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Al-Qaeda recruiting Muslim converts through charities network
| The surprise!... My heart!... Quick, Ethel! My pills! |
Qaeda-linked terrorists are recruiting Muslim converts in the Philippines through a network of charities, according to security officials and an intelligence report obtained by The Associated Press. One of the charities was founded by Mohammad Jamal Khalifa, brother-in-law of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
| And nobody's gotten around to shutting it down yet? |
Converts to Islam in the predominantly Roman Catholic country of the Philippines are valuable because they know the lay of the land and can tap into local information and have contacts and access, the authorities said. "When they use converts, it means they are using people who are familiar with Manila, with Cebu, with the Christian-dominated centers," National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales warned at a recent forum. Police said one, Redendo Cain Dellosa, confessed that he planted a bomb on a ferry which caught fire two months ago, killing more than 100 people. Dellosa's lawyer called it a false confession extracted under torture.
Government officials estimate the Philippines has about 200,000 Muslim converts, many who worked as migrant laborers in the Middle East before returning to join the nation's 8 million-strong Islamic community. Philippine Muslims are dwarfed by the sheer numbers of Christians in this nation of 84 million, but convert groups get by on funds from Arab benefactors and tithing from Muslims in the Middle East.
| That's who usually funds Islam's bloody borders... |
The government intelligence report identified the Fi Sabilillah Dawah and Media Foundation as the main local advocate of a radical Muslim convert movement in Christian-dominated Manila and Luzon island. The group has been headed since 1998 by a man authorities suspect is a terrorist, Ahmad Santos, who is now in hiding. Police and soldiers recently raided the foundation's mosque and office in suburban Quezon City, seizing firearms, explosives and videotapes of jihad activities. Police arrested Santos' two wives, but they were released on bail. The March report links Fi Sabilillah officers to bin Laden's al Qaeda. Fi Sabilillah also has been tied to the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, other fundamentalist groups and a network of foundations set up by bin Laden's brother-in-law, Mohammad Jamal Khalifa. Santos refused to meet with AP. But a Fi Sabilillah officer, Yusuf Ledesma, denied charges of terrorism and said the Muslim group is being unfairly targeted by a government attempt to whip up anti-Islam hysteria. "They really have no proof that Fi Sabilillah has ever been involved in any terrorist act," Ledesma told AP. "They seem to be using us as props in a propaganda war."
Ledesma accused police of planting guns and explosives in the Fi Sabilillah office and torturing converts into admitting terror activities. The intelligence report claims that two Islamic schools, or madrassas, in the northern provinces of Pangasinan and Tarlac, were run by Santos and provided paramilitary training for Muslim converts. Eight converts -- including the alleged ferry bomber, Dellosa -- were arrested in a 2002 raid on the madrassa in Pangasinan, but were released. The intelligence report said the men arrested in 2002 admitted membership in a group known as the Rajah Sulaiman Movement, whose primary objective is to establish Islamic cities on Luzon island in the Christian-dominated north. A secondary goal is to carry out terror attacks in the north, taking attention away from predominantly Muslim areas of the south.
Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-05-09 |
