Man jailed for foiled bomb plot

A CANADIAN man was sentenced today to 14 years in prison for his role in a foiled plot to bomb the Toronto Stock Exchange, a military base and Canada's spy agency headquarters.

Saad Khalid is the second of the so-called "Toronto 18" to be sentenced for the planned attacks, which were to have been carried out by stuffing rented vans with explosives.

The 18 suspects were arrested during a police sting operation in 2006.

The scheme aimed to pressure Canada to withdraw from Afghanistan.

Khalid will serve only seven years in prison, as under Canadian rules he will receive double credit for time spent in jail awaiting trial.

In September 2008, one of Khalid's co-accused, a minor, was convicted of "terrorist activity". He was sentenced to two and a half years in jail but was immediately released as he had spent three years in custody awaiting trial.

Nine other alleged accomplices remain in prison awaiting trial, while seven others were released after charges were dropped.

Khalid was among 14 adults and four minors charged after allegedly trying to buy three tonnes of the bomb-making ingredient ammonium nitrate from undercover police officers. The officers had replaced the ammonium nitrate with an inert substance.

Trials for the remaining adult defendants are expected to begin next year.

Source: The Australian

GTA's secret world of polygamy

Safa Rigby holds her youngest of five children in their home, May 21, 2008. Rigby had
it all. Four great kids. A faithful husband. Then she found out about his other wives.

As Toronto mother describes her ordeal, imam admits he has 'blessed' over 30 unions

By Noor Javed

There were no pleasantries, there was no small talk. Safa Rigby had expected to hear her husband's voice when the phone rang one morning. Instead, the caller didn't even bother to say hello.

"You think you know your husband. You don't know him at all," said the man, a friend of her husband's. "His car is parked outside my house right now. He is with my ex-wife. They just got married last week," the man said.

It took a minute for the news to sink in. Then she called her husband of 14 years, demanding to know if what she had just been told was true – that while she spent a year in Egypt raising their four children in a more Islamic environment, he had used it as an opportunity to marry not just one, but two other women in Toronto. Read more ...

Source: The Star

Harems pay off for Muslims

By Tom Godfrey

Hundreds of GTA Muslim men in polygamous marriages -- some with a harem of wives -- are receiving welfare and social benefits for each of their spouses, thanks to the city and province, Muslim leaders say.

Mumtaz Ali, president of the Canadian Society of Muslims, said wives in polygamous marriages are recognized as spouses under the Ontario Family Law Act, providing they were legally married under Muslim laws abroad.

"Polygamy is a regular part of life for many Muslims," Ali said yesterday. "Ontario recognizes religious marriages for Muslims and others."

He estimates "several hundred" GTA husbands in polygamous marriages are receiving benefits. Under Islamic law, a Muslim man is permitted to have up to four spouses.

However, city and provincial officials said legally a welfare applicant can claim only one spouse. Other adults living in the same household can apply for welfare independently. Read more ...

Source: Toronto Sun
H/T: Dhimmi Watch