----------

CSIS visits can be chilling
by Sikander Hashmi The Montreal Gazette URL: [link] August 18, 2007 Dorchester Square is where many workers catch some fresh air at lunch or after work. But it's at this downtown "oasis of greenery," as Tourism Montreal calls it, that Big Brother met up with accountant "Latif Ihram" after work one day. Actually, make that Big Sister. The park is where the 27-year-old was questioned by a CSIS agent who goes by the name Christie Hamilton, after she called asking for an appointment. Ihram (whose name has been changed to protect his privacy) said Hamilton was interested in knowing who ran halaqahs (religious study circles) on the South Shore and in the West Island, and wanted names of others who might be of interest to CSIS - information he wasn't prepared to offer. But Ihram says it was Hamilton who spoke more than he did, justifying the meeting and stating "she wasn't discriminating against Muslims." Hamilton, who Ihram commends for being polite and not accusing him of anything, even told him her parents and grandparents were Irish and that they, too, felt targeted in the 1970s, when the IRA was active.Ihram is one of a growing number of Muslim Montrealers being questioned by CSIS, apparently in an attempt to seek out radicals and potential terrorists.

The people The Gazette spoke to, including community leaders, say they recognize the need for intelligence to protect Canadians from terrorism, but are worried the interrogations signal an alarming trend of hit-and-miss intelligence-seeking.

CSIS agents arrived unannounced at the home of Fahed Ali (not his real name), but he wasn't there. Ali and CSIS agent Hamilton eventually agreed to meet at a Tim Hortons in Kirkland. It didn't bother him, initially.

"She seemed really nice and polite, so I didn't really feel threatened by the whole thing," he said.

But as Ali finds out that more Muslims like him - young and involved in the Muslim community - are being questioned, he asks, "Why us?" Muslim Council of Montreal president Salam Elmenyawi believes the answer lies in a secret intelligence brief - Radicalization and Jihad in the West - prepared by CSIS for Prime Minister Stephen Harper after 18 people were arrested in Toronto in June 2006, allegedly for planning terror attacks in Toronto and Ottawa.

Although the report states " 'radicalization' and 'jihadization' are very complex," it identifies radicalization of Muslims as the precursor to the latter, which it says occurs "when radicalized Muslims believe that violence in the defence of Islam is justified." Some of the signs of radicalization identified by CSIS, including growing a beard and adopting traditional dress, are what really concern Elmenyawi.

In an attempt to find jihadists, CSIS is "throwing a very wide net," he said, by identifying anyone who has a beard or wears traditional clothing as a possible target.

Manjit Singh, a Sikh Montrealer, says CSIS used similar methods to gather intelligence on members of the Sikh community in the mid-1980s and he, too, encountered ignorance of religious customs. An agent once told him a temple in Lachine flies the flag of Khalistan, the proposed state many Sikhs were fighting for at the time.

The yellow flag was a Sikh flag and not a Khalistani flag.

Elmenyawi says he is also bothered by the type of questions being asked, like which mosques people attend and whether Muslims boycotting a mosque on the South Shore are extremists - questions that have nothing to do with terrorism, he says.

The Muslim Council of Montreal has received more than 20 complaints about CSIS questioning in the last four months.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN) in Ottawa receives one complaint every week from Muslims from across the country who say they have been questioned by CSIS, according to spokesperson Sameer Zuberi.

Some French-speaking Muslims in Montreal "are very seriously scared," Elmenyawi said.

"In some cases, they have made repeated visits to people without their permission," he explained. "They went to people early in the morning, to their homes, and just knocked on the door." Elmenyawi and Zuberi both say it appears CSIS doesn't want lawyers present during interviews. If someone insists on bringing along a lawyer, the meeting is cancelled, they say.

Refugees or immigrants wanting to become Canadian citizens can put their citizenship applications on the line if they don't co-operate, Zuberi said.

In fact, he said cases of retribution occur regularly. For instance, he added, some Muslims deemed unco-operative have faced problems when travelling to the United States.

Just the prospect of having a family member questioned can be worrisome.

Ali's father met the agents when they came knocking, and didn't tell his mother because she would have become very worried. She found out later.

Ihram's wife and father were also concerned.

"(Family and friends) wonder what's going on," he said.

By asking for leads on people who are active in the community but who haven't done anything wrong, CSIS is making innocent people pay, Elmenyawi said.

"So (anyone) who is active ... becomes a target," he said, and it "comes with a price, which is anguish, anxiety, (and) fear. " Samaa Elibyari, who hosts a weekly radio show on CKUT and is active in the anti-war movement, was questioned by CSIS in March 2002 in the lead-up to the Iraq war.

Agents showed up unannounced and the interview was cordial, she said. But the underlying message is what bothered her, making her feel like a "second-class citizen." "If you're a Muslim and want to express your political opinion," she says, "you have to think twice." The incident reminded her of what she left behind in Egypt.

"When I came to Canada, I felt I was coming to a land of freedom," she said. "In a country where I thought I would express myself freely, I'm finding the signs of a dictatorship - a curtailment of civil liberties." Residents who have recently come from police states are terrified when questioned by a government agency, Elmenyawi said.

It's the erosion of privacy that makes Ihram uncomfortable.

"They're spying on us, basically," he said. "The fact that they have my name, they already know about the halaqahs, means they somehow are getting information about our community." "I don't know if they're checking my email (or) tapping my phone, I don't know if they're just interviewing people ... who are giving them this information, and I don't know if there's an informant." The message being sent to the Muslim community is that it is being watched, Elmenyawi said, which is "intimidation and harassment." "Here is the problem," he said. "If they don't stop ... we will go out and advise every single person not to talk to them when they call." Seated on a bench in Dorchester Square, Zuberi says his group doesn't discourage people from co-operating with CSIS in order to avoid "bad blood" but at the same time, "the rights of people should not be trampled over." He acknowledges CSIS has improved, especially after a 2004 CAIR-CAN report found CSIS was conducting some interviews at workplaces, but there's still work to be done.

When asked how CSIS should gather intelligence in the Muslim community, Elmenyawi paused, then noted he's not aware of any "extreme elements" within Montreal's Muslim community.

Security agencies have subtle methods of gathering intelligence without "chasing the community," he said.

"They should be approaching the people with proper etiquettes without this kind of open harassment." Zuberi says if CSIS does everything right - like identifying agents as CSIS agents and not "federal agents," calling in advance, and asking honest questions - then there's really no problem.

"They should be educating people on what their rights are, that they can have a lawyer present if they so choose," he said. "That is something important ... that can build trust." Not all Muslims oppose questioning by CSIS. Mubin Shaikh, the CSIS informant who helped bust the alleged Toronto terror plot in June 2006, calls it "perfectly fair." If people have nothing to hide, why are they afraid? he asks. He suggests those being questioned should take the opportunity to invite the agents to get to know Islam.

"What's happening is our objections are bordering on being unco-operative," he said.

Shaikh does agree though that people should take lawyers with them or make recordings of the interviews.

Zuberi says Canadian Muslims and national security agencies have a common goal: to make Canada safe.

But he says the problem is that CSIS isn't working with the community, it's working "at" the community.

Instead of trusting and empowering Canadian Muslims, national security agencies are suspicious of Muslims and constantly question whether the community is trustworthy, Zuberi said.

CSIS might have good policies, he says, but they're not being implemented by "men on the ground." Employees haven't necessarily been wielding the agency's authority and power "in a responsible fashion," Zuberi observed.

Elmenyawi said CSIS should be looking at Muslims as potential employees who could help in approaching issues fairly.

Singh notes the RCMP has learned its lesson with the Sikh community, and the Mounties now have up to 30 Sikh officers.

"What the Muslim community should really be saying is that you need to have people on the staff who are from different cultural communities," Singh says. "Then they can guide you in what is the right procedure and how to do it." Others have suggested a communal approach, with CSIS holding town hall meetings with the Muslim community.

The government can move in a much "smarter fashion," Zuberi says, with something like the British Radical Middle Way project. Managed by Muslims and funded in part by the British government, it organizes events in an effort to promote a mainstream "dynamic, pro-active and relevant" understanding of Islam, according to its website.

That would help the Muslim community to "deconstruct terrorism ... from an Islamic perspective using a faith-based analysis," he said.

All interviewees are quick to say if they discovered someone was planning attacks, they'd be the first ones to act.

"If we knew somebody, we would have gone to someone ... way before they would come to see us," Ihram said. "We live in Canada and we want it to be safe, too."

shashmi at thegazette dot canwest dot com

© 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.. All rights reserved. Unauthorized distribution, transmission or republication strictly prohibited.