Group urges Muslims in Canada not to cooperate with authorities on al Qaeda probe

A prominent Canadian Islamic group is urging Muslims not to cooperate fully with authorities in an investigation of al Qaeda terrorist cells north of the border.

Acting guilty: A Muslim group in Montreal is publicly taking an adversarial stance against terrorist investigations, “calling on Muslims in Canada not to cooperate with the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service,” CanWest News Service reports. Canadian Muslims should not cooperate with authorities without a warrant or without presence of legal counsel, the group said.

Adil Charkaoui was arrested in May on suspicion of being a “sleeper agent” for Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda terror group, according to the CSIS. Muslim activist groups in Canada are rallying on behalf of the alleged terrorist.

The pressure group’s adversarial approach appears designed to frustrate authorities’ capabilities to unravel terrorist networks that have infiltrated Canada’s growing Muslim community. It mirrors the modus operandi of New York-based terrorist support groups that urge people not to cooperate with the FBI. Several prominent Washington-based Islamist pressure groups urged their supporters not to cooperate with the FBI before and immediately after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.