Recently in Islamic charities Category

That's a lot of misinterpretation. But actually, there is no misunderstanding of Islam going on here at all. In Islam, zakat -- the alms required of every Muslim -- can and should be given to further the jihad. So it shouldn't surprise anyone that there are so many jihad charities.

"Terror funds linked to shady charities," by Sandeep Singh Grewal for Gulf Daily News, December 10 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

HUNDREDS of millions of dollars a year are being channelled into the hands of the Taliban - much of it from the Gulf, an expert told the GDN yesterday.

Shady charities in the GCC continue to funnel cash to Afghanistan to fund insurgents, said Afghanistan Centre for Research and Policy Studies director Haroun Mir.

He accused Gulf countries of not doing enough to monitor bogus charity operations, which he accused of filling terrorists' coffers with cash to buy weapons, equipment and conduct operations.

"The Taliban gets $200 million a year to carry out its activities and recruit young people to spread terror across the world," he said on the sidelines of the Manama Dialogue, which ended yesterday at the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain Hotel and Spa.

"This huge amount of money is coming from somewhere and one main channel is bogus charities in GCC and Arab states, which collect funds that are used for illegal activities instead of noble causes."

Mr Mir said people in the region were being conned into parting with their money by those misinterpreting Islam.

"Terrorists are using narratives based on grievances of people and misinterpreting Islam," he said.

"The funds are flowing via ghost charities."

The Muslim faith requires followers to make donations to the needy as part of an Islamic tax, known as "Zakat".

However, Mr Mir said there was still no official authority that monitored where the money was going.

"Nobody has an idea where this money goes as it is being used by extremist groups to purchase weapons or recruit suicide bombers," he claimed.....

The stain on the record of Hamas-linked CAIR remains, even as it continues to deceive law enforcement officials and the mainstream media. "End of the Line for HLF," from IPT News, October 29:

The United States Supreme Court has decided not to accept appeals from the five Holy Land Foundation officials convicted of illegally funneling more than $12 million to Hamas, essentially concluding the case.

The court had no comment in declining to hear the case Monday.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected similar arguments last year in upholding the convictions against Ghassan Elashi, Shukri Abu-Baker, Mohammad El-Mezain, Mufid Abdulqader and Abdulrahman Odeh. They were convicted on a total of 108 counts in 2008 and are serving sentences ranging from 15 years to 65 years in prison....

The defense and its supporters continue to cast the Holy Land Foundation as a victim of overzealous post-9/11 prosecutions. The group merely raised money for needy Palestinians, they argue, and was never connected to any violence.

But evidence and testimony in the trial showed the HLF sent money to Palestinian charities controlled by Hamas. "The purpose of creating the Holy Land Foundation was as a fundraising arm for Hamas," U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis said at the 2009 sentencing hearing.

HLF had been one of the nation's largest Muslim charities before being shut down in 2001.
Other disclosures in the case tied several prominent American Islamist groups – especially the Council on American-Islamic Relations – to a Muslim Brotherhood network in the United States created to provide Hamas with political and financial support.

Yet note his record of deceptions. "Seda hopes to stay free as he fights convictions," by Mark Freeman for the Mail Tribune, January 16:

Pete Seda has one week to convince a panel of federal judges that he should remain free on bail pending what attorneys said could be a lengthy appeal of his money-laundering and tax-evasion convictions.

The 54-year-old former Ashland peace activist has been ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Michael Hogan to begin serving his 33-month prison sentence Jan. 23 at the federal correctional facility in Sheridan, northwest of Salem.

His attorney has filed motions with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, arguing that Seda, also known as Pirouz Sedaghaty, is an excellent and reliable candidate to remain free on bail while the court hears his appeal — which likely will last longer than his prison term.

Hogan has rejected a similar request in U.S. District Court, and federal prosecutors continue to argue that Seda is a flight risk for several reasons, including his former status as an international fugitive hiding in Syria and Iran while avoiding extradition to face his 2005 indictment.

Defense attorney Larry Matasar counters that Seda's time free while wearing an electronic GPS bracelet has been spotless and that the federal officer monitoring Seda has recommended he get bail, court documents state.

A jury in September 2010 convicted Seda on tax-evasion and conspiracy charges for using his defunct Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation charity to help smuggle $150,000 from Ashland to Saudi Arabia in 2000 and signing a fraudulent tax return to cover it up.

Though prosecutors argued Seda's motive was to fund Islamic terrorists in Chechnya, Hogan ruled they failed to make that connection.

Had that connection been made, Seda could have received as much as eight years in prison under federal terrorism sentencing guidelines.

Defense filings with the appeals court so far have not detailed what issues and alleged errors in Hogan's many rulings will be the focus of the appeal, though one filing by Matasar referred to "several substantial issues."

For the better part of the past three years, the former Ashland arborist has been living in a Portland apartment with his wife, Summer Rife, and working at an unspecified job. He has been allowed to travel freely between Portland and Ashland, according to a defense filing.

Among references in court filings by attorneys representing the government are details about the two passports Seda surrendered after his voluntary return from the Middle East in 2007 to fight the indictment.

Upon returning, Seda initially surrendered a U.S. passport and in interviews told federal officials that he spent time in Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the UAE during his 21/2; years as a federal fugitive, according to court filings. But that passport contained no stamps indicating travel in or out of Iran or Syria, filings state.

Seda's defense team later revealed that Seda — who was born in Iran and later became a naturalized United States citizen with dual Iran-U.S. citizenship — also had an Iranian passport issued in 2006, court filings state.

That passport included "a photograph that depicted him in a manner quite different from what he looked like when arrested in 2007, and also had a different date of birth and a different spelling of his name," the filing states.

War is deceit, after all.

Prosecutors did not elaborate but did argue that Seda could take advantage of his dual citizenship to get a new Iranian passport and flee the country.

Prosecutors had said Pete Seda was "well aware" the money was helping to fund Chechen jihadists, and the judge agreed. "Islamic charity leader sentenced to nearly 3 years," by Jeff Barnard for the Associated Press, September 28 (thanks to all who sent this in):

EUGENE, Ore. -- The leader of the U.S. branch of a defunct Islamic charity was sentenced Tuesday to nearly three years in prison after being convicted of helping smuggle $150,000 to Saudi Arabia.

U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan said that while he has no doubt the money went to Islamic fighters battling the Russian army in Chechnya, as the prosecution maintained, there's no proof directly linking Pete Seda to terrorism.

For that reason, Hogan said he wouldn't apply the so-called "terrorism enhancement" that could have sent Seda to prison for eight years. Instead, Hogan sentenced Seda to 33 months in prison, ordered him to pay the Internal Revenue Service $80,980 in restitution, and allowed him to remain free for 60 days before reporting.

Seda, also known as Pirouz Sedaghaty, is an Iranian-born U.S. citizen who ran the U.S. chapter of the al-Haramain Islamic Foundation based in Ashland. He worked in Ashland as a tree surgeon and was an outspoken proponent of the peaceful aspects of Islam. He was known for marching in the local July 4 parade with his camel.

Seda was convicted last year of tax fraud and conspiracy to defraud the government for helping Saudi Arabian national Soliman Al-Buthe convert a contribution from a doctor in England into traveler's checks, which Al-Buthe took with him on a flight to Saudi Arabia without declaring it to authorities. Prosecutors have been unable to force Al-Buthe to return to the U.S. to face the same charges as Seda.

Acting U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton said federal prosecutors felt they had proven Seda's connection to terrorism, but respected the court's ruling and were satisfied with the sentence.

"Money is the lifeblood of terrorist organizations," Holton said. "We are working very hard to cut off that lifeline. Shutting down al-Haramain internationally and here was an essential part of that."

Last week the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the U.S. Treasury Department rightly designated the Oregon branch of the Saudi Arabia-based charity a terrorist organization in 2004 for financing terrorist activities in Chechnya and Albania. But the appeals court found the department improperly seized the group's assets.

The unanimous three-judge panel found the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control violated the charity's Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable seizure by improperly using a "blocking order" to freeze the charity's assets without a warrant.

The foundation disbanded after the department froze its assets.

Seda declined to comment, citing the advice of his lawyers. Defense attorney Steve Wax said they planned to appeal both the convictions and the sentence....

War Is Deceit, and zakat spent on jihad is meritorious, so what did you expect, kuffar? What's that? You're shocked, shocked, that a charity would be devoted to jihad terror, and work to dupe the U.S. Government? Ah, yes -- it is a Religion of Peace™, after all...who would have thought that charity workers would do such a thing?

"3 Boston Islamic charity leaders convicted again," from the Associated Press, September 1:

A federal appeals court has overturned the acquittal of a Libyan and two associates accused of conspiring to dupe the U.S. government into granting tax-exempt status to a defunct Muslim charity by hiding its pro-jihad activities.

The court today reinstated the jury’s verdict of guilty against Libya’s Emadeddin Muntasser together with Samir Al-Monla and Muhammed Mubayyid. They were leaders of the defunct Boston-based Care International Inc.

A jury convicted them in January 2008 of tricking the government into awarding their organization tax-exempt status by hiding its pro-jihad activities....

Ever wondered why so many Islamic "charities" have turned out to be jihad-financing factories? Here are some telling sections from "21 Common Misconceptions about Zakaah," by Asma bint Shameem, an article that came to me in my morning mailing from the "Islam_1_God_1_Religion_1_Truth" Yahoo Group. Someone made me a member of that in hopes, I guess, of converting me to Islam. Every mailing contains the tagline, "Only Authentic Information about Islam is passed backed by Quran or Hadith's [sic]." In them, Asma bint Shameem explains that zakat, the obligatory alms that Muslims must pay, may not be given to non-Muslims, and may not be used to build hospitals, orphanages, or even to print Qur'ans or build mosques, but may be used to finance jihadists.

Will Honest Ibe Hooper or Boy Reza Aslan or some other giant of Moderate Islam denounce Asma bint Shameem as a Misunderstander of Islam or even as a Greasy Islamophobe? Or is she right on these points?

One thing is certain: even though she is accurately stating the position of Islamic regarding zakat, it is I who will be denounced as an "Islamophobe" for passing this on, not she who will be denounced for these positions promoting hatred and warfare.

Misconception # 18: Zakaah can be given to Non-Muslims if they are poor

It is not permissible to give Zakaah to any kaafir except the one who is inclined towards Islam, in the hope that he will become Muslim if you give him zakaah (al-Tawbah:60).

Al-Tawbah:60 is Qur'an 9:60: "Alms are for the poor and the needy, and those employed to administer the (funds); for those whose hearts have been (recently) reconciled (to Truth); for those in bondage and in debt; in the cause of Allah; and for the wayfarer: (thus is it) ordained by Allah, and Allah is full of knowledge and wisdom."

Misconception # 19: I will use Zakaah to build hospitals, masjid and orphanages

That is not permissible, because this is not included in the eight categories on which zakaah may be spent.

Allaah tells us that Zakaah may be spent on the following:
“As-Sadaqaat (Zakaah) are only
for the Fuqaraa (poor),
and Al-Masaakeen (the poor)
and those employed to collect (the funds);
and to attract the hearts of those who have been inclined (towards Islam);
and to free the captives;
and for those in debt;
and for Allaah’s Cause (Mujaahidoon — those fighting in a holy battle),
and for the wayfarer (a traveler who is cut off from everything)” [al-Tawbah:60]

But if the intention in giving the money to an orphanage is so that this money will be spent on the poor orphans, then this is permissible, if the orphans are poor.
Similarly, Zakaah cannot be used to print Quraans and other Dawah material.

We consistently see the juxtaposition of armed jihad and social services in groups like Hamas and Hizballah, and other organizations in the Muslim world, because the Islamic tradition does not set off charitable work as strictly non-combatant in the way that is expected of the Red Cross, United Way, and other Western groups. Rather, Qur'an 9:60 includes those fighting "in the cause of Allah" as being eligible for zakat.

Therefore, charitable work in the Western sense cannot be handily split off from such groups' overtly militant activities, and the former activity must never be used to excuse or downplay the group's participation in the latter, though apologists often plead, for example, that "Hamas also provides social services..."

The group in question here is cut from the same cloth. "Saudi Arabian charity in Pakistan offers education - or is it extremism?" by Declan Walsh for the Guardian, June 29:

The imposing orphanage looms on the edge of Islamabad, housing 250 poor boys from across Pakistan who receive tuition, board and meals, and daily instruction in Saudi-style Islam.

A plaque over the doors identifies the generous benefactor: the International Islamic Relief Organisation, a government-sponsored charity from Saudi Arabia that the US accuses of spreading extremism and funding al-Qaida.

America may be widely despised in Pakistan – a new poll gives it 12% approval, but there is far greater tolerance for Pakistan's regional ally, Saudi Arabia, in all its controversial manifestations.

Saudi influence is pervasive, from the soaring minarets of Islamabad's Faisal mosque – the largest in Asia – to the corridors of power, where Saudi officials enjoy privileged access. In the past decade Riyadh has subsidised Pakistan's oil supply, offered gilded exile to the opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, and even attempted to solve its extremist woes.

When trouble erupted at the hardline Red Mosque in Islamabad in 2007, the Saudi ambassador was drafted in to broker peace.

But Saudi money and influence have attracted hostile scrutiny from western countries, particularly the US. Worries centre on a flood of charity donations, mainly earmarked for education, some of which finds their way into weapons and military training.

A senior western official in Islamabad said the main worry was Saudi funding for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani militant group responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Funding appeared to have stopped since the Mumbai attacks, he said, but the group continues to solicit private money from conservative Saudis under the guise of charitable donations.

The IIRO has also come under scrutiny. In 2009 the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, privately warned that US intelligence had discovered the IIRO and two other state-backed charities "continue to send money overseas and, at times, fund extremism overseas", according to diplomatic cables released through WikiLeaks.

Files from Guantánamo Bay published this year show at least six detainees had been employed by IIRO, which US officials described as a "tier one terrorist NGO".

The accusations are denied at the Islamabad orphanage. "Our only business is education", said one employee who declined to be named. "We educate young boys, send them back into society, where they perform well."

Saudi money has been flowing into Pakistan since the 1980s, when state and private donors funded an explosion of madrasas. Many come from the Ahle Hadith school of Islam, a strict version of the faith that is close to the Salafist faith taught in Saudi Arabia.

The amount or nature of donations is shrouded in secrecy, as most come through the undocumented hawala traders, although a western official estimated it at "tens of millions of dollars".

Saudi Arabia's defenders say they are being unfairly maligned as terrorists. "Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have had exemplary relations since the day our country was born," said Maulana Abdul Aziz Hanif, vice-president of the Ahle-Hadith community in Pakistan.

The faith was growing in popularity, Hanif added, with "thousands" of mosques across Pakistan – the Punjabi city of Gujranwala alone has 500. He denied ties with Lashkar-e-Taiba, which fights in the name of the faith. "We want nothing to do with them," he said.

Secular critics say Saudi money and influence have had a corrosive influence on Pakistani society, encouraging a tide of conservatism: more veiled women, Islamist televangelists, and public shows of piety than ever before.

"All this hardline Islam is traceable to Saudi Arabia," said Pervez Hoodbhoy, a physics professor and outspoken critic of what he terms "Saudisation".

He recently published a picture showing a group of female students at his university in the 1980s, all bare-headed. A picture taken recently shows a cluster of heavily veiled females.

Most Pakistanis are reluctant to criticise Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest shrines.

And the WikiLeaks files also show the Saudis have stepped up cooperation with the US in flushing out militant financiers. Officials insist its charities are now strictly above board. The IIRO, for instance, played a prominent role in emergency relief for victims of last year's epic floods.

Still, some coincidences are striking. The Islamabad orphanage, set up in 2002, is not a madrasa – it follows the government curriculum. But its founding principal was Sultan Amir, a retired Pakistani intelligence officer known as the "father of the Taliban"....

And where is that money coming from? From our gas pumps. And note here again the connection to Islamic charities. This should not surprise anyone: in Islam, funding jihad is a meritorious, charitable act.

"'Pakistani jihad networks funded by Saudi, UAE charities,'" from Reuters, May 22 (thanks to Tziona):

Islamic charities from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates financed a network in US ally Pakistan that recruited children as young as eight to wage holy war, a Pakistani newspaper reported on Sunday, citing Wikileaks.

A US diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks said financial support estimated at $100 million a year was making its way from those Gulf Arab states to a jihadist recruitment network in Pakistan's Punjab province, Dawn newspaper reported.

The November 2008 dispatch by Bryan Hunt, the then principal officer at the US consulate in Lahore, was based on discussions with local government and non-governmental sources during trips to Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province.

It said those sources claimed that financial aid from Saudi and United Arab Emirates was coming from "missionary" and "Islamic charitable" organizations ostensibly with the direct support of those countries' governments....

But militancy is deeply rooted in Pakistan. In order to eradicate it, analysts say, the government must improve economic conditions to prevent militants from recruiting young men disillusioned with the state.

The network in Punjab reportedly exploited worsening poverty to indoctrinate children and ultimately send them to training camps, said the cable.

The idea that poverty causes terrorism has been refuted again and again, but unfortunately the fact that the connection is made in a cable like this only means that the solution will be to pour more money into Pakistan. Ironically, that money will also be used to fund jihad, not to fight against it.

Saudi Arabia, home to the fundamentalist Wahhabi brand of Islam, is seen as funding some of Pakistan's hardline religious seminaries, or madrassas, which churn out young men eager for holy war, posing a threat to the stability of the region.

"At these madrassas, children are denied contact with the outside world and taught sectarian extremism, hatred for non-Muslims, and anti-Western/anti-Pakistan government philosophy," said the cable.

It described how "families with multiple children" and "severe financial difficulties" were being exploited and recruited, Dawn reported.

"The path following recruitment depends upon the age of the child involved. Younger children (between 8 and 12) seem to be favored," said the cable.

Teachers in seminaries would assess the inclination of children "to engage in violence and acceptance of jihadi culture".

"The initial success of establishing madrassas and mosques in these areas led to subsequent annual "donations" to these same clerics, originating in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates," the cable stated.

Yes, but the picture is so much more pleasant when they don't allow all that pesky evidence to get in the way. "Muslim Aid: Hopeless Charity Commission whitewashes yet another Islamist group," by Andrew Gilligan in the Telegraph, December 17 (thanks to David):

The Charity Commission, Britain's most ineffective regulator, has once again whitewashed an organisation linked to fundamentalist Islam.

In March this newspaper reported on allegations that the charity Muslim Aid, a close associate of the fundamentalist Islamic Forum of Europe, had channelled funds to eight organisations linked to the terrorist groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Muslim Aid has admitted funding two of the organisations and has repeatedly refused to deny funding the other six.

Now, however, the Commission has published what it is pleased to call a "regulatory case review" into the charity saying that allegations of terrorist links are "unsubstantiated."

It has only been able to reach this verdict by completely ignoring the vast majority of the allegations made against Muslim Aid, and by redefining the single allegation it did choose to "investigate" in a way which allowed it to exonerate the charity. By its own admission, it did not even investigate seven out of the eight allegations which it now claims are "unsubstantiated."

The allegations made against Muslim Aid were as follows:

(1) that it had since July 2009 channelled money to six organisations linked to Hamas:

(a) the Islamic Society of Nuseirat;

(b) the Islamic Society of Khan Younis;

(c) the Islamic Centre of Gaza;

(d) the Islamic al-Salah, Gaza;

(e) the National Association of Moderation and Development;

(f) the Khan Younis Zakat Committee.

The allegations were made by security sources, who provided us with documentary evidence of the dates and amounts.

(2) that it in the year 2005 paid money to another Hamas-linked organisation, the Islamic University of Gaza.

(3) that it had paid money to the al-Ihsan Charitable Society, linked to Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

(4) that it had extensively funded the Muslim Council of Britain, a UK-based political lobbying group. This is contrary to Muslim Aid's declared charitable objects, which are "to relieve the poor, the elderly, children and all those who are in need in any part of the world as a result of natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, droughts, famines, epidemics, poverty and plagues, to relieve those who are refugees fleeing from war zones and war victims."

Repeatedly asked by us before publication, over a period of more than a week, Muslim Aid refused to deny the security source allegations that they channelled funds to any of groups 1 (a) to 1 (f). Nor, to the best of my knowledge, has Muslim Aid subsequently denied these allegations. It has admitted both to us and the Charity Commission - see paragraph 14 of the Commission's report - that it did fund al-Ihsan. It has admitted, and its own accounts state, that it funded the Islamic University of Gaza and the MCB.

In its report today, the Charity Commission states that it decided only to investigate Muslim Aid's links with one of the groups, al-Ihsan. The report states that the Commission was "not provided with sufficient evidence to support the allegation that [the] other named organisations [1 (a) to (f) and 2 above] funded by the Charity had the alleged links [to terrorism]." Consquently, it "did not carry out further investigations into payments to them. Given the seriousness of the allegations made, the Commission required material evidence in support of those claims in order for it to consider taking regulatory action."...

There is much, much more. Read it all.

Yet another jihad charity. "Texas couple accused of funneling money to Iran," by Nigel Duara for the Associated Press, December 17 (thanks to Block Ness):

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A Texas couple and the head of an Oregon charity secretly sent millions of dollars to an Iranian bank and to a contact in Iran for nine years, violating the U.S. embargo on the Middle East country, according to a federal indictment.

The indictment describes an alleged scheme in which the Texas couple got tax exemptions for their donations to the Portland-based Child Foundation charity. The head of the charity, Mehrdad Yasrebi, allegedly funneled money that was meant for food and other assistance to his cousin and to a bank controlled by the Iranian government.

Working through Iranian corporations and banks in Switzerland and Dubai, the Texas couple and Yasrebi's cousin masked their transfers by using food shipments and other commodities to cover financial donations intended for a sister charity in Iran run by the cousin, federal prosecutors say.

"These defendants are charged with going to extraordinary lengths to conceal the transfer of large sums of money in violation of the Iranian embargo," Dwight Holton, the U.S. Attorney for Oregon, said in a statement Thursday.

A 26-page indictment alleges the Texas couple, Najmeh Vahid and Dr. Hossein Lahiji, conspired to defraud the government and laundered money by purporting to transfer charitable donations to Iran while actually keeping control of the money.

Also named in the indictment as a defendant is Ahmad Iranshahi, cousin of Yasrebi and the head of the sister charity started in Iran by the two men and other family members in 1999.

Yasrebi was identified as a coconspirator in the indictment but was not charged.

Federal officials allege that since Child Foundation's creation in 1999, it has "funneled the overwhelming majority of its revenue" to the sister charity in Iran, Refah Kudak....

The U.S. has had a trade embargo against Iran since 1995, the same year the Child Foundation achieved charitable nonprofit status.

Purely a coincidence, I'm sure!

Yet another Islamic charity ends up financing jihad terror. Once authorities realize that this is one way for Muslims who are not prepared to join in hot warfare to aid the jihad, they will no longer consider this kind of thing anomalous. "U.S. Adds Islamic Charity To Terror Black List Over Its Links To LeT," from AHN, November 25:

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) - The United States has added Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation, an Islamic charity group, which was the key aid provider to hundreds and thousands of flood-displaced people this year, to its terrorist black list over its al-Qaeda links.

There were speculations that the notorious Jihadi group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which is blamed for 2008 deadly Mumbai attacks, was using the charity, which also runs ambulances' fleet across Pakistan, as its front.

Announcing it on the blacklist, State Department's coordinator for counter-terrorism, Daniel Benjamin said, "LeT has attempted to use Falah-e-Insaniyat as a way to evade scrutiny. This designation will help put to an end to that attempted evasion."

Benjamin added that the group's leader Hafiz Abdur Rauf along with two other LeT-linked men Mian Abdullah and Mohammad Naushad Alam Khan were also named on the list of "specially designated global terrorists"....

Yet another Islamic charity ends up financing jihad terror. Once authorities realize that this is one way for Muslims who are not prepared to join in hot warfare to aid the jihad, they will no longer consider this kind of thing anomalous. More on this story. "Feds seek terrorism boost on tax fraud sentence," from AP, November 23:

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) -- The co-founder of an Islamic charity once based in Oregon faces sentencing.

Pirouz Sedaghaty (Say-dah-GAH-tee), also known as Pete Seda (SAY-dah), was due in U.S. District Court in Eugene on Tuesday to be sentenced on convictions he helped smuggle $150,000 out of the country in 2000 as part of Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation's efforts to support Islamic fighters in Chechnya.

Court papers show prosecutors want to sentence him to eight years in prison, justifying the maximum sentence for tax fraud and conspiracy with evidence the money was used to promote terrorism. They also want unpaid taxes of $81,000....

Funny how these cases with Islamic charities keep coming up. One reason they do is that, while the Western understanding of charities draws a sharp distinction between combatant and non-combatant roles and places charitable work firmly in the latter camp, the Islamic tradition does not. Qur'an 9:60 includes "those fighting in the cause of Allah" as eligible for zakat.

And of course, in Muhammad's own words, "War is deceit." An update on this story. "Feds seek prison sentence for Islamic charity co-founder Seda," by Jeff Barnard for the Associated Press, November 19 (thanks to Twostellas):

GRANTS PASS -- Prosecutors want to send the co-founder of an Islamic charity based in Oregon to prison for eight years for conspiring to smuggle $150,000 to Islamic fighters in Chechnya and trying to cover up the money on the organization's tax return.

Pete Seda, also known as Pirouz Sedaghaty, was convicted in September of conspiracy and tax fraud.

The former Ashland tree surgeon and co-founder of the U.S. branch of Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Eugene.

Federal prosecutors contend in a sentencing memo obtained by The Associated Press that Seda's sentence should be longer than normal for his crimes because he "intended to promote" terrorism by helping Islamic fighters battling Russia in Chechnya and asked that he be sentenced to eight years.

Prosecutors wrote they will call a colonel in the Russian Federal Security Service as a witness in the sentencing hearing. Sergey Ignatchenk will appear by video link to testify about terrorism in Chechnya.

The memo also cites evidence Seda tried to obstruct the investigation, and that the scheme was sophisticated, further reason for a longer than normal sentence.

The government also wants $81,000 in unpaid taxes.

Defense attorneys contend the time Seda has already spent in jail is enough. They filed papeers [sic] arguing that the terrorism enhancement is not called for because the evidence prosecutors used was questionable, Seda never obstructed the investigation, and he should not be liable for unpaid taxes....

Moazzam Begg of Cageprisoners wrote about al-Awlaki that it "was evident that he commanded a large following and great respect amongst many Muslims." Indeed so. "Top charities give £200,000 to group which supported al-Qaeda cleric," by Jason Lewis for the Telegraph, November 6 (thanks to Kowtow):

The radical cleric accused of inspiring the cargo bomb plot has been backed by a prominent British campaign group which has financial support from leading charities. Yemeni authorities have charged Anwar al-Awlaki, described as spiritual mentor to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, with incitement to violence against foreigners.

Cageprisoners, a self-styled human rights organisation, has a long association with Anwar al-Awlaki, who was last week accused of being one of the figures behind the terrorist plot to blow up cargo planes which saw a powerful device defused at East Midlands Airport.

The Islamic preacher, based in Yemen, was invited to address two Cageprisoners' fundraising dinners via video link, one last year and one in 2008.

The group has now told its backers that it no longer supports the cleric and that it "disagreed" with him over "the killing of civilians".

But an examination of the Cageprisoners website last week suggested that its support for the cleric was as strong as ever.

Cageprisoners was set up to lobby on behalf of terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay and those monitored under control orders in the UK.

The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that it is being funded by the Joseph Rowntree Trust, a Quaker-run fund set up by the chocolate-maker and philanthropist a century ago, and The Roddick Foundation, a charity set up by the family of Anita Roddick, the Body Shop founder, after her death three years ago.

The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust is giving Cageprisoners £170,000 in donations over three years - with the latest payment due this month - and The Roddick Foundation another £25,000.

In its website, recently re-branded with some of the charities' cash, Cageprisoners carries more than 20 articles about al-Awlaki, describing him as an 'inspiration' and casting doubt on the evidence he is involved in terrorism.

Awlaki is believed by Western intelligence services to be an ideological figurehead of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the group blamed for the cargo bombs. Last year he praised the Muslim US soldier who killed 13 colleagues at Fort Hood, Texas.

Yet despite the heads of both MI5 and MI6 saying Awlaki uses the internet to foment terrorism, the Cageprisoners website also contains video messages from the American-born radical.

Cageprisoners - a not for profit company - is headed by Moazzam Begg, a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner, and also employs Feroz Ali Abbasi, another detainee freed from the controversial US base.

As recently as last month its website highlighted claims by Yemeni politicians that they had "never been given evidence against [Awlaki]".

Earlier in the year one leading activist wrote: "Anwar al-Awlaki's contribution to Cageprisoners has always been positive, particularly when invited to our events he has only spoken from his experiences as a former prisoner."

Mr Begg, born in Birmingham, was detained by the Americans for nearly three years after being arrested in Pakistan and accused of being an al-Qaeda terrorist.

He has interviewed al-Awlaki, and earlier this year he wrote that it "was evident that he commanded a large following and great respect amongst many Muslims".

But Mr Begg added that, after Awlaki's alleged torture while held in Yemen in 2006, "I am told, Anwar's position on issues pertaining to the US foreign policy had started to become more hostile...

"I wonder if it was terribly surprising if ... after suffering abuse I know only too well US agents to be capable of, [he] now allegedly lauds the Fort Hood shootings as deeds of heroism."

Other articles on the Cageprisoners website raise further questions.

One, on the death of Faraj Hassan, a former control order detainee, said he had died with a smile on his face "similar to the smiles we are used to seeing in videos of those martyred in the way of Allah while fighting in foreign war zones".

Hassan, a Libyan who was accused of an attempted church bombing in Italy, was killed in a road crash in August. The Cageprisoners article added: 'His death ... may serve as the fertilizer that serves to revive the spirit of jihad in the Muslims of Britain."

Despite the group's views, it is still being provided with money by the Joseph Rowntree charity, to help with its "core costs", and by the Roddick Foundation, which is run by the late businesswoman's widower Gordon and other members of her family.

Cageprisoners has also received the backing of Amnesty International, which last year faced a public row when one of its staff was forced to quit after calling Amnesty's links to Cageprisoners "a gross error of judgement".

Cageprisoners also received a further £131,000 in donations last year from other undisclosed sources. It has used the money to pay for a rapid expansion of its work....

No doubt they assumed the charity was "moderate." "Religious group took alleged terrorist money," by R. Jeffrey Smith for the Washington Post, October 14:

A group of Ohio ministers has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the organization that sponsors the National Prayer Breakfast because it received money six years ago from an alleged Islamic terrorist organization trying to finance illicit lobbying.

ClergyVoice, the activist group that wrote to the IRS commissioner Wednesday, complained that the Fellowship Foundation violated its obligation as a tax-exempt organization not to deal with such entities.

The foundation, an Arlington-based religious enterprise associated with a house at 133 C St. SE where several members of the House and Senate have rented rooms, acknowledged Wednesday that it had received two $25,000 checks, in May and June 2004, from the Missouri-based Islamic American Relief Agency.

The charity was included on a Senate Finance Committee list of terrorist financiers in January of that year.

The foundation said the agency's money was neither retained nor used to finance foreign trips it has organized for lawmakers such as Sens. John Ensign (R-Nev.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.). The group's vetting of donors has been tightened, President Richard E. Carver said in an interview Wednesday. "Hopefully, we would not see a repeat of this kind of experience," he added.

The Islamic American Relief Agency was raided and shuttered by federal agents in October 2004, but in the months after its inclusion on the Senate committee list, it mounted a quiet lobbying effort to clear its name. Carver initially said his group had checked up on the charity at the time the money came in and found nothing, but then said later in the day that he had received incorrect information and that no such checking had occurred.

Extensive government wiretaps and data collected in the raid led to multiple federal indictments of the relief agency's officers. They culminated in a guilty plea four months ago by chief executive Mubarak Hamed in which he acknowledged sending a $25,000 check to the International Foundation in May 2004. Carver said that was one of the names for his group.

Hamed, in his plea, said the purpose was to pay for lobbying by former congressman Mark D. Siljander (R-Mich.), a prominent social conservative who promised to help the agency get off the Senate terrorist financing list. Siljander, in a July courtroom appearance, pleaded guilty to serving as the charity's unregistered agent in meetings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, and admitted lying to federal officers about his role....

Islamic "charities" supporting jihadists: funny how that keeps happening. And it does because there is not the traditional separation between combatant and charitable activities in zakat as there is in the Western tradition, where charitable groups are strictly non-combatant. Rather, Qur'an 9:60 makes no such distinction when discussing groups to whom zakat may be allotted, including those fighting "in the cause of Allah" (jihad fi sabil Allah).

An update on this story, and yet another report related to the "volatile Caucasus." One can't help but wonder which attack (or attacks) in our years archived stories about the region might have been the fruits of Sedaghaty's "charity."

"Founder of Islamic Charity Convicted," from Right Side News, September 11:

After a week-long trial, a federal court in Eugene, Oregon has convicted Pete Seda, the founder of an Islamic charity accused of funneling $150,000 to Chechen mujahideen.

Seda, also known as Pirouz Sedaghaty, was charged with conspiring to move money out of the United Sates without declaring it, as required by federal law, and with filing false tax returns to hide the fact that the money ever existed. According to federal officials, Seda accepted a large donation intended to support "our Muslim brothers in Chychnia," and then surreptitiously shifted the money to Saudi Arabia in the form of difficult to trace traveler's checks.

The lifeblood of terrorism is money--if we can stop the flow of money to violent extremist organizations, we'll be safer both here and abroad," U.S. Attorney Dwight C. Holton said in a statement. "By lying to the IRS about where this money went, the defendant sought to hide the true destination of this money." Holton continued, "The jury's verdict demonstrates once again the critical role--and effectiveness--of civilian criminal courts in the battle against terrorism."

During the trial, officials described how they lost track of the money when it was deposited in Saudi Arabia, but they suspected that it eventually made its way into the hands of Chechen rebels. Prosecutors had argued that Seda had a "dark side," one that was "insistent on helping the cause of the mujahideen covertly, secretly, and without leaving a paper trail."

Seda came under the scrutiny of U.S. law enforcement because of his leadership within the U.S. branch of al Haramain Islamic Foundation (AHF), an international organization that has been banned by the United States, Saudi Arabia, and the United Nations for its support of international terrorist organizations. During the trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Chris Cardani told jurors that "al Haramain subscribed to a very violent form of Islam." He told the jury that the organization supported "violent jihad...aggressive, kill people jihad."

Knowing of the organization's role in the global terrorist support structure, Seda opened up the American branch of al Haramain in Ashland, Oregon. Despite attempts by the defense to paint Seda as a man dedicated to interfaith dialogue and peace building, the government presented witnesses who describe the "darker" side of the defendant.

Former congregants of AHF detailed how they would occasionally hear fiery prayers denouncing the United States and Muslim integration in the West. A former employee, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, explained that it was his job was to distribute moderate materials to non-Muslims, but to provide "true believers" with copies of the "Noble Quran," which contained an appendix entitled, "A Call to Jihad: Holy Fighting in Allah's Cause," extolling the righteousness of violent jihad. Gartenstein-Ross also testified how he had distributed Mohammad bin Jamil Zino's "Islamic Guidelines for Individual and Social Reform." In the book, Zino explains:

"Jihad is obligatory on every Muslim in two ways: by spending one's wealth or offering oneself for fighting in the cause of Allah."...

Mark Siljander Update -- and yet another Islamic charity that turns out to be a financier of the jihad. "Former Congressman Pleads Guilty to Obstructing Justice, Acting as Unregistered Foreign Agent," from the FBI, July 7 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

KANSAS CITY, MO--A former congressman and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations pleaded guilty in federal court today to obstruction of justice and to acting as an unregistered foreign agent related to his work for an Islamic charity with ties to international terrorism, announced Beth Phillips, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.

Mark Deli Siljander, 59, of Great Falls, Va., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Nanette K. Laughrey to one charge contained in an Oct. 21, 2008, federal indictment, and an additional charge filed today, involving his work for the Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA) of Columbia, Mo. Siljander was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Michigan and was a U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations General Assembly.

Co-defendant Abdel Azim El-Siddig, of Chicago, Ill., a former IARA fundraiser, also pleaded guilty today to conspiring with Siljander and others to hire Siljander to lobby for IARA's removal from a Senate Finance Committee list of charities suspected of having terrorist ties, while concealing this advocacy and not registering with the proper authorities.

"A former congressman engaged in illegal lobbying for a charity suspected of funding international terrorism. He then used his own charities to hide the payments for his criminal activities," U.S. Attorney Phillips said. "Siljander repeatedly lied to FBI agents and prosecutors investigating serious crimes related to national security. With today's guilty pleas, all of the defendants in this case have admitted their guilt and will be held accountable for their actions."

Siljander operated a Washington, D.C., consulting business called Global Strategies, Inc. IARA was an Islamic charity in Columbia, Mo., that served as the U.S. office of an international organization headquartered in Khartoum, Sudan. IARA was closed in October 2004, after being identified by the U.S. Treasury Department as a specially designated global terrorist organization, for the support its international offices provided to Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, and the Taliban. The executive director of IARA, co-defendant Mubarak Hamed, 53, of Columbia, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Sudan, has pleaded guilty in connection with this case.

According to today's plea agreements, between March and May 2004, Hamed and El-Siddig hired Siljander to lobby for IARA's removal from a U.S. Senate Finance Committee list of charities suspected of funding international terrorism, and its reinstatement as an approved government contractor. IARA lost its status as an approved government contractor in 1999, when the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) terminated grants for two relief projects in Mali, Africa. USAID informed the organization that the grants were not in the national security interest of the United States.

Siljander, El-Siddig, and Hamed each knew that IARA was part of a large international organization controlled by its headquarters in Khartoum, Sudan, and agreed with each other to conceal Siljander's efforts on IARA's behalf. In order to do so, Siljander instructed El-Siddig and Hamed to transfer $75,000 of IARA's funds to him by funnelling them through non-profit entities. El-Siddig carried at least three checks issued to Siljander's charities from Chicago to Washington, D.C., and gave them to Siljander.

In exchange for the payments, during the Summer of 2004, Siljander acted as an agent for IARA by contacting persons at the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, USAID, the Department of Justice and the Department of the Army, in an effort to have IARA removed from the USAID list of debarred entities, and to remove IARA from the Senate Finance Committee's list of charities suspected of funding terrorism. Federal law requires anyone who serves as an agent of a foreign entity, including an organization, to register with the U.S. Attorney General.

In pleading guilty, Siljander admitted that in two separate interviews he repeatedly lied to FBI agents and prosecutors acting on behalf of a federal grand jury. Siljander obstructed justice by falsely denying that he was hired to advocate for IARA, and by falsely claiming that the payments from IARA were charitable donations intended to assist him in writing a book about bridging the gap between Islam and Christianity.

Under federal statutes, Siljander is subject to a sentence of up to 15 years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine of up to $500,000. El-Siddig is subject to a sentence of up to five years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine of up to $250,000. Sentencing hearings will be scheduled after the completion of presentence investigations by the U.S. Probation Office....

Yet another Islamic charity turns out to be an engine of the jihad. Note also the involvement of the dhimmi former Congressman. "Former director of Islamic charity pleads guilty," by Mark Morris for McClatchy Newspapers, June 25 (thanks to Dr. A):

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The former director of a Missouri Islamic charity admitted in federal court Friday that he sent more than $1 million to Iraq in violation of U.S. sanctions.

Mubarak Hamed, 53, also pleaded guilty to conspiracy and a tax violation for misusing the charity's tax exempt status and lying to the Internal Revenue Service.

Hamed served as executive director of the now-defunct Islamic American Relief Agency-USA from 1991 until October 2004, when federal agents raided the charity's Columbia, Mo., offices and carted off truckloads of documents and computers.

The same day, the U.S. Treasury Department froze the charity's assets and said it was part of a global network of similarly named charities that supported terrorists, including Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida, the Taliban and Hamas.

U.S. Attorney Beth Phillips said in a written statement that the guilty plea represented a landmark moment in the nine-year criminal probe of the charity.

''Hamed compromised national security by secretly funneling more than a million dollars to Iraq,'' she said....

In pleading guilty, Hamed also admitted to a long string of facts in his plea agreement, many of which he and others had spent years denying. After contending that his charity was an entirely independent organization, he acknowledged Friday that it was part of an international organization headquartered in Khartoum, Sudan, that also used the initials IARA.

The African charity, according to federal officials, had frequent contact with the worst players in international terrorism.

Hamed also acknowledged that in 2001 he instructed an IARA spokesman to lie during a television interview, saying that a man who had purchased the satellite phone that al-Qaida used in the East Africa embassy bombings never had been employed by the Missouri charity.

In his plea agreement, Hamed acknowledged that he had personally hired the man to work in Columbia.

After a prosecutor read the factual recitation, U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey asked Hamed if the facts were true. Hamed hesitated for a moment and noted that he had not actually drafted the statement.

''I accept them,'' Hamed said.

''Well, they're either true or not true,'' Laughrey pressed.

''They're true,'' he replied softly.

Hamed is the third defendant to plead guilty in the case. In December, charity fundraiser Ahmad Mustafa pleaded guilty to arranging for the transfer of money from the U.S. to family members in his native Iraq.

Al Mohamed Begegni, a board member and the charity's treasurer, pleaded guilty in April to conspiring to violate Iraq sanctions.

Two remaining defendants are scheduled to begin what is expected to be a lengthy trial on July 6: Abdel Azim El-Siddig, the charity's vice president for international operations, and former U.S. congressman Mark Deli Siljander.

Siljander is accused of taking $75,000 from IARA to help the charity have its name removed from a U.S. Senate Finance Committee list of organizations that allegedly supported terrorism. Prosecutors contend that money had been stolen from a U.S. Agency for International Development grant that IARA was supposed to have used for relief projects in Mali, Africa.

Siljander has said the money from IARA was to have helped support his work on his book, ''Deadly Misunderstanding: A Congressman's Quest to Bridge the Muslim-Christian Divide.''

In his plea agreement, however, Hamed said that contention was ''utterly false.''

''Hamed never discussed with Siljander the writing of a book, and would not have spent $75,000 of IARA's funds for such a purpose,'' according to the statement.

Siljander served as a Republican member of Congress from 1981 to 1987 and later opened a Washington public relations firm. Lance Sandage, a lawyer representing Siljander, declined to comment on Hamed's plea agreement....

No surprise here, except to those who are fooled by Honest Ibe Hooper's propaganda line at CAIR. "State police revoke appointment of Muslim chaplain," by Manya Brachear for the Chicago Breaking News Center, June 22 (thanks to Block Ness):

Officials from the Illinois State Police have revoked the appointment of a prominent Chicago-area cleric to be its first Muslim chaplain.

In a statement, state police officials said Sheikh Kifah Mustapha, the associate director of the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, could not serve as a volunteer chaplain "due to information revealed during the background investigation."

Last December, Mustapha was one of seven religious leaders trained in Springfield to become volunteer state police chaplains. State police said they discovered after all seven volunteers completed the training that detailed background checks had not been performed.

But shortly after Mustapha's appointment, Steve Emerson, executive director of the Washington-based Investigative Project on Terrorism, criticized Illinois law enforcement for ignoring Mustapha's history as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, once the nation's largest Muslim charity.

The foundation's two founding members were sentenced last year to 65 years in prison each for funneling millions of dollars to Hamas, a militant Palestinian group that the U.S. has labeled terrorist but also does social work. Mustapha raised money for the group in Chicago.

On Wednesday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations will hold a news conference to protest the revocation of Mustapha's appointment.

Not so easy to tell who is a "moderate" and who is an "extremist," is it, Gordon? Now, why is that? More on this story. "Muslim Aid: the Hamas connection," by Andrew Gilligan in The Telegraph, April 7 (thanks to Weasel Zippers):

Here is the full text of the article which appeared in The Sunday Telegraph last month, not previously published online:

A CHARITY praised last week by Gordon Brown and the Prince of Wales has channelled hundreds of thousands of pounds to groups linked to Hamas, the banned terrorist organisation, according to security sources.The Prime Minister and the heir to the throne personally praised Muslim Aid, whose own accounts show it has paid at least £325,000 to the Islamic University of Gaza, where leading Hamas figures teach, and £13,998 to the al-Ihsan Charitable Society, designated by the US government as a "sponsor of terrorism" and a front for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group.

Security sources also claim that Muslim Aid has helped channel a further £210,600 to six other organisations in the Gaza Strip since July 2009, all of which they say are linked to Hamas.

Muslim Aid is banned from the West Bank by the Israeli government, which says it is a member of the Union of Good, an alliance of charities that raise money for Hamas. Hamas is banned throughout the EU as a designated terrorist organisation.

In a video address to Muslim Aid's 25th anniversary dinner on Wednesday, Mr Brown praised the charity's "valuable work" and said: "I wish Muslim Aid and its passionate and committed staff and supporters the very best for another 25 years of achievement." [...]

The Prince sent a message saying that "our country is incredibly fortunate to be able to count on organisations like Muslim Aid, who bring not only help, but hope to those most in need".

Muslim Aid, based at the hardline East London Mosque, has close links to the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE), a fundamentalist Muslim group based in the same offices.

Muslim Aid raised more than £24 million last year and has been given at least £830,000 of public money. It claims to serve humanity "regardless of political affiliation" and only supports lawful organisations.

However, one foreign security source said: "We are opening our eyes on them. In the past they were supporting the outer rim of Hamas societies in Gaza. Now they are supporting the core."...