MEMRI Daily Brief No. 765
Media reports and videos on social media, immediately after the October 7, 2023 attack and to this day, document a significant segment of Canada’s Muslim community’s targeting, bullying, and trying to intimidate the Jewish community in the country, with disturbing protests often thousands strong. As one recent X post stated, “it’s open season on Jews in Canada.”
While the U.S. has had its share of extremist pro-Palestinian supporters, marching with signs, flags, and banners of Hamas, Hizbullah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and other terror groups, and targeting of the U.S. Jewish community, the size and scope of this phenomenon in Canada is even more pervasive and severe – and at times terrifying.
Since October 7, 2023, antisemitic incidents in Canada have increased by 670%, and members of the Jewish community have said they feel abandoned by the government. At the same time, Canada’s Muslim community constitutes 4.9% of the population, and in some cities, including Toronto, it is rapidly approaching 10% – and in the Greater Toronto Area it is 12%-14%; the Canadian Jewish community is less than 1% of the total population.
The growing problem of support within Canada for jihadi groups, which is well documented on social media, has been growing in size and scope for a decade, and the virulent antisemitism and hatred for Israel on full view at these protests is only part of the protestors’ ideology. In addition to the frequent calls for the destruction of Israel, the U.S., and Canada itself, there are calls for jihad and martyrdom. As this phenomenon continues to play out daily, there is a need for some pointed questions about who these protestors actually are. They should be named and exposed, and any who have so far broken laws with impunity should face consequences.
Violent Attacks On The Jewish Community: Schools, Synagogues, Senior Citizens
Self-identified Canadian Muslim supporters of designated terrorist organizations, including Canada’s own Samidoun, a PFLP affiliate, have taken to the streets in full force targeting the Jewish community. They do this not only through aggressive and often frenzied protests, but also through recurring vandalism.
In the past year, this vandalism has included swastikas and graffiti at synagogues – in some cases as many as seven times – along with broken windows, arson attacks against community centers, Jewish schools, school property, more than one instance of firebombing; harassment of and physical attacks on Jewish elementary school students as well as university students and college campuses; multiple instances of gunfire; harassment of worshipers and theft of religious artifacts; shouting for violence against Jews outside Jewish hospitals and chanting support for “the resistance” – i.e. Hamas and Hizbullah – outside Jewish old age homes; picketing Jewish restaurants with terrorist flags; and delivering death threats to Jewish business owners. Just earlier this month, Mohamed Ilyess Akodad was charged with arson and related criminal offenses following his arrest for the December 2024 firebombing of a synagogue in a Montreal suburb.
Mobs have even thronged Jewish residential neighborhoods, going door-to-door to intimidate residents.
Recent Muslim Immigrants Call For Jews Whose Families Have Been In Canada Since The 1760s To “Go Back To Europe” Express Support For Hamas And Hizbullah
Participants in these violent Canadian protests comprise network of jihadi and Islamist sympathizers across the country best described as vile for what they stand for and how they express it. In Montreal, shortly after October 7, 2023, Canadian imam Adil Charkaoui called on Allah to “kill the enemies of the people of Gaza,” shouting “Destroy the Zionist aggressors… Allah, count their number and slay them one by one, and spare not one of them,” as the crowd repeated “Ameen.” Charkaoui had been arrested in 2003, and was alleged to have trained at an Afghanistan camp, but was never formally charged.
A typical protest in Canada features calls for ‘”jihad,” chants of “Jews go back to Europe,” and even “death to Canada,” as participants wave signs and banners with swastikas and the Hamas red triangle, used by Hamas in its videos to mark its targets. These keffiyeh-covered activists and Islamists harass Jews, including children and the elderly.
On a number of occasions, some have dressed up as Hamas fighters, including at universities, and re-enacted the “martyrdom” of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, including in Jewish neighborhoods. At their public rallies, they chant their support for the October 7 attacks and give Nazi salutes. At one Toronto rally, protestors praised Sinwar and another slain Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, as well as “resistance fighters.”
Pro-Palestinian rallies in Canada have also featured “kids’ intifada corners” where children, including toddlers, can dress up as Hamas fighters and speakers tout the importance of teaching children to support “the resistance.” Little children are often a feature of rallies and protests.
Mosques Hold Commemorations For Hizbullah Fighters And Iranian Jihadi Figures
The widespread support for Hamas in Canada over the past few years is accompanied by increasing signs of support for Hizbullah and other U.S.- and Canada-designated terrorist organizations, and for Iran. A January 7, 2025 memorial service at the Ahlulbayt Youth Collective in Windsor, Ontario for “martyrs murdered by Israel in Lebanon” highlighted slain Hamas deputy leader Saleh Al-Arouri and Hizbullah officials, as teen boys saluted posters of these “martyrs” while the song “Salute, Commander” played. This is a song that exhorts young people to serve as soldiers for Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and to emulate jihad fighters. Also, a Toronto vigil on January 3, 2025 marking the fifth anniversary of the killing of Iranian IRGC Qods Force commander Qassem Soleimani featured protestors burning U.S., Israeli, and U.S. Marine Corps flags and chanting “Down, Down Trump” and “Death to America!”
Another commemoration in Windsor, for Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah, took place September 29 at the Ahlul Bayt Mosque, a leading Shi’ite Islamic center in the city. This mosque regularly holds memorial services for slain Hizbullah fighters; a previous mass memorial, on June 22, honored over a dozen Hizbullah fighters. The mosque also frequently glorifies Hizbullah on its Instagram account and promotes a Telegram channel providing minute-by-minute updates on operations against Israel by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hizbullah, and other terror organizations.
These celebrations of terrorism do not appear to faze local authorities: Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens was photographed at an event at the mosque in support of the family of a slain Hizbullah leader. In the photo, Dilkens stands next to Firas Al-Najim, a very active young supporter of the Iranian regime, who wore a scarf depicting Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
The Ahlulbayt Youth Collective memorial is only one reflection of the clash of civilizations that is growing by the day, not just in Canada and the U.S. but in Europe and Australia as well. As the speaker at the memorial said, in English: “We gathered today for loved ones who paid a price in this battle and in this war, the war of good versus evil… We hear from the evil side that this is not our fight to fight. They are wrong – this is the best time and the best fight.”
In fact, the Islamist and pro-jihadi Canadians see their actions of targeting Jews and others as engaging in a battle of “good versus evil” – with them on the side of good. Their actions reflect deeply held ideological beliefs which are not properly understood by law enforcement, government officials, and others responsible for addressing this threat.
Canadian Law Enforcement Comes Under Criticism For Inaction In Every Case Of Support For October 7 Attack, Amid Accusations Of Political Surrender
Canadian law enforcement has been criticized for inaction in the face of this hatred. Shockingly, video footage of some incidents shows police present but not intervening – and even arresting victims of antisemitic attacks or Jews who fight back. Not a single instance of deportation of extremist activist non-citizens has been reported since October 7, nor has a single mosque exposed as extremist lost its government-granted status. We have also been been unable to find a single significant prison sentence handed down for assaults or property destruction against Jews.
In March, Canada’s largest municipal police force, the Toronto Police Service (TPS), came under criticism for an official TPS podcast episode in which two Muslim liaison officers discussed the positive outcomes of the October 7 Hamas attack, saying that it had produced greater interest in Islam, including more people studying it and converting. The TPS later apologized and deleted the episode.
As disturbing as this law enforcement and judicial passivity is, what is even worse is the inaction or even acquiescence on the part of some of Canada’s political leaders. The government appears to be too timid to deal with this threat. When a “Vigil For Resistance Leaders,” titled “Lest We Forget Our Heroes” and commemorating “the great hero” Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, was planned by Canadian Defenders 4 Human Rights for November 26, 2024 at a public space in Mississauga, Ontario, the city’s mayor responded to calls for its cancellation by defending the event. Saying “Your terrorist and somebody else’s terrorist may be two different things,” she went on to compare Sinwar to Nelson Mandela. Ultimately, the event did not take place.
Terror Plots, Government Documents Warn Of Coming Lone Wolf Attacks Against Jewish Community
The Islamist protests and violent antisemitic attacks are just one aspect of Canada’s Islamist crisis; there is an omnipresent threat of major terror attacks in Canada as well. Terror plots are regularly disrupted by authorities, and the toxic brew of a growing jihadi threat in the country is reflected by the series of arrests over the past year of would-be terrorists and supporters of ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and other jihadi groups.
Actual terror plots against Jews have been foiled multiple times. In December 2023, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) arrested and charged “a young person” for “facilitation of a terrorist activity by communicating instructional material related to an explosive substance” and “knowingly instructing, directly or indirectly, a person to carry out a terrorist activity against Jewish persons.”
In July 2024, a naturalized Canadian citizen originally from Egypt – who is also accused of war crimes committed outside the country in 2015 – and his son who has refugee status were caught before carrying out their plan for a mass attack against Jews in Toronto. According to a Canadian MP, “we were within a hair’s breadth – minutes, hours or potentially days away – of a mass casualty event on the Toronto Jewish community.” The man who killed 14 people in New Orleans on New Year’s Day is also known to have travelled to Canada in July 2023; authorities are investigating.
Security guard Bezhani Sarvar was charged with firing multiple rounds from an assault rifle and throwing firebombs in Edmonton City Hall in January 2024, as a class of first graders was visiting. In a video manifesto recorded prior to the attack, he addressed “leaders and officials and anybody that has hands in” the “genocide that is going on in Gaza,” saying “Inshallah, we will rise against you.”
Also in January 2024, in Quebec, restaurant employee Ahmed May was arrested and charged with three counts of attempted murder, assault and obstructing police officers at his workplace. Immediately after his attack, he posted photos of himself in the restaurant pointing upward with his index finger in a jihadi gesture, with the words “Free Palestine.” Previously, he had praised Hamas on social media.
In July, the RCMP arrested a father and son, Ahmed and Mostafa Eldidi, on terrorism-related charges, including “participation in the activities of a terrorist group.” They were, according to the RCMP, “in the advanced stages of planning a serious, violent attack in Toronto.” That same month, a British Columbia woman was arrested and charged with terrorism offenses; according to the RCMP, she had left Canada and traveled to Syria in 2015 to join ISIS. And, in August, a “person from the Greater Toronto Area who was allegedly participating in the activities of a listed terrorist group” was arrested and charged with “participating in the activities of a terrorist group and “counselling another person to commit a terrorism offence.”
In March 2025, a Toronto man was convicted of criminal offenses for his threats a year earlier to “plant a bomb in every synagogue in Toronto and blow them up to kill as many Jews as possible.”
These arrests reflect the serious threat of an attack on the scale of 9/11 – not only in Canada but also in the U.S. and Europe – with the very real possibility that the Jewish community will be targeted. In one close call, a man arrested in Canada in September had sought to carry out the “largest” U.S. attack “since 9/11,” involving the “murder [of] as many Jewish people as possible” in New York, “all in support of ISIS.” The attack was planned for around October 7, 2024. Canadian lawyer and author Warren Kinsella wrote in the Toronto Sun about reports from the Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre (ITAC) – the Canadian federal body assessing terror threats in the country – that were declassified in 2024; one stated: “Amid (rising) antisemitic hate, an undetected lone actor could commit an act of serious violence in Canada at any time.”
The very active PFLP-affiliated Samidoun organization, finally outlawed and designated as a terror group in Canada in October after it had been banned years ago by other countries, operated with impunity across the country, harnessing student movements to work for its Marxist and terrorist agenda and raising funds for the PFLP. As of this writing, it continues its activities wherever it is allowed.
Extremist Mosques And Imams Openly Incite Their Communities, With Calls For Violence – Including Calls For Jihad And Martyrdom, And Praise For Hamas And Hizbullah
Over the past year, MEMRI has monitored scores of extremist mosques and imams in Canada, documenting many of them flaunting their support for jihad, and openly and proudly posting videos of their lectures and sermons on social media for the world to see. Canadian authorities continue to avert their eyes from figures such as British Columbia’s Sheikh Younus Kathrada, known for labeling Canadian society “evil and filthy” and regularly calling for the annihilation of the Jews. He was even invited to speak in November 2024 at the University of Victoria by the Muslim Student Association, but once this became public and an outcry ensued, the invitation was rescinded. One of his recent sermons praised Sinwar and denounced young Muslims who do not follow in his footsteps; he has also called Jews apes, pigs, and vermin. Other sermons of his are explicit calls for jihad and martyrdom – in other words, incitement to young Muslims to carry out suicide attacks to gain the rewards of martyrdom, including “72 black-eyed virgins.” Despite being the object of mainstream media attention, Kathrada continues undisturbed by any government or legal action.
Kathrada is only one of the many extremist sheikhs in Canada who have openly mourned Hamas leaders responsible for the October 7 attack and other terror leaders eliminated by Israel. The main mosque in Hamilton, Ontario held a memorial service for Sinwar on October 18, 2024; the proceedings were broadcast by Qatar’s Al-Jazeera TV. Also, at the Islamic Centre of Southwest Ontario in London, on October 25, Canadian imam Munir El-Kassem eulogized Sinwar at length, saying: “What a beautiful lesson Abu Ibrahim [Sinwar] gave us. What a beautiful lesson.”
In the Vancouver area, in Coquitlam, imam Adnan, in his August 2, 2024 sermon, called jihad the “pinnacle of Islam” for which Allah has awakened desire. The “Jews – may Allah curse them,” he added, had killed “the martyr” Hamas “mujahid leader” Ismail Haniyeh – just as they had attempted to poison Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, according to a hadith. He concluded: “May Allah curse them and the Christians that are supporting them… [and] the Christian and atheist countries that are supporting them, the U.S., and everyone that is supporting them – may Allah curse you.”
Ayman Taher, chaplain at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto – Canada’s most research-intensive hospital and largest children’s health center – praised Hamas and its founder Ahmed Yassin in his December 18, 2023 speech at Toronto Palestine House. Focusing on children, he exhorted his audience to have their children watch an interview with Yassin predicting Israel’s end in 2027, because, he said, Yassin “never doubted that Allah is going to give victory to His religion, [and] we [also] should not, because he has inspired millions.” He was later suspended from his position pending investigation.
Imams in Canada are inciting not just against Jews but also against Christians. In his April 25, 2025 Friday sermon at the Toronto and Region Islamic Centre, following the passing of Pope Francis, Canadian Islamic scholar Abdullah Hakim Quick spoke about the arrogance shown by Christians in Arabia against the Prophet Muhammad, likening it to the attitude of Christians in the Vatican today, saying, “You see them with their clothing, their arrogance, and their splendor.” The Christians of Arabia were allowed to remain Christians, he said, but had to pay the jizya poll tax. Turning to Canada, he said that three things distinguish Muslims in the country from the Christian majority: Christians eat “swine flesh,” use “pagan symbols” like the cross, and have no modesty or shame. Adding that Jesus is alive, he said that He will return to rule over the Muslims, and will he will slay the pigs and break the cross.
Despite The Threat Of Radicalization, Foreign Extremist Sheikhs Regularly Visit Canada
Another problem is that mosques and other venues in Canada regularly host extremist imams and sheikhs from outside the country, from the U.S. and elsewhere, who are allowed to freely enter the country to speak to large audiences. In August, for example, a touring Saudi cleric, Assim Al-Hakeem, who had said that “3,000 Jews did not go to work ” on 9/11, was set to speak at a theater in Montreal, after an engagement earlier that month at a Winnipeg church. The Montreal event was eventually cancelled.
Muhammad Hijab, who has been condemned for inciting violence against the LGBT community, Jews, Hindus, and other groups, was scheduled to speak at a “Reviving Roots Conference” in Burlington, Ontario. The event was eventually cancelled following pressure from the community and politicians. The “2025 Khilafah [Caliphate] Conference” planned by the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir Canada was initially slated to be held in Hamilton, Ontario before being moved to Mississauga, but eventually moved to online only, with no apparent consequences for anyone involved in it. This is despite the fact that Hizb ut-Tahrir is banned in many countries worldwide.
A Clash Of Civilizations Is Playing Out In Canada
The pro-Palestinian protests, often expressing outright support of designated terrorist and extremist groups, and the increasing extremism taking over the mosque pulpits – all from a bold new post-9/11 generation – are evidence of, in their words, a “clash of civilizations” between Islamists and Western society. Across the West – Canada, the U.S., Europe, and Australia – lines are being drawn, as children, teens, and susceptible young Westerners are indoctrinated in the virtues of jihad and martyrdom, and extremist sheikhs incite their followers to attack unbelievers. They demand that the Jews return to Europe, amid calls for “death to Canada” and to other Western countries where they reside.
Some Canadian government officials have proposed solutions to begin to address this challenge, including establishing and implementing a national plan to combat antisemitism and to protect Canadian democracy from pro-Hamas, pro-Iran, and jihadist movements. But to this day, no actual steps have been taken.
Canada is respected around the world for its welcoming of immigrants, its tolerance, and its vibrant multiculturalism. It has proudly accepted tens of thousands of refugees over the past decade from the Syrian civil war, and is reportedly now taking in 5,000 Palestinian refugees. Sadly, it appears to also be welcoming, as well as tolerating, those who seek to attack other Canadian communities, such as the Jews, and who also seek the destruction of Canada as we know it – with no ability to summon the will to change course.
AUTHORS
Steven Stalinsky, Ph.D. Executive Director of MEMRI
Elliot Zweig Deputy Director of MEMRI
EDITORS NOTE: This MEMRI report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.
