ISNA-Canada
Suspended for Funding Kashmiri Jihadists
by Abha Shankar • Oct 1, 2018 at
3:57 pm
|
|
|
|
Share:  
|
  Be the
first of your friends to like this.
Canada's Revenue Agency (CRA) has suspended the Islamic Society of North America-Canada (ISNA-Canada),
the Global News reports.
Federal auditors say ISNA-Canada "failed to conduct any meaningful
due diligence" for $136,000 it sent to an Islamist charity about a
decade ago that may have gone into the hands of a terrorist group operating
in the conflict-ridden Kashmir region.
Although the findings from the 2011 audit were communicated to
ISNA-Canada in 2014, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) only sanctioned the
organization on Sept. 5, the report said.
The one-year suspension took effect Sept. 12 and includes a $550,000 penalty.
During 2007-09, ISNA-Canada "gifted" $90,000 to the Relief
Organization of Kashmiri Muslims (ROKM). ROKM is the "charitable
arm" of Jamaat-e-Islami
(JI) Pakistan and its armed wing, Hizbul Mujahideen, is a designated
terrorist group in the United States and Europe. JI is a South Asian Islamist movement that seeks to promote a
rigid interpretation of Islam in the U.S. and other secularly-government
nations. Its leaders have defended terrorists and rationalized attacks against Western targets.
The audited records showed that ISNA-Canada gave an additional $46,000
to the Kashmiri Relief Fund of Canada that CRA earlier alleged raised money
for ROKM.
According to the Global News, top Canadian officials have visited
ISNA-Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke there in 2013 and Public
Safety Minister Ralph Goodale was photographed there in April 2017.
"Providing resources to organizations operating in support of a
political purpose, including the achievement of nationhood or political
autonomy, are not recognized at law as charitable," CRA documents
obtained by Global News said.
"In addition, Canada's public policy recognizes that the tax
advantages of charitable registration should not be extended to
organizations whose resources may have been made available, knowingly or
unknowingly, to a terrorist entity."
CRA has acted against ISNA-Canada before. ISNA's Islamic Services of
Canada and ISNA Development Foundation lost its charitable status after audits revealed
possible funding to the Hizbul Mujahideen.
Lawyers representing ISNA-Canada acknowledge that "not all of its
practices may have been in complete compliance," but pin the blame on
"unauthorized actions" by a former secretary-general who resigned
in 2011.
Corporate records show that ISNA-Canada was the "Islamic Society of
North America (ISNA)" until October 2014, when it changed its name to
"Islamic Society of North America Canada." ISNA is a leading Muslim Brotherhood group in North
America and its conferences routinely feature rhetoric in support of
terrorist groups and other radicalism.
Related Topics: Terror
Financing | Abha
Shankar, ISNA-Canada,
Canada
Revenue Agency, charities,
Kashmir,
Jamaat-e-Islami
Pakistan, Hizbul
Mujahideen, Kashmiri
Relief Fund of Canada, audits,
Ralph
Goodale, Justin
Trudeau, Terror
Financing
New
Details Emerge on Bangladeshi Islamists' Upcoming Visit to Washington
by Abha Shankar • Sep 28, 2018 at
4:27 pm
|
|
|
|
|
Share:
|
Be
the first of your friends to like this.
A violent
South Asia Islamist group reportedly is part of a secret plot to
undermine Bangladesh's government and pave the way for the country's former
supreme court chief justice to take control.
Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh (JIB) has a "secret verbal
agreement" with Surendra Kumar Sinha to fund a campaign "getting
Justice Sinha international media exposure," the Weekly
Blitz reports. Sinha, the first Hindu to occupy Bangladesh's top
judicial post, left the country following allegations of
money laundering and graft and later tendered his resignation from
overseas.
The report comes in advance of a visit to Washington, D.C. next month by
JIB assistant secretary Abdur Razzaq, a Bangladeshi lawyer living in self-exile
in the United Kingdom. As I reported along
with Middle East Forum's Sam Westrop earlier this week, Razzaq is expected
to meet with members of Congress and with think-tanks.
According to the Blitz, Razzaq planned to use Sinha's
recently published autobiography to trigger a "mass revolt"
against the Bangladeshi government which ultimately would force it from
power, opening the door for Sinha's return.
"JIB policymakers are considering Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha as
their 'tramp (sic) card' and would use him in appraising American
policymakers and top jurists on the 'current situation' in Bangladesh.
Members of JIB in the US also are trying to buy airtime in several television
channels for airing interview of Justice Sinha," the Blitz said.
The article also detailed ties between a former top Jamaat financier Mir
Quasem Ali and Islamist NGOs, including the Saudi-funded Rabita al-Alam
al-Islami (Muslim World League), a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated
quasi government religious organization established in 1962 to propagate
Saudi "Wahhabi" Islam.
Ali helped set up Bangladesh's first Sharia bank, the Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL) and
is the founder of Ibn Sina
Trust that runs several hospitals and diagnostic centers in
Bangladesh.
Ali was hanged in
2016 after Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal convicted him of
crimes related to Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence, including
abducting and killing a teenager who supported independence. Razzaq had
helped Ali hire a lobbying firm for an upfront payment of $500,000 to
influence American lawmakers against the war crimes tribunal. Razzaq
promised to pay an additional $2.5 million once Ali was released from
prison.
Ali's brother, Mir Masum Ali, is an executive board member for
the JI-tied Muslim
Ummah of North America (MUNA). A 2010picnic hosted by MUNA featured Muhammad
Kamaruzzaman, JI's then-assistant secretary general, as the guest of honor.
Kamaruzzaman was sentenced to death in 2013 for his role in the
murder of 120 unarmed farmers.
|
Print
Send
RSS
Comment
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment