North America since the Sept. 11 attacks.
There's one thing in the article that bugs me, though. That is the reported response of some of the Islamic community leaders:
Islamic community leaders in the Toronto area were surprised by the arrests and raised concerns that some of the younger men picked up in the sweep may have been led to participate in a suspected plot by older, more radical Muslims, like Mr. Jamal.
"I do not think of him as an imam," Tareeq Fatah, the communications director of the Muslim Canadian Congress, said. "People like him are freelancers. I don't fear imams. I fear freelancers who are creating a Islamacist, supremacist cult."
If you are worried about this why are you only speaking out about it after the arrests? Why not step up and address this issue before it gets to a point where arrests are necessary? Whether the younger suspects were "led astray" is irrelevant. That the situation has been allowed to fester is not.
UPDATE: And now the New York Times praises the Toronto Star's coverage – has there been a coup at the NYT?
War, World news | Gaius June 5, 2006
