Abu Huzaifa al-Kanadi

Shehroze Chaudhry (born 1994/1995[1]) is a Canadian who gained international attention under the pseudonym Abu Huzaifa al-Kanadi ("Abu Huzaifa the Canadian") as the subject of Caliphate, a podcast hosted by Rukmini Callimachi of The New York Times. He had claimed that in 2014, he emptied his bank account, traveled to Syria, and joined the terrorist group Islamic State (IS), where he remained until 2016. In the wake of the podcast's release, Conservative MPs called on the government to find and arrest al-Kanadi amid rumours that he had returned to Canada.

Chaudhry's claims and the podcast were called into question in September 2020, when he was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and charged under Canada's terrorism hoax laws.[2] Later that year, The New York Times retracted key parts of Caliphate which relied on his story, and returned the 2018 Peabody Award which the podcast had won. Prior to his arrest, his name was not known to the public, as he had only agreed to speak to The New York Times and CBC News on condition of anonymity.[3]

In October 2021, in exchange for an admission in court that his claims about joining IS were false and agreeing to a $10,000 peace bond, the Canadian government dropped the terrorism hoax charges against Chaudhry.[1]

  1. ^ a b Cecco, Leyland (11 October 2021). "Canada drops charges against man who claimed to be IS executioner". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2021-10-11. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference CBC was invoked but never defined (see the help page).