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2005-07-27 Great White North
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CSIS sez imam was lying
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Canada's normally zip-lipped spy service yesterday took the unusual step of speaking out publicly against a Muslim leader, alleging that he has been making accusations against government agents that "we believe to be totally without foundation."
"We really want to counteract these allegations," said Canadian Security Intelligence Service spokeswoman Kathryn Locke, who called The Globe and Mail to respond to comments made by Aly Hindy, the imam of the Salaheddin Islamic Centre in Scarborough.
"These unsubstantiated charges are not helpful," she said, adding that Mr. Hindy's comments threaten bridges that CSIS has been trying to build with the Muslim community.
On Monday, The Globe and Mail published an interview with the imam, in which he complained that a young Muslim woman told him that CSIS agents roughed her up while her husband was away at prayers.
This, he said, was an outrage that could lead to reprisals from Muslim youth.
Mr. Hindy first raised the charges in a meeting in May with dozens of Muslim leaders and Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan. But he has also circulated flyers about the alleged incident, urging Muslims never to talk to CSIS. His subsequent interviews to newspapers and Toronto talk-radio stations have outraged CSIS leaders.
"Enough is enough," said Ms. Locke, the CSIS spokeswoman. She said the spy service investigated the complaint and "could not substantiate these charges."
But CSIS took the complaint seriously enough to forward it to the Toronto Police Service, she said. The police force was not prepared to comment on the status of that investigation yesterday.
Government investigators probing the complaint have previously told Mr. Hindy they found no evidence of wrongdoing, but he isn't giving the spy service the benefit of the doubt.
"We believe CSIS should stop terrorizing us," he said in a flyer.
CSIS and Mr. Hindy have had a tangled history.
Court records indicate that the spy service has asked several men suspected of links to terrorism about Mr. Hindy, who was close to Ahmed Said Khadr, a Canadian who became friends with al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and moved his family to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Pakistani security forces killed Mr. Khadr in 2003.
Mr. Hindy has long alleged that CSIS has been wrongly spying on him and members of his mosque. He has appeared in court as a character witness for several immigrants CSIS accuses of al-Qaeda links.
He also blames the spy agency for the overseas arrests of several men -- including his own day-long interrogation by Egyptian authorities a couple of years ago.
"I speak my mind and I don't care what happens. But I get in trouble, many times," Mr. Hindy said in his interview with The Globe. "But you know what? This gives me the trust of young people."
He complained that more moderate Muslim leaders are hypocritical. "They want to be politically 100 per cent right. They say whatever the government wants to hear."
While his public comments run against the conciliatory tone of Muslim leaders who have lately spoken out against terrorism, Mr. Hindy is not alone.
Other Canadian Islamic leaders also question why Muslims must speak out against acts of extremism in Britain, especially given the carnage that takes place daily in Iraq.
For example, Tariq Abdelhaleem of the Dar Al-Arqam Islamic Centre in Mississauga recently posted an open letter to Prime Minister Paul Martin on his centre's website.
While condemning the attacks in the United Kingdom, Mr. Abdelhaleem says the bombings took place because "it is the country that is helping the American crusaders (or neo-conservatives if you wish) to kill innocent Muslims, and try to change the face of the Islamic faith in the Middle East.
"The attacks did not target Canada, Holland [for instance] or any other country," he writes. "It was a wise decision by your predecessor, Mr. Chrétien, to disassociate Canada from such imperialistic practices. That decision was made to protect the Canadian public." 
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Posted by Dan Darling 2005-07-27 09:53||
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Posted by MunkarKat 2005-07-27 13:47||
2005-07-27 13:47||
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