OTTAWA – An organization representing Canadian imams rejects the conclusions of a new study that says several mosques and Islamic schools are endangering young people with extremist teachings.
Mohammad Iqbal AlNadvi, chairman of the Canadian Council of Imams, says Muslim leaders in Canada have been quick to denounce radicalism.
Iqbal AlNadvi says while his job is to explain what Islam is, he often ends up explaining “what Islam is not.”
READ MORE: Extremist literature common in Canadian mosques, Islamic school libraries: study
Co-authors Thomas Quiggin, a former intelligence analyst with the Privy Council Office and the RCMP, and Saied Shoaaib, a journalist originally from Egypt, based the study’s findings on research conducted quietly in mosque libraries and Islamic schools.
The study, titled “The Lovers of Death? – Islamist Extremism in Our Mosques, Schools and Libraries”, says what worried them was not the presence of extremist literature, but that they found nothing but such writings in several school and mosque libraries.
They argue the issue is too important to ignore, given that a number of young Canadians have become radicalized to violence.