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Nor did they mention that the Defence Department document quoted by the Times was by then four years old, and based on reports of al-Qaida bad guys who wafted through the mosque in the late 1990s, more than a decade before the honourable member for Papineau popped in.

Kenney’s office sent a email on Wednesday with the Sun story:

From: Date: August 6, 2014 at 1:35:44 PM EDT To: Subject: Liberal Leader Stands by Mosque Liberal Leader Stands by Mosque OTTAWA— Justin Trudeau is being accused of “intellectual dishonesty” for visiting a Montreal-area mosque the U.S. military reportedly considers an al-Qaida recruitment centre. The Al Sunnah Al-Nabawiah mosque sits in Trudeau’s Quebec riding. In April, the New York Times published it among a list of others found in classified military documents as places where “al-Qaida members were recruited, facilitated or trained.” The Liberal leader acknowledged last weekend he had attended the Al-Sunnah Al-Nabawiah mosque. “I think I’ve probably been to every single different mosque in my riding,” he said. “I know a number of people who have been listed by the U.S. government on a no-fly list and we in Canada have our own determinations for those sorts of things because the U.S. is known to make mistakes from time to time.” Calls and messages left with the mosque weren’t returned Tuesday. Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress and regular contributor to Sun Media and QMI Agency, found Trudeau’s response “outrageous.” “(This) mosque he mentions with pride is in his own words a Wahhabi mosque, the role model for ISIS, Hamas, al-Qaida and the Taliban,” Fatah told QMI Agency. __________________________________ As always, please share this message with friends and family. Sincerely, The Office of the Hon. Jason Kenney, PC, MP Calgary Southeast www.JasonKenney.ca

Ironically, Kenney himself was the subject of a media report about his own visit to an Islamic centre last year, when the National Post reported that he had attended the Jaffari Centre in Thornhill, Ont., which had ties to an organization accused of distributing anti-Semitic texts that referred to Jews as “crafty” and “treacherous.”

In that instance, Kenney’s communications flack, Ana Curic, told the Post that “Yes, the visit took place, and no one was aware of the affiliation at the time” — that is, precisely the same explanation offered by the Liberals over Trudeau’s mosque visit that is the subject of the frantic attacks from the Conservatives.

Although it is unclear exactly to whom the email blast was directed, some members of the Jewish communities in Toronto and Montreal received it.

The Liberals maintain that if the Al-Sunnah Al-Nabawiah mosque really is a training ground for religious extremists, the minister of public safety should probably be doing something about it, rather than using it to score points on the leader of the third party.

Typically, the Conservatives send out attack emails from the party directly, to shake out donations from outraged supporters, and do not use parliamentary resources for such obviously partisan pursuits.