June’s terror raids in Toronto that ended with the arrest of 12 men and 5 youth came as a shock to the general Canadian public. In my household it raised more than few questions on how exactly the RCMP came to know minute details of the group’s activities, which resulted in some very specific terror-related charges. What we decided as the best answer is not much of a surprise. Attempting to charge someone with plotting to blow up the CBC and beheading the Prime Minister becomes easier with a pair of ears and eyes on the inside.
Mubin Shaikh is the 30-year-old son of Indian immgrants who spent six years in the Royal Canadian Army Cadets and embraced Islam 10 years ago, after taking in trips to South Asia and the Middle East. He is a fierce supporter of Sharia law in Ontario and runs Canada’s only Sharia law arbitration centre. He is about as orthodox as Ontario Muslims come. Mubin Shaikh is also a mole.
Shaikh has been on the CSIS payroll for two years now but it was only last October that he began his new assignment, infiltrating the “Toronto 17”. Not only did he have to contend with pressure from CSIS but he had to deal with talk within his own community too. His job is far from over as he will be speaking at the criminal trial as a star witness. If I were him I would probably be hiding in a closet somewhere, especially since everyone around him knew his game when he was the only member of the terror crew to escape arrest. Props are due, he’s even refusing to go into the Witness Protection Program. Shaikh says he did it for Canada…:
“I wanted to prevent lthe loss of life,” he said. “I don’t want Canadians to think that these (suspects) are what Muslims are. I don’t believe in violence here. I wanted to help and I’m as homegrown as it gets.” [Link]
…and for Muslims in Canada:
If the plot to set off explosives in Toronto and Ottawa were allowed to happen, Shaikh said, Muslims would have suffered more than anyone else, other than those killed in the attacks. “That’s what people have to understand because now, a guy like me, who’s an agent of the state, responsible for bringing these guys down, I’m still called a terrorist in the street,” he said. [Link]
But the loudest reps for Toronto’s Muslim community are doubting his motives. According to Tarek Fatah of the Muslim Canadian Congress:
This is like the pot calling the kettle black because Mr. Mubin Shaikh has been the exponent of Islamic extremism in this city.
He has been the number one proponent of the imposition of sharia law in Canada, has been extremely hostile to all moderate Muslims, which calls into question whether he’s acting out of sincerity or is he trying to fish himself out of his own troubles.
While controversial Iman Aly Hindy’s imagination is just going all out:
“I don’t think his role was just to inform what was happening, he was making things happen,” Hindy said. “There’s a big difference between when you see something wrong and you inform the authorities and when you start actually inciting things to happen.”
Such is to be expected from Hindy but Tarek Fatah has been the voice of moderate Islam though this entire ordeal, I expected a more positive note from him. I admit such cynicism isn’t that difficult to warrant when taking into consideration Shaikh’s prior dealings with the wrong side of the law:
Mr. Shaikh was also once accused of assaulting his aunt and was charged criminally, Mr. Shaikh told The Globe. Those charges were dropped, Mr. Shaikh said, adding that his credibility will remain intact with people who truly know him.
And there’s the case with Shaikh senior too:
Last year, his father was charged with sexual assault after a woman said she had been fondled by an Islamic chaplain who was supposed to be counselling her through a divorce.
Ugh.
As long as Hindy’s fantasies don’t turn into reality by some freaky as-yet unrevealed CSIS/RCMP factiods then Shaikh has done excellent work. Regardless of whether he did it for money or a clean slate, somebody had to step up to the plate to do the dirty deed. One dude who has nothing but love for this mole is Liberal MP for York-South Weston, Alan Tonks. Shaikh is that riding’s Multiculturalism Chair, here’s his intro (I wonder if Tonks wrote it himself?):
Traveller, philosopher, theologian, Mubin Shaikh is not your ordinary Torontonian. At first look, one might think they’ve encountered an extremist but on second take, you realize you’ve been had! [Link]
Imagine that!
