Hassan Farhat () (Born in

Tal Afar Tal Afar (, ; ) is a city in the Nineveh Governorate of northwestern Iraq, located west of Mosul, east of SinjarHamilton, Dwight. "Terror Threat: International and Homegrown terrorists and their threat to Canada", 2007 Abu Ossama, and Abu Khalid) is an Iraqi

Imam Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, ...

who founded Salaheddin Mosque in the

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

district of

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Ontario, Canada. However, he was made

persona non grata In diplomacy, a ' (PNG) is a foreign diplomat that is asked by the host country to be recalled to their home country. If the person is not recalled as requested, the host state may refuse to recognize the person concerned as a member of the diplo ...

by the worship centre's administration, and was allowed to return only for worship. Shephard, Michelle and Tonda MacCharles.

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...

, "Mosque founder tied to terror group", March 9, 2005 After returning to Iraq in 2001, he was accused of being a "top Ansar commander" by the

Patriotic Union of Kurdistan The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK; ) is a political party active in Kurdistan Region and the Disputed territories of Northern Iraq, disputed territories in Iraq. The PUK describes its goals as self-determination, human rights, democracy a ...

.Contenta, Sandro.

, "Toronto men in terror riddle", March 14, 2003 Other sources have accused him of belonging to

Egyptian Islamic Jihad The Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ; ), formerly called simply Islamic Jihad () and the Liberation Army for Holy Sites, originally referred to as al-Jihad, and then the Jihad Group, or the Jihad Organization, was an Egyptian Islamist group active ...

Life in Canada

After becoming a

landed immigrant The permanent resident card () also known colloquially as the PR card or the Maple Leaf card, is an identification document and a travel document that shows that a person has permanent residency in Canada. It is one of the methods by which Can ...

in Canada, Farhat lived on

Eglinton East Eglinton East, historically known as Knob Hill, is a residential and commercial neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is bounded by Stansbury Crescent, Citadel Drive, and West Highland Creek to the north, Midland Avenue to the west, the ...

,Cribb, Robert.

, "Four terrorism suspects linked to local mosque", March 15, 2003 but faced constant difficulty trying to obtain full citizenship, since

Canadian Security Intelligence Service The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS, ; , ''SCRS'') is a Intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service and security agency of the Government of Canada, federal government of Canada. It is responsible for gathering, processing, a ...

was wary of his connections to

. In 1996, Farhat met

Mahmoud Jaballah Mahmoud Es-Sayyid JaballahAl-AhramMilitant sought from Canada, May 1999Lemieux, Justice. "Hassan Almrei and the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and the Minister of Public Safety. ""Reasons for Judgment and Judgment", October 5, 2007 () is an ...

(an

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

ian who has been detained in Canada due to his association with members of al-Jihad but denies any wrongdoingMet top al-Qaeda figure just for tea, Egyptian says
''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'', May 26, 2006) at the Medina Mosque in Toronto, and helped him find a local apartment and learn English. CTV
Jaballah denies links to terrorist groups
July 11, 2006 Farhat introduced Jaballah to

Ali Hussein Ali ibn Abi Talib (; ) was the fourth Rashidun caliph who ruled from until Assassination of Ali, his assassination in 661, as well as the first imamate in Shia doctrine, Shia Imam. He was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muha ...

,Hanes, Allison.

CanWest Canwest Global Communications Corporation, which operated under the corporate name Canwest, was a major Canadian media conglomerate based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with its head offices at Canwest Place (now called 201 Portage). It held radio, ...

Jaballah claims purely innocent dealings with other terror suspects
, July 12, 2006 and later moved to

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

and then back to Toronto. The ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper and the flagship publication of the American-owned Postmedia Network. It is published Mondays through Saturdays, with Monday released as a digital e-edition only.

'' describes him as one of the founders of the

Salaheddin Islamic Centre The Salaheddin Islamic Centre is a mosque located in the Scarborough Junction neighbourhood of the Scarborough district of the city of Toronto, Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. L ...

in Toronto. It was at Farhat's apartment in Montreal, following the birth of his child, that Jaballah and Mustafa Krer had their only Montreal meeting. Jaballah also visited him in Winnipeg, and phoned him 41 times,MCI et al. v. Mahmoud Jaballah, DES-04-01 Transcript of Proceedings, July 11, 2006, pp. 884-907, July 13, 2006, pp. 1018-1022. once telling him that Kassem Daher would appreciate any religious audiocassettes that Farhat and Jaballah could send him. Farhat and Daher also spoke to each other, with Farhat once being recorded on a

wiretap Wiretapping, also known as wire tapping or telephone tapping, is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connecti ...

ped call saying he admired the terrorist

Omar Abdel Rahman Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman (), (ʾUmar ʾAbd ar-Raḥmān; 3 May 1938 – 18 February 2017), commonly known in the United States as "The Blind Sheikh", was a blind Egyptian Islamist militant who served a life sentence at the Federal Medical Cent ...

so much that ""he puts the whole world on one scale and ‘the blind one’ on the other, because he was so precious". On February 14, 1997, Mustafa Krer spoke to a companion and referred to Farhat as a man with funds "for the cause".

Return to Iraq

Upset that he was unable to receive

Canadian citizenship Canadian nationality law details the conditions by which a person is a national of Canada. The primary law governing these regulations is the Citizenship Act, which came into force on February 15, 1977 and is applicable to all provinces and ...

, the ethnic Turkomen returned to Iraq in October 2001. When Saeed Rasoul, another member of Salaheddin Mosque, returned to the following year there were allegations that Farhat had convinced him to come join Ansar al-Islam. Osman Ali, an 18-year-old member of Ansar al-Islam detained in prison in Sulaymaniya, spoke to reporter Sandro Contenta from the ''

'' in March 2003. He told her that his commander was Farhat, and that he told his group that he left Canada because the police accused him of having ties to

al Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

. It was later alleged that he commanded ''Al-Aqsa Battalion'', a group of 80 militants and six

suicide bomber A suicide attack (also known by a wide variety of other names, see below) is a deliberate attack in which the perpetrators knowingly sacrifice their own lives as part of the attack. These attacks are a form of murder–suicide that is ofte ...

Summary of the Security Intelligence Report concerning Mahmoud Jaballah
February 22, 2008 or alternatively that he led the ''Yahia Ayash Battalion'' of the same strength. He was captured in 2003 by the

.MacLeon, Ian.

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as the Bytown ''Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the ''Ci ...

,
The warning lights were all blinking red
", February 23, 2008 On March 7, 2005, he and Saeed Rasoul were named by CSIS Director Jim Judd in remarks to the

Senate of Canada The Senate of Canada () is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons, they compose the Bicameralism, bicameral le ...

, that Farhat "is believed to be a key commander and ideologue with" Ansar al-Islam and that Saeed was "believed to be a member".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Farfat, Hassan Canadian Muslims Iraqi emigrants to Canada Living people Year of birth missing (living people)