Concerns raised about potential Hamas fundraising event in Boston

Boston, Mass - 01/15/2009

Dennis Hale, President of the Boston based Citizens for Peace and Tolerance (CPT) - an interfaith group of Christians, Muslims and Jews - warned today that an upcoming Muslim American Society of Boston (MAS Boston) fundraising event advertised to donors as humanitarian aid to Gaza may instead channel funds to the terror group, Hamas.

"The January 17th fundraiser is collecting money for the Gaza operations of Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW), a group previously accused of transferring funds to Hamas," Hale said.

Hamas is an Islamic supremacist organization that belongs to the Palestine branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood is considered to be the origin for most of the modern jihad movements. Hamas is dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state and uses terrorism and murder to achieve its goals. It is an openly genocidal organization that has explicitly and continuously called for the murder of all Jews worldwide. The founding charter of Hamas proclaims that peace will come to Earth only when all the Jews are killed:

" ... as long as Islam does not take its rightful place on the world arena everything will continue to change for the worst...The Last Hour [redemption] won't come until the Muslims fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them..."

"Virtually the entire civilized world, from Barack Obama to the government of Egypt, agrees that Hamas's refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist and renounce terrorism against Israeli civilians is the root cause of the horrible violence in Gaza and Israel," said Hale. "For the Muslim American Society to raise funds for a Hamas-linked charity in the heart of Boston is an affront to the traditions of liberty and tolerance on which this city was built."

Hale pointed to two clear financial connections between the IRW charity and Hamas:

• Islamic Relief Worldwide is a founding member of the Union of Good - designated by the U.S. Treasury Department as a terrorist entity. The Union of Good functions as an umbrella coalition for a network of Islamic charities led by the radical cleric Yusuf al Qaradawi. Treasury documents state: "The leadership of Hamas created the Union of Good in 2000 in order to facilitate the transfer of funds to Hamas."
• In 2006, IRW's Project Director in Gaza, Iyaz Ali, was arrested by the Israeli Security Agency and confessed to providing material support for Hamas as part of his work with IRW. The Israeli Prime Minister's Office asserts that "The IRW's activities in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip are carried out by social welfare organizations controlled and staffed by Hamas operatives."

"This is not the first time that MAS Boston, which has become the public face of the Islamic Society of Boston (ISB), has generated controversy over its ties to Hamas fundraising," said Hale. Several MAS/ISB leaders, past and present, helped raise funds for the Holy Land Foundation - a recently convicted Hamas charity founded in the U.S. by Hamas second-in-command Mousa Abou Marzouq.

• MAS National founder Jamal Badawi, who is also a Trustee of the controversial Roxbury mosque, is an unindicted co-conspirator in the case against the Holy Land Foundation. Joining him on the co-conspirator list is Abdurrahman Alamoudi, founder of the ISB, presently in jail on terrorism charges.
• The current president of MAS Boston, Hossam al Jabri, is listed in FBI trial evidence as a large donor to the HLF.
• Since 2000, ISB/MAS have transferred thousands of dollars to the Holy Land Foundation and at least $168,000 to Islamic Relief Worldwide.

Citizens for Peace and Tolerance first raised concerns about the ISB and MAS in 2004, predicting that the organization's massive new building in Roxbury would be used to radicalize Boston's historically moderate Muslim community and to give aid to radical causes worldwide. "It gives us no pleasure to be proven correct in this matter," said Hale.

PRESS RELEASE 01/15/2009 Boston, Mass.

For Immediate Release
Citizens for Peace and Tolerance (CPT)
Contact: Dennis Hale
(781) 799-7245
cpt@hatefreeamerica.org