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Arabia | |||
Saudi crackdown on charities incomplete | |||
2004-06-09 | |||
Last week the Saudi Arabian government reversed years of policy when it promised to swiftly dissolve the operations of Al Haramain, a charity with close ties to the Saudi government the US alleges is one of the "principal" backers of Al Qaeda. Though US officials have complained about the charity since at least 1998, the Saudi government’s typical response had been that while some individuals within the sprawling charity might have ties to known terrorists, its operations were overwhelming peaceful and its problems not systemic.
US counterterrorism and Treasury officials described Riyahdh’s decision to shutter Haramain and exercise more control over foreign aid as a "I do think it’s a positive step but it was only a first step,’’ says Zachary Abuza, a professor at Simmons college in Boston and a specialist in Al Qaeda and militant Islamist movements. Mr. Abuza points out that there are a number of other Saudi charities tied to terror - among them the World Assembly of Moslem Youth, or WAMY, and the International Islamic Relief Organization. Neither group was mentioned at last week’s press conference. "They have to put all of these groups under special government control, and it doesn’t seem they’re doing it yet,’’ says Abuza. It isn’t the first major announcement made by Jubeir on Al Haramain. In June 2003, he said in Washington that Haramain’s international operations would be shut down immediately, but that was followed by a defiant statement in November from the charity’s founder and chairman, Aqeel al-Aqeel, who said the group was still at work in 70-odd countries. Mr. Aqeel was later removed In the 1990s, many of the kingdom’s most militant and committed preachers and young men were sent overseas to work and preach. They were given tacit approval for militant activities abroad so long as the same methods were not brought to bear against the monarchy, which men like Osama bin Laden consider to be corrupt and illegitimate. The approach was seen as a release valve for the most extreme religious strains inside Saudi Arabia. Al Haramain was one of the main conduits to the "Services Bureau" run by Mr. bin Laden in Afghanistan during the war against the Soviets, and which later evolved into Al Qaeda. With violence rising inside Saudi Arabia now, US officials say that Riyadh is convinced it needs to change tack. "I think the action ... was an important one. It was far-reaching. It indicates [Saudi] seriousness [in] dealing with the issue of terrorism finance," US Treasury Secretary John Snow told reporters last week.
Wolosky also says the full scope of the Saudi reforms isn’t clear, and that if they don’t include organizations like WAMY, they will have less bite. "Question No. 1 is ’will all of these charities be folded into this new government entity,’’’ says Wolosky. "A lot of the likely suspects weren’t mentioned in the press conference."
Still, while Aqeel was removed from Al Haramain in late 2003, he hasn’t been arrested in Saudi Arabia for his alleged terrorist ties, nor have Wael Julaidan or Yassin al-Qadi, two other Al Haramain leaders the US has put on its terrorism watch list. Aqeel told two Arab-language newspapers last week that he intends to go to court in the US to protest the US allegations. "I have helped the poor, the orphans, and widowed While direct ties to terrorism are one thing, the US has also long worried about the intolerant brand of Islam that Saudi charities seek to export. The World Assembly of Moslem Youth, for instance, distributes and publishes books worldwide - some describing a vast Jewish conspiracy to take over the world and destroy Muslims. "It’s not just direct links to terrorism,’’ says Abuza. "It’s the infrastructure of terror that these groups put in place, creating mosques and scholarships that get people into an intolerant system," says Abuza. | |||
Posted by:Dan Darling |