P. O. Box: 55 Main Station Edmonton, AB T5J 0C0 780 991 2112 or 403 879 8303 info@cscwc.ca CANADIAN SOMALI CONGRESS WESTERN CANADA Monday, September 15, 2014 Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper Prime Minister of Canada Office of the Prime Minister 80 Wellington Street Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2 Mr. Prime Minister, I am the head of Canadian Somali Congress of Western Canada and I am writing this letter to ask you for your support in preventing ISIS sympathizers to recruit our young and vulnerable Canadians of Somali origin and join this deviant group. By way of introduction, The Canadian Somali community is the largest African Diaspora community in Edmonton/Alberta and one of the largest amongst Somali Diaspora communities in Canada. The CSCWC aims to create an increased capacity for diversity within the Canadian Somali community by highlighting a number of economic, human rights, civil liberties and social justice issues. Based on very solid and reliable sources from our community youth and elders, here in Canada and Alberta in particular, 16-25 years old Somali youth are recruited to become ISIS frontline soldiers at an alarming proportion. Parents of these young men and women are extremely worried about this terrorist group and the fact that their sympathizers are recruiting our youth to fight for this losing war. Regrettably, this terror group is using sophisticated and professional network of recruiters and sympathizers to brainwash these young, innocent and vulnerable group ages and it seems that they are succeeding of their criminal activities. These terrorist recruiters and their sympathizers usually lure their prey by offering financial support to these young men and women who embark on war mission. They cover travel and other expenses and subsequently indoctrinate them to say that they will be given a key to paradise if blow themselves in planes, trains and public places, by taking their own lives and lives of other innocent people. There is a solid evidence of strong recruitments and radicalization efforts carry out by ISIS and other extreme terrorist groups taking place in our community. The fact is most of those young left to fight alongside with ISIS in the Arabian 1 An Open Letter to Prime Minister Harper P. O. Box: 55 Main Station Edmonton, AB T5J 0C0 780 991 2112 or 403 879 8303 info@cscwc.ca CANADIAN SOMALI CONGRESS WESTERN CANADA Peninsula don’t have resources to even purchase a ticket let alone travel to Middle East themselves. That means there must be strong influential group present here, Canada, who are taking advantages of your innocent youth misjudgments. It is responsibility for each of us to defend our youth and our own lives as well. Truly, this is not just our fight for our youth but also a fight to save our own existence and the future of our country, Canada and humanity at large We, Canadian Somalis, young and old, want to work with Canadian authorities and law enforcement to fight against these extremists and their wicked ideologies in the Islamic faith. We cannot sit idly to see these criminals putting our young live at risk and becoming a pawn for ISIS terrorist. We do not let this vicious terrorist group and its sympathizers have any kind of foothold in Canada. We want convince our youth not to join these extremist terrorist group network. Let me say that the majority of the Somali community in Canada are moderate and hardworking Muslims. They despise and reject ISIS and other terrorist group ideologies by using Islam and their extreme views of interpretation of Muslim faith to achieve their repressive goals. The Somali Community totally condemns all sorts of terror and terror related activities in here and aboard. We feel terrible and sad to see our peaceful religion being hijacked by this barbaric and malicious group. Having said that, we also understand the underline issue and cause of why these youth join terror groups of ISIS and AlShabab. They are disgruntled and sometimes lost hope. These young Canadians, who are first generation, are especially vulnerable and are at great risk of feeling rootless. They often find themselves disenchanted by whom they have integrated into the Canadian society. Most of those who joined and died at battlefront were single, have no family or other responsibilities to leave behind or had low self-esteem and status in their community. Of course this feeds into itself. These young men, who is socially isolated and have no healthy relationship with the community at large are at risk and vulnerable for ISIS and AlShabab recruiters. The Canadian Somali community wants to keep away its young men turning into ISIS and then Alberta and Canada in general to becoming a pipeline for jihad recruiters. We are worried that we are loosing the battle to keep another round of young Somali Canadians turning to or getting solace to this brutal terrorists group, like ISIS. We all still did not forget the recruitment of AlShabab group in Canada to 2 An Open Letter to Prime Minister Harper P. O. Box: 55 Main Station Edmonton, AB T5J 0C0 780 991 2112 or 403 879 8303 info@cscwc.ca CANADIAN SOMALI CONGRESS WESTERN CANADA go and fight its evil campaign in Somalia. The pathway from much recruitment for these extreme groups remains murky and difficult to uncover. The latest wave of youth leaving is a chilling replay of our recent history, where many our young men and women join AlShabab group in Somalia, who officially affiliated themselves with Al-Qaeda. A simple example of latest ISIS propaganda destined to Somali and Muslim youth in the West is the blind jihadist pictured fighting alongside ISIS terror group in Syria. He was a Somali and he urged all Muslim youth to join ISIS by stating that “being a disabled person is not an excuse to not join them”. He praised himself that being blind does not stop him from coming to Syria. He became a poster boy for jihad recruiters worldwide. We are well aware that ISIS is a very voracious terrorist and will terrorize anyone who stands against their deceitful interpretation of Islamic doctrine. I can assure you that the Canadian Somali community will share with our intelligence and other law enforcements agencies of any information of ISIS recruiter in Alberta and we notified our youth to help us hunt down these criminals. We will educate our youth of the fact that ISIS is a criminal organization and anyone joining them is also a crime. To counter these terrorist elements, we need a collective approach to fight back and get our local Imams join the fight by educating the youth on real interpretation and meaning of jihad in Islam. They have to reach out the youth and clarify key points of Islam that prevent in participating false jihad and extremism. We have to make sure that the youth get a crystal clear message “By joining these extreme group is a mission that will haunt them and they cannot leave at-will at any time. It is like joining a gang group. Once you are in it there will be no way back to freedom.” “Death is your ultimate destiny.” A diversionary activity may be sufficient for someone who is in the early stages of radicalisation whereas a more focussed and structured one-on-one mentoring programme may be required for those who are already radicalised. It is time to implement an alternative strategy that would safeguard our safety and security. We, therefore, need resources to be counter these terrorist. We need resources to build resilience strategy that based on cooperation and partnerships. This includes partnerships between the community and three level of governments (departments and agencies) as well as engaging with all stakeholders, including NGOs and citizens. Our strategy is detect early and prevent to protect vulnerable youth from being drawn into terrorism. 3 An Open Letter to Prime Minister Harper P. O. Box: 55 Main Station Edmonton, AB T5J 0C0 780 991 2112 or 403 879 8303 info@cscwc.ca CANADIAN SOMALI CONGRESS WESTERN CANADA I hope that this letter is helpful to you as we turn your attention to this important matter and I look forward to your replies in timely manner. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you require additional information regarding this issue by Phone 780-991-2112 or email at mxaccord@cscwc.ca. Respectfully, Mahamad Accord President and Founder 4 An Open Letter to Prime Minister Harper