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Saudi Officials Try To Shut Down Oregon Charity Group Owns Property In Ashland ASHLAND, Ore. -- The Saudi Arabian government is trying to shut down an Islamic charity with ties to Oregon and to terrorism. Al-Haramain runs a branch in Ashland and owns a house and acreage (pictured) in the Southern Oregon town. The FBI shut down the Ashland branch and seized evidence several months ago. The Oregon foundation is accused of laundering money from overseas and channeling it to terrorist groups. Al-Haramain still owns the Ashland property but cannot use it until the investigation is complete. The organization's president...

NOTE The following text is a quote: July 22, 2010 TG-782 Treasury Targets Taliban and Haqqani Network Leadership: Treasury Designates Three Financiers Operating in Afghanistan and Pakistan WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated three key leaders and financiers for the Taliban and its affiliated group the Haqqani Network, for supporting acts of terrorism and for acting for or on behalf of the Taliban or the Haqqani Network. Today's designation, pursuant to Executive Order 13224 targets Gul Agha Ishakzai, the head of the Taliban's financial commission; Amir Abdullah, former treasurer to senior Taliban leader Mullah Berader; and...

IPT News June 9, 2010 SNIPPET: "The Turkish-based charity that helped drive last week's deadly confrontation with Israeli commandos has deep ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups. The Hamas ties are not in question. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and IHH officials simply do not acknowledge that Hamas is a terrorist group." SNIPPET: "U.S. officials have expressed concern over the fact that "IHH representatives have met with senior Hamas officials in Turkey, Syria, and Gaza over the past three years," but IHH is not a designated terrorist organization in the United States. It's fair to ask, why not?"...

This week, while conducting research on the web on the connection between Zakat (tithing in Islam) and Jihad (war against non-Muslims), we came across the forum section of IslamOnline. A forum member from Egypt asked a direct question: “IS A MUSLIM ALLOWED TO SPEND SOME OF THE MONEY OF ZAKAH ON HIS JOURNEY TO TAKE PART IN JIHAD IN THE CAUSE OF ALLAH? The response came from Creepy Qaradawi himself:

Note: The following text is a quote: Holy Land Foundation Representative Arrested United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade announced today that Mohamad Mustapha Ali Masfaka, a 47-year-old native of Syria, was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection when he attempted to enter the United States from Canada via the Ambassador Bridge. Mr. Masfaka made his initial appearance in federal court in Detroit on an Indictment charging him with Attempted Naturalization Fraud, False Statements, and Perjury. Joining in the announcement was Brian Moskowitz, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Office of Investigations for Ohio and Michigan...

Over the past fortnight people from around the world have donated time, money and goods to the victims of the horrible earthquake in Haiti. A host of actors and other famous public figures in the United States held a telethon recently to raise money for the victims in Haiti. One of them was retired boxing champion Muhammad Ali, who released the following statement: “By any name, charity can bring the people of our planet together. Charity changes lives and saves lives. We call upon all the good people in every corner of the world to help. Please give now. In...

Date: January 8, 2010 ISCC affiliated Imams Issue Important Fatwa Attack on Canada and the United States is Attack on Muslims Over 10 million Muslims Live in North America Calgary) Twenty Imams affiliated with the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada have issued a Fatwa today declaring the attacks on Canada and the United States by any extremist will be the attack on 10 million Muslims living in North America. This is the first Fatwa by the Muslim clergy declaring attacks on Canada and the United States as attack on Muslims. Following is the text of the Fatwa. FATWA (religious edict)...

The US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mr Richard Holbrooke, says that Taliban militants are receiving more funding from their sympathisers abroad than from Afghanistan’s illegal drug trade. Mr Holbrooke says: “More money is coming from the Gulf than is coming from the drug trade to the Taliban.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQG8PIqLp7k

Tucked away in President Obama's historic speech in Cairo Thursday was a promise to American Muslims to ease the impact of post-9/11 scrutiny of their charities. "Rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation. That's why I'm committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfill zakat," said Obama, referring to the Muslim obligation to be charitable. A Treasury Department spokeswoman, Natalie Wyeth, described an increased effort to talk with the groups, to "help them protect against terrorist abuse of charity and to refine the guidance surrounding charitable giving." Ever...

Tucked away in President Obama's historic speech in Cairo Thursday was a promise to American Muslims to ease the impact of post-9/11 scrutiny of their charities. "Rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation. That's why I'm committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfill zakat," said Obama, referring to the Muslim obligation to be charitable

Note: The following text is a quote: Federal Judge Hands Downs Sentences in Holy Land Foundation Case Holy Land Foundation and Leaders Convicted on Providing Material Support to Hamas Terrorist Organization Today, in federal court in Dallas, U.S. District Judge Jorge A. Solis sentenced the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) and five of its leaders following their convictions by a federal jury in November 2008 on charges of providing material support to Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization. "Today's sentences mark the culmination of many years of painstaking investigative and prosecutorial work at the federal, state and...

If “cash is king,” then Middle East coffers are irresistibly enticing. During a recent tour of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt applauded the “growing role” of Arab banks in the U.S. economy. Treasury is seeking buyers for its newly acquired bailout assets because more than $1 trillion in cash is urgently needed to rescue the largest U.S. banks. However, cash from the Arabian Gulf comes with a vital string attached: Islamic banking, erroneously viewed as an ancient practice. In fact, Islamic banking is a newly invented institution: “Neither classical nor medieval Islamic civilization featured...

DALLAS – Jury deliberations begin Wednesday morning in the case of five men accused of routing millions of dollars to Hamas. Closing arguments in the terror-support trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) and its former officers ended late Tuesday afternoon. After the second full day of hearing from attorneys, U.S. District Judge Jorge A. Solis suggested jurors select a foreperson and go home for the evening. The men are accused of routing millions of dollars to Hamas through a series of Palestinian charities prosecutors say were controlled by the terrorist group. But defense attorneys cast...

What could the USS Kitty Hawk and Citigroup possibly have in common? I'll start with the aircraft carrier because I'm still stewing over what happened when the People's Republic of China abruptly denied the USS Kitty Hawk and its accompanying ships and submarines their routine, scheduled Thanksgiving berth in Hong Kong, where hundreds of crew members' families had gathered (at considerable expense) to celebrate the holiday with their loved ones. First, there was the nasty act itself. News accounts speculated about the "reason" -- was it President Bush's recent meeting with the Dalai Lama? Our latest arms agreement with Taiwan?...

Terror Funding: Inviting Americans to convert, Osama bin Laden says Islam requires no tax, just a 2.5% tithe to Allah. What he doesn't say is much of those funds benefit terrorists like him. The shocking truth is that Islamic religious giving — called "zakat," the third pillar of Islam — supports terrorism. And millions of the blood money is donated by American Muslims through mosques and various charities once considered mainstream. Since 9/11, U.S. counterterrorism authorities have had to put a whopping six major Muslim charities out of business, including the biggest — the Holy Land Foundation. All have been...

In his latest video message, Osama bin Laden coaxed Americans to accept Islam, in which, he also offered them heavy tax incentive. He said, "There are no taxes in Islam, but rather there is a limited Zakaat [alms] totaling 2.5 percent." This huge tax-cut might be very tempting for the well-off and big corporations in America . However, he is not telling us whole truth about the taxation system of ideal Islamic states, such as was in the now-defunct Islamic caliphate, which Osama wants to reinstate on the global scale.

SAN FRANCISCO -- In a new challenge to Washington over its closing of several American Muslim charities accused of aiding terrorism, the largest such group sued Monday seeking dismissal of many of the charges. Lawyers for Holy Land, based in Richardson, Texas, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Dallas two weeks after a federal judge in California called into question a crucial provision in designating terrorist supporters. Since December 2001, the Treasury Department has designated Holy Land and five other Muslim charities in the United States as terrorist supporters, seizing millions of dollars in assets and halting their activities....

Counterterrorism efforts got a major boost last week when an American district court found three Muslim organizations and one individual, mostly based in the Chicago area, guilty of funding Hamas and fined them an astonishing US$156 million. The four were found liable for their roles in the murder of an American teenager, David Boim, on May 13, 1996, when he was shot by Hamas operatives as he waited for a bus near Jerusalem. This case is important in itself, providing some measure of justice and relief for the Boim family. Beyond that, it helps fight terrorism in four ways.First, it...