L’Observatoire des religions

Alms for Jihad

mardi 5 juin 2007

Charity and Terrorism in the Islamic World

J. Millard Burr
Robert O. Collins
University of California, Santa Barbara

Alms for Jihad

Giving to charity is incumbent upon every Muslim. Muslims have always donated to charitable endowments set up for the purposes of promoting Islam through the construction of mosques, schools, and hospitals. In recent years, there has been a dramatic proliferation of Islamic charities. While most of these are legitimate, there is now considerable evidence to show that others have more questionable intentions, and that funds have been diverted to support terrorist groups, such as al-Qaeda. The authors examine the contention through a detailed investigation of the charities involved, their financial intermediaries, and the terrorist organisations themselves. What they discover is that money from these charities has funded conflicts across the world, from the early days in Afghanistan, to subsequent terrorist activities in Asia, Africa, Palestine and, most recently, Europe and the United States. This ground-breaking book is the first to piece together the secret financial systems that support terror.

• A ground-breaking investigation into the practice of Islamic charitable giving
• Authors reveal how some Islamic charitable foundations support terrorism and holy war in the Middle East and beyond
• Thoroughly and painstakingly researched, a compendium of what is known about Islamic charities and the financial systems that support them

1. The third pillar of Islam : zakat ; 2. Saudi Arabia and its Islamic charities ; 3. The banks ; 4. Afghanistan beginnings ; 5. Islamic charities and the revolutionary Sudan ; 6. Islam at war in the Balkans ; 7. The Central Asian crescent and Russia ; 8. From Afghanistan to Southeast Asia ; 9. The Holy Land ; 10. The Islamisation of Europe ; 11. Islamic charities in North America.
