Wednesday, May 19, 2010

World Zakat Fund: Underwriting Radical Islam?

Two editions ago, we mentioned that the forced Islamization via rape of Christian girls in Egypt is supported from a financial network of companies, charities and banks under the supervision of the Muslim Brotherhood. According to Israeli National news (INN), a far more ambitious fund, guaranteed to bankroll radical Islamic operations around the world is scheduled to be launched this year. Nigeria has of course remained a prime field for the disbursement and utilization of these kind of money - as highlighted by Osama bin Laden himself in 1999 (see CA Vol 2 No 3)

Interestingly, raising the alarm about the World Zakat Fund is a high-ranking Moslem personality. Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, is warning that the new charity must be watched carefully. According to Jasser, the World Zakat Fund, established in part by the Malaysian government, may be "nothing more than a ruse to give transnational Islamist movements and their controlling Muslim theocrats an economic power base." (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/SendMail.aspx?print=print&type=0&item=133707)

The new fund, the first of its kind, will collect donations from the 2.5 percent "zakat" set aside under Shar'iah law by observant Muslims who have the wherewithal to save money. With an estimated 40,000 high-net-worth Muslims in the Middle East alone, including 400 billionaires, it is expected that nearly a billion dollars could be raised by the end of its first year, and as much as $10 billion within the first decade.

Jasser told INN that he believes the fund would simply serve to consolidate financial power "in vast orders of magnitude" and then hand it over to the member nations of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). Giving OIC nations the collective ability to determine the distribution of "Muslim charity," he said, is "the epitome of giving the 'fox the keys to the henhouse.'"

A list of the controlling members of the fund's Shar'iah finance board include Dr. Ali al-Quradaghi, Syria's Abdul Sattar Abu Guddah, Abdul-aziz Fawzan Saleh Al-Fawzan - all viewed with concern by the INN with respect to Islamic radicalism. "I cannot imagine how individuals as radical as this are going to distribute billions in funds in a 'benign' method globally," Jasser said pointedly.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/SendMail.aspx?print=print&type=0&item=133707

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