Canada police will not investigate fake allegations against Muslim charity

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has refused to investigate false documents alleging a Muslim charity was financing terrorism although some of the false paperwork included phony RCMP search warrants, the Canadian Press reported Thursday.

The RCMP told the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) it should take concerns to other agencies, including local police and the anti-fraud center.

The refusal follows a Dec. 15 media story on the fake documents. They purported to show the RCMP was paying whistle-blowers within the charity to report on terror financing.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was "extremely concerned by these reports of anti-Islamic forged documents" after last week's report. Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told reporters at the time that the RCMP would investigate.

The MAC said Thursday that the RCMP should be directed to conduct the investigation.

The RCMP response "does not meet community expectations and falls short of the level of thoroughness required in the circumstances," President-in-Office of Strategy Shara Sharafeldin said in a statement.

"The Muslim Association of Canada ... calls on the government to determine whether any of the documents or their contents are genuine, which can only be done after a thorough, transparent and independent investigation," he said.

The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group supported MAC's call for an investigation.

"The Public Security Minister promised a transparent investigation last week," said Tim McSorley, the monitoring group's national coordinator. "The RCMP statement is anything but that. At the heart of this issue are concerns about systemic racism and Islamophobia and they must be taken seriously."