Burnaby mosque in spotlight after Ottawa attack

For several months in late 2011, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau frequented the Masjid al-Salaam mosque in Burnaby. Hundreds of people flow through the mosque every week without drawing attention, but Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau's comments and actions were so erratic that mosque officials had to speak with him, eventually banning him.

Nothing he said or did was criminal in nature and police were never notified. At a news conference on Friday, mosque officials fielded questions from international media about the fact that – for the second time – a man with extremist views had lurked in their place of worship.

Aasim Rashid, spokesman for religious affairs for the B.C. Muslim Association, said Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau had objected to the mosque being accepting of all faiths but such a viewpoint was not criminal in nature.

"He had some objections to the frequent visits by non-Muslims," Mr. Rashid said. "The mosque administration sat him down and said that this is how we will run the mosque, they will keep their doors open for all Muslims and non-Muslims to visit."

As well, Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau on several occasions broke into the mosque to sleep.

"The caretakers of the mosque identified him and they warned him not to sleep here," Mr. Rashid said. "This happened two or three times and on one occasion they actually caught him sleeping. At that time, he was told to leave the premises and not to sleep here again and not to come back again."

RCMP Assistant Commissioner Wayne Rideout, a criminal operations officer who is involved in national security and counterterrorism measures, said police have been working with the B.C. Muslim community since 2005 through an outreach program. He emphasized the need to respect the right to hold certain ideologies, with police stepping in only when thoughts turn to potentially criminal actions.

"What we need to look for are changes in behaviour that are sudden and out of the norm, in that they begin to act in a way that is different," he said. People of concern "tend to espouse the use of violence, or extreme activity in support of their beliefs. Perhaps they talk about specific individuals in a negative way, or they seem to have a fixation on particular agencies, institutions, or individuals or they've acquired skills, or weapons," he said

In contrast, police had warned the B.C. Muslim Association about Hasibullah Yusufzai, a Burnaby man charged in July with leaving Canada to join a terrorist group in Syria. Mr. Yusufzai had attended the same Burnaby mosque before leaving Canada in January. He remains at large.

"The [previous] mosque administration did confirm to us they had asked [Mr. Yusufzai] to leave … if he was going to have extremist views and try to share them with the congregation," Mr. Rashid said.

The B.C. Muslim Association is working with RCMP and government representatives on a new anti-propaganda plan aimed at educating those potentially susceptible to religious or ideological radicalization, as well as gang and organized criminal activity.

"We hope to pool together our ideas, our resources and energies to try to diminish the possible effects of propaganda coming from outside," Mr. Rashid said.