Source: metronews.ca

Imam Imtiaz Ahmed speaks to students at Carleton University about the Islam and youth radicalization Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2015.

When the imam of the Ahmadiyya mosque, Imtiaz Ahmed, announced last November he was embarking on a lecture series in Ottawa on preventing youth radicalization, the city had not yet been exposed to the problem he warned could potentially become a “crisis.”

Fast forward two months later and four suspected cases of young, terrorist sympathizers from the Ottawa area have dominated headlines and appear to have brought the threat home to the national capital’s doorstep.

Earlier this month, the RCMP arrested three Ottawa men in an anti-terror probe, whose charges include participating in the activity of a terrorist group and attempting to leave Canada to participate in terrorist activity abroad. Before Christmas, John Maguire of Kemptville, Ont. appeared in an ISIS propaganda video threatening more attacks on Canadians.

Still, Ahmed doesn’t think radicalization has reached crisis level. But he said it is an “alarming” threat that needs to be curbed.

“Everyone has to speak up against this and we, as Muslims, need to be more proactive by presenting a counter narrative,” he told students at Carleton University Wednesday evening during his second Stop The Crisis lecture.

“And also by telling the youth in particular how… read more at metronews.ca