Kassem Daher (), born in

Bekaa, Lebanon The Beqaa Valley (, ; Bekaa, Biqâ, Becaa) is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon and its most important farming region. Industry, especially the country's agricultural industry, also flourishes in Beqaa. The region broadly corresponds to th ...

, is a

Lebanese-Canadian Lebanese Canadians are Canadians of Lebanese origin. According to the 2016 census there were 219,555 Canadians who claimed Lebanese ancestry, showing an increase compared to the 2006 census, making them by far the largest group of people wi ...

accused of membership in a number of Islamic militant groups.

Life

At the age of 14, Daher left Lebanon and moved to Columbia - before settling in

Leduc, Alberta Leduc ( ) is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada. It is south of the provincial capital of Edmonton and is part of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region. History Leduc was established in 1891 by Robert Telford, a settler who had bought la ...

. In 1990 he purchased the local

movie theatre A movie theater (American English) or cinema (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as a movie house, cinema hall, picture house, picture theater, the movies, the pictures, or simply theater, is a business ...

, and four years later purchased the ''Capitol Theatre'' in nearby Ponoka.

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 ...

said that he frequently phoned a man he knew as "Mahmoud" who lived in

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, alleged by the

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 ...

(CSIS) to have been Daher, to ask about conditions in the province, and exchanging tapes, books and similar publications. Jaballah also visited him in Winnipeg, and phoned him, Jaballah once phoned

Hassan Farhat Hassan Farhat () (Born in Tal Afar, Iraq, also known as Abdul Jabbar,Hamilton, Dwight. "Terror Threat: International and Homegrown terrorists and their threat to Canada", 2007 Abu Ossama, and Abu Khalid) is an Iraqi Imam who founded Salaheddin M ...

, telling him that Daher would appreciate any religious audiocassettes that they could send him. In July 1997, Jaballah suggested Daher contact Mabruk; who subsequently tried to convince Daher to distribute more pamphlets around Alberta. Jaballah and Daher ended their relationship by the end of the year.

Summary of the Security Intelligence Report concerning Mahmoud Jaballah
February 22, 2008 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 religious scholar

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". He is alleged to have made a comment about publishing a book entitled "Terrorism Is a Duty and Force is an Obligation.".Bell, Stewart.

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.

br>Former Leduc theatre owner ran terror supply line
, November 23, 2005

Return to Lebanon

Daher returned to his Lebanese hometown in May 1998. On February 3, 2000, Daher and eight others were arrested in the

Bekaa Valley The Beqaa Valley (, ; Bekaa, Biqâ, Becaa) is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon and its most important farming region. Industry, especially the country's agricultural industry, also flourishes in Beqaa. The region broadly corresponds to th ...

, where he owns a

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...

, following a clash with government troops. Accused of being a member of Takfir W' Al Hijra and assembling and equipping the group, Daher was released after two years and put under

house arrest House arrest (also called home confinement, or nowadays electronic monitoring) is a legal measure where a person is required to remain at their residence under supervision, typically as an alternative to imprisonment. The person is confined b ...

. Daher is accused of ties to the Canadian Islamic Association, and using the name "Abu Zurr", to recruit American terrorist Jose Padilla to train in

Al-Qaeda training camps 300px, Terrorists who trained at camps in Afghanistan and fought in insurgencies around the world during the 1990s An Afghan jihadist camp, or an Afghan training camp, is a term used to describe a camp or facility used for militant training loca ...

. On November 23, 2005, Daher, Padilla and one other were indicted by American authorities of allegedly fundraising and supplying support for Asbat al-Ansar,Canadian indicted as terror cell master
Bell, Stewart.

,
Canadian authorities on lookout for terrorists
", July 26, 2006

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Daher, Kassem Living people Canadian people of Lebanese descent Canadian Islamists Lebanese Islamists Year of birth missing (living people)