Obama’s scary settlement strategy

Once again, the Obama administration has caved into a settlement with a perfidious Islamic entity in a probable terror financing case.

The first time was when the Department of Justice settled with Islamic Investment Company of the Gulf (IICG).

This time it’s a settlement with KindHearts—the successor organization to the Holy Land Foundation, which was convicted on multiple counts for funding terrorism.

The Bush administration had a very different strategy involving investigations, raids, sanctions, and legal proceedings against Islamic charities and leaders that funded jihad.

The valuable GMBDR website has described the extensive links between KindHearts, the Global Relief Foundation (another dreadful Islamic charity), the Holy Land Foundation, and Hamas:

•  “The founder and CEO of KindHearts is an individual identified as Khaled Smaili who… was a former official of the Global Relief Foundation, designated by the U.S. government a terrorist organization for its support of both Hamas and Al Qaida…”
• “The KindHearts fundraising coordinator was identified as Mohammed El-Mezain convicted in the HLF trial providing material support to Hamas.”
• KindHearts presented the Bridgeview Mosque Foundation with its “Mosque of the Year” award… The Chicago Tribune has documented extensive connections of the Bridgeview mosque to support of Hamas terrorism.”

Despite their deeply disturbing ties, the leaders of KindHearts are free to start a new charity if they wish according to the terms of the settlement.

Hamas should be pleased to hear that their financial spigot from America could be open again soon, especially since its Iranian funding is on the decline.

Although he’s broken several campaign promises and flip-flopped on policy issues, Pres. Obama appears to be sticking to his word about making it easier for Muslims to fulfill their zakat obligations.

Leipzig court confirms IHH funded Hamas

A federal court has upheld Germany’s ban on the Turkey’s IHH, a major international Islamic charity, on the grounds that it funds Hamas.  It’s just further evidence that IHH complies with Islamic law by taking a portion of the zakat it receives from its donors and funnels it into jihad.

From the Jerusalem Post, h/t Tundra Tabloids:

German court affirms Turkish IHH ban because of Hamas ties

Leipzig’s Federal Administrative Court finds that Frankfurt-based Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief donated money to terror group

BERLIN – A federal court in Germany upheld the Interior Ministry’s ban on the Frankfurt-based Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH) because the Turkish NGO contributed funds to Hamas.

Hamas is recognized by the European Union, Israel and the United States as a “terrorist organization” and Leipzig’s Federal Administrative Court found that the IHH donated money to the group.

The NGO challenged the decision of Germany’s former interior minister Thomas de Maizieres, who outlawed the IHH in July 2010. He said at the time that the IHH “fights against Israel’s right to exist.” Maizieres added that “organizations that operate from German soil, directly or indirectly, with the aim of fighting Israel’s right to exist, have forfeited their right to freedom of association.”

The IHH helped sponsor the 2010 flotilla, a convey that sought to break Israel’s naval blockade on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. The Turkish vessel Mavi Marmara was intercepted by Israeli naval commandos, which resulted in the deaths of eight Turkish and one Turkish-American activists, and injuries to Israeli sailors.

According to the Federal Administrative Court ruling, “the IHH sent a significant amount of collected money over a long period of time to the Islamic Society and the Salam Society for Relief and Development. These social organizations, which are active in the Gaza Strip, are, according to the Federal Interior Ministry, part of the overall structure of Hamas.”  The court concluded that Hamas engages in “terroristic actions and violence” against both Israelis and Palestinians.

Reinhard Marx, the attorney representing IHH, told the daily Tagesspiegel on Thursday that the “decision sends a catastrophic decision signal to the Muslim community” because it denounces charity as support for terrorism. Marx, a Frankfurt- based attorney who specializes in international law affecting foreigners, claimed that the IHH has provided support for 3,200 Palestinian orphans in 2009 since Israel’s Cast Lead offensive in Gaza sought to stop Hamas rocket attacks.

The German court viewed IHH’s “social engagement” as a way to enable Hamas to recruit activists, who would function as terrorists, and strengthen its organizational and political legitimacy in Gaza.

While the ruling focused on IHH’s ties to Hamas, IHH has also begun working with al-Shabaab in East Africa, and IHH claims to have spread its operations throughout 95 countries.  The court decision should serve as a wake-up call to civilized nations that IHH is not an organization to be partnered with.

Islamic charities in the U.S. and Europe should immediately cease any cooperation or joint projects that they may have ongoing with IHH.  The Illinois-based Zakat Foundation has reportedly passed funds through another foundation to IHH in the past.  If the Zakat Foundation or any other Western charity continues working with IHH despite the evidence presented in the German case, that means they are knowingly working with an entity that funds Hamas—-a terrorist group dedicated to the destruction of Israel.

Halal food profits funneled to Hamas?

The Muslim Association of Canada, which admits that its roots can be found in the global Muslim Brotherhood, is a primary halal food certifying entity in Canada.  It has also been a major financial contributor to IRFAN, a “charity” that was stripped of its tax-exempt status by Canadian revenue authorities partly due to its ties with Hamas.

TGMBDR has the story here, and Point de Bascule this chart depicting the connections:

Chart by Point de Bascule

The distance between halal foods, sharia finance, and terror funding shrinks with every passing day.

Turkey replaces Iran as Hamas sugar daddy

Hamas, one of the five wealthiest terrorist organizations on earth, isn’t getting as much money from Iran as it once was.  Shia Iran, which funded Hamas partly to prove its anti-Israel credentials to the Sunni world, may now be eclipsed by Turkey, which has its own inferiority complex to overcome.  Recep Erdogan never loses an opportunity to demonstrate Turkish relevance in a predominantly Arab Middle East.

So the multi-million dollar industry that is Hamas will stay in business.  From Haaretz on Jan. 28:

Turkey may provide Hamas with $300 million in annual aid

Hamas has been facing financial difficulties due to late and reduced payments from Iran; Meshal deciding between Qatar and Jordan for new Hamas headquarters, after leaving Syria.

By Zvi Bar’el

Turkey may provide Hamas with $300 million in annual aid, Turkish sources report. The aid would take place of Iranian funding, which has been significantly reduced.

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh reportedly received assurances to this effect during his recent visit to Turkey.

Haniyeh was warmly received earlier this month by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and was cheered when he visited the Turkish parliament. Turkey supports reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas and Turkish sources report that the Erdogan government has promised to seriously aid the reconciliation process.

According to Turkish sources, Haniyeh laid out in detail for Erdogan the financial difficulties Hamas is currently facing, after payments from Iran, that had totaled $250-$300 annually, did not arrive on time and were cut significantly. This led to Hamas not being able to pay the salaries of employees.

The same sources reported that Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshal has left Syria for good and is considering putting the organization’s headquarters in Qatar or Jordan.

On Saturday, President Shimon Peres accused Turkey of funding Hamas.

Meshal is expected to meet on Sunday with Jordan’s King Abdullah in Amman but it was publicly announced that the visit does not have “political implications and does not signal a change in Jordan’s political agenda”. Abdullah, who visited the U.S. last week and met with U.S. President Barack Obama, was told in the strongest terms that the U.S. viewed gravely the possibility that Hamas would put its headquarters in Jordan.

At the same time, Iran invited Haniyeh on an official visit to Iran, without setting a date. It is unclear if Iran intends to support Haniyeh as a replacement for Meshal – if Meshal in fact retires from the organization’s leadership – just as Haniyeh has not made if he will visit Iran. Within Hamas, discussions have been held recently on the group’s future international ties, the purpose of which is to determine whether Hamas will return to the “Arab bosom”, meaning that it would disengage from Iran and embrace ties with countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan, or whether it will try to have it both ways without cutting ties with Iran.

Hamas levies fees and fines to break banks

In a move that Occupy Wall Street would approve of, Hamas is engaged in a systematic shakedown of Gaza banks.  Not content with the smalltime bank robberies that their hired goons had been committing, Hamas has determined that it would be more lucrative to adopt the Western neo-socialist model of expropriating millions of dollars from the banks through judicial or quasi-legal means.  From the New York Times on Nov. 17:

GAZA — In what could be the first of many such decisions, a Hamas-appointed court this week ordered two major banks in Gaza to pay tens of millions of dollars in back fees and fines for refusing to accept the taxing power of the Hamas government, rather than its West-Bank-based rival, the Palestinian Authority.

Bank officials, who boycotted the judicial hearings, said the decision, handed down by a lower court earlier this week, might force them to shut down temporarily, at least, further reducing access to money in this isolated coastal enclave…

The ruling on the banks was not published in any publicly available forum, so details were incomplete. But officials said that the Bank of Palestine, one of the largest banks in the West Bank and Gaza, was ordered to pay $113 million in taxes and fines.

The decision also bans 11 members of the bank’s board of directors who live here from leaving Gaza.

A similar ruling from the same court was issued against the Palestine Islamic Bank, but the amounts of the fines were not available, and bank officials declined to discuss them. There are nine banks in Gaza, and all of them, along with companies that import fuel and electricity and operate cellphones, may face similar rulings as cases make their way through the courts here…

Foreign aid to Palestinian territories closely correlated with number of terror deaths

While the mainstream media attack Republicans in Congress for holding aid money to the Palestinian Authority, and while Republican presidential candidates are lampooned for suggesting scaled back foreign aid, we would do well to remember the startling trend exposed several years ago by the Terror Finance Blog, Daniel Pipes, Jean-Paul Azam, Alexandra Delacroix, and CAMERA, that the number of individual deaths caused by Palestinian Arab terrorism track uncannily with the amount of money that they receive in millions of dollars in international aid:

Aid to the Palestinian territories, although nominally restricted to the Palestinian Authority, is routinely passed through to the Hamas-controlled Gaza government by Mahmoud Abbas (code name:  Abu Mazen).  The Gaza government employs “security forces” who moonlight as Hamas operatives.  Checks are written to the families of “martyrs.”  The Palestinian Authority gives stipends to convicted terrorists in Israeli jails and paydays for released terrorists after prisoner swaps.

Is it any wonder then that when the Palestinian Authority is flush with funds, the Holy Land is flush with fatalities?

Islamic Relief income up by 89% to £50 million

Islamic Relief Worldwide released its 2010 annual report in October showing an 89 percent increase in zakat donations for the organization’s efforts since 2006, excluding grants and institutional transfers.  IRW received  £50 million in private, voluntary donations in 2010 plus £14 million from other sources as one of the charts in their report illustrates:

Chart from IRW 2010 Annual Report, p. 53

Donations are up despite Islamic Relief Worldwide’s record of assistance to Hamas, cooperation with Union of Good (pro-Hamas) charities, its leadership ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, and alleged acceptance of $50,000 from an Osama bin Laden agent in 1999.

The findings, along with evidence of double-digit revenue growth for Islamic Relief USA, cast serious doubt on claims of an international chilling effect on Islamic giving and the alleged criminalization of humanitarian engagement by Western counter-terrorism laws.

Flotilla charity gears up for mass slaughter

In commemoration of Abraham’s obedience to God’s instructions to sacrifice his son, Muslims around the world are preparing to make animal sacrifices known as Qurbani starting on Nov. 6.

Despite the vast oil wealth of the modern Islamic world, many Muslims live in poverty, misery, and inequality (largely caused by Islamic law itself).

Consequently, Islamic charities (including American-based Islamic Relief USA, Life for Relief and Development, the Zakat Foundation, ICNA, Helping Hand USA, the Qurbani Foundation, and the Hidaya Foundation), have been busy soliciting donations which they claim will buy animals that can be sacrificed prior to distributing meat to poor Muslims.  No meat will go to poor non-Muslims in the Middle East because that would be prohibited by Islamic law.

The charity that has launched perhaps the most aggressive public relations campaign to solicit Qurbani donations this year is the Turkey-based IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation.  Through its “Closer by Qurban” program, IHH proudly proclaims on its website  that “IHH teams will slaughter the Qurbani animals in 95 countries and regions in the world and 60 provinces in Turkey in this year’s Eid al-Adh.”  It is an impressive figure; Helping Hand USA says it provides Qurbani to 55 countries, but no other American Muslim charity even comes close to a reach of 95 countries like IHH.  Its website pledges that “IHH teams will travel all around, in order to slaughter the Qurbani animals” and strengthen “solidarity among Muslims.”

If IHH sounds familiar to you, it should.  It’s the same charity that launched the infamous “peace” and aid flotilla to Gaza in May, 2010.  The crew of IHH’s Mavi Marmara were armed with clubs and knives used to attack the Israeli Defense Forces who were enforcing the blockade of Gaza to prevent the supply of rockets to Hamas.

Given the IHH’s terrorist links and history of working with Hamas and knowing that cash aid is fungible, donors would be well-advised to avoid participating in IHH’s Qurbani program.

Photo from IHH's 2010 Qurbani project

Islamic animal sacrificial practices have also come under criticism by Western animal rights groups.  Earlier this year, the Dutch parliament voted in an overwhelming majority to outlaw the practice.  Antwerp, Belgium, has recently offered discounted and free stunning services to prevent live slaughter.

This Qurbani season, will progressive nonprofit organizations in the U.S. and Europe stay committed to their Islamic charity allies, and leave animal rights advocates in the cold?

Hamas still uses Sudan as funding turf

Sudan's president and Hamas leader in 2009

The State Department’s new “2010″ report on global terrorism (that was published several months late) keeps Sudan on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.  Although State says that the Sudanese government has been helpful in operations against al Qaeda, the government isn’t strong enough to combat terrorism fully.

Moreover, the report revealed that “Sudanese officials continued to view Hamas members as representatives of the Palestinian Authority. Hamas members conducted fundraising in Sudan, and Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) maintained a presence in Sudan.”

Separate outdated reports have said that Sudan hosts “centers for raising funds and Islamic Social Unions (Marakiz li-Jam’ al-Tabarru’at wa-Ittihadat Ijtima’iyyah Islamiyya)” and that “Pro-HAMAS financial activity in Africa is centred in Sudan through the head office of the Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA).”

Earlier this year, the Jerusalem Post called Sudan “a known stop on the smuggling route from Iran to Gaza.”

In March, Hamas top dog Khaled Meshaal and Yusuf al-Qaradawi (the virulently anti-Semitic sharia finance magnate and leader of the Union of Good network of pro-Hamas charities) spoke in Khartoum, Sudan, at a conference hosted by the Al-Quds Foundation—a group that seeks an “Arab identity” for Jerusalem.

Maybe they did a little fund-raising while in Khartoum?  Men like Meshaal and Creepy Qaradawi are a bit like Linda Evangelista:  they won’t even get out of bed for less than $10,000…

Islamic Relief Worldwide & Islamic Relief USA

The Obama administration’s Department of Agriculture has gotten in a bit of trouble lately for touting its relationship with Islamic Relief USA.  IR-USA is the biggest Islamic charity in the U.S., and defenders of the USDA policy will no doubt point to IR-USA’s four-star charity rating and its shining reputation as one of America’s best Muslim nonprofit organizations.

But unpleasant information has been coming out lately about both IR-USA* and its parent organization, the U.K.-based Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW).  Today, Money Jihad highlights the cash flow and financial closeness between the supposedly separate IR-USA and IRW organizations.

IRW has always been troublesome because of 1) its cooperation with Union of Good (pro-Hamas) charities, 2) the ties of its leaders to the Muslim Brotherhood; as the Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report recently noted:

Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) is headquartered in the U.K. where one it’s trustees listed in U.K. charity records is Ibrahim El-Zayat, a leader in both the European and the German Muslim Brotherhood. Mr. El-Zayat is also a trustee of the U.K. branch of Islamic Relief. Islamic Relief Worldwide is also listed as a company in the U.K where records indicate that Dr. Ahmed Al-Rawi, the former head of the Federation of islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE) and President of the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) has been a director at one time. Both FIOE and the MAB are part of the U.K. and European Muslim Brotherhood. Another former director of the company Islamic Relief Worldwide is Issam Al-Bashir who, as previous posts have discussed, is a former Minister of Religious Affairs in the Sudan and who has held numerous positions associated with the global Muslim Brotherhood. In a number of European countries, the local branch of Islamic Relief is also tied to the local Muslim Brotherhood organization.

3) Pamela Geller recently alleged more concrete nefarious activity by IRW:

• “IRW received $50,000 from a front for Osama bin Laden in 1999, and has given millions to the jihadists in Chechnya.”
• “IRW official Iyaz Ali has admitted to aiding Hamas while serving as project coordinator at IRW’s Gaza branch in late 2005 and early 2006.”
• “The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs also noted:  ‘The IRW provides support and assistance to Hamas’ infrastructure.’”

But what is the precise legal and financial relationship between IRW and IR-USA?  IRW itself calls IR-USA a “fundraising partner” in a map they created to show their global reach:

Islamic Relief Worldwide's Map

IR-USA, obviously aware of the questionable status of IRW, goes out of its way on its website to describe itself as one of IRW’s “legally separate and independent affiliates (also referred to as ‘partner offices’).”

Nevertheless, IR-USA also applauds IRW as “the catalyst, coordinator and implementer of the Islamic Relief family’s relief and development projects around the globe”:

IR-USA's version of its IRW association

However, as we have noted before, Islamic Relief USA is one of Islamic Relief Worldwide’s largest non-governmental donors.  IR-USA gave $9.4 million to IRW in 2009, $5.9 million in 2008, and $4.8 million in 2007.

IR-USA can use lawyer-speak to prove that they’re legally separate entities, but money talks.  IR-USA wouldn’t simply give $20 million over a three-year period to an organization that it wasn’t close to.

*  A high-ranking Department of Justice official recently impugned Islamic Relief USA as a conduit for terrorist funds.

Additionally, the Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report writes:

The IRUSA website identifies Dr. Yaser Haddara as a member of the IRUSA board since 2006 and its chairman until May 2011. According to his profile, Dr. Haddra has been active in the Muslim Society of America (MAS), the Islamic Society of North America, and the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC). Previous posts have discussed the relationship between Islamic Relief USA and the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, an Islamic charter school with strong connections to the Muslim American Society (MAS). The MAS was established in 1993 by leaders of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood and a Hudson Institute report has discussed the relationship of the MAS to both the Egyptian and U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. The same Hudson report also identifies ISNA as an important part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood. Other posts have explored the Muslim Brotherhood ties of the MAC.

The world’s 5 richest terrorist groups

In terms of their annual operating budgets to the best of our knowledge at this time, the Taliban, Hezbollah, the FARC, Hamas, and al-Shabaab may be the wealthiest terrorist organizations in the world today.  Al Qaeda trails, but if all its affiliated organizations are included, Al Qaeda remains in the upper echelon of the world’s terror budgets.

1.  Taliban

Taliban nets between $70 and $400 million from drug activity (of which at least $15 to $25 million is collected as ushr, Islam’s 10 percent tax on harvests) annually.  In addition, the Taliban collects an estimated $150 to $200 million per year in zakat and sadaqa donations, mostly from the Arab nations of the Persian Gulf.  These figures exclude extensive Taliban revenues from ransoms, extortion, and improperly diverted money from Western aid, U.N. contributions, defense contractors, and the Afghanistan government itself.  My own estimate would place that subtotal of an additional $50 million per year.

Splitting the difference for the estimated range of revenues, that would bring the Taliban’s total budget to an estimate of approximately $560 million annually.

2.  Hezbollah

Rachel Ehrenfeld’s Funding Evil documented that Hezbollah’s annual operating budget is between $200 and $500 million.  Iran provides at least $120 million of that, with the rest coming from khums, drug trafficking, and other criminal activity.

3.  FARC

Columbia’s Marxist guerrillas, the FARC, enjoy annual revenues that range from estimates of $80 to $350 million.

4.  Hamas

For 2010, Gaza’s budget adopted by Hamas was $540 million, but that’s a larger amount than Hamas’s own budget.   The Council on Foreign Relations lists Hamas’s budget as $70 million.  However, the recent news that Iran is cutting or ending its aid to Hamas which would  substantially diminish Hamas’s treasury.  Hamas receives significant funding through charitable front groups and from Saudi Arabia.

5.  Al Shabaab

A recent report from the U.N. revealed that al-Shabaab’s revenues are between $70 and $100 million per year, propelling it into the top tier of global jihadist funding.

DISHONORABLE MENTIONS

Al Qaeda

The CIA estimated that before 9/11, al Qaeda’s annual budget was $30 million, which was almost exclusively from “donations” (zakat and sadaqa).  By almost all accounts, al Qaeda’s financial situation has deteriorated since then.  Other estimates place their budget from $16 to $50 million, which still puts al Qaeda itself toward the bottom of the list.  However, there are indications that revenue collections of al Qaeda offshoots such as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and al-Shabaab are flush with funds.  With AQIM in particular, the evidence shows that funds are being transferred from the regional organization back to the parent al Qaeda organization itself.

Lashkar-e-Taiba

Reuters calls Lashkar-e-Taiba (whose revenues include hawala, the Gulf, and Pakistan’s ISI) “one of the largest and best-funded Islamic militant organizations” in South Asia.

It bears repeating that much of the revenue listed above, with the exception of the FARC’s drug money, originate from traditional Islamic revenue sources such as zakat, sadaqa, khums, and ushr, rather than from “secular,” criminal activity.