Researchers say Canada has failed to address a decades-old Islamist strategy they believe has become entrenched across Western civil society.
That is the warning from experts ahead of the release of a major new report from the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP).
The US think tank report, Islamism Beyond Islamists, examines Muslim Brotherhood-aligned influence in Canada and argues it follows a “structured transnational strategy of ideological entrenchment.”
In an interview with Juno News, Haras Rafiq, ISGAP’s vice-president of policy in New York — himself a Muslim — explained that distinguishing between Islam and Islamism is essential.
“This report is not about Islam or Muslims,” Rafiq said. “It’s about Islamism as a political ideology.”
The Islamist concept of tamkeen, which Rafiq describes as “entrenchment within civil society across all sectors,” is frequently referenced throughout the report.
ISGAP traces the tamkeen strategy back to historical Muslim Brotherhood writings, including the 1991 “Explanatory Memorandum” introduced as evidence during the Holy Land Foundation terrorism-financing.
The memorandum, which identified Canada as a target, described the Brotherhood’s work in North America as a “Civilization-Jihadist Process” aimed at “eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within.”
Rafiq said that the Muslim Brotherhood “doesn’t exist as an entity anywhere in the West.”
“It’s a movement,” he said.
