Latest news with #extremism
CTV News
a day ago
- CTV News
Quebec woman who left Canada to join ISIS pleads guilty to terrorism offence
A Quebec woman who left Canada to join a terrorist group was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty to a terrorism offence. Oumaima Chouay, 29, pleaded guilty to one count of participating in the activities of a terrorist group — the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Chouay, a mother of two children, is the first person in Canada to be convicted for providing support to a terrorist entity through family support as a spouse, according to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC). She had originally been charged with four terrorism-related offences. After a joint submission from the Crown and defence, Chouay was sentenced to a one-day jail sentence, which is in addition to the 110 days she has already served in pre-trial custody. She was also sentenced to three years of probation. The PPSC says she will be required to continue participating in depolarization therapy and avoid all direct and indirect contact with people and groups associated with extremism. Chouay admitted to travelling to Syria to join ISIS, knowing that she would be expected to marry an ISIS fighter and raise children 'under the ISIS doctrine,' according to an agreed statement of facts. She was not suspected of participating in any direct terrorist-related combat activities. Since getting bail in January 2023, she has been under 'strict' conditions, the prosecution service said, which included that she wear a GPS tracking bracelet, refrain from using any form of social media and report to police once a month. A family member also put up $5,000 to ensure her presence in court, and she was forbidden from speaking to several potential witnesses. Depolarization therapy was also part of her bail conditions. Psychiatric and physiological experts in the field of terrorism assessed her progress over the past 30 months and concluded that her risk of reoffending was 'very low.' The RCMP's Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) also agreed that she does not pose a significant risk to Canadian society. 'The recommended sentence here takes into consideration the early, ongoing, demonstrated and independently evaluated steps Ms. Chouay has taken to demonstrate remorse, take responsibility, commit to fundamental change and a rejection of extremist ideology. This addresses the ultimate goal of protecting the community,' the PPSC's Director of Public Prosecution, George Dolhai, said in a written statement on Monday. Chouay was arrested by the RCMP on Oct. 25, 2022, at Montreal's international airport after arriving from a camp for ISIS detainees in Syria with her two children. She arrived with another Canadian, Kimberly Polman of British Columbia. The RCMP said Chouay had been the subject of an investigation since November 2014 by the force's national security enforcement team. In November 2017, she was taken prisoner by the Syrian Democratic Forces and held with her children at the Roj camp for foreign nationals, in a region recaptured from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. With files from The Canadian Press
France 24
a day ago
- Politics
- France 24
Leftist leaders gather in Chile warning democracy 'under threat'
They gathered under the motto "democracy always," against the backdrop of US President Donald Trump's expanding tariff war and America's worsening ties with several erstwhile allies. "Today, in many parts of the world, democracy is under threat," Chilean President Gabriel Boric said as he opened the summit with counterparts Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Gustavo Petro of Colombia, Uruguay's Yamandu Orsi and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. He blamed "disinformation, extremism of all kinds, the advance of hatred, corruption, the concentration of power and inequality." Boric said the Santiago summit would discuss ways "to strengthen our democracies and multilateralism," with proposals to be presented at a UN General Assembly meeting in New York in September. "Defending truth, defending science, and opposing also be part of our debate," said the Chilean leader. The meeting came amid rising tensions between Trump and leftist leaders worldwide. His current focus is on Brazil, where far-right ally Jair Bolsonaro is on trial for allegedly plotting a coup against Lula. The Brazilian president last week decried "unacceptable blackmail" after Trump threatened 50 percent tariffs in part over the trial, which the US leader labeled a "witch hunt." 'Extremism and authoritarianism' Political analyst Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank said meetings like the one in Santiago were useful for like-minded politicians to "discuss how to navigate an increasingly complex and turbulent world." But he warned Trump "may view the meeting as a hostile message to the United States." Boric, for his part, warned against "extremism and authoritarianism" used to silence dissent and suppress debate. "I also want to tell critics of this gathering that there is never a bad time to strengthen democracy, to reaffirm our convictions regarding multilateralism and the unwavering respect for human rights, always," he added. Boric said he had invited Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Canada's Mark Carney to the meeting, but they were unable to attend. © 2025 AFP
Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Times
What we see in Gaza is rekindling jihad. Netanyahu must be stopped
Mohammad Abu Rumman, an expert on jihadism at the Politics and Society Institute in Amman, has said the Middle East is facing a new wave of radicalisation 'because of what is happening in Gaza'. Affiliates of fundamentalist groups are on a big recruitment drive. The UN has documented a rapid increase in the frequency of fanatical social media posts, and an academic paper found 'significant peaks in extremism scores' on social media 'that correspond to real-life events, such as the IDF's bombings of al-Quds Hospital and the Jabalia refugee camp'. All this corroborates what senior Israeli sources told me in February: that terrorist networks are replacing dead Hamas fighters at a rate of five to one. At the time, it sounded a realistic appraisal. Now, after five more months of destruction, I suspect it will prove to be a dire underestimate. A British security source told Reuters that the Gaza war is 'likely to become the biggest recruiter for Islamist militants since 2003'. The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism warned that such conditions are 'active incubators for the next generation of extremist operatives'. The justification for the evisceration of Gaza — reportedly 60,000 dead, 92 per cent of residential buildings flattened, starvation conditions reported — is that the carnage is necessary to 'defeat Hamas'. I won't bore you with quotes from politicians, IDF spokespeople and media briefers who have made this case. When they are pushed on how killing innocent children — more than 17,000 according to Unicef — will help with this task, they typically invoke the Second World War. You forced the Nazis to surrender by killing thousands of German civilians, they say; we must do the same in Gaza. I never thought in my lifetime I would hear a more tenuous justification for war than non-existent weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but this analogy comes close. Nazism was an explicitly nationalist creed. It glorified the German people, or Volk. It was not supposed to be the ideological glue uniting Germany with Japan, Italy or anyone else. These nations were scarcely an axis. They despised each other. They struggled to co-ordinate, one reason why they lost. That is why defeating Nazism in Germany defeated Nazism itself, just as fascism was expunged from Japan and Italy by military defeat of those nations. Islamic fundamentalism is not just different; it's the opposite. It is a virus that crosses national borders. It feeds on carnage. It cannot be bombed into submission, unless Israel chooses to bomb not just Gaza but Afghanistan, Oman, Pakistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Syria, Bangladesh, Morocco and perhaps the wider world. But to what end? Israel is not stronger but ever more fragile, having obliterated its reputation in the global south and Middle East, not to mention once-sympathetic opinion across the West. This will haunt Israel not for the next five months or five years but for the next fifty years. What, then, was the alternative? The answer was obvious on October 8, 2023, as many of us noted at the time. The world (with the exception of antisemites in western universities) was repulsed by the Hamas attack. It was on Israel's side. A more restrained response would not just have retained global support but led to rapprochement with Saudi Arabia — the watershed Tehran most feared. Iran would have been isolated as never before. Funding for Hamas (except that facilitated by Binyamin Netanyahu himself) would have dried up. Fundamentalism would have been starved of oxygen. Securing the release of the hostages would, admittedly, have required releasing more fanatics from Israeli prisons, a stomach-clenching prospect but infinitely better than the legions being radicalised around the strip, the region, the world. Such a policy would not have been the appeasement of terrorism but the antidote to terrorism. I have seen fundamentalism up close and you know what kills it? Rationality. Reason. Trade. Peace. Growth. Fanaticism, on the other hand, festers in failed states, in shelled buildings and amid the strewn limbs of family members. This, of course, is what created the impetus for the Abraham accords, the recognition among moderate Sunni regimes that accommodation with Israel was — how can I put this? — more conductive to prosperity than eternal war. It is why Mohammed bin Salman wanted a deal with Israel, at least until the Gaza massacre, for he knew that the best way to sideline Wahhabi extremists in Saudi Arabia was a new generation feeling the blessings of trade-driven growth. Think of the complexion of the region, the world, had Israel acted with restraint and how ludicrous Hamas and its variants would seem to younger Arabs in a region whose stability was jeopardised only by the mullahs in Tehran and its proxies, who feed on misery, poverty, alienation, fanaticism and indoctrination, and who were becoming ever more detested by ordinary Arabs. No longer, folks. This is the prize that has been shattered into a million pieces. I strongly supported Israel's actions against Hezbollah and Iran (as, privately, did Saudi Arabia, the UAE and much of the Arab world), operations with limited civilian casualties and clear strategic objectives, but what is unfolding in Gaza — and, increasingly, the West Bank — is senseless and therefore monstrous. I mean, do you have the foggiest idea of the endgame? Is it to keep bombing until 'fanaticism' has disappeared, even as it is growing and mutating across the region? Or is it — as Netanyahu seemingly wishes, even though his own military chiefs have condemned the idea — to pen two million desperate people into an open-air prison and oversee a 'voluntary' exodus, perhaps via the expedient of more bombing or another blockade? Pointing all this out is not antisemitic; it is the most pro-Israel service any friend of this nation can perform. For is it not obvious that Israel been lured into a trap? The heinous crimes on October 7 were designed to provoke an overreaction. Hamas buried itself beneath hospitals and schools and used Israeli hostages as the grisly bait so that its own civilians would die in the inevitable counterattack. These terrorists revel in the death of innocents not just because they are psychopathic but because they know that images of stricken buildings and bloodied children will procure propaganda no money could buy, thereby resurrecting the spectre of jihad after a decade of slow, incremental but indisputable decline. And this will not just affect Israel. In the foreword to a recent report David Blunkett wrote that Britain faces an 'enormous and ongoing threat' from Islamic terrorists, noting that the war in Gaza has engendered a 'disturbing' level of hatred. Calls for attacks on western targets have risen across Europe. In America terrorism experts told the New York Post that Gaza 'likely propelled' the New Orleans fanatic who killed 14 in January 'toward radicalisation'. Iraq is rightly described as a geopolitical catastrophe, but Gaza may, I fear, prove even more consequential. Israel is walking blindly towards, well, what? Ethnic cleansing? The violent settlement of the entire West Bank? All masterminded by a PM who has every incentive to perpetuate this heartbreaking slaughter to delay his trial for corruption (and a possible 15-year prison term) and manacle himself more tightly to the fascists within his cabinet. This, I suspect, is what will astonish future historians: how the whole world was dragged, largely unwillingly, towards an ever darker future by this Caliban. It's why I say to all Israelis and western governments: Netanyahu must be stopped.
BBC News
4 days ago
- BBC News
Man accused of sharing video of computer game about Christchurch attack
A man is facing trial for allegedly sharing a video of a computer game about the Christchurch terror 16 July 2024, it is alleged Zayan Lorgat transmitted a video clip of a computer game depicting the Christchurch terror people were killed in the mass shootings at two mosques in New Zealand on 15 October 19-year-old, of Grantham Road, Leicester, appeared at the Old Bailey on Friday charged with four counts of dissemination of a terrorist publication via Telegram. According to the charge, at the time Mr Lorgat posted the clip, he intended or was reckless as to whether it would be a "direct or indirect encouragement to the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism".On 21 May 2023, he allegedly transmitted a video clip depicting the Stephen Balliet shooting on 9 October right-wing terrorist Balliet shot and killed a female passer-by and a man at a kebab shop, after failing to break into a synagogue in Halle, 3 July 2024, Mr Lorgat allegedly posted a video clip depicting the Christchurch shooting and another video of the racially-motivated shooting in Buffalo in the US, where 10 black people were killed on 14 May Justice Cheema-Grubb said the case would be heard at Leicester Crown set a plea hearing for 7 November and a provisional 10-day trial from 20 July next defendant was granted continued conditional bail.
The Independent
4 days ago
- The Independent
Teenager pleads guilty to plotting gun attack and travelling to Somalia
A teenager from Lancashire has pleaded guilty to planning a gun attack and travelling to Somalia. Muhammad Billal, 18, from Nelson, was arrested on February 11 and charged with two counts of preparation of terrorist acts and four charges of collecting information likely to assist acts of terrorism. The Old Bailey heard that between last February and last October he researched 'accessible shooting ranges' and the purchase of 'chest rigs' designed to hold ammunition. He also conducted online reconnaissance of potential attack locations, and sought to illicitly purchase a firearm. He then went on to take steps to travel to Somalia between last 7 October and 20 November, which included buying airline flights. During this period, he also sought advice and guidance on how to leave the UK without arousing suspicion, changed his appearance, deleted extreme Islamic material from his mobile phone and bought clothes and equipment. He also obtained a visa to enter Ethiopia in order to facilitate crossing into Somalia. The charges on dates between last April and August relate Billal accessing issues of Rumiyah, an online magazine used by Islamic State for propaganda and recruitment. During a previous hearing, Billal failed to attend his preliminary hearing with the court told he had 'voluntarily absented himself'. Billal will be sentenced at a later date.
