Cleric Warns ISIL Began Recruiting from Canada, Receives Death Threat

Sunday, 24 August 2014

Cleric Warns ISIL Began Recruiting from Canada, Receives Death Threat

Local Editor

Iraq: ISIL militants

A Canadian cleric known for his pacifist sermons warned Friday that the so-called 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant' terrorist armed group was actively recruiting in Canada and said one member issued him a death threat.

Syed Soharwardy, founder of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada (ISCC), called on Canadian and Western authorities to intensify the fight against terrorist movements.

"Absolutely I am convinced that this recruitment is going on right here in this country, under our noses, in our universities, in our colleges, in the places of worship, in our community," he told CBC public television.

Soharwardy added that a Muslim man from Ottawa who was fighting with ISIL in Mosul in northern Iraq had sent him a death threat on Facebook.

"He was condemning me for condemning ISIL, and he was saying that 'You are a deviant imam and your version of Islam is not the right version,'" Soharwardy said.

In February, intelligence services said at least 130 Canadians were fighting with IS in Iraq and Syria.

"Three Calgarian young fellows died in Iraq and Syria fighting for ISIL. These people (ISIL) are brainwashing people here in this country," he said.

Soharwardy also began a 48-hour hunger strike "to create awareness about the dangerous nature of ISIL" and pay homage to American journalist James Foley, who was executed by his terrorist captors in a video released Tuesday.