Imam Ramzy Ajem broke the news to Muslim inmates gathering for Juma prayer in the chapel at Millhaven Institution.

The popular prison imam — who led weekly prayers and counselled inmates one on one — told the men he would no longer be making regular visits. This would be his last as the jail’s imam.

Ajem’s contract with the Correctional Service of Canada expired in March, a casualty of then-public safety minister Vic Toews’ controversial decision last fall to cancel part-time contracts for federal prison chaplains.

The move eliminated 49 part-time chaplains at federal prisons across the country, leaving 72 full-time Christian chaplains and two full-time Muslim chaplains to provide much of the religious counselling in Canadian jails.

Hard hit was a young man named Saad Khalid, a convicted terrorist and former member of the Toronto 18, now serving a 20-year sentence.

“He broke down and cried,” said Ajem. “He was holding on to me and didn’t want to let me go.

“He was the last to leave.”

Experts in religion-based terrorism say faith counselling is a major component of counter-radicalization, particularly with Islamic extremism. The cancellation of the chaplains’ contracts, critics say, is a step backward at a time when a small but growing number of terrorist offenders are entering Canadian jails.

It is also a symptom of a much larger problem, say sources familiar with the federal prison system: Corrections Canada does not have a specific de-radicalization program.

Specialized rehabilitation for convicted terrorists, they say, would aim to stop them from leaving Canadian jails just as bent on violence as when they arrived. Khalid could be out in 10 years, at age 36, if not earlier.

“This is not your average criminal,” said Dr. Wagdy Loza, former chief psychologist for Corrections Canada. “To my knowledge there is nothing being offered that is meaningful in terms of treating radicalized offenders.”

Imam Yasin Dwyer, the only full-time Muslim chaplain working in Corrections Canada’s Ontario region, says there are other targeted courses to help inmates function normally in society.

“We have programs that deal with anger management, we have conflict resolution,” he said. “There’s not a lot of formal support for programs specifically related to counter-radicalization.”

Khalid was 19 when arrested while unloading a truck filled with 125 bags of ammonium nitrate — the ultimate aim to blow up the Toronto Stock Exchange, CSIS offices, and more. His actions — like those of his brothers-in-arms — were fuelled by the profound resentment of the western world, and a belief that terror and violence were tools that can and should be used.

At Millhaven, Ajem had been working with Khalid for a year and a half, and two other former members of the Toronto 18. They discussed everything from Arabic grammar to personal issues. Ajem’s goal was to make Khalid understand how he had misinterpreted the religion.

In two letters recently sent to the Star, Khalid said he had disavowed terrorism.

“Since my incarceration, I have come to realize how morally and intellectually wrong my actions were,” Khalid wrote. “Imam Ramzy not only made me realize that more strongly, but he has shown me by using traditional religious texts and principles that there is absolutely no religious authority for my actions.”

He also expressed frustration with the rehabilitation process, including the loss of Ajem.

Corrections Canada “seems extremely inept in dealing with offenders like me.”

Not ordinary inmates

In December 2010, Alex Wilner, a senior researcher at Zurich’s Center for Security Studies and leading expert on prison radicalization, delivered a forceful speech to the Special Senate Committee on Anti-Terrorism.

“Terrorists do not consider themselves as mere criminals but rather as foot soldiers in a global and cosmic conflict,” he said. “While criminalizing terrorism may deny it any legitimacy, we need to be careful not to ignore the political, ideological and, in some cases, religious motivations that shape a terrorist convict’s behaviour in ways that make such prisoners profoundly different from run-of-the-mill offenders.”

At the time, under Canada’s Anti-Terrorism Act passed shortly after the 9/11 attacks, a handful of offenders were incarcerated, including Momin Khawaja, found guilty of facilitating terrorism in the U.K., and 11 members of the Toronto 18.

Underestimating the threat they pose in jail, Wilner warned, could result in recruitment of other prisoners and the intensification of extremist thinking. Among his many recommendations was a rehabilitation program, possibly individualized for each inmate. Political, religious and social issues must be addressed with Islamic terrorists in particular, he emphasized.

Loza, the former Corrections Canada psychologist who is now an adjunct assistant professor in Queen’s University’s psychiatry department, has been studying effective methods to de-radicalize religious extremists, and looked at attempts in other countries.

In Saudi Arabia, for instance, the attempt involved intensive community support — such as helping the offender find a place to live or even a wife — but it had limited success , he said, because it didn’t adequately address the “devotion to the cause” factor.

To Loza, terrorists are not psychopathic or mentally ill, but extremely dedicated. These inmates therefore require concentrated, multi-faceted treatment from a knowledgeable team, including people who understand relevant culture, language, motivations and history, and can intelligently refute radical views.

“It is extremely hard because you’re going to challenge somebody who has the unshakable belief that they are doing this for God,” he said.

Some who study extremism raise an alternative to de-radicalization: disengagement, or convincing extremists to renounce violence, but not necessarily the ideology.

“It’s the rejection of the use of violence to achieve one’s goals, but it’s not necessarily giving up those goals or even the ideology that led to the use of violence,” Wilner said in an interview. “Maybe it’s enough to simply have our inmates disengage from political violence.”

Corrections Canada itself flagged potential problems in dealing with extremist inmates in its 2011 annual planning report, saying “adequate resources that are required to address the risks posed by radicalized offenders may not be in place.” A similar statement can be found in the 2012 report.

Spokesperson Christa McGregor said in an emailed response that while it does not have a de-radicalization program, its correctional programs are “designed to reduce re-offending by targeting factors that are known to be directly related to criminal behaviour, including those whose violence is motivated by their ideological beliefs.”

She explained that each offender is given a correction plan, a “blue print” for their sentence that outlines movement restrictions. It also details the activities in which the inmate will participate to help them prepare to reintegrate safely into society.

“(Corrections Canada) addresses the challenges linked to radicalization within the correctional environment through case management and its population management strategy,” which includes assessment and interventions, employee training and security, she said.

Asked what role religious counsellors play in attempts to prepare terrorist inmates for re-integration into society, McGregor wrote that Corrections Canada “has contracts with the Muslim faith community and Imams are available to provide religious services to meet the needs of Muslim offenders as required.”

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Vulnerable to extremists

At 16, Khalid had returned home to find paramedics attempting to revive his mother, who had been found submerged in the bath.

Her death apparently prompted Khalid to become more devoted to religion. He formed the “Religious Awareness Club” at his Mississauga high school, where he led sermons on martyrdom and jihad.

At his sentencing hearing, Justice Bruce Durno acknowledged Khalid was “vulnerable after the death of his mother and recruited by more devoted extremists.”

When Ajem began working with Khalid at Millhaven, his aim, he said, was to “normalize” Khalid’s understanding of the religion, and organically develop trust. From there, he felt he could delve into the factors that led to the offence.

He began teaching Arabic grammar as a way to demonstrate the complexities involved in understanding the Qur’an, and gave him books and articles to read, including work by outspoken American Islamic moderate, Imam Zaid Shakir.

Ajem had not been easy on him at first.

“Outright, I said ‘this is completely unacceptable, you embarrassed your family, the community, and you did this in the name of religion,’ ” he said.

Eventually, Khalid opened up. Ajem said he found Khalid to be sincere in his quest “to really get to the bottom of the issue, discover why they did what they did.”

In Khalid’s letter to the Star, he wrote: “I was wrong & for what it’s worth, I would like to apologize to all Canadians for my involvement in such a heinous crime.”

Since his contract ran out, Ajem has returned to Millhaven a couple of times on a volunteer basis. But the jail is a four-hour drive away, making it difficult to visit with any frequency.

Dwyer, the only full-time Muslim chaplain remaining in Corrections Canada’s Ontario region, holds Friday prayers at Millhaven twice a month. Every other Friday, when Dwyer is absent, Muslim inmates are not permitted to gather on their own to pray.

Given the growing number of inmates in jail for Islamic extremism, Ajem said the cancellation of the contracts was “just bad timing.” He is also concerned about the absence of a “normative imam,” to serve the Muslim prison population.

Corrections Canada says the cancellation of the contracts followed a review of its delivery of chaplaincy services to offenders, which involved consultation with the Interfaith Committee on Chaplaincy, a committee of various religious bodies that acts as an adviser.

The department is currently seeking one national supplier to provide chaplaincy services. It posted a request for proposals in May, and the new model is anticipated to be in place this fall.

“In conjunction with (Corrections Canada), the national contractor will ensure the provision of chaplains who are qualified, official representatives of their faith traditions and capable of ministry in the correctional environment,” wrote McGregor in an email.

In the meantime, Corrections Canada says the 2,500 volunteers who provide spiritual services to federal offenders are helping to deliver chaplaincy services.

Since the cancellation of the contracts, Dwyer says he has received a series of calls from every other region in Canada that has lost a part-time Muslim chaplain, seeking advice and help.

Volunteers, he said, cannot deliver the same service with the same regularity.

“It’s interesting, because you would never think of soliciting volunteers to play the role of psychologist. With chaplaincy it’s thought, well, anybody can come in and handle a Bible, a Torah, a Qur’an. But we need professional chaplains and professional Muslims to speak to the issue of radicalization, and speak with authority.”

Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca Correction - August 12, 2013: This article was edited from a previous version that missated the name of Millhaven Institution.

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