A Muslim activist who has lunched with Hamas's leadership and defended its strategy of taking hostages has been barred entry to Canada, where he was due to speak at an event hosted by the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) – a group that hosted a joint event with Prime Minister Mark Carney just 11 months ago.
Anas Altikriti was scheduled as a keynote presenter at the MAC's annual convention, set to begin Saturday at Toronto's Enercare Centre. The MAC's official bio of Altikriti wrote that “his work spans public advocacy, political discourse, civil rights and even hostage negotiations.”
But after 11 hours of questioning by border authorities at Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, Altikriti was escorted onto a flight back to the U.K.
In a Facebook post, Altikriti wrote that the reason cited for his rejection was that he had not disclosed a 2023 incident in which he had been denied a visa to the United States. Altikriti called it a “pretext,” and wrote that Canadian authorities were “under pressure not to admit me” as “my views on Palestine were unacceptable to them.” He also called it an example of “cancel culture.”
Altikriti was one of several names on the convention's roster that attracted scrutiny from Jewish groups and anti-extremist organizations. A statement this week by B'nai Brith, for instance, said the conference involved “11 scheduled speakers or participants” with “documented links” to extremist organizations.
Michal Cotler-Wunsh, CEO at the International Legal Forum, called the gathering a “Muslim Brotherhood conference” in a speech last week in Ottawa.
A May 6 investigation by the publication Jewish Onliner highlighted 2023 comments by Altikriti in which he described the October 7 terrorist attacks as a “lie.” “Allegations of rape made by Israel are false. It's a lie. Just like every other allegation made by Israel turns out to be a lie, including the mass slaughter of Israeli citizens on the 7th of October. That too was a lie,” Altikriti wrote in a December 2023 social media post that was reprinted by Britain's The Telegraph.
That same profile in The Telegraph also cited a November 2023 video in which Altikriti endorsed the taking of hostages. “The taking of hostages is a very important part of any strategic sort of military action or act of resistance or the such because for every hostage you can then negotiate,” he told U.S. imam Tom Facchine.
Altikriti has also been photographed with Ismail Haniyeh, who was a senior member with Hamas at the time of the October 7 attacks. Altikriti met Haniyeh in 2012, when he was serving as prime minister of Gaza's Hamas government.
