ISIS released an hour-long propaganda video intended to discourage an international military campaign against the group. It showed a masked gunman standing before captured Syrian troops digging their own graves. Photo: Screen shot A new audio recording from the Islamic extremist group controlling parts of Iraq and Syria urging attacks on Canadians and other westerners cannot be dismissed as mere propaganda, security experts said Monday.
The slick social media messaging of the Islamic State militant group, also known as ISIL or ISIS, coupled with its apparent recruitment of thousands of westerners, plus the recent thwarting of an alleged plot to carry out beheadings in Australia, mean the threat on Canadian soil cannot be taken lightly, experts said.
“This type of possibility is not just a threat but a genuine risk. It’s something that needs to be taken seriously,” said Christian Leuprecht, a security expert at the Royal Military College of Canada and Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.
In a 42-minute audio recording, Islamic State group spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani called on Muslims to kill anyone whose country was taking part in a U.S.-led coalition to fight the extremist group.
ISIS released an hour-long propaganda video intended to discourage an international military campaign against the group. It showed a masked gunman standing before captured Syrian troops digging their own graves.
The Canadian government has said it is sending 69 special forces personnel to serve as advisers to Iraqi forces battling Islamic State militants.
“If you can kill a disbelieving American or European — especially the spiteful and filthy French — or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that joined a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way however it may be,” al-Adnani said.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Monday that Canada will “not be cowed” by such threats. Harper later told reporters that the government was examining laws and other means to monitor and take action against individuals and groups who threaten Canada. He did not provide details.
“Any invitation to commit acts of terrorism … is both wholly un-Islamic and deeply repulsive to Canadian Muslims, as it is to all of Canada,” said a statement from the National Council of Canadian Muslims.
The Islamic State seems to be borrowing from al-Qaida’s mantra of “think globally, act locally,” Leuprecht said.
Leuprecht and a research assistant recently pored through news articles and other open-source materials and counted at least 62 westerners, including 12 Canadians, who had been reported to have joined the Islamic State. The militant group now seems to be appealing to this pool of sympathizers and their associates to cause trouble back home, he said.
Leuprecht said the messaging could resonate, in particular, with those Canadians whose passports have been revoked for national security reasons.
As first reported in the National Post this weekend, the Canadian government has begun to revoke the passports of Canadians who joined extremist groups in Iraq and Syria, as well as the passports of Canadians who haven’t left the country but intended to travel there for that purpose.
Being denied the ability to travel could cause some of them to “move to action here,” Leuprecht said.
A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter holds a position at a frontline in Yangije, where heavy clashes against Islamic States (IS) fighters took place the previous night, 50 kilometres east of Tikrit, on Sept. 11, 2014. LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images/Files
The government has previously stated that it is aware of more than 130 people with Canadian ties who are suspected of participating in terrorist-related activities abroad and knows of about 30 in Syria.
Michael Zekulin, a political science instructor at the University of Calgary, said Monday that not all those who leave Canada to join the Islamic State or other extremist groups necessarily want harm done in Canada.
The concern, however, is that “you’re surrounded by hardcore jihadists from the Middle East and North Africa who dislike the West and it could rub off on you.”
Last week’s anti-terrorism sweep in Australia, which saw numerous arrests in connection with an alleged plot to carry out random killings — including beheadings — suggest that the impact of Islamic State’s messaging could be far-reaching, Zekulin said.
That incident, plus the group’s slick use of digital media and violent images, are things that “should keep us on our toes.”
An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube on Aug. 23, 2013 allegedly shows members of Ussud Al-Anbar (Anbar Lions), a Jihadist group affiliated to the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS, al-Qaida’s front group in Iraq, holding up their weapons as they pose next to the trademark black and white Islamist flag at an undisclosed location in Iraq’s Anbar province. (AFP/Getty Images/Files)
Meanwhile, the Canadian government’s acknowledgment that it has begun revoking passports is raising some concerns.
According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, passports can be revoked for several reasons, including “if the Minister is of the opinion that revoking the passport is necessary for the national security of Canada or another country.” It won’t say how many have been revoked for this reason.
Sukanya Pillay, executive director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said while the government has a duty to protect Canadians and its allies, there should be basic transparency around the criteria for revoking passports.
What safeguards are in place to ensure compliance with the charter, in particular the liberty and security of individuals and their mobility rights, she asked. And what recourse is there for those who feel that their passport was wrongly taken away?
Further, she said, “if the government has evidence that an individual abroad has engaged in terrorist activities, then we need to ensure that person is prosecuted — and if convicted, jailed — not merely off-loaded abroad.”
— With files from The Canadian Press
dquan@postmedia.com
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