In April, Pierre Piccinin da Prata, a teacher from Belgium, was visiting Syria under the promise of protection by the Free Syrian Army. Suddenly, he and his colleague, an Italian journalist, were sold as hostages to a group of Islamist fighters.
Pierre says the Islamists “wanted money.” Pierre says they were called dogs, and “we were considered as not really human beings.” The only real men, the captives were told, are Sunni, Arab Muslims. His colleague was subjected to mock executions.
After months of being held hostage, Pierre wanted to commit suicide rather than endure further humiliation and captivity, but was eventually released.
Listen to a few minutes of Pierre’s story in his own words during a Sept. 20 interview with the BBC:
Four Islamists from a 12-man terrorist cell in Paris have been arrested after an armed robbery of a fast food restaurant in Yvelines, France. The men, all in their 20s or early 30s, stole 3,000 euros which authorities say would be used to finance jihad in Syria, including travel by cell members to the war front.
Some of the cell members have already departed for Syria. French authorities say that at least 100 fighters currently in Syria are from France or were living in France prior to joining the battle against Bashar al-Assad.
Given that France has Western Europe’s largest Muslim population, the use of France as a funding base for Islamic terrorism is critically important to understand and monitor. Thanks to Arun for sending this in from AP:
French police detain 4 suspected of robbing restaurant to finance jihad in Syria
Friday, September 6, 2013
By The Associated Press
PARIS – French authorities have detained four suspected extremists accused of robbing a fast food restaurant in order to finance their planned travel to fight alongside Islamic extremists in Syria.
Prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre says the four men, all French citizens, are being held on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act, as well as armed robbery of a Quick hamburger restaurant Wednesday in the suburbs of Paris.
She said the suspects were being questioned Friday by anti-terrorist investigators.
They can be held up to four days under France’s anti-terrorism laws.
More details are available in French from Europe1.
The former chairman of Islami Bank Bangladesh, Limited (IBBL), Shah Abdul Hannan, explained his support for collecting taxes beyond zakat for the purposes of waging jihad in an article posted online around 2003 (available here and here). Hannan based this argument on the writings of Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the notorious Muslim Brotherhood leader, Hamas charity front financier, and sharia finance proponent.
Referring to Qaradawi’s Fiqh al Zakah, Hannan wrote:
…Allah has made it obligatory to carry out Jihad (defence of Islam and Islamic territory and to put an end to oppression anywhere in this world) through employing one’s life and wealth. This is a duty beyond Zakat. To carry out a major Jihad in this age, if needed, there is no other way but to raise resources through taxes…
Hannan has also condemned peaceful Shahbag dissidents who are calling for justice against war criminals in Bangladesh. Hannan calls the student demonstrators fascists. Well, Mr. Hannan—it takes one to know one.
Money Jihad has been documenting the terrorist financing activities of IBBL, one of the biggest banks in Bangladesh and its largest sharia financial institution, ever since Bangladeshi authorities revealed in 2011 that Islami Bank has been diverting eight percent of its corporate zakat to jihadi militants. A member of IBBL’s sharia advisory board was also detained and questioned for possible involvement in an attack against police.
IBBL fell under international scrutiny in 2012 after the U.S. Senate reported that HSBC continued to maintain a business relationship with IBBL despite evidence of its role in funding terrorism.
More recently, U.S. garment importers including Wal-mart and J.C. Penny have severed ties with IBBL due to the Islamic bank’s role in supporting militants. Nonetheless, Western Union continues to do business with IBBL.
Last week, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, published an article on their website entitled ‘Jihad with Money’ (link in Arabic).
The term ‘Jihad with Money’ has two different meanings, the article’s author suggests.
“The general meaning [of the term] is to give money to charitable causes for the pleasure of God Almighty: to help the poor and needy, construct hospitals, mosques, schools, colleges and universities, [to assist] orphans and students, and help the unemployed.”
That sounds like a respectable concept – until you read on for the ‘special’ meaning.
“The special meaning: to make money for combat, such as the purchase of weapons, gear and clothing, and to develop the means to build factories for weapons and to support the families of the Mujahideen [terror fighters] and their families.”
For Hamas, charity and Jihad are one and the same. Hamas built their power base and gained the support of ordinary Gazans thanks to their extensive charity network. They also collect money around the world, ostensibly for the benefit of the Gazan people. But much of that money never gets to the people for whom Hamas claims it is intended.
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades’ website calls on its readers to give ‘zakat’, or charity, generously, and suggests that the Hamas government spends that money on a wide range of charity projects, in addition to its military activities. By associating its military activities with its charity work, Hamas attempts to justify its spending. But do not be fooled: Hamas’ priority number one is terror – and helping ordinary Gazans in need comes a distant second…
The seed money of major North Caucasus or Chechen terrorist groups such as the Caucasus Emirate, the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade (IIPB), the Special Purpose Islamic Regiment (SPIR) and the Riyadus-Salikhin Reconnaissance and Sabotage Battalion of Chechen Martyrs (RSRSBCM) can all be traced back to Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
Although we don’t yet know to which groups the two Russian-born brothers of Chechen descent who were identified as suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings may belong, it’s important to take a look back at the origins of the money behind the North Caucasus jihadist network overall.
Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade
The Council on Foreign Relations says that, “According to the U.S. State Department, the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade is the primary channel for Islamic funding of the Chechen guerillas, in part through links to al-Qaeda-related financiers on the Arabian Peninsula.”
In October 1999, emissaries of [IIPB founder Shamil Basayev] and [mujahideen leader] Ibn al-Khattab traveled to Kandahar where bin Laden agreed to provide fighters, equipment, and money to conduct terrorism and aid the fight against Russia. Later that year, bin Laden reportedly sent substantial sums of money to Basayev, Ibn al-Khattab, and Chechen commander Arbi Barayev to train gunmen, recruit mercenaries, and buy ammunition.
The United Nations says that, “With Al‑Qaida’s financial support, Al-Khattab also mobilized fighters from Ingushetia, Ossetia, Georgia and Azerbaijan to fight in Chechnya and Dagestan.”
History Commons offers further details similarities between Ibn Khattab and Osama Bin Laden, and the U.S. and U.K.-based imams who have funded Chechen rebels:
They share fundraising and recruiting networks. For example, a Florida cell of radical Sunnis that is monitored by the FBI starting in 1993 is involved with both organizations (see (October 1993-November 2001). Radical London imam Abu Qatada raises money for jihad in Chechnya (see 1995-February 2001 and February 2001) and is a key figure in al-Qaeda-related terrorism who is in communication with al-Qaeda logistics manager Abu Zubaida. [BBC, 3/23/2004; Nasiri, 2006, pp. 273] The Finsbury Park mosque of fellow London imam Abu Hamza al-Masri is used as a conduit for funds for both jihad in Chechnya and bin Laden’s Darunta camp in Afghanistan (see March 1999 and March 2000-February 2001)…
Khattab repaid Bin Laden in kind: “In October 2001, Khattab sent additional fighters to Afghanistan and promised to pay the volunteers’ families a substantial monthly stipend or a large lump-sum payment in the event of their death.”
Special Purpose Islamic Regiment
In a 2003 study, the CDI found that, “Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network provided much ideological and financial support to the SPIR after the mid-1990’s. Read the rest of this entry ?
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Aaron Y. Zelin have compiled some very important research in a new Foreign Policy article entitled “Uncharitable Organizations” about the growing sponsorship of jihadist activities overseas by non-governmental organizations. They write that Islamic charities are using humanitarian aid in countries with Islamist movements including Tunisia, Syria, and Mali in order to 1) strengthen the dependence of the populations on their services, and 2) to provide a cover for their militant activities.
Specifically, Ansar al-Sharia Tunisia (AST) and Syrian Islamic Front (SIF) rebels are accepting aid from Middle Eastern charities that have all been previously linked to terror financing including the Turkish charity IHH, Kuwaiti charity RIHS, and Qatar Charity. Qatar Charity itself is also active in Mali working in an apparently parallel fashion with rebel fighters.
Money Jihad has taken the liberty of boiling down their article into a few brief slides about three of the groups Gartenstein-Ross and Zelin discuss:
Readers are encouraged to read the original article at Foreign Policy online.
In addition to expatriate donors such as Tahawwur Rana, charity funneled through its Jamaat-ud-Dawa front group, private donors from rich Arabs in the Gulf, zakat collections in Kashmiri mosques, and hawala, the terrorist organizationLashkar-e-Taiba (meaning Army of the Pure) relies on state sponsorship from the Pakistan’s ISI spy service.
The Encyclopedia of Modern Worldwide Extremists and Extremist Groupssays that LeT “was founded in 1987 with funding provided by Saudi Islamist Osama bin laden. Both financial and material support for the Lashkar-e-Taiba has also come from the Pakistan security forces Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).”
In his book Obama’s War, investigative journalist Bob Woodward says LeT “was created and continues to be supported by the Pakistani ISI.”
Asia Times provided these details last year about LeT’s financing:
…LeT runs a number of training centers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwah province, Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The objective is to have an office and a center in every district of Pakistan. LeT spends about US$330 on each trainee for its Daura-e-Aam (basic) course and about $1,700 per trainee in the advanced three-month course, with running costs in excess of $5 million a year.
The army and the ISI make contributions at training camps, with Pakistan’s Herald Magazine reporting in June 2006 that ISI payoffs have reached as much as $50,000-60,000 every month. The other key source of LeT money is Islamic charities across the world, particularly those based in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) . Inside Pakistan, LeT acts primarily as a Dawa group promoting a radical interpretation of Islam, much on the lines of its Wahhabi patrons in the Gulf.
These links brings LeT an enormous amount of petro-dollars through donations to madrassas and mosques in Punjab. In 2008, the US estimated these funds at over $100 million a year. Some Pakistani business houses in Punjab also support the group by giving money and food…
[U]niting Indian administered Kashmir (IAK) with Pakistan under a radical interpretation of Islamic law. LeT’s broader objectives include to establish an Islamic Caliphate across the Indian subcontinent, and to reclaim all ‘occupied Muslim lands’ in southern Spain and the Balkans. To this end, LeT intends to pursue the ‘liberation’, not only of Muslim-majority Kashmir, but of all India’s Muslim population, even in areas where they do not form a majority. LeT has declared that democracy is antithetical to Islamic law and that LeT’s jihad requires it to work toward turning Pakistan itself into a purely Islamic state.
All previous Money Jihad coverage of LeT can be found here.
Tahawwur Rana, an Islamic extremist who used a Chicago front company to fund the Pakistani jihadist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, has been sentenced to 14 years in federal prison. Rana also bankrolled activities of his lifelong friend David Coleman Headley, the lead scout behind the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks—attacks which were also funded by Pakistan’s ISI spy service via Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Headley himself was sentenced to 35 years in prison yesterday. He was largely responsible for the deaths of over 160 people including six Americans. U.S. officials claimed that Headley was cooperative with investigators. Eric Holder authorized prosecutors not to seek the death penalty, and the prosecutors didn’t even seek a life sentence in light of Headley’s “cooperation.”
Asked if he was remorseful about the loss of life, Headley simply said “they were Indians.”
Abu Bakr sponsored the military campaigns in the early days of conquest by Muhammad. Khadija gave Muhammad enough money to help him attract followers, but it was the even wealthier Abu Bakr who helped buy the weapons and horses of Islam’s holy war against unbelievers.
A new recording from the British Islamic studios of Al Baseera highlight’s Muhammad’s praise for Abu Bakr’s role in funding the “deen” (or “dīn,” which can be translated from Arabic to English as “religion”).
It’s just 80 seconds long—take a listen:
Abu Bakr famously contributed all of his money to fund the Battle of Tabuk, an opening salvo in the Byzantine-Arab wars. The implicit theme of messages like this is for rich Muslims to follow suit and fund jihad today.
Taliban funding remains intact despite international sanctions
Reports in 2012 revealed that the Taliban’s funding remains intact, that none of the Taliban’s assets have been blocked by U.S. sanctions, that the Taliban retains its taxing authority over Afghans, and that the UN sanctions only 18 percent of the Taliban’s provincial shadow governors in Afghanistan.
Islamic charities remain top terror financiers
It’s questionable to even call this “news,” but understanding the role of Muslim charities in funding jihad, of which we saw multiple examples throughout 2012, is the Rosetta stone to bankrupting terrorism. Instances of Muslim charities behaving badly cropped up, and in some cases have worsened, in both in the Middle East and in the West this year.In the Islamic world, the Saudi charitable foundation IIRO, whose branches in Indonesia and the Philippines were previously blacklisted by the U.S. for funding terrorism, is opening seven new branch offices. In Bangladesh, the chief of the terrorist organization Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) revealed that Muslim Aid, WAMY, the Muslim World League, the Qatari Charitable Society, and the Revival of Islamic Heritage Society, are among the primary donors to his jihad. Read the rest of this entry ?
Prominent Muslim scholar Imran Hosein has once again called for an end to fiat currencies, declaring that “paper money has already done its job of ripping off mankind.”
The remarks made in March, and uploaded to Youtube just recently, are the latest in a lifetime of rants against cash by Hosein, a virulently anti-Semitic graduate of Al-Azhar University who served as the de facto Muslim chaplain at the United Nations for 10 years.
Hosein believes that only gold dinars and silver dirhams used in the days of Muhammad have innate value. He has falsely stated before, as in this video, that Jews “control the banking system,” and that “Zionists” can simply wipe out your bank accounts with the click of a button. Hosein’s deep antipathy towards electronic banking (he loves talking about “invisible money” in “machines without minds”) feeds into Muslim fears, paranoia, and conspiracy theories.
How will Hosein’s “plan” to destroy paper money be achieved? Does he mean that tangible money will simply be digitized, or does he have something more sinister in mind to bring down the Western currency system?
Keep in mind that Iran is actively engaged in cyber-attacks against major U.S. banks. Recall that sovereign wealth funds from the Middle East may have played a role in the market collapse in 2008. Remember that the 9/11 hijackers struck the World Trade Center, a locus of American financial might.
The Islamists are telling us their next objective: “The plan is to bring down the whole world of paper money.” Will we have the guts to listen and respond in time?
“Go forth, light-armed and heavy-armed, and strive with your wealth and your lives in the way of Allah!”—Koran (Sura 9, Verse 41)
“The warrior gets his reward, and the one who equips him gets his own reward and that of the warrior”—Muhammad (Sunan Abu Dawud, Book 14 No. 2520)
“Your duty is to support the Mujahideen with money and men... The Zakat of one affluent Muslim merchant is enough to finance all the Jihadi front against our enemies”—Osama Bin Laden
*Technorati ceased providing blog rankings in May, 2014. Not sure how high we ended at that time, but were previously ranked as a top 500 U.S. politics blog in 2010 when our readership was much lower
Money Jihad 
French burger joint robbed to fund Syrian jihad
September 22, 2013Four Islamists from a 12-man terrorist cell in Paris have been arrested after an armed robbery of a fast food restaurant in Yvelines, France. The men, all in their 20s or early 30s, stole 3,000 euros which authorities say would be used to finance jihad in Syria, including travel by cell members to the war front.
Some of the cell members have already departed for Syria. French authorities say that at least 100 fighters currently in Syria are from France or were living in France prior to joining the battle against Bashar al-Assad.
Given that France has Western Europe’s largest Muslim population, the use of France as a funding base for Islamic terrorism is critically important to understand and monitor. Thanks to Arun for sending this in from AP:
More details are available in French from Europe1.
Posted in News commentary | Tagged France, jihad, Syria, terrorist financing, theft | 2 Comments »