Abu Sayyaf kidnappers have set a four-week deadline to be paid or they will behead Australian Warren Rodwell. It should be noted, though, that the original ransom demand of A$2 million has been reduced to A$460,000. http://stayingsafeabroad.blogspot.com/2012/05/philippines-abu-sayyaf-reduces-sets.html
A SENATOR has requested an official inquiry into whether Australian taxpayers are unknowingly funding a Palestinian terrorist organisation. In a letter sent to Foreign Minister Bob Carr last week, Victorian Liberal Senator Michael Ronaldson cited evidence collected by Israeli civil rights organisation Shurat HaDin, which alleges that the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), based [...]
Seven people have been arrested in Britain on suspicion of funding overseas terrorism with money linked to smuggling of the stimulant khat. The arrests were part of an international probe into alleged terror fundraising and money-laundering. In a statement, Scotland Yard said the arrests were part of an investigation into a network suspected of illegally [...]
Malaysia is doubtless a center of Shariah Compliant Finance, certainly the leader in Asia and the Pacific Rim. One of Malaysia’s largest Shariah banks is Maybank Islamic. Maybank Islamic is making moves to become a global force for Shariah. They are setting up shop in neighboring Singapore and Indonesia, but also have their sights set [...]
An International Conference on Islamic Funds and Investment opened this week in Karachi, Pakistan. According to the Pakistan Observer, among the large number of attendees were investors from the USA and Canada. The report indicated that some $1.3 trillion is invested in 650 Shariah-Compliant funds worldwide, including 230 in Saudi Arabia, 172 in Malaysia, 59 in [...]
More Details on Funding for the Taliban
Not long ago we mentioned that the Taliban had gone online to raise money for their violent Jihadi activities. In that same post we mentioned that US intelligence sources had indicated that most of the Taliban’s financing sources remained intact since US forces engineered their overthrow way back in 2001. This continued financing provides one [...]
The Taliban have appealed for donations on one of their websites, to finance the Jihad against non-Muslims. Complete with telephone hotlines and email addresses, the appeal was posted on a Taliban website asking Muslims worldwide to help the rebels in what they say is a “Jihad”, or a holy war, against non-Muslim “invaders”. … “In [...]
Birmingham-based Islamic Bank of Britain has launched a new Sharia-compliant electronic International Money Transfer Service. The service, the first of its kind, operates from the bank’s branch in Coventry Road, Small Heath. The bank said it guaranteed all the funds would be handled and transferred in the proper manner. The transfer service is aimed at [...]
Imams yesterday expressed their concern over the poor knowledge the Muslim community in the country has for zakat (tithe) and reminded Muslims of their Islamic obligation by paying the zakat harta once they meet the requirements. It is clear that the knowledge of the muslim community about the zakat laws is still relatively low, said [...]
Australia is on the road towards establishing a local Islamic bond market although the country’s first sukuk (Islamic bond) issuance may be several months away… National Australia Bank is in talks with regulators on a potential debut Sharia-compliant bond offering as the issuer seeks to marry local regulations with such deals’ Islamic requirements. Any sukuk must [...]
A division of the Muslim Association of Canada which has provided funding to an entity that collects funds for HAMAS is essentially in charge of Halal certification in Canada. To declare something “halal” is to declare it permissible under Shariah. HAMAS is an official terrorist organization according to the US State Department. http://pointdebasculecanada.ca/articles/10002592-muslim-association-of-canada-a-contributor-to-hamas-fund-collector-controls-halal-certification-in-quebec.html
Al Qaeda turns to hostage taking across Africa to raise revenue
After years of limiting its kidnap operations to Mali, Niger, Mauritania, and occasionally Algeria and southern Tunisia, it would seem that al-Qaeda, through its Maghreb branch al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) is currently attempting to expand its profitable “kidnapping trade” to other countries to locate new sources of funding. According to Algerian authorities, kidnapping [...]
The Jihadist organization, Hizb ut-Tahrir, whose goal is to re-establish the caliphate and have Shariah law imposed around the globe, has once again delved into the world of finance. Back in 2009, the organization called for the demise of capitalism to be replaced by an Islamic system of economics based on Shariah: http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/2009/06/21/hizb-ut-tahrir-jihadists-target-capitalism/ Now, Hizb [...]
FATF, the world’s leading international watchdog for money laundering, terror funding, and financial standard setting, is concerned that Bangladesh hasn’t done enough to criminalize terrorist financing, and isn’t freezing suspect accounts. FATF is rightly concerned. Just take Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited as an example. IBBL is Bangladesh’s premier sharia bank, and it has used its wealth to [...]
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy has published a good report on the Jihadist terrorist group Hezbollah’s (spelled in the report as “Hizballah”) criminal activities, their money laundering and finance activities in particular, which will no doubt be of interest to SFW readers. Here are some excerpts and a link to the full report: [...]
Islamic Charities: Facing facts (An Australian View from SFW Contributor Dave Clark)
Islamic Charities: Facing facts by Dave Clark, Q Society Vice President for Islamic Finance and Islamic Charities On 10 February this year, Nicola Roxon MP, Attorney General and Jason Clare MP, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Justice issued a media release titled “Reports Highlight Risks of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing“ along with three reports [...]
Jihadi fundraiser to be released from prison in the UK
There is anger in Great Britain over the impending release of Abu Qatada, a terrorism suspect and Imam who was once described as Osama bin Laden’s right hand man in Europe. The Jihadist Muslim cleric is believed to have raised funds for terrorist groups and the British government has declared him a risk to national security. [...]
Yet another sukuk (Islamic bond) is in trouble. Like the Nakheel sukuk nearly 3 years ago, this issue is from a company in the United Arab Emirates, though this one is based out of Abu Dhabi, rather than Dubai. The company is Dana Gas, a major natural gas exploration and production company. There are questions as [...]
One of the overt objectives of the financial jihadists has always been to capture the assets of non-Muslims in Shariah-compliant investments and accounts. They have used a wide variety of methods to do so. For instance, Sheikh DeLorenzo, who is on several major Shariah advisory boards in the USA and abroad, has advocated for not [...]
Australia is about to get their first Shariah-compliant equity fund and the fund distributor is already busy touting the fund to capture money from non-Muslims by fraudulently claiming that his fund is “socially responsible.” We’ve covered much of this before on SFW, but it never hurts to refresh ourselves to debunk the notion that Shariah-Compliant [...]
Typical Propaganda on Islamic Bonds from Saudi State-Controlled Media
The article linked below has to be taken with a large grain of salt since it comes from the Saudi Gazette. There is nothing even resembling a free, independent press in Saudi Arabia and the Saudi royals have a huge vested interest in promoting Shariah-Compliant Finance both in the kingdom and globally. Not surprisingly, this [...]
The most prominent weapon in the financial jihadists’ arsenal is the sukuk, also known as the Islamic bond. Sukuk have taken off like wildfire in the Islamic world and they are being pushed out hard to the non-Muslim world. South Korea, the Philippines and Thailand are just three nations that have come under intense pressure [...]
Al-Baraka Banking Group, the leading Islamic banking group based in Bahrain, announced the organization of the 32nd session of its annual symposium on Islamic economic system on Aug. 10-11 at the Jeddah Hilton. The symposium, to be held under the chairmanship of Saleh Kamel, chairman of Al-Baraka Banking Group, will discuss a number of emerging [...]
Though the typically cheerleading article linked below doesn’t provide a detailed explanation (no surprise there), Moody’s has assigned a negative outlook on a major Islamic bond offering by a Shariah-compliant bank in the UAE, site of some of the most infamous sukuk defaults over the years… The outlook on FGB’s ratings is negative and therefore [...]
London bank launches key Shariah fund
Bank of London and the Middle East (BLME) has announced the launch of a Sharia-compliant fund which targets institutional and high net-worth investors in Gulf countries. http://www.tradearabia.com/news/BANK_201006.html
British Muslim Charged With Raising Funds for Jihadist Terrorism
A British Muslim has been charged with three counts of raising funds for terrorism. Shabaaz Hussain, 27, from east London, is accused of providing money or property for terrorism purposes on 12 April, 6 July and 3 September 2010. He is also accused of playing a part in preparing for acts of terrorism in Somalia [...]
Hat tip to Creeping Sharia: http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/2011/06/26/canadian-mosque-gets-sharia-compliant-loan-fails-to-pay-it-back/ A Halifax, Nova Scotia mosque and community center run by the Maritime Muslim Academy has had a lien placed on its assets by the architecture firm it hired to design the complex. The mosque was not financed in a conventional manner, since paying or receiving interest is haram under [...]
Accountants play a vital role in the world of finance. They are supposed to be the unbiased analysts and observers of data who help keep the rest of us from making egregious mistakes either based on emotion or because we simply lack the sophistication to decipher the numbers to fully understand a financial arrangement. Unfortunately, [...]
The first Sharia-compliant pension fund has been launched in the UK. The fund which does not invest in companies that trade in guns, alcohol, gambling, tobacco or pornography, nor does it receive interest, has been launched by Pointon York and the Islamic Bank of Britain (IBB). Investors will be able to save in a self-invest [...]
Just last week, SFW linked to a BBC video report on a new policy in the UK to cut off public funds to Muslim organizations that have been found to fund “extremism:” http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/2011/06/07/britain-to-cut-off-government-funding-to-islamist-groups-that-refuse-to-renounce-extremism/ Today, by way of the intrepid Melanie Phillips, we can provide more details on just how British public funds ended up in [...]
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