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CSIS quietly flags Canadian online anti-Islam threat in Public Safety briefing

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OTTAWA (NEWS1130) – Canada’s spy agency is eyeing the threat of a budding anti-Islam movement online.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service advised the office of Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney of its concerns during a secret September briefing.

Notes obtained through the Access to Information Act show CSIS flagged well-known warnings about the persistent menace posed by terrorist groups al-Qaida, Hezbollah and the more violent and radical Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.

But under the heading Domestic Extremism, the spy service also underscored what might be the flip side of that coin _ the recent development of an online Canadian anti-Islam movement, similar to ones in Europe.

CSIS characterized it as an ongoing risk, particularly because the movement’s supporters typically advocate violence.

The Sept. 18 briefing for Blaney’s office came a little more than a month before soldiers were killed in Canadian attacks just two days apart, murders committed by young men whom authorities say were inspired by Islamic extremism.

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