Radical Islamic groups have been preying on religious tensions in Quebec, including those created by the province's proposed Charter of Values, to lure young, alienated Muslims into fighting on foreign battlefields, according to a new report.
The 84-page analytical document released Friday by The Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence (CPDLV) includes interviews with the friends and family of young people who left or attempted to leave Quebec to fight in Syria.
The CPDLV found between 130 and 250 Canadians were among the estimated 30,000 foreign nationals who have joined jihadist groups in Syria since 2013. Between 20 and 30 are said to be from Quebec.
The controversial Quebec Charter of Values legislation tabled by the province’s former Parti Quebecois government in 2013 would have barred all public sector workers from wearing conspicuous religious symbols – such as Muslim head veils. The PQ presented a toned down “values charter” Thursday, which would allow those currently on the public payroll to wear religious articles like a cross or hijab in the workplace. Only new hires would be restricted.
The report says public debate on the original bill fueled feelings of anger, alienation and bitterness among groups of young Muslims in the province, opening the door for radical groups to recruit disillusioned young Canadians to join their fight in Syria.
“Agents of radicalization played a very active role in stoking the anger and ‘sowing hatred’ in these young people by emphasizing Quebec society’s rejection of Muslims and Islam in general, as well as the impossibility for young Muslims to affirm their Muslim identity in Quebec,” said the report’s authors.
Interviews conducted by CPDLV show “shady charismatic figures” exploited the uneasiness some young Muslims felt about their place in Quebec society, drawing on instances of faith-based bullying and physical attacks.
Quebec’s debate over religious accommodation in the public sector comes at a time when hate crime rates are on the rise in the province, including several reports of Muslim women having their scarves pulled off in public. Police say reports of hate crimes jumped 30 per cent between 2010 and 2014.
The CPDLV report says while violent radicalization is not always the objective, many recruiters use distorted notions of so-called “pure Islam” to glorify the violent actions of anti-Western movements abroad.
“He never directly told us to go to Syria, but he inspired us to go with the things he said about religion. He focused a lot on battles and martyrs, which naturally winds up making you want to go,” said a young Quebec man who considered fighting in Syria. Benjamin Ducol, a researcher who worked on the report, says feelings of alienation and bitterness are often exacerbated within peer groups at school, a phenomenon he calls the “bunch of guys effect.”
“When you start into this radicalization process, maybe you don’t believe in the whole discourse, but you stay inside this dynamic because your friend is already involved there,” he told CTV Montreal. “This whole process grows so fast (that) at one point you become completely disconnected from reality.”
Teachers cited in the report say they observed “serious misconceptions” about the debate on religious neutrality within the Quebec government among their students.
“Many students had a very poor understanding of the history of Quebec and the religious past of Quebec society, meaning they didn’t understand where the Charter was coming from, why the debate was taking place, or the context behind it,” said one college professor cited in the report.
With files from CTV Montreal
