WATCH ABOVE: Carolyn Kury de Castillo has more on the efforts to prevent young Canadians from joining militant Islamist groups.
CALGARY- Dozens of Calgarians gathered Sunday for a memorial service for the British aid volunteer Alan Henning and other Christians who were beheaded by ISIS.
The service was held by the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada and the Muslims Against Terrorism (MAT) at the Magnolia Banquette Hall.
After the memorial service, Imam Syed Soharwardy the founder of ISCC and MAT addressed the group of Christians and Muslims at the St. Thomas United Church, where he answered questions on radicalization in the name of Islam.
Following the ceremony, the Imam led a discussion about the radicalization of young Calgarians saying it’s a challenge to monitor mosques that may be preaching hate.
It was chance for parishioners at St. Thomas United Church to find out more about Islam from a well know Calgary imam.
One person in the crowd asked Soharwardy about what efforts are being made to prevent young Canadians from joining militant Islamist groups.
“This is your community and I think we as non Muslims want to see more evidence that you are actually serious about this question, this issue because it is a danger for the free world,” the woman said over a microphone while sitting in the crowd. “That is your community. You have got to be more insistent. You have to monitor you imams. Who do they answer to?”
The answer is in many cases, no one.
Local imam Syed Soharwardy insists that terrorist’s group can all be traced to a small minority of Muslims.
“They all follow one sect of Islam. Those in attendance had plenty of questions about young people being recruited to join organizations like ISIL,” Soharwardy said.
“I know a lot of it is supposed to be on-line but somebody somewhere within these mosques must have radical ideas as well.”
“It is an unfortunate reality that it is not happening; people are not reporting those people who are brainwashing you and that is a challenge.” Soharwardy said. “With the muslim community it is quite a disintegrated and disunited community, with one million Canadians, every imam manages his or her own mosque.”
Reverend Bob Fillier says Christianity went down the same path centuries ago, noting changes in governance take time. But the minister thinks there is some fear within Canadian government to deal with mosques that may not be preaching peace.
“I know that if I stood up here at St. Thomas and preached hate that not only ignoring what but I’m pretty sure. I have some folks dressed in some kind of uniform knocking on my door saying you’ve broken the law,” Fillier said. “And the fact that you’re part of a religion group faith community isn’t going to protect you from that. You’ve now broken the law so I don’t think we have the same sensitivity if it was the Christian doing the same kind of thing.”
Some in the crowd left with more worries about radicalization, as well as a better insight to Islam and common ground the faiths share.
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