By Zarif Alibhai

Calgary has been called a terrorism hotspot by local and international media outlets in the wake of news that five of the city’s former residents are now fighters for ISIS. But terrorism experts deny the city is a breeding ground for such activity.  

However, the Calgary Muslim community is working with the Calgary Police Service on fighting marginalization within the local community that can lead to radicalization. 

Reports of those former residents joining the radical Islamic group began circulating in September 2014. The most newsworthy among these ISIS members was Salman Ashrafi, who committed a suicide bombing on a Shia Iraqi military base in Tarmiyah, killing at least 19 people.

Media outlets including such as CBC, CNN, CTV, and Global have reported that these members were from Calgary, Alberta. This led, in June 2014, to CBC news reporter Adrienne Arsenault, said the city “is increasingly considered a hotspot for exporting Jihadis.”

Christian Leuprecht, a professor at the University of Royal Roads, studies counter-Terrorism and doesn’t believe that Calgary is a hotspot, because as not enough research has been conducted to prove this claim.

He says, “When we talk about hotspots we need statistical evidence, places with similar demographic groups, income, education,” says Leuprecht. “. There is something curious, an aberration that the number here is higher than it is elsewhere. The numbers are so small that statistically it’s very difficult to make a case that there is a systematic…that this (Calgary) is actually a hotspot.”

Robert Barrett, a security analyst, who spoke at the Manning Centre in Calgary, Alberta,agrees that Calgary isn’t necessarily a hot spot for Muslim terrorists  

Dr. David Liepert, President of the Calgary Islamic Chamber Institute says the issue of extremism needs to be addressed.

Nevertheless, Lipert says the issue of extremism needs to be addressed. 

“As a community when we hear things like (hotspot), it makes us sit up and take notice and look at ourselves and decide if we actually deserve that label.”

Liepert also says explains that when radicalization does happen in Calgary – or anywhere else – it is a result of marginalization or feelings of being marginalized.

“ISIS has specifically said that they are going to target themselves to attracting themselves to people who live on the margins and so the marginalization of the Muslim community is part of the problem.”

An example, according toCounter-Terrorism expert and former Canadian Security Intelligence Services (CSIS) agent, Mubin Shaikh, is the Caucasian convert to Islam, Damian Clairmont. Clairmont ended up joining ISIS after feeling marginalized.

“Especially for guys like Damian Clairmont or converts in particular, they go right outside their comfort zone in the sense that they disassociate from the parents, making them completely isolated and completely dependent on this closed circle of peers and when you’re in that kind of environment, you are going to go where your peers go,” says Shaikh..”

The Calgary Muslim community is working with the Calgary Police Service on fighting marginalization within the local community that can lead to radicalization.

However, the Calgary Police Service is trying to head off future radicalization with a new program that involves working with Imams and the Muslim community.

Cst. Kelly Mergen, of the Diversity Resource Team of the Calgary Police Service, says, “We have to finish a counter radicalization program together and then we need to use that trust, let the community know what we are doing and it’s about getting feedback from the community.”

The program is designed to work with the Muslim community and build trust, rather than interrogating and getting evidence on members in the Muslim community.

But, in order to create such a program, Cst. Mergen feels that “We need to know that the Imams are on board. We need to know that the counseling boards, immigration agencies, and schools are on board, making sure all those partnerships understand what we are trying to do.”

Zarif Alibhai Is a Calgary-based freelance writer-reporter.