Former AQ Suspect’s Students Continue to Join Islamic State

Last weekend, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrested 10 young adults at Trudeau Airport in Montreal under suspicions they were traveling to join the Islamic State in Syria. None of the suspects have been charged yet, but all of their passports have been confiscated. While an investigation on the suspects is still ongoing, thus the identities of the ten individuals have not been released, it has been reported that at least one of the suspects attended classes at an Islamic Community Center run by Adil Charkaoui. Charkaoui, an individual  considered to be a terrorism suspect by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, runs the Islamic Community Center of East Montreal (CCIEM) which offers classes either taught or designed by Charkaoui and cover topics from Arabic to karate.

This isn’t the first time Charkaoui and his Center have been in the hot seat over allegations of students traveling to fight with jihadist organizations in Syria and the Middle East. Earlier this year, six Canadian teens were suspected to have fled to Syria to join IS. Some of the individuals are believed to have taken classes at the CCIEM. A handful of the individuals arrested this past weekend reportedly had ties to the suspects who fled in January. Suspicions were raised that Charkaoui was influencing students to become jihadists, and both the Collège de Rosemont and Collège de Maisonneuve suspended their contracts with him.

The director of the Collège de Rosemont released a statement saying  “links on the centre’s Facebook page [contained content] it characterized as “violent, radical” material,” and this material furthered raised concerns of students being indoctrinated. However, in March, the Collège de Maisonneuve permitted Charkaoui to resume his teachings of Arabic and the Qur’an in four classrooms on their campus. The school’s management now has the right to have an official present in Charkaoui’s classrooms to ensure the school’s code of conduct is being followed. No such agreement has been made with the Collège de Rosemont.

In 2003, Charkaoui was arrested on a national security certificate, and after years if denying any connections to terrorist organizations, the certificate was declared void in 2009. In the US Court of Appeals Case  United States of America v. Ahmed Ressam, Charkaoui was named for alleged involvement in the Millenium Bomb Plot, in which four major bombings were supposed to take place around the world on January 1, 2000. Furthermore, according to the summary of a report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Charkaoui has links to Al-Qaeda and was considered a danger to Canadian national security.

As of 2014, more than 130 Canadians traveled to the Middle East to wage jihad. A 2014 public report recognized the threat of home-grown terrorism, and explained the Canadian government had multiple projects in place in attempt to counter-act the amount of Canadians fleeing to fight with jihads in the Middle East. These projects include Canada’s Multiculturalism Program, the Kanishka Project and Canada’s Beyond the Border Action Plan. Despite all such projects being in place, there seems to be a major disconnect as numerous individuals continue to leave Canada to join terrorist organizations. If students from Charkaoui’s Center continue to be suspected of joining IS in Syria more has to be done in terms of investigating what is really going on in his classrooms.