Regular readers of SFW know by now that one of the more sinister aspects of Shariah-Compliant Finance is the shady practice of distributing zakat payments to various Muslim charities, dozens of which have been tied to terrorism.
We have covered these subjects here:
https://shariahfinancewatch.org/category/islamic-charities
https://shariahfinancewatch.org/category/zakat/
The NEFA Foundation has now published a paper on an umbrella group of charities run out of Saudi Arabia, which has already been designated a terrorist entity by the US Treasury: The Union of Good.
The Union of Good is made up of 57 charities (at last count) and is administered by one of the worst people in the world: Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Qaradawi is someone that SFW has followed very closely. He is infamous for his support of Jihad, for admitting that Shariah-Compliant Finance is “Jihad with money” and for suggesting that capitalism be replaced by “Islamic economics.” For more on Qaradawi, just click on his name over on the left side of the page in the “Categories” column.
Rather than rehash everything we have said about Qaradawi, we’ll just post the introduction to the NEFA report and a link to the report itself which is a PDF:
The NEFA Foundation has released a new report by NEFA Senior Analyst Steve Merley titled, “The Union of Good: INTERPAL and the U.K. Member Organizations.” The Union of Good (UG) is a coalition of Islamic charities that provides financial support to both the Hamas “social” infrastructure, as well as its terrorist activities. In November 2008, the U.S. Treasury Department designated the UG. The U.K. is an important area of operation for the UG, with six known member organizations operating within its borders, including INTERPAL, probably the single most important UG member. As with the UG itself, the U.K. member organizations, their donors, and their leaders are often associated with the global Muslim Brotherhood and are themselves frequently inter-related, sometimes sharing Trustees, banks, and in some cases, using each other to deliver aid and/or donating to each other. The U.K. member organizations appear to also deliver aid in a similar manner, donating to “partner” organizations in the Palestinian Territories, many of which are associated with Hamas and who are responsible for use of the aid money. It is often difficult to understand how the UG member charity money is actually used, as funded projects are described in only general terms. Of the six UG member organizations in the U.K., only INTERPAL has been the subject of any substantial investigation. And, despite evidence that INTERPAL aid is going to Hamas-related organizations, the organization continues to operate, although it is facing mounting banking problems probably related to the U.S. designation of the UG as a terrorist entity.
http://www.nefafoundation.org/miscellaneous/FeaturedDocs/nefaunionofgoodmemberorgs0309.pdf
