Stewart Bell, National Post
Saturday, November 21, 2009
The President of Somalia yesterday condemned the "luring" of young Somali-Canadians to his country to fight in an Islamist insurgency that is attempting to topple his government.
"We have heard that some young Somalis went missing in Canada and are presumed to be on their way to Somalia or are already here," President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said.
"It is exploitation against these youngsters, against their parents and against the Somali people to smuggle the youngsters whose understanding of their religion and the country is limited and whose parents escaped with them from Somalia in the first place to give them a better life."
His comments at a news conference in Mogadishu came as the RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service are investigating six Somali-Canadians who have left Toronto in recent weeks without telling their friends or parents.
The investigation has fallen to national security agencies because of a pattern of similar behaviour in the United States, where at least 20 young Somali-Americans have gone missing only to turn up in Somalia with Al-Shabab, an Islamist militia aligned with al-Qaeda.
The parents and Canadian authorities fear the missing Toronto youths may have travelled to Somalia to join Al-Shabab. One phoned home to say he is well and in Kenya, which shares a border with the Al-Shabab stronghold in southern Somalia.
Al-Shabab has been battling Somali troops and African Union peacekeepers in an attempt to turn the country into a Taliban-like state. In areas under Al-Shabab control, those deemed to have violated Islamic laws have been beheaded and stoned to death.
Of the Somali-Americans who joined Al-Shabab, one died while carrying out a suicide bombing and at least one other was shot dead. President Ahmed visited parents of some of the Americans during a recent visit to the United States.
Al-Qaeda has called the fight in Somalia a jihad and has been urging Muslims to join Al-Shabab. Ethnic Somalis and Muslim converts from the United States, United Kingdom and Australia have answered the call.
In a speech last month, RCMP Commissioner William Elliott said the same radicalization process may be at work in Canada as well, and Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan confirmed in an interview with the National Post this week that his agencies were concerned about extremism in the Somali-Canadian community.
At least some of the missing men worshipped at the Abu Huraira Centre, a mosque in North York. A message on the mosque's Internet home page yesterday read:
"Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him and his father) also reported that the Prophet said: 'There is no deed more precious in the sight of Allah, nor greater in reward, than a good deed done during the ten days of Sacrifice.' He was asked, 'Not even jihad for the sake of Allah?' He said, 'Not even jihad for the sake of Allah, except in the case of a man who went out to fight giving himself and his wealth up for the cause, and came back with nothing.'"
[email protected]