Trudeau's critics accuse him of siding with Islamists in a way that endangers Canada and the West. Tom Quiggin, a former intelligence contractor for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a court-appointed expert on jihadist terrorism in both the federal and criminal courts of Canada, said that Trudeau "has a nine-year-long record of supporting the Islamist cause while refusing to engage with reformist Muslims." He added, "Trudeau's position on Islamists should be of concern to both Canadians and Americans... The price of Canada's submission to the Islamists may indeed be high."
Trudeau's overt sympathy with Islam and his participation in 2014 in a Muslim prayer service in Surrey, British Columbia, wearing traditional Islamic garb triggered unfounded rumors about his conversion to Islam when he recited the pledge of allegiance (shahada) to Allah and Mohammad as part of the prayer.