Alms for Jihad : Charity and Terrorism in the Islamic World

by J. Millard Burr, Robert O. Collins

• ISBN13: 9780521857307
• ISBN10: 0521857309
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-04-17
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Giving to charity is incumbent upon every Muslim. Muslims have always donated to charitable endowments set up for the purposes of promoting Islam through the construction of mosques, schools, and hospitals. In recent years, there has been a dramatic proliferation of Islamic charities. While most of these are legitimate, there is now considerable evidence to show that others have more questionable intentions, and that funds have been diverted to support terrorist groups, such as al-Qaeda. The authors examine the contention through a detailed investigation of the charities involved, their financial intermediaries, and the terrorist organisations themselves. What they discover is that money from these charities has funded conflicts across the world, from the early days in Afghanistan, to subsequent terrorist activities in Asia, Africa, Palestine and, most recently, Europe and the United States. This ground-breaking book is the first to piece together the secret financial systems that support terror.

Author Biography

Robert O. Collins is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Table of Contents

1. The third pillar of Islam: zakat

2. Saudi Arabia and its Islamic charities

3. The banks

4. Afghanistan beginnings

5. Islamic charities and the revolutionary Sudan

6. Islam at war in the Balkans

7. The Central Asian crescent and Russia

8. From Afghanistan to Southeast Asia

9. The Holy Land

10. The Islamisation of Europe

11. Islamic charities in North America.