Mouna Diab was once in a Quebec youth group fighting discrimination against Muslims, but the outspoken 26-year-old activist had little to say this week after appearing in a Montreal courtroom to face a charge alleging she had violated an arms embargo that prohibits the export of weapons to Lebanon. She pleaded not guilty on Thursday and returns to court Nov. 10.Diab was arrested at MontrealÂ’s Trudeau airport on May 19 as she was departing for Beirut. In her luggage, investigators allegedly found AR-15 assault rifle parts. Other parts were allegedly shipped separately.
Police said the components could have been assembled into working firearms. An RCMP spokesman said, "If you put all the pieces together you could build or make two weapons with it."
Criminal charges against UN sanctions violators are rare in Canada, but not unprecedented. Last year, Mahmoud Yadegari of Toronto was sentenced to three years for trying to ship nuclear-related items to Iran.
The charges against Ms. Diab do not specify any intended recipient of the gun parts, nor would police elaborate. It is not apparent why anyone would take such a risk when Iran and Syria already keep their Lebanese allies armed to the teeth.
Diab's arrest has drawn attention to her activism. The website of the Montreal-based association des jeunes libanais musulmans, or Association of Young Lebanese Muslims, listed her as vice-president in 2007.
At the time, the website was linked to the sites of several anti-Western Shiite clerics, including Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, and the Iranian hardliner Mesbah Yazdi. It also linked to the late Lebanese cleric Mohammad FadlallahÂ’s website, which says it is "obligatory to wage war" against Israel and that making peace with Israelis is "not permissible." Muslims in "occupied land" must provide "material or moral support" to fighters, according to the clericÂ’s website.
In August 2006 the association signed a statement denouncing Prime Minister Stephen HarperÂ’s position on the war that had erupted when Hezbollah attacked an Israel military convoy across LebanonÂ’s southern border.
The following February, Diab was part of a delegation that went to the town of Hérouxville to try to counter stereotypes about Muslims. The town had passed a code of conduct directed at immigrants that banned stoning, female genital mutilation and head coverings, among other things. Diab told La Presse that she found the code hurtful.
Later that year, she was quoted in a Le Devoir article about speaking to a cousin in Lebanon who was hiding from Israeli planes. She was quoted as saying, "It is difficult to present yourself differently when you are being attacked and the only ones defending you are members of Hezbollah. So you identify with Hezbollah, itÂ’s normal."