Evidence of meeting #36 for Foreign Affairs and International Development in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was persecution.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:05 a.m.
Conservative
Peter Goldring Conservative Edmonton East, AB
Thank you very much, Chair.
The Boko Haram are certainly engaged in this religious quest, but what is their endgame? What are they heading to? What are they really wanting to do? Is it strictly within the borders of the country, or are they looking to expand beyond the borders of the country? Are they under the same quest as the radical Muslim influences in Iraq? What is their endgame?
10:05 a.m.
Special Counsel, Jubilee Campaign
That's a very good question. The endgame is total global domination. Ironically, we thought this was just the stuff of movies, but we are seeing in real life that this is their objective. That's why Boko Haram has evolved into a global terrorist group with transnational activity. Boko Haram is operating in Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria. It has also operated in northern Mali. We see links with other groups. There was a conference call of jihadi groups that was intercepted by the U.S., and Boko Haram was sitting in on the call with al-Qaeda. They are presenting themselves as a regional jihadi front line or vanguard.
Let me point out that Boko Haram has been there for about 10 years. In the early years, Boko Haram was satisfied with being a sect that had its own campus, its own identity, and was just killing Christians in the neighbourhood. Now, Boko Haram has evolved into a group that wants to overthrow the government and establish a caliphate. They declared their caliphate a few months ago in one of the cities that they captured. They have stated that their goal is they want jihad. They want to take over the country of Nigeria, and ultimately, they want to expand their map across the African continent.
10:10 a.m.
Conservative
Peter Goldring Conservative Edmonton East, AB
Expanding on my earlier question, would this not lead to a way to approach this difficulty and problem? We see this with ISIS too. International countries are determined to intervene on that issue on a direct basis. Your comments would lead me to assume that they would want to be involved in Nigeria too. Would this not lead to the overall need, if you like, for a world organization of Muslim moderates that could perhaps be engaged here to provide some moderation to Muslim communities?
Muslim communities are being tainted by these extremists too as we speak. I would think it would be time for them to establish something worldwide to be able to put forward their more moderate opinions on what's happening, and possibly even to be engaged, along with the rest of the world, to help put down these extremists.
10:10 a.m.
Special Counsel, Jubilee Campaign
Absolutely, sir.
Let me point out that in our efforts to bring Saa and others here, we had Muslim girls, ladies from the south of Nigeria who contributed towards making their passports and so forth. We want to see a groundswell of Muslims. In the same way that we have foreign fighters going to join the terrorists, let's see foreign peacemakers coming together and going out to try, through moral suasion and ideological debates, or through theological debates, to persuade these people that this is not the right way. Unfortunately we don't see enough of that happening. Maybe we need to create a platform for those people who are moderates to engage with them.
This is why I call it an intra-faith dialogue, because you and I as westerners cannot engage with them on that platform. Under sharia law, in a law court, our evidence is worth less than half of that of a Muslim. They wouldn't take us seriously, but as Muslim to Muslim they could engage. Then I think there would be some hope of dousing the ideological and theological extremism.
10:10 a.m.
Conservative
Peter Goldring Conservative Edmonton East, AB
You mentioned a couple of other countries that seem to be engaged in this type of philosophy, along with ISIS and Nigeria. In what other countries could we expect to see a surge of this type of radical Muslim philosophy coming up in the same way as it did in Nigeria and ISIS? Could you name a couple of them?
10:10 a.m.
Special Counsel, Jubilee Campaign
Right now, in East Africa, we have al-Shabaab which has already overrun the country and is expanding into Kenya, with the mall killings in Kenya last year that were so appalling. In northern Mali, we have MUJAO which successfully captured the north for a long time before they were rolled back by French forces, supported by Nigerian forces, and so forth.
The sad thing is that, although the exact same thing is happening in Nigeria, I don't see the world coming together to help Nigeria roll back Boko Haram the way Nigeria helped the French roll back MUJAO.
In that region of the African continent, those are a few countries that are clearly under threat.
10:10 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
I want to say to our witnesses for being here today, thank you very much.
Saa, did you have any final comments for us before we finish the meeting today? We're going to wrap up here and we just want to know if you had any final thoughts for us.
10:10 a.m.
Jubilee Campaign
Yes. I want to thank you for this program that you have, all that happened to me and your trying to help. I want to thank you for all that you do. Thank you very much.
10:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Thank you once again for being here.
Emmanuel Ogebe, thank you very much for joining us via teleconference.
Our two witnesses here in Ottawa, Peter Jardine and Doug McKenzie, we want to thank you.
Our witnesses are free to go.
Marc, you had a quick comment before we dismiss the committee.
November 25th, 2014 / 10:15 a.m.
Liberal
Marc Garneau Liberal Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair.
This came up at the last minute, but there is a person called Vian Dakhil, who is a Yazidi member of Parliament in Iraq. She is appearing next week in Congress. She has been asked to appear there. She would be interested, if there's an interest, in coming up to Canada and speaking about her experience and about ISIL.
I know it's a last minute thing, but if the committee was willing, either next Tuesday or next Thursday, if it worked with her agenda, to have a chance to meet her.... I put that before the committee.
10:15 a.m.
NDP
Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON
I would support that. I had heard of her visit before. The Iraqi ambassador mentioned it.
10:15 a.m.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
I would think we would support that whether she's here by video conference or whatever. I think she would be an important source of information for us.
10:15 a.m.
Liberal
Marc Garneau Liberal Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC
I will check to see if that works for her schedule and I'll get back to you immediately.
10:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Absolutely do that and maybe she could be added on.
Since we have a little extra time, we have a couple of budgets. I was going to leave these for another day, but we have a half an hour.
10:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Okay, not for half an hour....
Very quickly, these are just two budgets on what we're working on right now. One is for the study we've undertaken and the other is for today. There's a budget for $22,500 and one for $2,650. I just want to see if the committee would be okay with that.
It's standard, what we look at doing. We need to have a vote on it to pass it. If you would just have a quick look at that....
As we're finishing handing them out, are there any questions? As I said, this is standard operating procedure. One is for what we're doing with regard to a response to ISIS. It's an ongoing study we just started. One is of course for today, for video conferencing. Are there any questions?
If there are no questions, then I'll pose the question.
(Motions agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
So carried.
Thank you very much.
10:15 a.m.
NDP
Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON
There's one other item, if I may, just to follow up on whether we've heard from ministers for estimates.
