Anas Altikriti, former president of the Muslim Association of Britain. Mr. Altikriti said he was questioned by immigration officers for 11 hours after arriving in Toronto earlier this week, and decided to return to London rather than face the prospect of being “forcibly removed.”Sean Dempsey/Reuters
A prominent figure in Britain’s Muslim community who posted controversial remarks on social media after the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Israel said he was effectively refused entry to Canada to speak at a Toronto convention this weekend.
Anas Altikriti, former president of the Muslim Association of Britain, was due to speak at the Muslim Association of Canada’s three-day annual convention.
In a Facebook post, he said he was questioned by immigration officers for 11 hours after arriving in Toronto earlier this week, and decided to return to London rather than face the prospect of being “forcibly removed.”
Luke Reimer, a spokesperson for the Canada Border Services Agency, said it does not discuss individual cases for privacy reasons. He said everyone entering Canada from abroad must be examined.
“If the port of entry examination reveals that a foreign national is inadmissible, they may be allowed to leave Canada voluntarily or be reported as inadmissible and face removal proceedings,” he said in a Thursday statement.
“There are a number of reasons why an individual could be inadmissible to Canada. Inadmissibility concerns may be identified before a person travels to Canada, at the time that they seek entry to Canada, or after they are already inside Canada."
The Muslim Association of Canada, or MAC, condemned CBSA’s handling of the situation and said Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree should explain it.
“Dr. Altikriti is an internationally recognized Muslim leader whose decades of work have left a profound mark on British civil society. He was coming to speak to Canadian Muslims about their responsibility in building and contributing to this country,” the group said in a statement Thursday.
“Instead, according to Dr. Altikriti, he spent eleven hours being questioned on the basis of Islamophobic and fringe material before being effectively turned away. This was not a routine immigration decision. It is unacceptable that a Government of Canada agency would allow itself to be weaponized to silence and intimidate those who speak for justice. Minister Anandasangaree must explain why the CBSA is targeting Muslim speakers.”
The minister’s office declined to comment.
The Muslim Association of Britain said “this appears to be a serious overreach by the Canadian government,” adding that it seemed to be an attempt to suppress critics of Israel.
“It raises grave concerns about freedom of speech and the targeting of those advocating for Palestinian rights,” it said in a statement.
Mr. Altikriti is the chief executive and founder of the Cordoba Foundation think tank, which focuses on dialogue between the Muslim world and the West. He has drawn criticism in the past for his public comments about the Israel-Hamas war.
In a post on X on the day of the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks, he said: “What did we think was going to happen? That Palestinians would stay silent whilst forever subjugated, victimised, abused, violated, murdered and tortured?!”
In another social-media post, Mr. Altikriti called the deaths of Israeli citizens “a lie,” and disputed claims that Hamas fighters had engaged in sexual violence – allegations supported by a report this week by an Israeli non-profit.
Mr. Altikriti wrote on Facebook that the immigration episode in Toronto this week “has left a mark on my impression of a country I had genuinely come to admire, particularly in light of its Prime Minister’s principled stance toward Trump, and his memorable, historic even, speech in Davos.”
He described how on the morning of May 11, he flew from London to Toronto, and had planned to spend three days in Montreal before heading to the convention. Mr. Altikriti wrote that after disembarking the flight at 10:30 a.m., he was ushered aside and questioned by border officials. He said it became clear to him “within the first three hours that they had no intention of allowing me into Canada.”
He said Canadian immigration officers were not “overtly disrespectful,” but for hours asked him repeatedly “have you ever been associated with narcotics, terrorist, or criminal groups?” – a line of questioning he described in his post as “absurd and insulting.”
Mr. Altikriti said they alleged he had failed to declare on his application that he had been denied a U.S. visa in 2023. He “unequivocally” disputed that he would have failed to declare it, adding that he told the immigration officer about it, and produced a November, 2023, message from the U.S. State Department denying his application.
He said he was offered the option to request a review by another officer. But rather than facing the possibility of being forcibly removed, he signed a declaration withdrawing his application to come to Canada and boarded a flight back to London.