Omar Mateen,Florida's Muslim community, and their castles for jihad -Evidence of passive support for jihadist activities in Florida
by Ganesh Sahathevan
Florida has a history of jihadist activity that precedes Omar Mateen's massacre.
It was from this state that Sami Al-Arian advanced the course of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad,It was also from this state that some USD 1.9 million was sent to jihadist groups in the Middle East (see story below).
At least one school from the state, The Islamic Community School Of Panama City went so far as to seek a fatwa from Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood,to aid its fund raising efforts. Qaradawy's fatwa is telling in that he describes Muslim schools in non-Muslim lands as "castle for jihad and shields of protection from surrounding evils."
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END NOTE
Qaradwi's fatwa has been mentioned before on this blog in the post
Muslim schools as "castles of jihad" :A source of passive support for terrorism
As readers will note, the fatwa has been used in Australia by Minaret College of Springvale, Victoria, where another Afghan jihadi, Numan Haider, went to school.
| Friday, December 28, 2001 Story last updated at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, December 28, 2001Floridians gave $1.9 million to alleged terror front groups ORLANDO, Fla. - Muslim charities suspected of helping finance international terrorism received at least $1.9 million in the past five years from Florida donors, records show. Tax returns for the Illinois groups, reviewed by the Orlando Sentinel, show the three U.S.-based Muslim charities are linked through donations. "It's a disaster," said Dr. Hamida Battla, a retired Windermere internist who has sent at least $20,000 since 1998 to Benevolence International Foundation of Palos Hills, Ill., to support 32 orphans from Afghanistan to Chechnya to China. Investigators have not disclosed how terrorists might have benefited from money raised by Benevolence and Global Relief Foundation of nearby Bridgeview, Ill. The two groups are under investigation for financial links to al-Qaida and other extremist groups, Treasury spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos said. The groups have denied any links to terrorist groups. The government also contends a nine-year investigation turned up links between Palestinian militants and Holy Land Foundation for Relief & Development of Richardson, Texas. Together, the charities collected $62 million nationwide since 1996. Twenty-six people, mostly doctors, and a handful of corporations from Florida gave at least $1.9 million to Global Relief and Benevolence since 1996, according to Illinois state records that list donors of $5,000 or more. The largest concentration, $1.3 million, came from 15 current and former doctors connected to Oak Hill Hospital in Brooksville, about 50 miles north of Tampa. One of the biggest single contributors was International Charity Network, a Winter Park company that gave $300,000 to Benevolence in 1996 and 1997 alone. Two other related local firms have given Benevolence a total of $171,210 since 1996. Roger Simmons, a Maryland attorney for Global Relief, said charity officials are in the dark about the government action. "I don't know what triggered it," said Simmons, who also is representing the charity in a $125 million lawsuit filed last month in Chicago that accuses six media outlets of defaming the charity in news reports. Battla, a retired Veterans Affairs doctor, said she called the group several times in recent months to verify it was not on a government "watch list" before making a $1,000 donation. She said she donated out of concern for children living in difficult conditions. Illinois records show Brooksville orthopedic surgeon Imad "Ed" Tarabishy was the most generous Florida benefactor of Global Relief and Benevolence in the past five years, giving at least $796,600. More than a dozen other current and former physicians at Brooksville's Oak Hill Hospital, where Tarabishy is on staff, gave another $521,750. That included $110,000 from Tarabishy's brother, a Florida-licensed surgeon who practices in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Tarabishy said Friday he was angered his personal donations to the charity has been publicly disclosed and said he did nothing wrong in trying to help those in need. He said he knew no more of the charities than anyone else donating through a church or other organization would. "Every penny I ever paid, I paid to a United States approved, tax-deductible charity," Tarabishy said. "There is no more place that is more hungry, where people are more sick and in more need that those people. They are human beings like me and you. I don't know where things go wrong sometime, but the bottom line is they are very, very needy human beings." Major corporate donors for the charities have been the International Charity Network of Winter Park and two affiliated entities, MEF Marketing Inc. and the Muslim Education Foundation. Ammar Charani, whose family runs the phone, telemarketing and internet companies, said much of the money was raised from a long-distance calling program that allowed customers to designate up to 5 percent of their monthly bills to the charities of their choice. University of Central Florida traffic-engineering professor Haitham Al-Deek is listed along with the top officers on Holy Land tax returns in 1997 and 1998. Al-Deek's attorney, Mark NeJame, said his client gave money to Holy Land and donated time to review scholarship applications. He was surprised to see his name on IRS records and may sue to recover his donations if the charity helped finance terrorism, NeJame said. Raed Awad, the former religious leader at the Al-Iman mosque in Fort Lauderdale, once served as the chief fund-raiser for Holy Land in Florida but also collected funds around the Caribbean and Latin America. "The FBI has been investigating this organization since 1992, and every time, they've come up with nothing," Awad said. Copyright 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This mat |
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