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2004-12-14 19:26:48 UTC
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http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=16311
Muslim Charities: Terrorists' Piggybanks
By Daniel Pipes
FrontPageMagazine.com | December 14, 2004
Counterterrorism efforts got a major boost last week when a U.S. district
court found three Muslim organizations and one individual, mostly based in
the Chicago area, guilty of funding Hamas and fined them an astonishing $156
million (U.S.).
The four were found liable for their roles in the murder of an American
teenager, David Boim, on May 13, 1996, when he was shot by Hamas operatives
as he waited for a bus near Jerusalem. This case is important in itself,
providing some measure of justice and relief for the Boim family. Beyond
that, it helps fight terrorism in four ways.
First, it validates and operationalizes a 1992 U.S. law that prohibits
sending any money to terrorist organizations, not just money specifically
tied to violence. Even funds used for medical care or education, the logic
correctly goes, ultimately forward violence.
Arlander Keys, the judge in this case, established that "the Boims need only
show that the defendants were involved in an agreement to accomplish an
unlawful act and that the attack that killed David Boim was a reasonably
foreseeable consequence of the conspiracy." This ruling places other civil
cases, most notably the one linking Saudi royals to 9/11, on much firmer
legal ground.
Second, this marks the first decision by a jury penalizing Americans who
support terrorism abroad and making them liable to pay civil damages.
Third, as the Boims' lawyer, Stephen J. Landes explains, it shows that "the
American court system is prepared to bankrupt the Islamist terror network,"
just as it earlier destroyed the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Nations, two
extremist and violent organizations, "by bringing unpayably large judgments
against them."
Finally, the case confirms a pattern of culpability among even the most
innocent-appearing of Islamic institutions. Two of the three liable groups
have known ties to Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group; Holy Land
Foundation serves as its fundraising arm, Islamic Association for Palestine
as its political front. But the Quranic Literacy Institute appeared wholly
unconnected to Hamas. It is a religious group based in a Chicago suburb that
since 1991 has engaged in the pious work of translating Islamic sacred texts
from Arabic, then publishing them in English
But appearances can deceive. In June 1998, Federal authorities charged QLI
with having for nine years supported "a conspiracy involving international
terrorist activities and domestic recruitment and training in support of
such activities" and seized $1 million of its cash and assets.
The FBI found that Yassin Kadi, a Saudi-based financier linked to Osama bin
Laden, loaned $820,000 to the QLI in 1991 which the QLI laundered through a
series of real estate transactions. In what the Chicago Tribune calls
"extraordinarily complex" deals, QLI cleared nearly $1.4 million and
investigators suspect it planned to use this money in 1993 to fund the
rebuilding of Hamas.
QLI's complicity in terrorism has great significance, for it is no rogue
outfit but a stalwart of the Saudi-backed "Wahhabi lobby" in the United
States. QLI's founding president, Ahmad Zaki Hammad, is a scholar of Islam
boasting advanced degrees from Cairo's prestigious Al-Azhar University and
the University of Chicago. He has served as president of the lobby's largest
organization, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and sat on the
board of the North American Islamic Trust, its mechanism for taking over
mosques and other Islamic properties.
When the QLI's assets were impounded in 1998, leading organizations of the
Wahhabi lobby - ISNA, the Islamic Circle of North America, the Council on
American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim Students' Association - leapt to its
defense, declaring themselves "shocked at this unprecedented action taken
against members of the Muslim community." Nearly a thousand supporters
rallied on QLI's behalf, chanting "Allahu Akbar."
And yet, we now know that this innocuous-appearing organization did have a
key role funneling money to Hamas.
Muslim institutions too often are not what they seem to be. The "Progressive
Muslim Union" is actually reactionary. Mosques harbor criminals. Honey
companies and Islamic "charities" fund terrorism. A "mainstream" Muslim
leader pleads guilty to an assassination scheme.
The lesson is clear: Wahhabi organizations like the QLI cannot be taken at
face value but must be scrutinized for extremist, criminal, and terrorist
connections. Extensive research, including undercover operations, is needed
to find out the possibly sordid reality behind a seemingly benign exterior.
Daniel Pipes (www.DanielPipes.org) is director of the Middle East Forum and
author of Miniatures (Transaction Publishers).
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=16311
Muslim Charities: Terrorists' Piggybanks
By Daniel Pipes
FrontPageMagazine.com | December 14, 2004
Counterterrorism efforts got a major boost last week when a U.S. district
court found three Muslim organizations and one individual, mostly based in
the Chicago area, guilty of funding Hamas and fined them an astonishing $156
million (U.S.).
The four were found liable for their roles in the murder of an American
teenager, David Boim, on May 13, 1996, when he was shot by Hamas operatives
as he waited for a bus near Jerusalem. This case is important in itself,
providing some measure of justice and relief for the Boim family. Beyond
that, it helps fight terrorism in four ways.
First, it validates and operationalizes a 1992 U.S. law that prohibits
sending any money to terrorist organizations, not just money specifically
tied to violence. Even funds used for medical care or education, the logic
correctly goes, ultimately forward violence.
Arlander Keys, the judge in this case, established that "the Boims need only
show that the defendants were involved in an agreement to accomplish an
unlawful act and that the attack that killed David Boim was a reasonably
foreseeable consequence of the conspiracy." This ruling places other civil
cases, most notably the one linking Saudi royals to 9/11, on much firmer
legal ground.
Second, this marks the first decision by a jury penalizing Americans who
support terrorism abroad and making them liable to pay civil damages.
Third, as the Boims' lawyer, Stephen J. Landes explains, it shows that "the
American court system is prepared to bankrupt the Islamist terror network,"
just as it earlier destroyed the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Nations, two
extremist and violent organizations, "by bringing unpayably large judgments
against them."
Finally, the case confirms a pattern of culpability among even the most
innocent-appearing of Islamic institutions. Two of the three liable groups
have known ties to Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group; Holy Land
Foundation serves as its fundraising arm, Islamic Association for Palestine
as its political front. But the Quranic Literacy Institute appeared wholly
unconnected to Hamas. It is a religious group based in a Chicago suburb that
since 1991 has engaged in the pious work of translating Islamic sacred texts
from Arabic, then publishing them in English
But appearances can deceive. In June 1998, Federal authorities charged QLI
with having for nine years supported "a conspiracy involving international
terrorist activities and domestic recruitment and training in support of
such activities" and seized $1 million of its cash and assets.
The FBI found that Yassin Kadi, a Saudi-based financier linked to Osama bin
Laden, loaned $820,000 to the QLI in 1991 which the QLI laundered through a
series of real estate transactions. In what the Chicago Tribune calls
"extraordinarily complex" deals, QLI cleared nearly $1.4 million and
investigators suspect it planned to use this money in 1993 to fund the
rebuilding of Hamas.
QLI's complicity in terrorism has great significance, for it is no rogue
outfit but a stalwart of the Saudi-backed "Wahhabi lobby" in the United
States. QLI's founding president, Ahmad Zaki Hammad, is a scholar of Islam
boasting advanced degrees from Cairo's prestigious Al-Azhar University and
the University of Chicago. He has served as president of the lobby's largest
organization, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and sat on the
board of the North American Islamic Trust, its mechanism for taking over
mosques and other Islamic properties.
When the QLI's assets were impounded in 1998, leading organizations of the
Wahhabi lobby - ISNA, the Islamic Circle of North America, the Council on
American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim Students' Association - leapt to its
defense, declaring themselves "shocked at this unprecedented action taken
against members of the Muslim community." Nearly a thousand supporters
rallied on QLI's behalf, chanting "Allahu Akbar."
And yet, we now know that this innocuous-appearing organization did have a
key role funneling money to Hamas.
Muslim institutions too often are not what they seem to be. The "Progressive
Muslim Union" is actually reactionary. Mosques harbor criminals. Honey
companies and Islamic "charities" fund terrorism. A "mainstream" Muslim
leader pleads guilty to an assassination scheme.
The lesson is clear: Wahhabi organizations like the QLI cannot be taken at
face value but must be scrutinized for extremist, criminal, and terrorist
connections. Extensive research, including undercover operations, is needed
to find out the possibly sordid reality behind a seemingly benign exterior.
Daniel Pipes (www.DanielPipes.org) is director of the Middle East Forum and
author of Miniatures (Transaction Publishers).