Canadian Islamists Assail Workplace Neutrality in Government Offices

Federal records recently obtained by Canadian news outlet Blacklock’s Reporter revealed that advocates promoting Islamist agendas have embedded themselves in Canada’s federal bureaucracy, including within the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the country’s national police service responsible for counterterrorism and other national security-related threats.

The Muslim Federal Employees Network—an unincorporated internal advocacy group founded in 2021 by Leila El-Khatib—a strategic policy analyst within the RCMP’s federal policing branch, drives the activity. El-Khatib is also credited with organizing the RCMP’s first Eid celebration for employees in 2024. While presented publicly as a volunteer support network, internal communications suggest the group has engaged in coordinated political advocacy, particularly around Palestinian and Islamist causes.

The Network reportedly includes approximately 70 members across multiple federal departments. Its public profile is limited, but Access to Information records show that it actively circulated materials calling for greater institutional promotion of Palestinian political narratives within the public service.

In 2024, the Network circulated complaints about Jewish organizations testifying before parliamentary committees. One internal email objected to the pro-Israel “narrative” presented by B’nai Brith Canada at a House of Commons hearing and urged committees to receive “regular briefings” supporting Palestinians.

Other communications complained that Palestinians lacked the level of support afforded to Ukrainians following Russia’s invasion and alleged that public servants felt unsafe expressing Palestinian identity at work “due to fears of retaliation and potential harm.” One memo asserted that “Islamophobia looks like escorting an employee out of the workplace for making pro-Palestinian comments.” At another meeting, members were told racism included “failing to acknowledge Palestinians as an Indigenous (sic) people.”
Such claims go well beyond workplace accommodation and move squarely into political and ideological advocacy.

The Network also produced a Managers’ Guide to Supporting Muslim Employees that challenged established workplace norms. It discouraged handshakes in federal offices, since “physical contact between sexes unless married or closely related is forbidden in Islam,” advised managers that Islam “teaches there is only one god (Allah),” framed prayer rooms as mandatory, and recommended holding nonalcoholic social events for “religious inclusivity.”

The Network further sought taxpayer funding and urged managers to “include religious minorities in job postings.” It had previously also lobbied for amendments to the Employment Equity Act to designate Muslims as a protected group akin to Indigenous Canadians but a government task force rejected the request.

The Network’s activism has been reinforced by Amira Elghawaby, Canada’s controversial Special Representative on Combating Islamophobia. Elghawaby was previously employed by the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), an organization with alleged ideological links to the Muslim Brotherhood, according to the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), a major American think tank.

In her notes for a videoconference arranged by the Network, Elghawaby wrote, “Islamophobia is a clear and present danger to our social fabric.” Her notes further read that the failure to accommodate “religious practices such as prayer breaks, fasting during Ramadan or dress code requirements” during office hours was “Islamophobia in the workplace.”

Other disclosed records show Elghawaby pressured federal departments to install Muslim prayer rooms across government buildings. In one instance, her office complained when the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) did not promptly respond to her request. She also lobbied deputy ministers to take into account the concerns raised by the Network, even though only two percent of federal employees self-identify as Muslim.

A Strategic Plan document from Elghawaby’s office also proposed taxpayer funding for the Network, official acknowledgment of Islamic occasions, inclusion of religious minorities in job postings and legislative changes to employment equity rules.

Public servants, particularly in security agencies, are bound by strict neutrality requirements. However, recent events heighten concerns about the substantial power wielded by Islamist groups and individuals within the federal workforce.

In late 2025, NCCM pressured Canadian Security Intelligence Service Director Dan Rogers into issuing a formal apology for failing to reference “violent Islamophobia” in a speech. In a federally funded report on “Islamophobia” published in 2024, Elghawaby’s office redefined “jihad” as an inner spiritual “struggle” and dismissed concerns about Islamist violence as right-wing conspiracy theories.

In 2025, she also endorsed a separate report done by the Islamophobia Research Hub at York University which recommended consequences for MPs, Senators and media deemed unsympathetic to the Palestinian cause. Later that year, Elghawaby was found to have falsely denied secretly authorizing $80,000 in taxpayer funds for the report.

These developments echo longstanding warnings. In 2015, Marc Lebuis of the Canadian Islamist watchdog Point de Bascule testified before Parliament that individuals linked to the Muslim Brotherhood urged Canadian Muslims to pursue roles within law enforcement, intelligence, and the justice system to neutralize policies incompatible with sharia.

“Leading influential Islamist leaders have specifically targeted Canada,” Lebuis testified.

Last year, a French government report cautioned that the Muslim Brotherhood was infiltrating the country’s republican institutions through “entryism”—a tactic rooted in its “civilizational jihad” strategy that prioritizes institutional capture over violence.

The disclosures surrounding the Muslim Federal Employees Network suggest that this approach is gaining ground inside Canada’s federal apparatus as well.

Speaking to Focus on Western Islamism about the issue, Elaine Ellinger, Canadian researcher and author of A Civilizational Reckoning: Understanding the Threat, Reclaiming the Future (POI, 2025), said, “In a secular democracy, government employees—Muslim or otherwise—should not be compelled to follow sharia-derived behavioural rules, nor should public institutions be adapted to the ritual architecture of any religion. If every community in Canada demanded what this guide requires for Muslims, the federal workplace would collapse overnight.”

Already criticized as bloated, inefficient, and unaccountable, Canada’s federal bureaucracy shows troubling signs of ideological capture. Ideological pressure groups masquerading as employee support networks are eroding the boundary between private belief and public duty. Left unchecked, Islamist influence risks reshaping Canadian democratic institutions from within—to a point of no return.