Faith leaders gathered at the Muslim Association of Canada’s Islamic school in Calgary on October 8 after another threatening email.
“Our community doesn’t accept that hatred speech, that violent speech,” the school’s director, Mazen Jichi, told CTV News.
“It’s about violence; it’s a threat to kill.”
On September 20, the Muslim Association of Canada said nine of their schools were sent an anonymous email signed “Citizen Vigilante” that threatened the “slaughter” of Muslims and declared that Canada would become “Islam free,” according to The Canadian Press.
While CTV News say they reviewed the most recent email, they declined to publish the contents.
Following the first email, several police forces said they were investigating the incident.
Peel Regional Police said its hate crime unit was investigating a letter containing “hate-motivated threats” against Islamic schools and increased patrols around mosques and schools in response.
London and Waterloo Region police also confirmed they were investigating threats, but did not say whether they considered the email a hate-motivated incident. They also increased patrols.
While Ottawa police increased patrols at affected locations, they said the email did not indicate a “specific or imminent threat.”
In a September 30 statement, MAC said it was working closely with the RCMP.
“The RCMP has informed MAC and has stated publicly that there is no imminent risk,” the association said.
The threats followed separate incidents targeting Jewish places of worship in Ontario.
On September 18, Durham Regional Police received information from an outside law enforcement partner about online threats to shoot people at a synagogue in Durham Region.
The FBI’s New York office subsequently said it had identified the threats and alerted Canadian authorities through its Ottawa office.
Police searched a Whitby residence on September 19 and arrested Alexander Parfitt, 19. He was charged with threats motivated by hate.
Durham police also increased patrols around Jewish places of worship and community gathering locations during the High Holidays.
On September 20, a gunman shot Constable Jeff Smith outside the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, where worshippers had gathered for Yom Kippur. Smith suffered multiple gunshot wounds. No worshippers were injured.
Belleville Police Chief Murray Rodd confirmed on September 24 that investigators considered the shooting a deliberate, hate-motivated attack against the Jewish community. The gunman, identified as Sean Ward, 29, died in hospital the following day.
The organization has previously come under fire for promoting Muslim Brotherhood ideology during a youth activism session at this year’s convention.
At the convention in May, former MAC education director Khaled Al-Qazzaz presented Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna as a model for Islamic activism during a youth session.
An interactive exercise at the same session asked participants to submit their vision for the Muslim community. The resulting word cloud included the phrase “Jew free”.
MAC later said it had investigated the word-cloud incident and apologized, describing the phrase as “offensive and hurtful” and contrary to Islamic teachings.
The association said it could not identify the person who submitted the phrase and committed to screening controls and further facilitator training.
“MAC is dedicated to updating its policies with corrective measures to help prevent something similar from recurring,” it said.
