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…..