Paks recall diplomat over alleged terror funding

Normally Pakistan would have given an award to such a person. Maybe the recall of the diplomat in question is a sign of progress. But likelier than not, her patrons in Islamabad are probably irate that she got herself caught. She allegedly gave $385 to an operative of the jihadist group JMB. From BD News 24 (h/t Ranel):

Pakistan withdraws ‘terror-link’ tainted diplomat from Bangladesh

Senior Correspondent,  bdnews24.com

Published: 2015-12-23

Pakistan has recalled its Second Secretary (Political) at the High Commission in Dhaka after allegations of her ties to terrorism in Bangladesh surfaced.

Md Shahidul Islam, an immigration officer at Shahjalal International Airport, told bdnews24.com that Fareena Arshad left Dhaka in a Pakistan International Airlines flight at 1:35pm on Wednesday.

Earlier in January this year, Mazhar Khan, another Pakistani official working in the Dhaka mission, had been expelled after Bangladesh intelligence accused him of funding Islamist radicals and peddling fake currency.

Detective Branch of police recently claimed to have ‘found evidence of Fareena Arshad’s terror links’ based on information revealed during the interrogation of several arrested members of Jama’atul Majahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

One JMB member, Idris Sheikh, also mentioned the links in a confessional statement at a Dhaka court, they said.

Sheikh, who was once involved in politics in Pakistan, in the statement said he was in touch with the female diplomat and had received Tk 30,000 from her…

Sharia banks that fund terrorism

The relationship is simple.  Jihadists know they can trust sharia-compliant banks to maintain their anonymity, not ask too many questions, and facilitate high-dollar transactions on behalf of their terrorist groups.  Some Islamic financial institutions, such as National Commercial Bank and Islami Bank Bangladesh, have taken the relationship a step farther by donating a portion of their bank profits in the form of zakat as an act of corporate “charity” to terrorist organizations, or in the case of Al Rajhi, through private zakat donations of leading bankers.  Saudi Arabia and Iran are key bases for these activities, but this is a global phenomenon.  Here’s Money Jihad’s short list of the worst offenders:

Al Rajhi Bank:  The Saudi financial institution has served as the sharia bank of choice for the world’s jihadists, including East Africa embassy bomber Mamduh Mahmud Salim, Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, and organizations like Indonesian Kompak and Al-Haramain.  Bank co-founder Sulaiman Al-Rajhi appeared on the infamous Golden Chain document of Al Qaeda financiers.  These allegations were reinforced by the recent U.S. Senate investigation into HSBC’s correspondent relationships.

Al Shamal Islamic Bank:  Osama Bin Laden co-founded the Al Shamal in Sudan and invested $50 million there.  During the 1990s and early 2000s, Al Qaeda distributed money to its cells through Al Shamal.  Funds passed through Al Shamal were used in preparation for terrorist attacks.

National Commercial Bank:  Offering conventional and sharia banking services, Saudi Arabia’s self-described first, largest, and most prominent bank is NCB.  Among other misdeeds, a Saudi audit revealed that NCB transferred $74 million in the 1990s as zakat through its charitable front organizations to Al Qaeda (see here, here, and here).  Khalid bin Mahfouz, the head of the bank, exploited libel laws to sue author Rachel Ehrenfeld in an effort to silence accusations about his role in financing terrorism.

Arab Bank:  This conventional bank in Jordan maintains a wholly-owned subsidiary (Islamic International Arab Bank PLC) that offers full-range sharia services.  Arab Bank has transferred money on behalf of Comité de Bienfaisance et de Secours aux Palestiniens (CBSP), a notorious French charity, to a known financial subunit of Hamas.  The Jordanian bank has paid out insurance benefits to families of suicide bombers for the Saudi Committee—another charity that funds Hamas.  Arab Bank has handled transactions for the Holy Land Foundation, whose leaders now sit behind bars for financing terrorism.  It has been the subject of American investigations, but the bank has consistently refused to turn over related documents to the U.S.

Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited:  IBBL, Bangladesh’s biggest sharia bank, has handled Wahhabi accounts to propagate radical Islam since its inception.  In 2011, the Bangladeshi home ministry intelligence revealed that 8 percent of the bank’s profits were diverted as corporate zakat to support jihad in Bangladesh.  One of the men on IBBL’s board of sharia advisors was arrested in connection with a terrorist attack against Bangladeshi police officers.  The U.S. Senate slammed British bank giant HSBC for maintaining relationships with IBBL despite evidence that it served terrorists like Shaikh Abdur Rahman of Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh and terror-funding Islamic charities like IIRO.  The Senate’s report also implicated HSBC for disregarding evidence of terror financing at another Bangladeshi sharia bank with whom it worked:  Social Islami Bank.

Bank Melli:  The Iranian Islamic bank sent “at least $100 million to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard branch that supports Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups, the Quds Force” between 2002-06.

Bank Saderat:  Another major Iranian sharia finance house, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned the rocket-funding Bank Saderat, stating that “The bank is used by the Government of Iran to transfer money to terrorist organizations, including Hizballah, Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. A notable example of this is a Hizballah-controlled organization that has received $50 million directly from Iran through Bank Saderat since 2001.”

Other culprits include Dubai Islamic Bank, which is active in both the U.A.E. and Pakistan, and Tadamon Islamic Bank.

So much for “ethical finance.”  For further developments, please continue reading Money Jihad, Shariah Finance Watch, and @moneyjihad on Twitter.

Bangladesh overwhelmed by the financial jihad

Bangladesh continues to teach the world more and more about the collusion between Islamic sharia financial institutions and terrorist organizations.

First there was the revelation that IBBL uses zakat to fund terrorists.  Then there was the U.S. Senate’s damaging report about HSBC last summer which highlighted the British bank’s relationships with IBBL and another sinister sharia bank in Bangladesh, the Social Islami Bank Limited.

The revelations probably had something to do with FATF issuing a warning to Bangladesh to clean up its act and tighten the screws on terror financing.  The government of Bangladesh is indeed trying to, but the jihadi swamp there is so foul, and sharia banking is so dominant over conventional banking, that one wonders if the swamp can ever be drained.

This informative November article from the Eurasia Review provides some excellent background on the last 20 years of terrorist financing in Bangladesh and how the country wound up in its current stew with FATF:

Bangladesh: Banking For Terror – Analysis

By: SATP
November 12, 2012

By Sanchita Bhattacharya

In what seems a logical culmination of events, Bangladesh has been given time until February 2013 to address deficiencies in its fight against money-laundering and terror-financing to avert black-listing by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)…

…[T]he U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation, in its July 17, 2012, report titled U.S. Vulnerabilities to Money Laundering, Drugs and Terrorist Financing: HSBC Case History, disclosed that two Bangladesh-based banks, Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL) and Social Islami Bank Limited (SIBL) were involved in terror financing. Regarding the functioning of HSBC, it was mentioned that the bank acted as a financier to clients seeking to route funds from countries like Mexico, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, North Korea, Cuba, Sudan, Myanmar, Japan and Russia. The report also stated that the HSBC supplied dollars to IBBL and SIBL, ignoring evidence of their links to terror financing. HSBC did not submit these two banks to enhanced monitoring for suspicious transactions, despite recommendation by HSBC’s own Financial Intelligence Group (FIG).

According to the document, SIBL’s ownership stakes were held by two Saudi Arabia based non-governmental organizations (NGOs): the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO) – implicated in terrorist financing by the U.S. administration and included on the list of those prohibited to do business in the country; and Lajnat-al-Birr-al-Islam (Benevolence International Foundation, BIF), one of al Qaeda’s financers.

It was noted, further, that Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi Bank, also engaged in suspicious transaction, had a 37 per cent ownership in IBBL. HSBC also had maintained an association with Al Rajhi, a member of al Qaeda’s “Golden Chain” – a list including at least 20 top Saudi and Gulf States’ financial sponsors of al Qaeda, including bankers, businessmen, and former ministers.

The U.S. report on terror financing was not a recent finding. Since 9/11, the U.S. has taken strong steps to halt the flow of funds to terrorist organizations under Executive Order 13224 and related elements of the USA Patriotic Act.

The exposure of the unholy nexus between banking establishments and terrorist activities in Bangladesh can be traced back to the watershed country-wide serial bomb blasts on August 17, 2005. 459 explosions had been orchestrated in 63 of the country’s 64 Districts (excluding Munshiganj), killing three persons and injuring 100 others, on that date. After the serial blasts, which were orchestrated by the Jamaat ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), the role of IBBL in promoting religious terror was brought under scrutiny, when Bangladesh Home Ministry constituted a committee to investigate terror financing. Subsequent to the arrest of the JMB ‘chief’ Shaikh Abdur Rahman and his second in command Siddiqui Islam alias Bangla Bhai, and the subsequent seizure of some banking documents, the investigation team documented suspicious transactions with IBBL branches in Sylhet, Gazipur and Savar, where violations of the Anti-Money Laundering Act were noticed. The Act which came into existence in 2002 was last amended on June 20, 2011. Rahman and Bangla Bhai were also found to have accounts with IBBL. The two were eventually hanged on March 30, 2007 – Rahman in Comilla Jail and Bangla Bhai in Mymensingh Prison.

Jihad chief discloses Islamic charity donors

JMB chief Maulana Saidur Rahman

Maulana Saidur Rahman, the jailed chief of the terrorist organization Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), has admitted that JMB’s financial sources include the major Saudi international Wahhabi charities and the Great Britain-based charity Muslim Aid.  Here is Saidur Rahman’s account of JMB donors along with the countries where they are based:

• U.K.:  Muslim Aid
• Saudi Arabia:  World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY)
• Saudi Arabia:  Rabeta-al-Alam-al-Islami (an alternate spelling for Rabita al-Alam al-Islami, more commonly known as the Muslim World League [MWL])
• International Federation of Islamic Organisations (probably referring to the Nigeria/German-based International Islamic Federation of Student Organizations [IIFSO])
• Islamic World Committee
• Qatar:  Charitable Society (a front also used by Osama bin Laden)
• International Islamic Front (an alternate designation for Al Qaeda)
• Kuwait:  Revival of Islamic Heritage Society (RIHS)

Most of the above entities will be familiar to Money Jihad regulars.  Do not be lulled into the false argument that WAMY and MWL only have religious, charitable, or educational objectives.  They have violent, terrifying, and political objectives, and JMB’s bomb attacks have killed citizens across Bangladesh.  That Muslim Aid is still allowed to operate in Britain (or that RIHS is allowed to operate in Spain) shows the deadly consequences of Western political correctness and dhimmitude.

This information comes from Rajeev Sharma writing for the Sakal Times on Dec. 30:

Terror funds via Dhaka

Bangladesh has to do a lot more to curb terrorism

Under the prime ministership of Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh has cracked down on the jehadi brand of terrorism and terror outfits that have been needling India for years. But Dhaka needs to do more to make the efforts more effective. The Hasina government needs to clamp down on sources of funding to the militants.

Militant organisations like Jama’tul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) or Harkat ul Jehad Islam (HUJI) have been banned but not liquidated. Another set of leaders has taken over. Training camps continue to impart ideological and arms training. Mere banning will not serve the purpose. A top  JMB commander, Mustafizur Rahman Shaheen, who was arrested recently, said during interrogation that JMB has not been liquidated after its ban, or with execution of its topmost leaders Abdur Rahman and his deputy Bangla Bhai. He said JMB cadres were operating under various banners to stage Islamic revolution.

The JMB, HUJI and Islamic networks were spawned by al Qaeda and Taliban jehadis. They were trained by Inter Services Intelligence and Lashkar e Toiba. None of the umbilical cords has been cut for good. In all 20 local and foreign NGOs including al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden’s International Islamic Front finance radical Islamic groups JMB and HUJI. Huge funds pour in every month from Pakistani militant leaders, Sajedur Rahman and Hafiz Mohammad Ibrahim through the hawala channel to JMB chief Maulana Saidur Rahman. This was revealed by Maulana Saidur Rahman.

JMB chief Saidur Rahman said its activists learnt operational tactics of hitting multiple targets simultaneously from the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka. From them they acquired techniques for manufacturing explosive devices and arms. He said the JMB follows al Qaeda’s ideology and works to expand and strengthen al Qaeda’s base in Bangladesh. Information about location of JMB suicide squad members was disclosed by JMB military wing chief Boma Mizan and Zaved Iqbal, both of whom were arrested ahead of Saidur Rahman’s arrest.

Saidur Rahman said bin Laden’s International Islamic Front (IIF) has been offering financial assistance to JMB and HUJI regularly as part of its worldwide endeavour to assist all pro-al Qaeda outfits.

Sharia bank funnels zakat to militants

Government officials have accused a sharia bank in Bangladesh of diverting its corporate zakat to fund Islamist militants.  When hardcore Islamists are named to the advisory boards of sharia banks, and the Koran instructs Muslims to distribute zakat to those fighting in the cause of Allah (9:60), it is little wonder that the jihadist bank management diverts a share of profits accordingly.  The money is probably going toward Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).  From the Indo Asian News Service:

Dhaka, March 1 (IANS) A bank in Bangladesh is spending eight percent of its profits to fund militants in the country, State Minister for Home Shamsul Huq Tuku has alleged.

The Islami Bank Bangladesh is spending the money through the Islami Bank Foundation, Tuku told officials here Monday at a meeting on ways to combat militancy.

According to a statement on its website, the bank had a net profit of Tk 3,528 million ($49.69 million) in the nine months to September 2010.

The Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL), established in 1983, is a leading private bank that works on non-profit basis as prescribed by Islamic Shariah.

The home ministry has asked the bank authorities to submit a report before April 7 on where the bank spent its profits, Tuku said.

He said the ministry asked the intelligence agencies to prepare a report on how the bank spends its ‘Zakat’ (donation to the poor).

He added that he has information that the bank spent its Zakat fund in 16 phases though it is permitted to spend it in eight phases.

Home Secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikdar, Inspector General of Police Hassan Mahmood Khandker and Rapid Action Battalion Director General Mukhlesur Rahman also attended the meeting.

The home ministry has intelligence report that the bank is spending a certain amount of its profits to spread militancy, a source told The Daily Star.

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) in November last year asked its General Manager S.M. Moniruzzaman to identify any suspicious transaction by Islami Bank Bangladesh and its foundation.

A BB official said the general manager is tasked with overseeing the overall activities of the bank and monitoring its fund transfer to the foundation.

Islami Bank’s official Mohammad Abdul Mannan, however, denied the bank’s involvement in financing militants.

‘If we fund militants then why don’t the authorities concerned halt our banking?’ he told the newspaper.

Zakat flows “uninterrupted” to jihadist JMB

A year ago today we covered the jihadist financing behind Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).  At the time JMB was enriched by zakat, ushr, and counterfeiting.  Last month the Daily Star provided an update (h/t Shariah Finance Watch).  Does it still count as an “update” when the financing hasn’t changed one bit?  Well, one thing may have changed—JMB appears to be receiving even more international zakat donations than last year.

JMB still getting plenty of funds

Flow of money from local, foreign sources remains intact despite arrest of top brass

Shariful Islam

Financial strength of militant organisation Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh has been a grave concern for law enforcement agencies as the banned outfit is reportedly getting more than Tk 50 lakh a month from local and foreign sources.

JMB’s activities have lately appeared on the wane following the arrest of its top brass, including its chief Moulana Saidur Rahman, and explosives experts.

But law enforcers involved with anti-militancy drives believe its network of financial support survives intact. The flow of fund in the form of supporters’ monthly contributions, Zakat and donation apparently remains uninterrupted.

The officers, however, could not say who handles the funds after the arrest of Saidur in May. The JMB chief himself was in charge of its finance division.

Of their monthly earning, around Tk 6 lakh is being sent by around 3,000 JMB supporters staying in Australia, England, Italy, Canada, Malaysia and middle-east countries, according to a statement made by Saidur at Taskforce for Interrogation cell recently.

JMB revenues: zakat, ushr, and counterfeiting

The Daily Star reports that the jihadist organization, Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), is using money to encourage recruits to join or remain as JMB members.  The whole article is here, but the most interesting part is this fairly candid description of JMB revenue sources:

The change in the JMB’s recruitment strategy has increased the organisation’s overall expenditure, the official said adding that alongside JMB’s traditional source of income, a few NGOs and charity organisations are suspected to be providing funds to JMB.

“We’ve already got primary information about three to four such NGOs and charity organisations and are trying to get evidences against them,” a senior Rab intelligence official told The Daily Star wishing anonymity.

He, however, would not give the names of those NGOs and charity organisations before the investigation is over.

The traditional sources of JMB funding are its members’ contribution, Usl (zakat on harvested crops), Zakat, Fitra, leather of sacrificial cattle and contribution of local and foreign supporter and well-wishers.