- Qayyum Jamal
Abdul Qayyum Jamal is one of 17 people arrested in June 2006 as part of the alleged terrorist plot in
Toronto, Canada . He was released on $100,000 bail in November 2006, and the charges of Intent to Cause Explosion were dropped. In May 2008, all charges against him were stayed due to lack of evidence.The oldest of the suspects, Jamal was 43-years old at the time of his arrest. He was initially accused of helping to coordinate bombing attacks against targets in southern
Ontario . An engineering technician receivingseverence pay from a manufacturing plant that had shut down, Jamal was working part-time as aschool bus -driver in the months prior to his arrest.Married to Canadian-born Islamic convert Cheryfa Macaulay, Jamal is the father of four sons under the age of 10. He was an active member of directors of the Ar-Rahman mosque in
Mississauga where he taughtTafsir and occasionally led the prayers. [ [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060606.TERRORYOUTH06/TPStory/ globeandmail.com ] ]Portrayed as a "spiritual advisor" to the group, one of the young unnamed youths had credited Jamal with "opening his eyes" about Canada's involvement in Afghanistan.
Relationship with Wajid Khan
When local
Member of Parliament Wajid Khan began attending the Ar-Rahman mosque in the summer of 2005 [ [http://www.mississauganews.com/mi/topstories/story/3529652p-4078810c.html] Dead link|date=March 2008] , Jamal introduced him to the congregation saying that he had come to bring messages from the government. Jamal countered that he would like to send the government a message of his own - according to Khan he claimed Canadian soldiers were mistreating and raping Muslim women - though Jamal, his family and others have argued that he merely referred to "abusing innocent people" and was not the type of person to refer to rape in front of a religious congregation.As referenced by Jamal's wife, pending further citation] Khan later referred to the altercation, saying he pushed Jamal aside because he was "speaking nonsense" and referred to him as an "idiot" with "piss-poor" command of the English language. [http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3691741a12,00.html] (This was Khan's description of the events in front of the news cameras and reporters, along with statements claiming he stormed out of the masjid in disgust and that others raised objection and roughed up Jamal for his words, but what really happened according to witnesses, is that Khan didn't actually storm out at all, but rather he took the floor and addressed the congregation as was his intent. Neither did anyone reprimand or "rough up" Jamal in response to his introduction, as Khan implied.)Khan, who was the chairman of the caucus committee on the
Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act at the time, had a history of conflict with Jamal's family.Fact|date=August 2007 Cheryfa criticised Khan for allegedly soliciting political support duringEid prayers, and wrote him an eMail onApril 11 2006 complaining about the 32nd Brigade training for Operation Talon for deployment to Afghanistan on the property of her sons' Islamic school inOakville in full combat gear, including rifles and gas masks. [ [http://www.jihadunspun.com/interview_jamal2.html Jihad Unspun - Conceived In A Seething Cauldron: The History Of Hizbullah ] ]Jamal is represented at trial by defence attorney
Anser Farooq .On November 5, 2007, Mr. Qayyum Jamal became the third adult to be granted bail. He had been in custody for over 17 months. The bomb conspiracy charge against him was also dropped.
Mr. Farooq stated that, "we were able to establish, during the preliminary inquiry, that there were a lot of problems with the Crown's case" and evidence elicited during the preliminary inquiry set the stage for Mr. Jamal's release. [http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071105/terror_suspect_freed_071105/20071105?hub=TopStories]
References
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