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The witnesses who appeared before the committee over the past nine months continuously brought up the fact that radicalizing messages mixed with religious ideology was being advocated by some foreign-trained imams in Canada.

Professor Salim Mansur told the Committee “radicalization occurs among Muslim youth when identity politics facilitates their indoctrination into jihadi politics by Islamist preachers and activists in the community” and stated clearly that “if you are not prepared to tackle radicalization and those who radicalize our youth, we will always be playing catch-up.”

Homa Arjomand, a former Iranian refugee who led the international campaign against Shariah law in Ontario, testified that “under the notion of freedom of religion, the state has legally funded religious schools and centres and placed the children under religious dogma and tradition. With money pouring from Saudi Arabia, Iran and other states, and with [mullahs] and imams being imported to Canada, the result is very obvious. The state has paved the path for more segregation, isolation and discrimination.”

We are confident that this recommendation to encourage the Muslim communities to train their religious leaders in Canada, along with the other 24 recommendations contained in our report, are timely, prudent and necessary responses to the security reality facing all Canadians

Imam Syed Soharwardy, who leads 13 mosques in Canada, warned that “there are people preaching open intolerance in this country.” He went on to state that it is this “intolerance ideology that makes a person become a potential recruit for the terrorist organization? This ideology opens the door for recruitment.”

Another member of the Muslim community, Michelle Waldron, whose family has been directly affected by radicalization, warned Canadians that foreign-trained imams are “blurring the line between traditional Islam and their politically motivated ideology, which opens the door to violence and strife.” She told the Committee that her son Luqman Abdunnur, who was reportedly under national security investigation, was radicalized at a mosque in Ottawa, and arrested three days after the October 2014 Parliament Hill attack. Waldron called on the Committee to “create a certification or licensing standard for clergy and religious leaders in Canada.”