Controversial Shiite Mosque in Canada Holds Nasrallah Memorial

A prominent Shia mosque in the U.S.-Canada border city of Windsor, Ontario, held a memorial service to commemorate the anniversary of the death of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. In hosting the September 28, 2025, event, the Ahlul Bayt Mosque legitimized Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia Islamist group backed by Iran, a designated terrorist entity in Canada. The mosque also legitimized Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a designated terrorist group responsible for the deaths of 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents when it shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 in 2020 killing a total of 176 people.

This is the second year in a row that the controversial mosque and its affiliated Islamic school have held a memorial for Nasrallah. The first event took place on September 27, 2024, a few days after he was killed by an Israel air strike. Ahlul Bayt has hosted similar events in the past, glorifying Hamas leader Sinwar, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini and several Hezbollah “martyrs.”

This year’s event first came to light through Leviathan, a popular X account that monitors Islamist activity in Canada. In a video posted by the account, prominent Ahlul Bayt member Mohammed al-Latif is seen promoting the memorial, asserting that holding such an event “is not against the law in Canada.” He further claims that participants are “fully protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms” to express their “support, love, and respect” for the late Hezbollah leader. The original video can be seen on al-Latif’s Instagram account.

A member of the youth group Mowkib Shaheed El Jumaa, al-Latif appears to be an admirer of Islamist terrorists and dictators. His posts glorify Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Syria’s interim leader and former al-Qaeda terrorist Ahmad al-Sharaa, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In November 2024, he was arrested by the Windsor Police Service and charged with 29 offences in connection with a kidnapping and extortion investigation.

The Event

Multiple videos and photos from the event were shared on the X account of Canadian Defenders 4 Human Rights (CD4HR), operated by notorious pro-Palestinian activist Firas al-Najim, who appears in some of the footage. According to Honest Reporting Canada, al-Najim is “one of Canada’s most prominent peddlers of anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda.” A major organizer of pro-terror demonstrations across Canada, he once publicly claimed that “Hamas is not a terrorist organization.” In 2022, he tweeted a photograph with Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens taken at a Ahlul Bayt mosque event in 2018 while wearing a scarf bearing Khamenei’s image.

(Leviathan)

In one video, a speaker is seen praising Nasrallah as “our martyr,” declaring that the new generation of Canadian Muslims was no longer afraid to “say openly” that Nasrallah was their “leader, voice and hero.” The speaker claims that in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Muslims were “afraid to speak up” as “they feared persecution, surveillance, [and] repression from governments in Canada and the US.”

Another video from the ceremony shows three individuals, including al-Najim, mourning Nasrallah by rhythmically striking their chests – a Shia ritual signifying grief over a fallen martyr. In a separate clip, a woman wearing a red headband—symbolizing martyrdom in Shia tradition and used by groups like Hezbollah—and a yellow scarf bearing Nasrallah’s image, is reciting a poem declaring: “Though you are gone, we rise anew, each soul a soldier shaped by you.”

Notable Canadian Shiite cleric Aladin Abulhassan delivered remarks in Arabic. In an X post, CD4HR quoted him as avowing that “the school of Martyr Sayid Hassan (Nasrallah) lives on worldwide and victories are coming against the Zionist enemy and occupation.”

Threat to Social Cohesion and Youth Radicalization

With such messaging, the Ahlul Bayt mosque—which did not respond to queries sent via email and Instagram—seems intent on providing a justification for extremism to young Muslims in Canada. By exposing impressionable young people to glorified images of “martyrs” and militant leaders, these gatherings blur the line between faith-based identity and ideological militancy.

Law enforcement data suggest that this radicalization trend is accelerating. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) recently reported a 488 per cent surge in terrorism-related charges between April 2023 and March 2024, coinciding with a rise in ISIS-inspired youth radicalization. At the same time, antisemitic incidents have soared by more than 670 per cent nationwide, reflecting a broader cultural shift that extremist actors are eager to exploit.

Safeguarding Canada’s Future

Andria Spindel, executive director of Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation, told Focus on Western Islamism (FWI) that “The indoctrination of youth by radical individuals does not bode well for Canada’s future. Events like the Nasrallah memorial potentially cause youth to develop anti-social behaviours, extremist sympathies or even engage in acts of violence. Islamist ideologies can make kids feel isolated from mainstream society, falsely portraying them as victims or enemies of non-Muslims, and encouraging antipathy toward western liberal values. When young Muslims are encouraged to see terrorists as ‘heroes,’ it exacerbates the risk of emulation, posing a serious danger to society.”

Indeed, the fight against radicalization is not solely a matter of enforcement—it is also cultural. The glorification of Nasrallah and other violent figures reflects a deeper ideological struggle over identity, belonging, and values. Canada’s success as a pluralistic democracy depends on its ability to transmit liberal democratic values to the next generation and insulate youth from extremist narratives that romanticize violence or vilify entire communities.

The Ahlul Bayt Mosque’s repeated glorification of terrorists underscore an urgent reality: the threat of Islamist extremism to Canada is not confined to online spaces or foreign battlefields. It is taking root in local institutions, exploiting legal protections and societal tolerance to normalize hatred and division.

Canada must act decisively to confront this threat. Protecting freedom requires the courage to defend it from those who would abuse it.