by Christopher W. Holton
Last week, 26 AIPAC nations got together in Indonesia to hold a summit on terrorism financing.
The report from the summit identified four major sources for terrorism funding. Keep in mind that all of this deals with Islamic terrorism, i.e. Jihad, as no other forms of terrorism are known to exist in the region.
The four sources for funding of Jihad were identified as:
1. Self-funding from “legitimate” sources.
This of course includes money laundering. An especially popular method used by Jihadists to transport funds is through pre-paid debit cards and stored-value cards which are loaded with cash and carried across borders surreptitiously.
2. “At-risk” Non-Profit Organizations
The actual accurate term for these are Islamic charities and we have documented their activities in support of Jihad here on SFW for years.
Islamic charities open funding of Jihad to the entire Islamic umma through the mandatory system of zakat through which the charities receive funding.
The report from the summit covers up the fact that the funding of Jihad through zakat is NOT a misappropriation of funds. It is in fact a legitimate destination for zakat according to Shariah.
3. Fundraising through social media and crowdsourcing.
This method capitalizes on the degree to which the Islamic State enjoys support from Muslims, particularly younger Muslims.
We have seen thousands of Muslims from around the world travel to Syria to fight for the Islamic State. We have seen dozens of attacks by Islamic State sympathizers from San Bernardino, California to France and Germany.
It makes sense that Jihad with money would also be taking place. It’s a lot easier to support the Jihad with money than it is to actually wage violent Jihad.
4. Criminal Activity
Jihadists use everything from kidnapping for ransom and extortion to robbery, car theft and oil smuggling to raise money for Jihad.
