Islamic American Relief Agency

The Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA-USA) is an "American non-profit organization established in 1985 and dedicated to the empowerment of disadvantaged people everywhere through relief and participatory development programs emphasizing human dignity, self-reliance, and social justice."[1] It has been under scrutiny by the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force since October 2004, when its offices were raided and its operations shut down.

On March 8, 2007, the organization and five of its leaders were charged in the 33-count indictment, handed down by a grand jury in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri for sending $1.4 million to Iraq during the sanctions that took place from 1990 to 2003.[2]

Early history

IARA-USA opened its doors in Columbia, Missouri by a group of concerned Sudanese residents in the United States as a response to the humanitarian emergency in Sudan and other parts of Africa. As the time went on, the organization has helped many people in many parts of the world, including the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the United States. Although they were all Muslims, they served to help the needy around the world, no matter what nationality their recipients may be.

Orphan sponsorship

Sade Wale from Paktia, Afghanistan, became an orphan in 1998, when his father died of natural causes. He was sponsored by IARA-USA in 2003.

Of all its programs, IARA-USA was very successful in its Orphan Sponsorship program, where donors could sponsor an orphan in another country for $1.00 per day. This amount provided food, clothing, medical care, education, and other necessities to the orphan in the time he/she was sponsored. Every sponsor received a photo and biographical information for each child he/she sponsored. The IARA-USA Orphan Sponsorship program served orphans in Afghanistan, Albania, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Chad, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Mali, Pakistan, Somalia, Uganda, and Yemen.

Health clinics

IARA-USA Health Clinic in Somalia.

IARA-USA was also concerned with poor health care in areas of conflicts around the world. They addressed the need for adequate health care (particularly for children and pregnant women) by providing primary health care, immunizations, nutrition counseling, and supplementation, prenatal care, infectious disease prevention, and sanitary water supplies. IARA-USA also helped to establish medical and therapeutic facilities for rape victims, and to train medical personnel at those facilities. These projects have been especially strong in Mali, Bangladesh, Somalia, and the Balkans.

Education and training facilities

Education and vocational training was a vital part of all IARA-USA’s development initiatives. It sponsored educational projects supporting elementary and secondary schools as well as community education services. Many of IARA-USA’s development projects involved vocational training in sewing, welding, carpentry, and other areas. Health education programs were implemented in coordination with their medical projects.

Djindjini-Koire Community School in Mali

The Djindjini-Koire Community School in Mali served 123 boys and 92 girls. It was built as part of IARA-USA’s Community Education, Water, and Income Generation Project, under which a number of similar educational initiatives were being implemented. These efforts included helping local people to organize their own educational systems, train their own teachers, and construct more schools. The goal of the project was to establish a self-sufficient, quality educational infrastructure in the Circle of Timbuktu through the active participation of the local communities.

Anwar Educational Center in Bosnia

Anwar Educational Center in Bosnia

The Anwar Educational Center in Bosnia was established in 1996 to address the post-war recovery needs of the inhabitants of Bosnia, especially the young women and demobilized soldiers. The Anwar Center provided computer and language training, the purpose of which was to help the target groups overcome the economic and social difficulties arising from the war by helping them get jobs and attain economic self-sufficiency and a sense of personal confidence.

Alleged connection to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda

On January 16, 2008, Mark D. Siljander, former U.S. Representative from Michigan's 4th congressional district, was indicted for his role in helping the Islamic American Relief Agency raise more than $130,000 that was allegedly sent to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.[3] On July 7, 2010, Siljander pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and acting as an unregistered foreign agent, and Abdel Azim El-Siddig, formerly a part-time fundraiser for IARA, pleaded guilty to conspiring to hire Siljander to lobby for IARA's removal from the US Senate Finance Committee's list of organizations supporting terrorism. During sentencing, Judge Nanette Laughery concluded that IARA had no connection whatsoever with any terrorist organization or entity posing a threat to the United States by stating "This is not a case about somebody aiding a terrorist." [4]

IARA, which served as the U.S. office of the Sudan-based Islamic Relief Agency, took in between $1 million and $3 million in contributions annually from 1991 to 2003, federal authorities said. The group was closed in October 2004 after being identified by the U.S. Treasury Department as a specially designated global terrorist organization. After being indicted in 2008, IARA was reconstituted to resolve the criminal matter that led to Wednesday's guilty plea, though the group and its governing board have agreed not to form a successor.[5] As part of the plea, IARA admitted it secretly funneled $1.375 million in cash or merchandise to Iraq in violation of United States economic sanctions dating to 1990. The original indictment alleged the charity sent about $130,000 to help Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whom the United States has designated as a global terrorist. The money, sent to bank accounts in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 2003 and 2004, was masked as donations to an orphanage located in buildings that Hekmatyar owned. Authorities described Hekmatyar as an Afghan mujahedeen leader who has participated in and supported terrorist acts by al-Qaida and the Taliban.[6]

References

  1. ↑ IARA-USA brochure, Ramadan 2003
  2. ↑ Luecke, Jacob "Islamic Group Faces Charges", Columbia Daily Tribune, March 8, 2007
  3. ↑ http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/16/former.congressman.indicted.ap/index.html "Former lawmaker charged in terrorism case", Associated Press, CNN. Accessed January 16, 2008. Bot retrieved archive http://web.archive.org/web/20080118053821/http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/16/former.congressman.indicted.ap/index.html
  4. ↑ http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/07/pity_disbelief_expressed_for_m.html Chris Killian, "Pity, disbelief expressed for Mark Sijlander: Former Southwest Michigan congressman pleads guilty to federal charges", Kalamazoo Gazette, July 8, 2010. Accessed August 33, 2011.
  5. ↑ http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/islamic-relief-agency-admits-illegal-funds-transfer-iraq-n613731
  6. ↑ http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/07/21/islamic-relief-agency-admits-illegal-funds-transfer-to-iraq.html
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 7/21/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.