BNP News : World Terrorism Draws Troops and Money from British Islamists

World Terrorism Draws Troops and Money from British Islamists

August 2, 2008

Militant British Muslims are actively supporting the Taliban and al-Qaeda in attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan, says the former commander of UK forces.

Brigadier Ed Butler claimed British troops had also uncovered evidence that militant Islamic groups in Helmand province are suspected of assisting terrorist plots in the UK.

Simultaneously, the Hindu Forum of Britain has asked the Home Secretary to escalate investigations into reports about British charities suspected of sending funds to terrorist groups in Pakistan.

The HFB appeal comes immediately after 45 people were killed in a serial bomb blast in the Indian city of Ahmedabad by suspected Islamic militants, styling themselves as the ‘Indian Mujahideen’.

According to Brigadier Butler, suspicions in Afghanistan were raised that the Taliban was recruiting an increasing number of fighters from Britain after RAF experts overheard secret transmissions spoken in broad Midlands and Yorkshire accents.

Brig Butler, 46, who led British troops in Helmand province for six months, told the Daily Telegraph newspaper that a growing number of British-born Muslims were assisting the Taliban. He said: “There are British passport holders who live in the UK who are being found in places like Kandahar.

“There is a link between Kandahar and urban conurbations in the UK. This is something the military understands, but the British public does not.”

Meanwhile, Indian authorities have claimed that the latest Islamic terrorist attacks in that country, committed by the Indian Mujahideen, have been funded by “British” charities sending money to Pakistan which is then diverted to terrorists.

Two years ago, investigators in Pakistan believed that £50 million was siphoned off from genuine relief groups for terrorists. Intelligence services had tried to trace the cash which came from several British charities.

In its press release, the HFB outlined a number of cases which they claim back-up their assertion that British charitable donations are being used to fund Islamic terrorism.

One of the “British” suspects detained in Pakistan as part of the investigation into the alleged plot to blow up planes flying from Great Britain to the U.S, is Rashid Rauf. His wife and her sister run Darul Uloom Madina, one of Pakistan’s biggest and most hardline seminaries, with some 2,000 students, in Bahawalpur.

A charity called Crescent Relief founded by the Raufs’ father, Abdul, which collected money for last year’s Pakistani earthquake relief effort transferred money into three accounts in three separate banks in the Mirpur region of Kashmir. The accounts were thought to have belonged to suspects arrested in the U.K. and Pakistan.

The charity Sanabel Relief Agency (Charity number 1083469) which also operated under the name Al-Rahama Relief Foundation Ltd, and had branches in Middlesbrough, Birmingham, Manchester and London, was designated by the United States Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control as a sponsor of terrorism.

The Treasury stated that Sanabel Relief was a front for the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). The charity continued its work until arrests had been made of one of its directors, 44-year old Tahir Nasuf, accused with six others of sponsoring and plotting suicide attacks in Iraq.

A BBC documentary by John Ware claimed that the UK charity Interpal had raised money for charities which were fronts for Hamas. The documentary also claimed that one of its senior members, Mohammed Kassem Sawalha knowingly raised money for Hamas “charities”. Sawalha is a senior figure in the Muslim Association of Britain and has links with the Muslim Brotherhood.

On August 22 2003 Interpal was designated by the US Treasury, who said: “Interpal, headquartered in the UK, has been a principal charity utilized to hide the flow of money to Hamas. Reporting indicates it is the conduit through which money flows to Hamas from other charities, e.g., the Al Aqsa Foundation, and that it oversees the activities of other charities.

Since March 2002, the US and Saudi Arabia jointly designated several branches of Al Haramain for terrorism support and sponsorship, including Afghanistan, Albania, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Somalia, and Tanzania.

On August 13 last year, the US designated the Philippine and Indonesian branch offices of the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), for fundraising for AL Qaeda. The Saudi-based organisation, founded in 1978, has branch offices in 20 other nations. Islamic Relief Agency or Islamic Relief Worldwide, based in Birmingham, had been given money by Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens, which led to the singer being barred entry into the US.