On summer break

Money Jihad is on extended vacation.  Please check back after July 4.

On spring break

Money Jihad posting will resume next week.

The Terror Finance Blog returns

The Terror Finance Blog is back up and running after domain problems over the past several months.  The new URL is http://www.terrorfinanceblog.com .  Please visit the website and update your bookmarks, favorites, or blog rolls. TTFB has been a key source of information and analysis of terror finance issues since 2006.  Money Jihad blogger A.D. Kendall has been a contributing expert with TTFB since March 2014.

Los números de 2014

Los duendes de las estadísticas de WordPress.com prepararon un informe sobre el año 2014 de este blog.

Aquí hay un extracto:

El Museo del Louvre tiene 8.5 millones de visitantes por año. Este blog fue visto cerca de 210.000 veces en 2014. Si fuese una exposición en el Museo del Louvre, se precisarían alrededor de 9 días para que toda esa gente la visitase.

Haz click para ver el reporte completo.

5-year anniversary of Money Jihad

Five years ago today, the first post of this blog was published.

Since then, Money Jihad has blown the lid off connections among Islamic charities including the Zakat Foundation and Muslim Hands, the close financial relationship between Islamic Relief USA and Islamic Relief Worldwide in Britain, and partnerships between Islamic Relief and the Turkish front charity IHH.

Money Jihad has also documented the relationships between sharia banks and terrorist financing—relationships which were previously only discernible through scattered evidence and rumors.

On top of that, this blog has exposed information that was known in Somalia and Bangladesh about terrorist financing in those countries that had never been reported before to Western readers. On several occasions, this blog has helped give voice to dissidents and expatriates from those and other nations who have shared their knowledge about financial mischief in their home countries with Money Jihad to reach a wider audience.

None of this would have been possible if it weren’t for some wonderful people and organizations. Special thanks to Shariah Finance Watch and Creeping Sharia blogs for putting Money Jihad on the map in the first place. Individual thanks go to the vice president at the Center for Security Policy Christopher Holton, human rights activist Puneet Madaan, and American Center for Democracy fellow Ilan Weinglass who have each done a great deal to expand the reach of this blog.

Without additional support and engagement by 1389 Blog, The Counter Jihad Report, EuropeNews, BlazingCatFur, and other counter-jihad blogs—all wonderful blogs in their own right—in addition to news sites Free Republic, American Thinker, FrontPage Mag, The Washington Free Beacon, The Washington Post, and International Business Times, this blog would never have reached the level of influence or readership that it currently enjoys.

Then there’s the vibrant community of readers, sources, jokers and curmudgeons on Twitter! This whole endeavor would be much quieter and boring without them. A special thanks goes out to all-star Twitter users Rushette, El Grillo, MeanKitteh, Sal, Michael, Jackie, Zac, Jack, and FRamabama for all the support and the wealth of information and insights they provide.

Twitter also allows Money Jihad to mutually follow and connect with noted leaders of the counter-jihad movement including author Tarek Fatah, Act for America organizer Brigitte Gabriel, former Navy officer Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, author Diana West, author Dr. Mark Walia, Gatestone Institute president Nina Rosenwald and terror analysts Patrick Poole and Ryan Mauro. TV stars Roseanne Barr and David Boreanaz have helped too (seriously); and prominent financial crimes experts including anti-money laundering reporter Colby Adams; finance and security analyst Tom Keatinge; anti-money laundering attorney Christine Duhaime; Wall Street Journal risk & compliance reporter Rachel Louise Ensign; terrorism and terror finance expert J.C. Brisard; author Jeffery Robinson; fellow financial crime bloggers Helen Gorman and Eric “Mr. Watchlist” Sohn; and a host of certified public accounts, trade and sanctions lawyers, certified fraud examiners, and certified anti-money laundering specialists.

Thanks also to Rachel Ehrenfeld, Robert Spencer, and Kenneth Rijock. The insights and expertise in their writings have helped shape the perspective of this blog.

Now, friends and readers, it’s time for a two-week break. Hasta luego!

Top 5 Money Jihad posts

This blog has been around for five years next week. Readers may be interested to see what some of the most popular posts here have been. According to WordPress statistics, these have been the five most frequently read/visited posts on this blog to date:

1. The world’s 20 biggest Muslim NGOs
2. The world’s 5 richest terror groups
3. Zakat Foundation & Muslim Hands unite
4. Islamic tax chart
5. Welcome to Lilburn, Georgia

Not a bad selection. But we wouldn’t necessarily say those have been our best posts. Now, for the editor’s top 5 favorites:

• Sharia banks that fund terrorism
• The case for taxing hawala
• Seven ways to stop funding terror
• The top 5 terror finance films of all time
• Guantanamo detainees endorse crowdfunding

Lastly, the oddball gallery. These are our top 5 “overlooked” posts—items that, never seemed to gain the traction or readership they deserved. Were these just too weird for popular consumption? You be the judge:

• Warsame’s song about Dahabshiil’s blood money
• Turkish charity coordinates with al-Shabaab
• Muslim Brotherhood’s family ties to Mercy-USA
• Sanctions needed against Pakistan’s spy agency
• Time for due diligence on welfare recipients?

Technorati stops publishing blog rankings

For 10 years, the blog indexing company Technorati served as the Nielsen ratings equivalent of the blogosphere. But earlier this year, Technorati quietly yanked its rankings of blogs off the Internet and into a dustbin in their server room.

The end of Technorati’s rankings is unfortunate. The site lost some credibility over the years, but it was still one of the better tools available for tracking and comparing the relative popularity, authority, and influence of blogs. (It also means the end of “Technorati tags,” a convenient way of tagging content especially on Typepad platforms.)

Technorati probably could have helped its own reputation by making a bigger announcement before the move, or at least by enabling web users to access archived rankings. But they didn’t. So we’re not sure where this blog ended up immediately prior to Technorati pulling the plug, but as of March 2014, Money Jihad was listed a “Top 100” blog under the “World Politics” category, ranking 72^nd:

Money Jihad was also listed as a top 500 U.S. politics blog as early as 2010 when readership was much lower than it is today.

Alexa, which still provides statistical comparisons of blogs, generally monitors the blogs with the biggest audiences, and scarcely registers accurate metrics for “mid-market” blogs unless you pay them.

Admin note about TTFB

Money Jihad blog, which is hosted by WordPress, is working great.

The Terror Finance Blog (TTFB) however, to which Money Jihad blogger A.D. Kendall is a contributing expert, is experiencing domain problems. TTFB’s editor Ilan Weinglass says the problem may take some time to resolve.

The website that has taken over the terrorfinance.org URL calls itself “Terror Finance: tutto sulle opzioni binarie,” The website is in Italian and gives advice on binary trading options. Forbes magazine warns its readers that binary option websites “are gambling sites, pure and simple,” not investment websites.

Money Jihad and blogger A.D. Kendall are in no way affiliated with the Italian website.

The Terror Finance Blog is technically still available in a basic format at http://terrorfinance.typepad.com/. Pieces written by Kendall for TTFB were cross-published on Money Jihad, and can still be accessed as normal at https://moneyjihad.wordpress.com/category/appearing-at-terror-finance-blog/. Once TTFB finds a more permanent home, we’ll let readers know.

Money Jihad interviewed by Madrid newspaper

An interview with Money Jihad blogger A.D. Kendall appears in the international section of today’s edition of the Spain-based daily La Razon. The interview deals with support by the Gulf monarchies for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.  Click on the image below or put on your bifocals to read it:

Money Jihad blog benefits from celebrity tweets

We were quite surprised when comedian and actress Roseanne Barr recently tweeted out a link to a Money Jihad blog post from last year about Hamas’s involvement in organ trafficking to her quarter-million followers on Twitter:

But the 17 retweets and 10 favorites to Roseanne’s tweet didn’t drive quite as much traffic as the 55 retweets and 127 favorites for a droll tweet earlier this month by television actor David Boreanaz to his 600,000 Twitter fans:  “Number 4: https://moneyjihad.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/the-worlds-5-richest-terrorist-groups/,” corresponding to Hamas’s place among the world’s five richest terrorist groups as ranked by Money Jihad:

But oftentimes the Hollywood tweeps can’t compete with subject matter experts with large followings on Twitter. Canadian commentator Tarek Fatah, author of The Jew is Not My Enemy and several other books, routinely attracts multiple retweets, as he did with this 2013 tweet about Money Jihad’s profile of one of Jamaat-e-Islami’s Saudi financiers:

That level of influence is tough to match on our own. But with over 4,500 followers on Twitter, @moneyjihad chirps out some popular tweets linking back to the blog, like this one in May about the Canadian Islamic charity IRFAN’s financing of Hamas:

Twitter, in addition to being a very fun way of gathering news and engaging with people about terrorist financing, has been a very effective method of drawing attention to the blog.

News roundup: recommended reading

• Congressman appearing on Al Jazeera declares “The owners of this TV network help fund Hamas,” and the interviewer doesn’t dispute him… more>>

• World Net Daily interviews Money Jihad blogger A.D. Kendall on the funding of al-Shabaab and other jihadist groups in Africa… more>>

• ISIS is looting antiquities, liquidating the history of mankind, and funding its own operations from the profits… more>>

• The Washington Post declares, “U.S. should aid those who fight terror, not abet human rights abuses.” Are you listening, Saudi Arabia?  More>>

• You find what you think is a great new international partner for your growing business. Before signing that contract with a foreign firm, hire a professional investigator with a physical presence in that country to conduct due diligence… more>>