http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1152827412841&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home
Informer wanted to protect Canada
Describes role in terror case
No stranger to controversy
Jul. 14, 2006. 08:26 AM
MICHELLE SHEPHARD
STAFF REPORTER
Mubin Shaikh, a well-known and sometimes controversial figure in Toronto's Muslim community, says he decided to become an undercover police agent and infiltrate an alleged terrorism cell to protect Canada, the country of his birth.
Shaikh went public yesterday about his role as a paid informant, a day after the Toronto Star broke the story of his involvement in the investigation into an alleged "homegrown" terrorist group.
The Star story did not identify him by name due to provisions of the Witness Protection Program Act that make it an offence to disclose the identity of a police agent.
But Shaikh said yesterday he has declined an offer by police to enter the program that would have given him a new identity and moved his family out of the city. The 30-year-old said his decision to break his silence came after he was inundated with calls from the Muslim community encouraging him to do so.
His role was widely known throughout the community since he was often seen with the suspects, but was not arrested June 2 in the massive police raids.
In an interview with the Star yesterday he said he wanted to "take control of the story" and describe his motivation for getting involved with Canada's spy service and federal police force.
"I wanted to prevent the loss of life," he said.
"There are no combatants on the downtown streets of Toronto," he said concerning the allegations now facing 17 suspects arrested June 2.
"I don't want Canadians to think that these (suspects) are what Muslims are. I don't believe in violence here. I wanted to help and I'm as homegrown as it gets."
Shaikh, who was born in Toronto and was a decorated Royal Canadian Army Cadet as a teenager, said he became devoted to Islam about 10 years ago.
He said he supports the jihad in Afghanistan and Iraq, but not attacks on civilians at home.
The RCMP alleges that the 17 terrorism suspects arrested last month formed a group whose goals included bombing targets in southern Ontario.
Shaikh said he first approached Canada's spy service in 2004 after the arrest of Mohammad Momin Khawaja, the first person in Canada to be charged with criminal terrorism offences. Shaikh knew Khawaja and his family and offered CSIS help.
Last year, he said he was asked by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service to try to infiltrate the Toronto group, which had been under surveillance, by befriending alleged leader Fahim Ahmed.
Once he gained Ahmed's trust, Shaikh said he met other members of the group and helped lead what police allege was a "training camp" last December. Police allege members of the camp — located in a Washago, Ont., field — dressed in camouflage, used guns for target practice, and sources said they taped a video used to recruit others.
During the time last fall that he worked undercover for CSIS, and then the RCMP, Shaikh became an internationally controversial figure in his public life.
`I don't believe in violence here. I wanted to help ...'
Mubin Shaikh, undercover police agent
Shaikh was the province's most vocal advocate for allowing the use of sharia law, a set of Muslim rules and guidelines, to settle family law matters under Ontario's arbitration act.
A picture of him jostling with a female protestor outside Queen's Park was carried worldwide. The province eventually decided to outlaw binding religious arbitration.
Shaikh is also the multicultural chair for Liberal MP Alan Tonks' York South-Weston riding association.
His biography on Tonks' website reads: "Traveller, philosopher, theologian, Mubin Shaikh is not your ordinary Torontonian. At first look, one might think they've encountered an extremist but on second take, you realize you've been had!"
Tonks said he has had a 10-year relationship with Shaikh and his father.
"Mubin just articulates that sort of loyalty to the country, that acts of terrorism that have occurred are aberrations to their concept of (Islam)," Tonks said in an interview yesterday.
"His overall loyalty to the country is unquestionable."
While he didn't know Shaikh was involved with police, he said he was not surprised he would offer to help authorities.
Others question his motivation.
Echoing concerns raised by lawyers for the 17 suspects of entrapment, they question whether he instigated any of the alleged terrorist plans.
"This is like the pot calling the kettle black because Mr. Mubin Shaikh has been the exponent of Islamic extremism in this city.
``He has been the number one proponent of the imposition of sharia law in Canada, has been extremely hostile to all moderate Muslims, which calls into question whether he's acting out of sincerity or is he trying to fish himself out of his own troubles," Tarek Fatah, co-founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, said yesterday.
Scarborough imam Aly Hindy, himself often accused of being an extremist, also questioned Shaikh's involvement.
"I don't think his role was just to inform what was happening, he was making things happen," Hindy said.
"There's a big difference between when you see something wrong and you inform the authorities and when you start actually inciting things to happen."
Shaikh said the case was conducted "by the book," and that he looked forward to testifying when cases for those charged reach trial.
That's when he should be judged, he said.
He said he supports the jihad in Afghanistan and Iraq, but not attacks on civilians at home.
Hold on, so he supports the death of our soldiers as well as our allies.
His overall loyalty to the country is unquestionable
His loyalty to our country is unwaivering, yet he endorses the jihad against our country and its allies. Is this not paradoxical, or is it so early in the morning that I'm not reading the article properly?
