Canadian Madrassa Says Its School Didn't Radicalize One of the San Bernardino Shooters

An Ontario madrasa is publicly rejecting that its organization promotes violence or extremism after Pakistani intelligence officials confirmed that one of the San Bernardino attackers studied at their Pakistani campus.

The Pakistani officials confirmed to the Associated Press that Tashfeen Malik, one of the attackers that opened fire at a Christmas Party in a San Bernardino government building and killed 14, studied in Multan, Pakistan, before leaving for America in 2014.

The Al-Huda International Seminary, where Malik studied, is a female-only religious school, or madrassa, with locations in Mississauga, Ontario, and offices in the United States.

While both the organization and Farhat Hashmi, its Pakistan-born founder who lives in Canada now, have proved controversial in the past, a statement from its Canadian wing stresses that it neither supports nor contributed to the bloody attack that struck California earlier in December.

Hashmi herself lives just outside of Toronto with her husband.

"Al Huda Institute Canada strongly condemns such acts of violence. We don't preach, believe in or accept violent extreme religious viewpoints of any nature," said Imran Haq, head of operations for the institute, in a statement posted to the center's website.

Malik took classes six days a week at the school for more than a year, but ultimately left before completing a degree, a spokesperson for the school told the AP.

The spokesperson said that, after asking around the school, "no one ever noticed any signs of radicalization." However, a student that attended university with Malik, where she was studying pharmacology, told Pakistani newspaper Dawn that she attended Al Huda after her university classes and that, during her time there, "gradually she became more serious and strict."

Malik and her husband, armed with assault rifles, burst into a holiday office party and opened fire. They were later gunned down in a shoot-out with police. A broadcast from the Islamic State has claimed the two as followers.

No links between the madrassa and extremist groups have been reported.

Related: Reporters Entered the Home of the San Bernardino Shooting Suspects, and Things Got Weird

Al Huda has been characterized by moderate groups of peddling an arch-conservative brand of Salafist Islam that is aimed at indoctrinating women, especially middle-class and wealthy women in parts of Pakistan and Canada.

At the same time, Hashmi's organization is also a widely-recognized school that seeks to educate women in Islam, and even bills itself periodically as "feminist."

Nevertheless, a 2006 report from Maclean's magazine cited a high-level Pakistani intelligence official who said that Hashmi was under surveillance by that government. That, said the source, led to Hashmi's work visa being denied by Canadian immigration officials.

A court overturned the denial of her visa, and ordered it to be reviewed.

A 2010 NPR report on Hashmi and Al-Huda highlighted the contradiction between the two characterizations of Hashmi and her school, as either empowering to women, or as an incubator for a very conservative sect of Sunni Islam that emulates the teachings of the Taliban and the Islamic State.

"After coming here, I realize that God is so soft," said one student who spoke with NPR. "I think it's a very peaceful religion."

Nademm Paracha, a columnist for English-language newspaper Dawn, rejected the rosier characterization.

"I don't care about if they call themselves soft Muslims or whatever. They are playing an equally destructive role [as the Taliban]," Paracha told the radio station.

A Washington-area newspaper, The Muslim Link, interviewed several of the school's students, all of whom disagreed with Paracha's characterization.

"I don't see how those allegations could fit," said one former student.

The statement from Al-Huda, released following the attacks in San Bernardino, underlines that the center publishes their sermons and lectures online.

One post from Hashmi's website, entitled "Tips on How to Be a Successful Wife," reads: "remember that your husband is the head of the family and as long as obedience to him does not entail any sin, it is your duty to obey him."

Another, entitled "Fear Allah With Regards to Your Wives," reads: "the recent murder of a sister at the hands of her own husband is surely a wake-up call for all us Muslims …This is a kind of behavior that cannot, should not, and will not be tolerated in the Muslim community.

One event, organized by the Canadian chapter of Al-Huda, focusing on "Liberalism & Feminism in Islam," was hosted by religious scholar Yasir Qadhi.

Qadhi himself was a target of the Islamic State, after the militant group called for his assassination in their Dabiq magazine.

Follow Justin Ling on Twitter: @justin_ling