by Deb­bie Schlus­sel
FrontPageMagazine.com | Sep­tem­ber 4, 2006

Mor­mons are among the most patri­ot­ic Amer­i­cans.

So, why are†they the new financiers of Islam­ic ter­ror­ism and instruc­tion for young chil­dren in behead­ings?

The Church of Jesus Christ of Lat­ter-Day Saints, the Mor­mon Church, is the sin­gle largest donor to the U.S. branch of Islam­ic Relief World­wide (IRW), also known as Islam­ic Relief. In the past year, it donat­ed $1.6 mil­lion to the char­i­ty.

But Islam­ic Relief is not just any char­i­ty. The Israeli gov­ern­ment says it is a†Hamas front group. It is also under inves­ti­ga­tion by the Amer­i­can gov­ern­ment.

IRW was found­ed in 1984 by Dr. Hany El Ban­na. He is a rel­a­tive of Has­san El Ban­na, founder of the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood ter­ror­ist group–from which Hamas, Yass­er Arafat, and Al-Qaeda’s sec­ond-in-com­mand Ayman Al-Zawahiri emanat­ed.

In May, Israel deport­ed Ayaz Ali, IRW’s chief of oper­a­tions in Gaza, after three weeks in jail. Israel said Ali gave mon­ey to Hamas and Al-Wafa and Al-Tza­lah, both out­lawed by Israel for laun­der­ing mon­ey to Hamas. He also stored images of Osama Bin Laden, Abu Musab Al-Zar­qawi, Senior Ger­man Nazi offi­cials, Nazi swastikas, and a “God Bless Hitler” ban­ner on his com­put­er.

Upon Ali’s depor­ta­tion an Israeli gov­ern­ment state­ment said:

He also admit­ted that he worked in Jor­dan and coop­er­at­ed with local Hamas oper­a­tives. . . . Incrim­i­nat­ing files were found on Ali’s com­put­er, includ­ing doc­u­ments that attest­ed to [Islam­ic Relief’s] ties with ille­gal HAMAS funds abroad–in the UK and in Sau­di Arabia–and in Nablus.

The IRW’s activ­i­ties in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip are car­ried out by social wel­fare orga­ni­za­tions con­trolled and staffed by Hamas oper­a­tives. The inten­sive activ­i­ties of these asso­ci­a­tions are designed to fur­ther Hamas’ ide­ol­o­gy among the Pales­tin­ian pop­u­la­tion.

These asso­ci­a­tions’ edu­ca­tion­al and reli­gious insti­tu­tions incite against the State of Israel and advo­cate ter­ror­ist actions against it and its cit­i­zens.

In 1999, IRW’s British head­quar­ters received $50,000 from a Cana­di­an group that the Trea­sury Depart­ment says is a Bin Laden front, accord­ing to the Los Ange­les Times.

Inves­ti­ga­tor Bill Warn­er notes that IRW’s reg­is­tered agent in the Unit­ed States, Kazbek Soob­zokov, is the son of Nazi Waf­fen SS offi­cer Tscher­im Soob­zokov and was the lawyer for deport­ed accused ter­ror­ist and Islam­ic cler­ic, Imam Wagdy Mohamed Ghoneim. Regard­ing Ghoneim, Immi­gra­tion and Cus­toms Enforce­ment offi­cial Bill Oden­crantz said, “Frankly, our task is not to sit around and wait for peo­ple to blow up build­ings.”

At an Islam­ic Relief fundrais­er I attend­ed last Fri­day, Mis­bah Shahid, the orga­ni­za­tion’s Detroit rep­re­sen­ta­tive, announced that IRW pub­lish­es and dis­trib­utes school text­books to chil­dren in Pales­tin­ian refugee camps. But text­books dis­trib­uted in the camps are rid­dled with anti-Semit­ic, anti-Chris­t­ian, and anti-Amer­i­can rhetoric, accord­ing to Mol­ly Resnick of Moth­ers Against Teach­ing Chil­dren to Kill and Hate.

Shahid also told the audi­ence that his orga­ni­za­tion is one of the key Non-Gov­ern­men­tal Orga­ni­za­tions cur­rent­ly dis­trib­ut­ing aid to Pales­tin­ian refugee camps in Lebanon, includ­ing UN and U.S. aid. But those camps are known as breed­ing grounds for ter­ror­ists.

Giv­en all this, why are Mor­mons pour­ing mil­lions into Islam­ic Relief? They aren’t alone.

Islam­ic Relief’s brochures show Mis­sis­sip­pi Gov­er­nor Haley Bar­bour accept­ing Kat­ri­na aid from IRW, last year. It is a con­sul­ta­tive mem­ber of the UN. It was found­ed in Britain with the con­tin­ued finan­cial aid and assis­tance of the British gov­ern­ment, whose ambas­sador to Israel con­vinced the Israeli gov­ern­ment to allow Islam­ic Relief to open its HAMAS-friend­ly Gaza office.

Almost five years after 9/11, we will nev­er end ter­ror­ism if the West con­tin­ues to sanc­tion its fund­ing.