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Muslim Brotherhood Raising Funds for Hamas
Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood called for Muslims on Monday to give money to a Hamas-led Palestinian government, disregarding the U.S. campaign to stop the flow of cash to the militant group.Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice started a Middle East tour to caution countries against funding any Palestinian government headed by Hamas, which the United States and Europe consider a terror group. The United States and Europe, the world's two largest donors to the Palestinians, said they will not provide funding directly to any Hamas-led government, and Israel has already halted transfers of tax and customs duties, another main source of money for the Palestinian Authority, which governs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Arab governments have said funding should continue -- but it is unclear whether they will be able to fill the void in the foreign aid that has provided the bulk of the Palestinians' $1.9 billion annual budget. Arab League foreign ministers met Monday in Algiers in an attempt to revive a funding plan they originally agreed on in 2002 that would provide the Palestinian Authority with some $50 million a month. Arab countries have consistently failed to meet those pledges since 2002, whether because of lack of funds or political differences with the Palestinians. "Cutting the aid is very serious issue. It is an attempt to starve the Palestinians and a recipe for chaos," Mohammed Sobeih, the deputy of league Secretary-General Amr Moussa, told The Associated Press. Two of Hamas' strongest allies tried Monday to rally support. "Annual financial assistance to Palestine is one way that Muslim nations can share the responsibility of Palestine," Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in talks with Hamas' political chief Khaled Mashaal. Mashaal was leading a Hamas delegation on a three-day visit to Iran -- the latest stop of their tour of the region aimed at ensuring financial and political support. The Muslim Brotherhood -- the region's largest fundamentalist political movement, with branches and affiliated groups in 86 countries -- announced its own funding drive. "We will appeal to each and every Muslim to help the Palestinians in the face of this unjust and fierce campaign (against Hamas)," the Brotherhood's supreme leader, Mohammed Mahdi Akef, told the Associated Press in Cairo. The group will ask supporters to donate one-quarter of their income, Brotherhood official Mohammed Hilal told the Cairo-based Al-Masry Al-Yawm newspaper. The Muslim Brotherhood has wealthy private backers, and the group has close ties to Hamas, which originally grew out of the Egypt-based Brotherhood. But the large amounts the Palestinian Authority needs will likely have to come from governments. The Organization of the Islamic Conference, a 57-member grouping of Muslim nations, plans to provide institutional and financial aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Monday. "We want to help, too," he told The Associated Press. The Arab League is not expected to make a final decision on promises of funds until a summit next month in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. Since 2003, Arab countries have given $761 million -- only 30 percent of the promised amount over that period, according to Sobeih. Saudi Arabia is the only government that has paid its promised annual allotment. Before leaving Washington, Rice warned nations -- particularly Iran -- against bankrolling Hamas. "I would hope that any state that is considering funding Hamas, a Hamas-led government, would think about the implications of that for the Middle East," Rice said. I'm all in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood throwing their money down this bottomless well. I wonder how long it will be before they start insisting that the money actually be used for something, anything, that actually benefits the Paleos, instead of just having it grafted off and sent to personal Parisian bank accounts. Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-02-21 |
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