TORONTO - A Federal Court judge has refused to allow an Egyptian man linked to the deadly 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania to teach at the Toronto Islamic school he founded.
The judge also prohibited Mahmoud Jaballah, believed to be a member of the Egyptian Al-Jihad terrorist group, from holding Arabic and Koranic classes in the Toronto home where he is under house arrest.
Immigration authorities are attempting to deport Mr. Jaballah because of his involvement in terrorism. He was released from detention last year under strict conditions but had asked the court to let him return to teaching children at the Um Al Qura School.
The school has 50 students and is approved by the Ontario Ministry of Education. The school’s Internet site says students are taught Arabic, English “Grammer” [sic], “Frinch” [sic], Math, “Sience” [sic], “Histories” [sic], “Geographies” [sic], Religion and Sports.
But Judge Carolyn Layden-Stevenson wrote in her ruling that Mr. Jaballah remained a threat to Canada’s national security and she was not prepared to change his conditions of release to allow him to teach.
“It is my view that stringent monitoring of Mr. Jaballah and his movements is essential to neutralize the threat that he poses to national security. I am not persuaded that the conditions should be altered to accommodate his request to teach because I find that his actions could not be effectively monitored,” she wrote.
Mr. Jaballah arrived in Canada in 1996 after working in Pakistan for a Saudi relief group linked to Osama
bin Laden. A Canadian Security Intelligence Service investigation determined he was active in Al-Jihad, the Egyptian wing of al-Qaeda.
The Federal Court upheld the government’s case against him in 2006, saying there was evidence he was a “communications link” in bombings in East Africa that killed more than 200 people. But the judge also said deporting him to Egypt would violate his rights because he might be tortured.
While she would not allow Mr. Jaballah to teach, Justice Layden-Stevenson did allow him to have five, five-hour outings per week, up from the three, four-hour outings he was previously allowed. And she approved an Internet connection in the home but forbade Mr. Jaballah from using it.
Meanwhile, in a separate ruling, the Federal Court also allowed another suspected Islamist terrorist under house arrest in Toronto, Mohamed Zeki Mahjoub, to have an Internet connection in his home as long as Mr. Mahjoub did not use it and the family consented to disclosure of the Web sites and e-mail addresses accessed from their computers.
The two are among six foreign nationals the government is attempting to deport using national security certificates.
The Supreme Court of Canada struck down parts of the security certificate law last Feb. 23, but gave Ottawa one year to fix the flaws. The Conservatives have introduced the necessary legislation but it has not yet been passed by Parliament.
sbell@nationalpost.com