Canadian taxpayers are footing the bill for Islamist activism in their country via their federal, provincial, and municipal governments. Between 2018 and 2022, they contributed at least C$42 million to five Islamist charities with ties to extremist organizations in South Asia and the Middle East. They regularly deploy the “Islamophobia” accusation to silence critics offended by their promotion of anti-Israel and anti-Western propaganda. And still, Canadians support these organizations with grants documented in reports published by Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and the country’s Registry of Lobbyists.
Due to the incompetence of so many Canadian politicians across numerous government sectors, taxpayers are footing the bill for organizations that undermine our democracy.
Collin May, Canadian human rights lawyer
Canada has evidently failed to develop the instincts for recognizing danger. The result of its complacency is that Islamist organizations that support enemies of the west are currently benefitting from public monies.
“Due to the incompetence of so many Canadian politicians across numerous government sectors, taxpayers are footing the bill for organizations that undermine our democracy,” Collin May told Focus on Western Islamism (FWI). “This problem isn’t going away until there’s a sea change in our government,” said May, a human rights lawyer who was driven from his job as Chief of the Alberta Human Rights Commission and Tribunal (AHRC) by a coalition of Islamists and “progressive” politicians in September 2022.
The Muslim Association of Canada (MAC), the country’s largest Muslim organization, has received the lion’s share of these funds, garnishing nearly C$31 million from public coffers. According to Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) records, the MAC, which has deep ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, has received about C$9.7 million in federal funds between 2018 and 2022. Over the same time frame, provincial and territorial governments gave the MAC $C16.5 million; municipal and regional governments gave $4.7 million.
According to the nonprofit watchdog Charity Intelligence Canada, MAC’s operations were classified as “not financially transparent” with “average accountability.” The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is investigating the organization for multiple “troubling” infractions from 2012 to 2015 and alleged links to the Muslim Brotherhood.
The MAC denies any connection to the Muslim Brotherhood. Its website, however, describes the Brotherhood as “the most influential Islamist revivalist organization in the Muslim world” and as “the largest government opposition force in Egypt.” The MAC also expresses reverence for the movement’s founder, Hassan al-Banna, affirming his Islamist theology as its guiding philosophy. The MAC removed a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood from its original bylaws after the CRA noted in a 2021 audit letter that MAC appeared to be more interested in “advancing” the Muslim Brotherhood’s agenda than Islam itself.
In the 2021 audit letter, the CRA reported that Wael Haddara, a prominent MAC official, and Sharaf Sharafeldin, the organization’s current executive director and president of strategy, “were among a group of individuals who appeared to be strategizing for [Mohamed] Morsi’s campaign for President in Egypt.” (Morsi was elected president of Egypt as part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party in 2012 and was ousted a year later.)
To buttress its case against the MAC, the CRA noted that Lorenzo Vidino, a renowned expert on the organization, declared that “The Muslim Association of Canada would be the first name that comes to mind” when asked to name Muslim Brotherhood organizations in Canada. Vidino emphasized that MAC and other organizations like it do not “answer to orders coming from Cairo or any other Arab capital” but are nonetheless “part of an informal network [comprised of] strong links based on personal and financial connections and at the end of the day what matters the most — ideology.” (Vidino made this assessment during a 2015 hearing held by the Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defense.)
The CRA also raised concerns about MAC’s involvement with “an apparent Hamas support network.” Although the MAC assured the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in a 2015 letter that it “does not, and would not, support any group that has been listed as a terrorist group,” the CRA reports that MAC appeared to “maintain a working relationship” with International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy – Canada (IRFAN-Canada) in 2015 and 2016, after it had been designated a terrorist entity by Canada in 2014 for transferring over $14.6 million to Hamas-affiliated organizations. “The CRA has identified at least live instances whereby the Organization permitted IRFAN-Canada (after its revocation) to participate in its programming. In each instance the Organization gave IRFAN-Canada a platfom to promote its message and most egregiously gave IRFAN-Canada an avenue for which it could continue to solicit funds,” CRA’s audit letter states.
Muslim human rights activists and Jewish advocacy groups have repeatedly condemned the MAC for platforming controversial speakers. The organization has taken to social media to promote anti-Israel protests in Canada and has met with Ontario Premier Doug Ford to promote calls for a ceasefire, minus of course any expression of concern for the hostages taken by Hamas on October 7.
MAC claims to “abhor violence” and “reject extremism,” but a review of the organization’s social media accounts reveals little, if any, condemnation of the October 7 attacks or concern for the release of the Israeli hostages. Dr. Ehab Bader, MAC’s director of membership development, referred to Hamas as “the resistance” and Israel as “the oppressors” in a December 17, 2023 interview, during which he falsely stated that Hamas did not use Al-Shifa hospital as a command center despite U.S. intelligence proving otherwise.
Sadly, the problem is not limited to MAC. Four other Islamist charities have received substantial financial support from Canadian taxpayers in recent years.
Islamic Relief Canada (IRC) received C$9,241,677, despite allegedly funneling funds to its parent organization, Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW), an international charity widely regarded as a front group for the Muslim Brotherhood with ties to Hamas proxies and banned by Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) (formerly known as Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN), which in 2022, affirmed false charges of “Islamophobia” used to oust human rights lawyer Collin May from his post as director of the Alberta Human Rights Commission and Tribunal (AHRC) received C$394,508 in 2022 .
The Islamic Society of North America’s Canadian affiliate, ISNA Canada, which was fined and suspended for a year in 2018 for providing resources to support Hizbul Mujahideen, a South Asian militant group listed as a terrorist entity by Canada, received C$1,203,929.
And lastly, the Canadian wing of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), which platformed individuals who engaged in antisemitic, misogynistic and homophobic rhetoric and sympathized with terrorists, received C$730,610 between 2020 and 2023.
Such funding is a serious threat to Canadian democracy, said Calvin Chrustie, a former Canadian intelligence officer and Senior Partner at the Critical Risk Team.
“Unlike countries like the U.S., UK and Australia which have fairly robust counter-terrorism and money laundering mechanisms in place to fight homegrown security threats, Canada remains a concern due to vote bank politics, lack of a national security culture, poor transparency, and outdated legal frameworks,” said Chrustie, who co-authored a recent report on transnational crime and terror financing. “All of this has helped accelerate the criminal penetration of the country’s vulnerable and critical sectors by extremist groups over the past several decades and facilitate Canadian threat networks to pose significant risks to our friends and allies.”
Michael Lewis writes about terrorism and Islamism.