Christian churches and the financing of terrorism-Australian examples

Muslim charities and others in support of jihadists in Australia have formed an alliance with church groups sympathetic to their cause, which is proving useful in raising funds and giving legitimacy to the jihadist cause.

In late 2005 John Henderson, secretary general of the National Council of Churches Australia(NCCA) was asked for comment on the evidence presented him of links between Muslim Aid Australia and jihadists organizations, including Al-Qaeda, given the NCCA and Muslim Aid’s joint fund raising efforts for persons in Iraq.

Henderson replied that the NCCA was proud of all the partnerships and associations it had entered into.

In October this year the Council of Churches in the state of Victoria, Australia, commissioned a study authored by Rev Dr Duncan Reid, whose recommendations for building better ties between Muslims and Christians include ” giving advice to Muslims about how to live as Muslims within this wider Australian context, eg how to bank one’s savings in normal banks, in the face of the Muslim ban on charging or receiving interest.”

Dr Rahim Ghouse, business associate the SDGT Yassin Al-Kadi is amongst those whose input Reid acknowledges in his study. Ghouse heads the Muslim Community Co-Operative Australia, the largest sharia compliant financial institution in Australia.

The Columban Mission Society Australia runs the Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations ,whose website included until a recent point in time, links to the Al-Haramaein Charitable Foundation of Saudi Arabia, even after the Centre was advised that that the Foundation had been banned in the US for financing terrorism. The Centre works with a local Muslim organization, the Affinity Inter-cultural Group, to promote better understanding of Islam, despite being advised about Affinity’s support for and links to the Syrian minister Dr Mohamad Al Habash. Al Habash has been denied entry to the US and Australia, and recently called for jihad against Israel.

In 2003, the Centre’s Fr Patrick McInnerney, appeared as an expert witness on Islam for the plaintiff, the Islamic Council of Victoria, in a case against 2 protestant pastors, brought under the state of Victoria’s religious vilification laws.

The case report states: "Father McInerney in his statement is also critical of the treatment(by the pastors) of the Madrassahs in Pakistan. He concedes that they have produced radicals and extremists who became activists in Afghanistan and in Kashmir. He criticizes what he calls the populous rhetoric of millions as inaccurate, as is the implication that such extremism is characteristic of true Muslims, let alone most Muslims throughout the world who would be appalled at the indoctrination of gullible students that sometimes takes place in such Madrassahs."

The Columban Mission Society is active in Pakistan. It seeks funds from the public for its works. Despite seeking funds from the public, when asked to reveal all of its sources of funds, and to provide details of their application, the Mission’s Fr Gary Walker responded:

"You can demand as many things as you like but we are under no obligation to reveal any information about our funding to you or to anyone else unless legally required to do so by competent authorities."

It does appear that at least in Australia,anti-establishment, anti-US , pro-socialist or communist leanings are perhaps factors in the support of church members for jihadists.

For example , the Tertiary Chaplains Coordinator for the Archdiocese of Sydney, Fr Peter Maher, told a seminar on racism that the West has spent billions of dollars demonising the whole of the Middle East as the cause of all the West's troubles, and that as result the Western political economy “which this demonising serves,” has convinced its population that it knows all it needs to know about Islam as a violent religion. Fr Maher has described this "demonising" as a blatant act of inciting prejudice to accomplish economic and political ends. He also said that it is an an indisputable fact that the most marginalised and  the most disadvantaged are where they are because they have been dispossessed by the imperialism of the Christian West.

Another example, this from Sr Trish Madigan, a Dominican nun and member of the Columban’s Centre for Christian Muslim Relations:

"..one is reminded of a past age in the city of Cordoba in Andalucia, Spain where under Muslim rule Jews, Christians and Muslims lived together as a shining example of tolerance, justice, compassion and even prosperity until it was brutally brought to an end by short-sighted Christian rulers. "

Clearly the fund raising activities of Christian bodies need to scrutinised more closely.

Comments

[John Henderson]

The purpose of joint promotion with Muslim Aid in 2003 was to offer humanitarian relief and show that the situation in Iraq is not by default a war of Christian against Muslim. Contrary to what you have written, I do not recall receiving any information to substantiate your allegations against Muslim Aid (Australia). Muslim Aid (Australia) is subject to a Code of Conduct for who they distribute money to. If you have an allegation to make against Muslim Aid (Australia) I suggest you contact the Australian Council for International Development - Code of Conduct Committee. Their contact details (and a copy of the Code) may be found at: www.acfid.asn.au.

[b]

'.. Armando Valladares, a poet who was imprisoned for 22 years, recalled in his memoir "Against All Hope" that Cuban jailers tortured the prisoners with the words of NCC apologists.

"That was worse for the Christian political prisoners than the beatings or the hunger," Mr. Valladares wrote. "Incomprehensibly to us, while we waited for the embrace of solidarity from our brothers in Christ, those who were embraced were our tormentors."'

http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y00/jan00/26e17.htm
...

July 8, 2006:

“Our hearts go out to the family of the Israeli soldier who was kidnapped by some Palestinian group. We share your suffering and we fully support anything you do to free your missing soldier”
Hassan al-Shami: Baghdad/Iraq.
--
“I wonder how much time and blood it will take until Arabs and Muslims realize that the world is not the property of their ancestors and that God is not a trademark of their minds and that terror is a dead-end that leads only to more destruction.
Israel is a civilized country defending herself from barbaric savages whose minds are made of stone…minds that do not want to believe they are living in the 21st century.
What’s happening to the Palestinians despite its cruelty is going to be a good lesson for them to learn they must clear their community off the hateful fundamentalist terror mentality…[Quranic verse] “God will not change people until they change what’s within themselves"…but, will you change?!!”
Abu Ayoub al-Iraqi.
--
“To answer Mr. Jihad (the Palestinian from Jordan) and his advice for Iraqis: Iraqis are singing outside the Arab flock for one reason which is that they distinguish the truth from the Arab illusions. Only 13 years ago Iraqis used to speak like the rest of Arabs; equipped with the illusions of the “Zionist conspiracy” created by Islamists and pan-nationalists. But Iraqis now have discovered the bitter truth. Who is murdering Iraqis on daily basis?? Who is prolonging the stay of foreign troops? That’s the terrorists coming from Arab and Islamic countries!!
Israel doesn’t want to become the “Great Israel” because Israelis are only several millions in this world…
We are people with long history that we are proud of and we possess enough education and awareness, so long live the new Iraq and let Israel live as our neighbor. I’d love to say that I wish Israel could rule the entire region; better than any Arab government except for the Iraqi”
An Iraqi in exile: Asia.
--
“I just want to say that I stand in admiration and respect for the nation that wouldn’t mind destroying the world for the sake of her sons’ safety; a nation that doesn’t care about the consequences for their operations in Gaza as long as the soldier is still kidnapped and has to be set free.
Let Arabs and Muslims learn how human life is highly valued in all non-Arab, non-Muslim countries”
Hassan al-Shami: Baghdad/Iraq.
--
“From following the participations I am gaining more faith in the maturity of thinking of my Iraqi brothers.
Thank God.
And to Olmert I say: Go forward and abolish the fountains of terror in Gaza”
A free Iraqi: Baghdad.
-
http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/2006/07/singing-out-of-flock.html
----

Just a voice we seldom hear in the western public square.

Meanwhile:

"PERHAPS THE most distinguishing group characteristic of the Palestinians is the fact that no matter what they do or say, they never have to pay a price for the choices they make. In spite of their blackmail, threats and corruption, their war for the annihilation of Israel, and perhaps above all, their mocking contempt for the collective honor of Israel and the West, the Palestinians' victims line up to support them in their "just struggle against the illegal Zionist occupation." - Palestinians, surrounded by oil wealthy neighbors, receive more international aid than any other group in history. Why? Where does it go?
-http ://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/CarolineGlick/2006/05/20/198174.html
---

[GANESH SAHATHEVAN]

Attached below are the queries I, Ganesh Sahathevan, sent John Henderson, general secretary of the NCCA.
I can also advise that the matter of Muslim Aid Australia, and other Muslim charities that I have previously written about on this site(see http://www.terrorfinance.org/the_terror_finance_blog/2006/08/human_appealter.html & http://www.terrorfinance.org/the_terror_finance_blog/2006/08/an_australian_s.html) ; have ,and are ,regularly brought to the attention of the Australian Federal Police and other Australian Government agencies whose duty it is to check the financing of terrorism.
These are matters that are now in laps of the bureaucratic gods, whose actions are even less predictable and transparent than those of heaven.

Ganesh Sahathevan
Sydney,Australia

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

Date: Dec 9, 2005 9:38 AM
Subject: Collaboration between the NCCA/CWS and Muslim Aid: [Re-Sent-3rd copy]
To: christianworldservice@ncca.org.au., chodge@ncca.org.au , jhenderson @ncca.org.au.
Dear Sir/Madam

I am a freelance journalist based in Sydney.

I refer to your press release of April 2003, located at
http://www.ncca.org.au/archives/media_releases/2003/iraq_needs_ongoing_support

I then refer you to an article from CNN located at
( http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/12/08/spain.alqaeda/ )

The part of that article relevant to my query reads as follows:

Spanish police have accused 10 Islamic charities -- some of them based in Saudi Arabia -- of providing funding and other support for al Qaeda terrorist activities, Spain's largest newspaper reported on
Sunday(these include)

• Muslim Aid, created in London by singer Cat Stevens (now known as Yusuf Islam), which used funds to send mujahadeen fighters to Bosnia

Given the above report,and others(see for example articles quoted at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/293) which suggest a link between Yusuf Islam and/or Muslim Aid UK and Al-Qaeda, and given that Muslim Aid Australia and Muslim Aid UK are sister organisations,
how does the NCCA/CWS justify this fund raising collaboration with Muslim Aid Australia?

I should be grateful for an immediate response.

Ganesh Sahathevan

NSW 2066