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.

A Site New To Me

Stumbled across Money Jihad today. Check it out.

At the site, among other information, I found this Islamic tax chart, something I've never seen comprehensively laid out before.

We here at IBA might want to use Money Jihad for reference.

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”.

Interview With Rosine Ghawji

Do you know her name? Maybe, maybe not. If not, please read this and this for background.

On this edition of The Gathering Storm Radio Show on Blog Talk Radio, WC and I interviewed this brave lady, who unknowingly married and had two children with a man who, through his family and acquaintances, was involved in international terrorism.

I thought I was prepared to hear what she had to say. I wasn't. I kept having to turn off my mic so as to prevent my gasps from going out over the air.

If you're the type that likes to put a face to a voice, watch the following 2007 videos, both of which cover some, but not all, of the same material that WC and I discussed with Rosine on The Gathering Storm:

Guess who didn't lose money when the banks crashed

YNet reports that leading terror organizations like al-Qaeda are among the very few investors who have not been hurt by the massive drop in stock values over the last several weeks. That's because they don't keep their money in banks anymore due to sanctions imposed by the West. But there's a silver lining in that cloud: While the terrorists aren't losing their money, they can't move it very efficiently either.

One principal reason the groups may avoid fallout now is because they've been forced to pull away from banks, relying instead on less-efficient ways to move money.

Those methods - including hand-carrying money and using informal money-transfer networks called hawalas - likely will shield extremists from the current banking system turmoil.

But the methods also are slower and less efficient ways to move money - and thus could hamper efforts to finance attacks, analysts say.

"It would be inconceivable that large amounts of (terror-linked) money would transit through the formal financial system, because of all the controls," said Ibrahim Warde, an expert on terrorist financing at The Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Terrorists are primarily funded by oil money (principally Saudi and Iranian) and by the drug trade in Afghanistan. Are they losing money because of the drop in oil prices? Maybe. But the price of oil is still higher than it was in January 2007. So while the boom in terror funding may be over, they're not losing money by any stretch.

Cross-posted to Israel Matzav.

The South Korean hostages

I have gone through the news about the release of the 20 South Korean hostages who had been kidnapped by Talibans in Afghanistan. It's said that the South Korean Government has paid around $20 million that -a Taliban speaker has announced- will be used for buying more weapons and to carry suicide attacks.

They have also expressed their satisfaction about the way the kidnapping has resulted and announced they will carry more of them in the future against citizens who are nationals of countries which have troops in the country.

There are also reports that say that the women were sexualy assaulted by the Talibans and that all hostages were beaten when they rejected to convert to Islam.

Original post.

More On H.R. 2265: FAQ's

Christine of The Center for Vigilant Freedom has written an important post, about something serious which is afoot in our Congress: H.R. 2265. The bill is being presented as a compassionate attempt to rescue Iraqi refugees. But the bill is much more than that!

Christine's article is brilliant. Make time to read it!

Olympics Mega-Mosque Linked To Recent UK Bomb Plots

Received via email from Councillor Alan Craig:

For Immediate Release

Olympics mega-mosque linked to London and Glasgow car bomb plots

Arrested suspects radicalised by mosque promoters Tablighi Jamaat

“Government must ban construction of mega-mosque” says Cllr Alan Craig

Newham councillor Alan Craig today called on the government to formally ban the construction of a massive mosque on a site less than a mile from the main 2012 Olympic stadium at Stratford, east London.

Reports that Tablighi Jamaat - the fundamentalist Islamic sect who propose to build the mosque as their international headquarters - are directly responsible for radicalising two of the London and Glasgow car bomb suspects has added to suspicions that the sect are not the peaceable group they claim to be.

“The dangerous truth about Tablighi Jamaat is coming out. We must watch the gap between what they say and what they do,” said Cllr Craig, leader of the Christian Peoples Alliance group on Newham Council, who lives with his young family a mile from the mosque site. ”It will be a horrendous security nightmare if they are allowed to build this large mosque so close to the Olympics.”

In the last few days friends and neighbours of Kafeel and Saheel Ahmed in Bangalore, India, have told how the brothers changed dramatically a few years ago when they joined Tablighi Jamaat. They were reportedly barred from the local mosque because they insisted on praying in the prescribed Tablighi manner. Kafeel is now in a critical condition in Glasgow Royal Infirmary with 92% burns following the failed attempt to blow up a flaming Jeep at Glasgow Airport last Saturday. Saheel remains under arrest in Paddington Green police station.

Furthermore it is also significant that a number of suspects arrested in connection with last August’s Atlantic airline terror plot too were followers of Tablighi Jammat. Friends and families of Assad Sarwar and Waheed Zuman have spoken publicly about how Tablighi Jamaat changed the two men and radicalised their religious commitment prior to their alleged involvement in the planned atrocity.

7/7 suicide bombers Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer are reckoned to have attended Tablighi Jamaat’s European headquarters mosque in Dewsbury, west Yorkshire, where Tanweer also attended Tabligh’s madrassa or Islamic school. And Richard “Shoe bomber” Reid worshipped at a Tablighi mosque.

“Tablighi Jamaat radicalises and dehumanises Muslim young men,” said Alan Craig. “They have a growing and ominous track record as further young men follow Tabligh teaching about Islam and then go on to plan horrendous atrocities.”

Cllr Craig also demonstrated the radicalising effect of Tablighi Jamaat by pointing to a Muslim publication that highlights the dramatic impact of Tablighi teaching on individuals and families. See Islamic Research Foundation International webpage:

“Tablighi Jamaat is large, powerful, ambitious, secretive and apparently well-funded,” said Alan Craig. “They have deliberately stayed below the radar screen for too long. They must be now fully investigated by the government. And they must be banned from building their mega-mosque.”

- Ends -

A mosque linked to radicalization? Surprise, surprise! NOT!

Don't do business with companies that do business with terrorist states

Judith Apter Klinghoffer is quite right that there needs to be pressure put upon companies that do business with terror sponsoring states. But most importantly, those with common sense should not be doing business with them at all. Or, put another way, don't buy from businesses that do deals with places like Iran, Dubai, and such. Here's a list of companies that are worth avoiding if you can.

U.S. Aid To Saudi

The House has the right idea. Will the Senate and the President fall into line? I doubt it. They haven't in the past.

From this article:

WASHINGTON, June 22 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Friday to prohibit any aid to Saudi Arabia as lawmakers accused the close ally of religious intolerance and bankrolling terrorist organizations.

The prohibition, reflecting persistent tensions with the kingdom after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, was attached to a foreign aid funding bill for next year that has not yet been debated by the Senate.

It also faces a veto threat from the White House because of an unrelated provision.

[...]

In the past three years, Congress has passed bills to stop the relatively small amount of U.S. aid to Saudi Arabia, only to see the Bush administration circumvent the prohibitions....

Read it all.

It's way past time to stop funding our own destruction.