Holy Land: Brotherhood's hidden arm in US
Strong links are transpiring between the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which is based in Texas, and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Brotherhood
arm
Investigations
by agencies in the United States showed affiliations to the Muslim Brotherhood
by the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.
The
same links were affirmed by a rule by an American court which punished some of
the leaders of this organization for participating in money laundering
operations for the sake of the Palestinian Hamas group.
Using
the Palestinian issue
An
American court sentenced the head of the foundation to 65 years in prison. It
handed other leaders of the foundation prison sentences ranging between 15 and
60 years.
The
court also revealed that the leaders of the foundation had channeled money to
militant groups in the Palestinian territories, even as the same money was
specified for the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people.
The
same ruling, which was issued in 2008, also threw light on the hidden funding
of Muslim Brotherhood arms in North America.
This
forced American authorities to close down the foundation all together.
In
2004, a judiciary agency in Dallas accused the Holy Land Foundation for Relief
and Development of backing Hamas, money laundering and conspiracy.
The
foundation used to describe itself as the largest Islamic charity in the United
States.
Terrorist
group
On
December 4, 2001, the American Department of the Treasury designated the Holy
Land Foundation for Relief and Development as a terrorist organization.
The
department froze the money of the foundation for sending millions of dollars to
Hamas which was designated by the US as a terrorist group in 1995.
A number of other countries labeled the foundation as a terrorist group.