Follow the Money

Update, 8/26/2010: The Investigative Project of Terrorism points out the dismal accounting record of Imam Rauf and wife Daisy Khan:

[F]ederal tax records show the Cordoba Initiative has not listed contributions from at least two charitable foundations that have supported its activities. In another case, a foundation gave money to Cordoba’s sister group, the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA), that was supposed to go to Cordoba; that money was also not listed in Cordoba’s tax records. Cordoba has failed to list almost $100,000 in charitable donations since 2007, federal tax records show. Between 2006 and 2008, Cordoba’s charitable tax filings with the IRS show a total of $31,668 in gross receipts. However, tax filings from two charities that have donated to Cordoba or ASMA show more than $130,000 to donations to Cordoba during that time.

‘Mosque’s Saudi Patron‘ — Investor’s Business Daily

8/17/2010:

1.       The U.S. Government Funders: The State Department is Funding Rauf’s travel RIGHT NOW to fundraise for the mosque (and spread his message to Muslims) to Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.  http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/confirmed-state-dept-sending-ground-zero-mosque-imam-middle-east-junket

2.       The mainstream Donors: Rauf’s ASMA website lists mainstream philanthropic donors, including the Carnegie Corporation of New York, three Rockefeller charities, the Danny Kaye & Sylvia Fine Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, three feminist-oriented groups, and six other funders. New York Muslims, however, are well aware that the Rauf scheme is also associated with financing and support from other doubtful individuals and entities in addition to Perdana, which is led by the notorious Jew-baiter Mahathir bin Mohamad, former prime minister of Malaysia.  https://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/mosque-grows-near-brooklyn

3.       The Iranian Connection (to the Alavi Foundation under U.S. Sanctions): The idea of building an Islamic peace memorial in lower Manhattan was circulating as early as 2003. Its early proponents were two Iranian brothers, M. Jafar “Amir” Mahallati, who served as ambassador of the Iranian Islamic Republic to the United Nations from 1987 to 1989, and M. Hossein Mahallati.  Hossein Mahallati had experience of his own in the intersecting New York worlds of charitable giving and property management. He was director from 1983 to 1992 of the Alavi Foundation, set up in 1973 by the government of the shah of Iran as the Pahlavi Foundation, but taken over and renamed after the Khomeini revolution. The Alavi Foundation is currently the subject of a federal civil action seeking forfeiture of assets, including an office building at 650 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and four Shia mosques and schools in New York, California, Maryland, and Texas.  While U.S. sanctions on the Alavi Foundation, announced in 2009, received little notice, the government’s charges are disturbing. They include control of Alavi by the Tehran dictatorship through its diplomats at the United Nations, and transfer of income from the office building at 650 Fifth Avenue to Bank Melli, the Iranian national financial institution. Bank Melli had been designated a “Weapons of Mass Destruction proliferator” by the U.S. Treasury Department. Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey noted, “The international community has recognized the proliferation risks posed by Iran’s Bank Melli.” In late 2009, the Alavi Foundation’s last head, Farshid Jahedi, pled guilty to two felony counts of obstruction of justice for destroying documents about the Alavi-Melli relationship that had been subpoenaed in the investigation, which continues. Jahedi was sentenced on April 29 to three months’ imprisonment, six months’ supervised release, and a $3,000 fine. https://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/mosque-grows-near-brooklyn

4. The Ground Zero Mosque Property Owner Connected To Hamas: an Egyptian property developer, Sharif El-Gamal, who appears to be the real leader of the effort, using Rauf as his public face, put up $4.85 million in cash to purchase the location. El-Gamal is chief executive officer of Soho Properties, Inc., a commercial real estate investment firm he founded in 2003. His partner is Nour Mousa, another guiding figure in the Ground Zero mosque effort and the nephew of Amr Moussa, head of the Arab League. Amr Moussa was the first major Arab leader to go to Gaza and affirm support for Hamas, in mid-June, after the recent blockade-running assault. https://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/mosque-grows-near-brooklyn

5. Money from Qatar: Imam Rauf says that New York Muslims provided nearly $5 million in cash to buy the Park Place building (16). Yet in fiscal 2009, Rauf’s ASMA received large international donations. In the year ended June 30, 2009 — days before Feisal closed the purchase — ASMA received at least $1.3 million. The largest donation, $576,312, came from Qatar (17). That Persian Gulf nation has long harbored terror financiers, and even the government stands accused of funding international terrorism. Qatar also has, for decades, hosted Muslim Brotherhood spiritual chief Yusuf al-Qaradawi. The elderly sheikh, a large and founding shareholder in the terror-financing al-Taqwa Bank, champions sharia law, wife beating, and suicide bombing.  http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-ground-zero-mosque-developer-muslim-brotherhood-roots-radical-dreams/2/

6. Money from Netherlands, and how Rauf’s father raised money for HIS mosque : ASMA also received $481,942 from Holland’s Millennial Development Goals Fund (MDG3), $144,752 from New York’s Carnegie Corporation, $53,664 from the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), plus donations from the Rockefeller Brothers and Hunt Alternatives funds, among others (18). The Ground Zero mosque plan is more than a little reminiscent of a program initiated by Rauf’s late father in 1965. That year, Muhammad R. Abdul Rauf moved to New York to plan and head a huge Islamic Cultural Center that took decades to realize (19). He bought prime Manhattan real estate at 96th St. and 3rd Ave — roughly two thirds of a city block — apparently with $1.3 million in funding from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Libya. The late Rauf long retained some of that land in a personal trust (19). But when construction started on the $17 million mosque in 1984, it had received funding from 46 Islamic nations. …  http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-ground-zero-mosque-developer-muslim-brotherhood-roots-radical-dreams/2/

7. ANOTHER million $$ from the Netherlands: The organization behind the proposed Cordoba Initiative — more commonly known as the Ground Zero mosque — is the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA). As reported here previously, the government of the Netherlands has been implicated in the funding of ASMA — $500,000 and $1,000,000 respectively, in separate instances — and thus can be considered a co-financier of the Ground Zero mosque.  The Dutch government stoutly denies funding the Cordoba Initiative, maintaining that the money it gave ASMA was earmarked for other uses. Overlooking for the moment the fact that money is fungible — funds specified for one purpose may free up money for another — how plausible is the official denial? Can the generosity of the Netherlands with its taxpayers’ money be traced directly to the Victory Mosque at Ground Zero?

Update:

8. Sharia Index Project: The Cordoba Initiative, which co-sponsored the WISE conference, is a non-profit organization with offices in New York and Kuala Lumpur. It is funded by the Malaysian government and other sources in both western and Muslim countries.