Switzerland has lifted travel restrictions on a Muslim businessman suspected by the U.S. of links to al-Qaeda.
The Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs says it has also unblocked bank accounts belonging to Youssef M. Nada.
It should be noted that there has been no official release from the US Treasury regarding this and no indication that the US believes that Nada never funded Al Qaeda.
The Swiss move came after the U.N. Security Council deleted Nada from a terror-funding list.
It should be emphasized that Nada’s removal from the U.N. list cannot be regarded as dispositive by anyone who is serious about cutting off funding for terrorist organizations. The U.N.’s record on such matters is spotty at best and many members of the U.N., particularly those who are part of the OIC (Organization of the Islamic Conference) bloc, sponsor Jihadist terrorist groups such as HAMAS, Al Qaeda and Hezbollah.
The main reason that Nada was implicated in terrorism financing in the first place was his association with Bank Al-Taqwa. Bank Al-Taqwa was found to be funding terrorism by the US Treasury Department. As a Shariah-Compliant bank, Bank Al-Taqwa had a Shariah advisory board. That board was headed by Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, perhaps the world’s foremost Sunni Shariah scholar and still a member of several financial Shariah advisory boards to this day. Qaradawi is banned from entering the US and the UK due to his ties to terrorist organizations…
