Terrorism financeQatar funds Jihadist groups, but citizens of other U.S. ME allies do so, too
Before the Islamic State (IS) raided banks in Iraq, the group received most of its funding from donors and supporters in Kuwait and Qatar, often with the knowledge of government officials. The United States is now pressing Arab Gulf governments to crack down on funding to IS and other extremist groups, but many Sunni Gulf leaders are facing domestic pressure to support militant Sunni groups believed to be counterweights to their Shia rival, Iran, and the Iranian-backed Assad regime.
Before the Islamic State (IS) raided banks in Iraq, the group received most of its funding from donors and supporters in Kuwait and Qatar, often with the knowledge of government officials. “Everybody knows the money is going through Kuwait and that it’s coming from the Arab Gulf,” said Andrew Tabler, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “Kuwait’s banking system and its money changers have long been a huge problem because they are a major conduit for money to extremist groups in Syria and now Iraq.”
The Telegraph reports that throughout 2013, and earlier parts of 2014, TV stations and social media sites in Kuwait and Qatar published advertisements openly soliciting money for weapons and troops for jihad in Syria. The Kuwait Scholars’ Union (KSU) ran several advertising campaigns including the “Great Kuwait Campaign,” which raised millions of dollars for anti-aircraft missiles, rocket-propelled grenades, and fighters. Most of the money went to IS and some to Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda affiliate and formerly and IS ally. “By Allah’s grace and his success, the Great Kuwait Campaign announces the preparation of 8,700 Syrian mujahideen,” announced KSU president, Nabil al-Awadi, in June 2013. “The campaign is ongoing until 12,000 are prepared,” he declared. That year, KSU also ran the “Liberate the Coast” fundraising campaign to help pay for massacres including the killing of civilians in the Syrian port of Latakia.
The Kuwaiti government’s response to local funders of IS and other Sunni militants has been passive and at times supportive. In January, the royal family country appointed Nayef-al-Ajmi, who, the Telegraph reports, had appeared on fundraising posters for al-Qaeda-backed al-Nusra Front, as the new minister of justice,
When asked by U.S counterterrorism officials to halt all direct and indirect financial support for IS, the Qatari and Kuwaiti governments continue to deny allegations of support. “We are repelled by their views, their violent methods and their ambitions,” Khalid al-Attiyah, the Qatari foreign minister, recently said – but just a month after the Obama administration designated Harith al-Dari, leader of the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) in Iraq, as a sponsor of what would become IS, al-Dari was granted an audience with the Emir of Qatar.
The two leading al-Qaeda fund raisers, Hajjaj al-Ajmi and Hamid al-Ali, have been invited by Qatar’s Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs to preach at government-controlled mosques, where they called for jihad in Syria.
The New York Times reports that in 2010, an arm of the Qatari government donated funds to help build a $1.2 million mosque in Yemen for sheikh Abdel Wahab al-Humayqani, a designated fund-raiser for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
The United States is now pressing Arab Gulf governments to crack down on funding to IS and other extremist groups, but many Sunni Gulf leaders are facing domestic pressure to support militant Sunni groups believed to be counterweights to their Shia rival, Iran, and the Iranian-backed Assad regime. “ISIS is part of the Sunni forces that are fighting Shia forces in this regional sectarian conflict. They are in an existential battle with both the (Iranian aligned) Maliki government and the Assad regime,” said Tabler.
