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A prominent and respected member of Hamilton’s Muslim community has been suspended from a Federal committee involved in preventing domestic terrorism.
Hussein Hamdani, a Hamilton lawyer was a founding member of the cross-cultural round table on national security, and has served the committee for ten years.
The Harper government abruptly suspended Hamdani from that committee, following a Quebec news report, suggesting that he had radical muslim ties and sympathies.
The official statement from the Public Safety and Security Minister is vague.
In fact the Government will not say specifically what allegations are being investigated.
“These allegations are very concerning. This individual’s membership on the Cross Cultural Roundtable on National Security has been suspended immediately pending a review of the facts.”
“While questions surrounding this individual’s links to radical ideology have circulated for some time, it was hoped that he could be a positive influence to promote Canadian values. It is now becoming clear this may not have been the case.”
Hamdani has won praise from the Federal government on more than one occasion.
Last September Hamdani notified Canadian authorities in a failed bid, to stop a young Hamilton man, Mohamud Mohamud, from joining ISIS.
And in April 2013 Hamdani and other Hamilton Muslim leaders were credited by the RCMP, as being instrumental in exposing the VIA rail bombing plot.
The suspension follows a report from Quebec news network TVA, picked up and repeated by an anti-muslim website, also in Quebec.
The report cites statements made by Hamdani 20 years ago, as a university student, and suggests that Hamdani may have been involved in funneling money to Hamas between 2005 and 2009, through two organizations he worked for.
None of the information is new. The government has been aware of the allegations for several years, and has either considered it insignificant, or chosen to allow Hamdani to continue his work on the security committee regardless.
The lack of detail from the government on what exactly prompted the suspension has several community leaders here in Hamilton, wondering whether the motivation behind the suspension is less about security, and more about conservative politics.
In addition, we received a statement from former McMaster professor Gary Warner, an Order of Canada Member, and a long time acquaintance of Hamdani. In it Warner says, “I have known Hussein for many years and have not heard or seen anything in the reports that would justify his exclusion from the national security roundtable. On the contrary I see him as someone who has worked to deflect youth from contagion by extremists.”
