UK: Saudi terror-linked fund sponsors the BBC

The Islamic Development Bank was set up in the 1973 by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, a major special-interest group composed of 57 Muslim-majority countries (it is in fact the second-largest international organisation in the world after the UN), which, despite its stated aim of ‘promoting Islamic values’ seems to do little other than make repeated attempts to ban criticism of Islam via its placemen on the UN Human Rights Council. (My Note: perhaps that's their way of promoting Islamic values...).

The bank itself helps spread hardline Saudi Wahabbism, funding worldwide mosque-building and Da’wah, the proselytism of Islam. For a more detailed explanation of this work, see the testimony submitted in 2003 to a US Senate Committee here (this reveals evidence relevant to the United States, but the bank funds the promotion of hardline Islam worldwide).

Among many other activities, the bank controls two funds set up at an Arab summit in Cairo, in October 2000 – the Al-Quds Fund and the Al-Aqsa Fund. Between them worth hundreds of millions of dollars, these funds openly finance the ‘Palestinian Intifada’. It is also linked with the channeling of UN funds to Hamas.

Stated aims of the fund include the provision of assistance to the widows and families left behind by ‘martyrs’; and the furtherance of the ‘reststance’ against Israel.

Source (more information and commentary).

(Tip to Un:Dhimmi)

Related: The Intifada Fund and the BBC.

Cross-posted from T&P.

American-Born Muslim Fails To Find Work As An Imam

Early on, this Washington Post article printed this important fact - one not often mentioned these days by the mainstream media:

Although the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the coming of age of a generation of American-born Muslims have triggered a call for spiritual leaders rooted in U.S. culture, most American mosques are led by imams from overseas who aren't fluent in English.

Of course, the matter of real concern isn't that overseas imams don't speak English well. Rather, the real concern is that mosques in the United States, and indeed throughout the West, import Wahhabist imams.

Quoting again from the above-cited article about the plight of Adeel Zeb, volunteer chaplain at D.C.'s American University and one who has, thus far, been able to obtain a position as the imam of a mosque here in America:

Zeb's job hunt illustrates the challenges of transforming what it means to be an imam in the United States.

He was born in New Jersey and grew up outside Dallas as the ambitious eldest child of Pakistani immigrants who were expecting him, like the rest of the men in his family, to become a doctor or lawyer. And that was his direction, until he went to Mecca as a teen. Standing before the cube-shaped Kaaba, a building that Islamic tradition teaches was built by Abraham, Zeb says he felt the awe and power of history and the proximity to the divine.

He returned home transformed. He began worshipping at a mosque in Waco and giving sermons. After graduating from Baylor University with a management degree, he got a job overseeing a cardiology clinic, but he longed to spend more time studying Islam.

He received a bachelor's degree in Islamic studies after studying on weekends and became a spokesman for the local branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. He did Muslim outreach for two Texas members of Congress and helped navigate civil rights discussions with the departments of Justice and Homeland Security.

His two-page résumé is filled with other faith-related experience: youth mentor at mosques, organizer of Islamic charity fundraisers and banquets, working with AU's Muslim students.

Yet he has been stymied in his efforts to land a paid position at a mosque.

[...]

Zeb's future remains unsettled. Although he's pursuing interviews with mosques across the country, he's exploring alternatives, including opening a center to train Muslim chaplains for universities. He's open to politics. Or being a professor and spiritual motivational speaker.

For now, he says, those might be more viable options than becoming a full-time, home-grown imam.

In my view, we'd go a long way toward curbing "radical" Islam here in the West if immigration officials banned the importation of Wahhabist imams.

Doing so would be - ahem - Islamophobic. Can't have that! **snerk**

Macedonia Officials Say Saudis Pouring Hundreds of Millions Into Balkans, Seizing Mosques, Paying Men to Follow Wahhabi Doctrine

From Weasel Zippers:

But don't worry, the Saudis are totally our bestest friends evah!...

(London Times)- SAUDI ARABIA is pouring hundreds of millions of pounds into Islamist groups in the Balkans, some of which spread hatred of the West and recruit fighters for jihad in Afghanistan.

According to officials in Macedonia, Islamic fundamentalism threatens to destabilise the Balkans. Strict Wahhabi and Salafi factions funded by Saudi organisations are clashing with traditionally moderate local Muslim communities.

Fundamentalists have financed the construction of scores of mosques and community centres as well as handing some followers up to £225 a month. They are expected not only to grow beards but also to persuade their wives to wear the niqab, or face veil, a custom virtually unknown in the liberal Islamic tradition of the Balkans.

Government sources in traditionally secular Macedonia (official title the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), said they were monitoring up to 50 Al-Qaeda volunteers recruited to fight in Afghanistan.

Classified documents seen by The Sunday Times reveal that Macedonian officials are also investigating a number of Islamic charities, some in Saudi Arabia, which are active throughout the Balkans and are suspected of spreading extremism and laundering money for terrorist organisations.

“Hundreds of millions have been poured into Macedonia alone in the past decade and most of it comes from Saudi Arabia,” said a government source. “The Saudis’ main export seems to be ideology, not oil.”

Sulejman Rexhepi, leader of the Islamic community in Macedonia, said a number of mosques had been forcibly taken over by radical groups. Four in central Skopje are no longer under the control of the official Islamic authorities. New imams claim they have been “spontaneously” installed by the “people”.

Kosovo Emerging as Bastion of Radical Islam

Mark Alexander

Wahhabism, Financed By Saudi Arabia, Quickly Gains Ground in Bosnia

SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The Dayton Peace Accords called for the removal of foreign combatants from Bosnia after the Balkans war. But hundreds of mujahedeen fighters stayed, and today they are successfully spreading their fundamentalist Islamist views.

Thick iron bars block the entrance to Abu Hamza's store in Sarajevo's Islamic shopping center. Affixed to the bars is a handwritten note: "My Bosnian citizenship has been revoked. I have to defend myself, and for this reason my store is only open sporadically."

Abu Hamza, a bearded 42-year-old man originally from Syria, sits in his store among colorful veils and gold-embroidered tunics and speaks in a gentle voice about Bosnia's fate. Which, he says, will be either an evolution of true Islam, or a revolution. Fundamentalist Islam Finds Fertile Ground in Bosnia (more) By Renate Flottau

Mark Alexander