This article originally appeared in the National Post.
By Casey Babb and Joe Adam George, May 6, 2025
In what was once considered an inconceivable scenario, a London-based law firm acting on behalf of Hamas submitted a legal challenge to the U.K. Home Office demanding its removal from the British government’s list of proscribed terrorist groups.
The case has a Canadian connection, too: Charlotte Kates, co-founder of the Vancouver-based terror group Samidoun, contributed an “expert report” as part of the legal challenge “against the criminalization of Palestinian resistance in Britain.”
Many in Canada’s top universities share a similarly worrying, warped school of thought: organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Taliban have been unfairly classified as terrorist entities by western colonial systems and laws that are riddled with racism and “Islamophobia” (a popular grift of Islamist groups in the West to silence and punish critics and to evade legitimate scrutiny).
Influential figures within faculty departments, student unions and diversity, equity and inclusion offices are not just excusing but actively promoting extremist ideologies, including radical Islam and support for terrorism.
Cloaked in the language of academic freedom, social justice and human rights, they are jointly funding studies and platforming individuals who condone terrorism as a legitimate act of resistance and undermining the critical work performed by Canada’s national security agencies with accusations of bigotry.
The Toronto Metropolitan University’s arts faculty is one such example. The faculty recently funded a research paper, which argues that the process of designating Islamist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and ISIS as terrorist organizations by Canada’s security apparatus is deeply flawed because of “systemic Islamophobia” and racism.
Titled “Racialized Knowledges: Understanding the Construction of the Muslim “Terrorist” in the Policy Process,” the paper discusses how “policymakers rely on white logic to depict state institutions as neutral, obscuring their inherent anti-Muslim orientation.” It also claims that Canadian security agencies “maintain the association of ‘terrorism’ with Muslims,” regardless of who commits the violent act. For context, roughly 70 per cent of all listed terrorist groups in Canada are explicitly of the Islamist variety.
In another case of terrorism whitewashing, the University of Toronto’s Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies hosted a seminar in February titled, “Silenced Voices: The Impact of Terrorism Designations on Palestinian Advocacy in Canada.” The event’s organizers argued that Canadian media coverage and political discourse unfairly portray pro-Palestine activists in a poor light, using “framing techniques that align with criminalizing narratives, often using labels such as ‘terrorism’ and ‘violence’ to delegitimize Palestinian voices.”
The keynote speaker was Basema Al-Alami, a PhD candidate at U of T’s law school. According to her university bio, Al-Alami’s research focuses on “the intersection of counterterrorism, entrapment law and anti-Muslim bias in Canada’s legal system.” Her PhD research alleges “systemic issues in national security practices, particularly the litigation and over-policing of Muslims in post-9/11 Canada.”
In another example from earlier this year, the University of Ottawa’s Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies invited Nada Elia, a Palestinian-American professor at Western Washington University, to give a talk on “Weaponizing Feminism in the Service of Genocide.” In an article titled “Weaponzing Rape,” Prof. Elia argued that, “Israel is weaponizing claims of sexual violence for propaganda purposes,” and that there is “no reliable evidence to document any of the alleged crimes.” According to the watchdog group Canary Mission, she has previously “defended terrorists and called for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel.”
It is clear that Islamists, empowered by the cover of progressive activism on campuses, are waging a calculated campaign to erode the core values of western democracy. Their campaign goes far beyond dissent or protest — it is ideological jihad aimed at infiltrating educational institutions, weakening our legal foundations, distorting our security interests and disrupting our cultural, social and political stability from within.
The fallout from normalizing violence on university campuses is already visible, but a deeper danger lies ahead: when universities allow extremist ideologies to take root, they risk shaping a generation of graduates who no longer see terrorism as a crime, but as a justifiable form of resistance. This radical shift in young minds carries grave consequences — not only for the Jewish community, but for the security, unity and the democratic fabric of Canada itself.
With the Israel-Hamas war reviving the spectre of jihadist terrorism and ramping up youth recruitment in Canada, universities should not be platforming voices and ideologies that undermine our security and unity, priorities that Prime Minister Mark Carney alluded to in his post-election victory speech. Governments must seek accountability from university bosses to protect the integrity of our education system and restore trust in our institutions.
The unconscionable attempt by young, indoctrinated barristers to get Hamas removed from the U.K. terror list is a consequence of the years-long infiltration of Islamist ideology into the British education system. With the Trump administration demanding that Ottawa do more on the continental-security file, Canada can ill-afford to end up in a similar situation.
Casey Babb is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Ottawa, a fellow with the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, an associate fellow with the Royal United Services Institute in London and an adviser with Secure Canada in Toronto.
Joe Adam George is a national security analyst with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and the Canada research lead on Islamist extremism with the Middle East Forum in the U.S.
