Canada bars UK activist who denied 7 October massacre

Canadian authorities have refused entry to a British Muslim activist who previously described the 7 October Hamas massacre as “a lie” and defended hostage-taking as part of “resistance”.

Anas Altikriti, a director of the Muslim Association of Britain, was detained and questioned for around 11 hours at Montreal’s main airport before being placed on a flight back to London, according to reports first published by The Telegraph.

Altikriti, who holds British and Iraqi citizenship, had travelled to Canada ahead of a convention organised by the Muslim Association of Canada in Toronto later this week.

The case has drawn attention in Britain because of Altikriti’s past comments about Hamas’s 7 October terror attacks, in which around 1,200 people were murdered and more than 250 people taken hostage.

In a video recorded in November 2023 with US-based imam Tom Facchine, Altikriti described the massacre as “a lie” and said: “The taking of hostages is a very important part of any strategic sort of military action or act of resistance because for every hostage you can then negotiate.”

He also posted comments on X, appearing to justify the attacks.

“What did we think was going to happen?” he wrote. “That Palestinians would stay silent whilst forever subjugated, victimised, abused, violated, murdered and tortured?!”

The Muslim Association of Canada condemned the decision to deny him entry, calling it a “serious overreach” allegedly driven by “bad-faith pressure from those seeking to suppress voices speaking out against Israel’s crimes and the genocide in Gaza.”

According to The Telegraph, the Muslim Association of Canada was founded by Muhammad Kathem Sawalha, who has previously been identified as a former Hamas figure.

The report also noted that the organisation was among groups involved in organising the controversial pro-Palestinian march in London on Armistice Day in November 2023, just weeks after the Hamas attacks.

The incident comes amid continuing concern over rising antisemitism in Canada following 7 October.

Earlier this year, a synagogue in Thornhill, Ontario was targeted in a shooting attack.

Speaking during a recent visit to the synagogue, Israel’s ambassador to Canada, Iddo Moed, said he had witnessed “a rising trend in antisemitism” since arriving in Canada in 2023, followed by a “dramatic spike” after the Hamas attacks.