Canadian Muslims denounced a convert's call for more lone-wolf attacks in the country Monday, AFP reported.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims condemned a video message from a Canadian jihadist fighter from the Islamic State (ISIS) group as "abhorrent and un-Islamic."
"The attempt to justify attacks against innocent people is deeply misguided and unsupported by Islamic principles," echoed Imam Sikander Hashmi, spokesman for the Canadian Council of Imams.
In the video, John Maguire, originally from Ottawa, warns Canada it faces retaliation for participating in the airstrikes against ISIS.
Calling himself Abu Anwar al-Canadi, Maguire urged Muslims to follow the example of a driver in a hit-and-run killing of a soldier near Montreal and of a gunman who killed an unarmed soldier in Ottawa.
Alternatively, he said, Canadian Muslims should travel to Syria to join ISIS.
The six-minute video was distributed on jihadist websites and Twitter, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militants' online communications.
Maguire reportedly left Canada to join ISIS in January 2013.
"This young man is definitely John Douglas... but not the John Douglas that we knew, loved and remember," a family member told public broadcaster CBC.
Canada's public safety minister, Steven Blaney, urged citizens to be vigilant "against this terrorist scourge."
A report recently released by the Canadian Ministry of Public Safetydetailed the troubling phenomenon of Canadians traveling to the Middle East to join in jihad - and later return to potentially conduct attacks.
"As of early 2014, the Government was aware of more than 130 individuals with Canadian connections who were abroad and who were suspected of terrorism-related activities," noted the report.
That threat was recently illustrated as two brothers from Calgary were identified as members of ISIS in Syria. The two are recent converts to Islam.