{"id":67522,"date":"2020-09-21T15:54:06","date_gmt":"2020-09-21T19:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/?p=67522"},"modified":"2020-09-24T14:51:29","modified_gmt":"2020-09-24T18:51:29","slug":"man-charged-in-stabbing-death-of-mosque-caretaker-followed-hate-group-online-expert-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/local\/gta\/man-charged-in-stabbing-death-of-mosque-caretaker-followed-hate-group-online-expert-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Man charged in stabbing death of mosque caretaker followed hate group online, expert says"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Man
Daughter Bebe Zafis, second left, and family members react at her fathers casket during the funeral of Mohamed-Aslim Zafis in Toronto on Wednesday, September 16. Toronto police are now being urged to investigate Zafis’ death as a hate crime after an organization tracking online extremism found the accused referenced a U.K. hate group in social media posts. (Nathan Denette\/Canadian Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The man charged with stabbing a volunteer caretaker to death at a Toronto mosque\u00a0shared what appears to be content from a satanic neo-Nazi group in social media posts, according to an organization that tracks online extremism.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The revelation comes amid\u00a0calls for the killing to be investigated as a hate crime, something the Toronto Police Service is\u00a0considering at this time.<\/p>\n

Guilherme “William” Von Neutegem, 34, is\u00a0charged with first-degree murder in connection with the killing of Mohamed-Aslim Zafis.<\/p>\n

<\/section>\n

Zafis, 58, was sitting outside an Etobicoke mosque at the time the attack controlling the number of people who entered in order to comply with public health regulations. In the days after his\u00a0death,\u00a0Zafis\u00a0was mourned by his family and friends as a “kind, gentle soul” who would hand out food to the hungry and keep his fellow worshippers safe.<\/p>\n

Von Neutegem was arrested days after police released a surveillance image of him.<\/p>\n

\"Guilherme
Guilherme \u201cWilliam\u201d Von Neutegem, 34, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Zafis. (Guilherme Von Neutegem\/Facebook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now, more information is surfacing about his online activity.\u00a0Von Neutegem appears to follow a\u00a0hate group founded in the U.K., according to the Canadian Anti-Hate Network,\u00a0a non-profit organization that monitors, researches\u00a0and combats hate groups.<\/p>\n

CBC\u00a0News\u00a0knows the name of the hate group but is choosing not to use it to avoid giving it any additional exposure.<\/p>\n

Evan Balgord, the organization’s executive director, describes the group\u00a0Von Neutegem\u00a0is linked to as a satanic neo-Nazi death cult.<\/p>\n

“They’re all the worst things that you could possibly think of,” Balgord told CBC News.<\/p>\n

<\/section>\n

“They are explicitly anti-Semitic and they’re explicitly racist,” Balgord said. “They worship Hitler as a God figure.”<\/p>\n

Balgord’s organization isn’t the only one concerned about the group’s activity. \u00a0According to the U.K. anti-hate research organization\u00a0Hope Not Hate, the group’s beliefs involve “culling” civilization, with followers encouraged to engage in extreme violence, random attacks and sexual assault.<\/p>\n

Balgord says while he can’t be certain Von Neutegem is a member of the group,\u00a0his social media posts appear to show significant knowledge of the group.<\/p>\n

CBC News has confirmed Von Neutegem\u00a0follows at least one Facebook group devoted to the group, has a Nazi symbol on his Instagram account and has posted a chant linked to the hate cult on YouTube. A source with knowledge of the investigation\u00a0confirmed to CBC News that the accounts belong to\u00a0Von Neutegem.<\/p>\n

“Because of the length of his social media postings and the very specific knowledge he has about the movement, we can definitely say he’s deeply-versed and has been for a long time,” Balgord said.<\/p>\n

Von Neutegem’s social media posts also include the use of terms,\u00a0symbols and videos used by the group.<\/p>\n

<\/section>\n

After his arrest, Toronto police didn’t provide details about when\u00a0Von Neutegem\u00a0is set to appear in court. It’s unclear if he has a lawyer at this time. He is set to make another court appearance on\u00a0Sept.\u00a025.<\/p>\n

Police would not comment on Von Neutegem’s\u00a0social media posts. CBC News has also reached out the RCMP to see if the group is on its radar.<\/p>\n

Calls to investigate\u00a0death as a hate crime grow<\/h2>\n

A vigil for Zafis was held<\/u> at The International Muslims Organization mosque in Etobicoke on Friday,\u00a0where he\u00a0was killed just over one week ago.<\/p>\n

\"Mohamed
Mohamed Aslim-Zafis was stabbed last Saturday while he was sitting outside the front doors controlling access into the building in order to comply with public health orders. (Toronto Police Service)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There, several community and religious leaders from all backgrounds spoke about the accused’s social media posts and called on the police to investigate Zafis’ death as a potential hate crime.<\/p>\n

Amanpreet Grewal, with the World Sikh Organization of Canada, says hate crimes in general are not receiving enough attention.<\/p>\n

“We know that there is fear within our communities,” Grewal said.<\/p>\n

Police say while the investigation is still in its early stages, they are looking at the possibility the stabbing was a hate-motivated act.<\/p>\n

“We are continuing to look at that in our process of investigation and we’ll leave no stone unturned to investigate this and to follow up on it,” Toronto police Supt. Ron Taverner said at the vigil.<\/p>\n

Police have also said they\u00a0can’t exclude the possibility<\/u>\u00a0that Zafis’s death is linked to another\u00a0fatal stabbing<\/u>\u00a0five kilometres away. Rampreet (Peter) Singh was killer five days prior. However, in a news conference on Friday, Insp. Hank Indisgna said it’s too early to say whether the two homicides are related.<\/p>\n

CBC<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The man charged with stabbing a volunteer caretaker to death at a Toronto mosque\u00a0shared what appears to be content from a satanic neo-Nazi group in social media posts, according to an organization that tracks online extremism<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":67523,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3538],"tags":[11975,5208,6619],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Man-charged-in-stabbing-death-of-mosque-caretaker-followed-hate-group-online-expert-says-Milenio-Stadium-Toronto.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67522"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}