Muslim Aid had collection license for terrorists

Three Muslims, two of whom previously underwent terror training in Waziristan, knocked on doors in Leicester to collect £13,000—most of which was intended to fund jihad overseas. This evidence has been presented at an ongoing trial at Woolwich Crown Court.

The “Birmingham” men had collection authorization from Muslim Aid, a charity that has previously contacted Money Jihad to deny the organization’s documented ties to the Hamas-funding network of charities known as the Union of Good.

Officials assert that the men were merely “posing” as Muslim Aid workers to “beguile,” “trick,” and “dupe” the public into making donations.  But the evidence shows that Muslim Aid had a license for their collection, although the men continued collecting after its expiration.  Reportedly, the men only turned in to Muslim Aid a portion of what they collected.

Excuse me, but who is really being duped?  Those who believed the men were working at Muslim Aid’s behest, or those who believe they weren’t?

From BBC News on Oct. 23:

Terror trial: ‘Public duped into funding bomb plotters’

The general public unwittingly donated thousands of pounds to a group of men planning to carry out suicide attacks in Britain, a court has heard.

Three Birmingham men posed as collectors from a genuine charity – Muslim Aid – and went door-to-door in the city and Leicester, it heard.

But the charity received a fraction of the money, Woolwich Crown Court heard.

Irfan Naseer, 31, Irfan Khalid, 27, and Ashik Ali, 27, deny engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts.

The court heard detectives found notes which suggested they had collected £12,100 but lost £9,149 of it after engaging in foreign currency trading.

Brian Altman QC, prosecuting, said the men wore Muslim Aid T-shirts and tabards to “beguile the public into believing this was legitimate charity collecting, when it wasn’t.

“That money was stolen and… was not intended by the defendants to be used for any other legitimate purpose other than terrorism.”

eBay accounts

On the opening day of the trial the jury was told two of the men had received terror training in Pakistan and the trio planned to set off a series of suicide bombs in an attack which prosecutors said would have dwarfed the 7 July 2005 bombings in London.

Mr Altman said the collections took place after Mr Naseer and Mr Khalid returned from training in the Taliban stronghold of Waziristan, in Pakistan, in July 2011.

Mr Altman said Muslim Aid had had a licence for collecting door-to-door on a day in August 2011 but Mr Ali, Mr Naseer and Mr Khalid illegally collected cash over a longer period without the charity’s knowledge.

Charity collection: The men allegedly tricked local people into handing over funds

Mr Altman said they gave £900 to a madrassa, or religious school, in Bordesley Green, Birmingham, and kept the rest to finance their terror plot.

The jury has already been told that 12 people were arrested in September 2011 and six men had pleaded guilty to preparing for acts of terrorism.

The court has heard that one of the men who had pleaded guilty, Rahin Ahmed, had taken charge of more than £13,000 which had been raised by the group when they posed as legitimate charity workers…

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