Customer Reviews

Alms for jihad

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a literate, incredibly detailed, and exhaustively researched book on the origins, processes, players, goals, and strategies involved in misusing charitable funding sources for global political-religious Islamic terrorism. It is a thorough survey, not a casual overview. Often this type of book can be quite useful, but not something I would read cover-to cover -- more a worthwhile reference, a place to find tidbits of interest and to look up specifics.

This book is a surprisingly enjoyable read although hardly a unified narrative -- it provides a very good basic background of terms, culture, and practices if you have limited knowledge of the field, and is grounded, not the least bit shrill or polemical. I am indeed, reading it cover to cover, and it's almost a 'page-burner.'

We follow numerous trails of money, law enforcement interventions, and the feuds and family ties forged between jihadi power families and political-economic-religious leaders within and sometimes across countries and regions. At times it feels like we are watching the development of a new version of The Godfather.

Very highly recommended if you are interested in the topic of terrorist funding.

I am very, very disapointed that Amazon has chosen to give in to Saudi pressure by stopping the sale of this book.

Amazon and other corporate cowards are the entire point behind the book.

It can still be purchased on Alibris.

J. Millard Burr and Robert Collins look broadly at terrorism finance in "Alms for Jihad: Charity and Terrorism in the Islamic World" (Cambridge University Press, 343 pages, $28). The two are well-matched to collaborate: Mr. Burr,a former USAID relief coordinator in Sudan, provides practitioner reality, while Mr. Collins, a well-published African historian, adds academic depth. They begin with an examination of zakat, Islamic alms. They explain the difference among zakat, religious gifts, and endowment, and show how they can all be used to similar ends.

Lay Muslims once looked at zakat as just another tax levied by their governments. However, the Muslim Brotherhood-run mosques began collecting alms to fund jihad. Messrs. Burr and Collins demonstrate this with a number of case studies covering Afghanistan, Sudan, the Balkans, Russia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the Holy Land, Europe, and North America. Throughout, the Saudi royal family played a pernicious role, founding and promoting charities to spread militant Sunni Islam, not only as an inoculation against resurgent Shi'ism from revolutionary Iran, but also to radicalize the Muslims in Europe and America. Western bungling amplified the charities' success: Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika enabled Islamist charities to sink roots in Chechnya, while in the next decade, the Clinton administration delayed investigations into charities like the al-Haramain Islamic Foundation out of deference to its Saudi royal family patrons.

Messrs. Burr and Collins's examination of Islamic banking is rich with both historical background and contemporary detail, some of which may surprise: They show how groups like Palestinian Hamas, Algeria's Islamic Salvation Front, Tunisia's al-Nahda, and Egypt's Jama'at al-Islamiyya all held shares in the Saudi-based al-Taqwa bank. And though the authors do not discuss Turkey, the fact that Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey has quietly replaced every member of the Turkey's banking board with members drawn from Islamic banks is another cause for concern. Still, even though Islamist terrorists began targeting their Saudi patrons, Messrs. Burr and Collins demonstrate how there remains virtually no government oversight into charitable donations anywhere in the Muslim world.

While "Hamas" and "Alms for Jihad" detail the networks through which terrorist groups grow, Fawaz Gerges, a professor at Sarah Lawrence University, takes a more holistic approach in "Journey of the Jihadist" (Harcourt, 296 pages, $25). He seeks to "delve into the world of Islamic militancy," but his narrative falls flat. Based on interviews with a few Islamists, Mr. Gerges's account is all color and no substance. To conclude, he paraphrases an Egyptian Islamist who faults American policy for forcing a reaction from Islamists; this is the logical equivalent of exculpating rape because the victim wore a short skirt.

Messrs. Levitt, Burr, and Collins demonstrate that terrorism is not the spontaneous response to grievance. Never has the gap between reality and the conventional wisdom peddled by Middle Eastern studies doyens like Mr. Gerges appeared so great.

Michael Rubin
New York Sun

I am disgusted by the actions of Cambridge University Press. Books like Alms for Jihad are critical to understanding how terrorist entities abuse the name of Islam and how we as everyday citizens can better understand and deal with radical jihadists.
I would like to focus my comments on the book itself, but what good is that if no one can buy it!

The book burning by the Nazis was reviled by the free world. Pressure from the Islamic world results in the exact same thing happening here.

If Amazon has participated in this modern day book burning, they are as guilty as the Nazis in stifling free speech.

Threats by religious groups, or any group, must NEVER be tolerated

Alms for Jihad, by J. Millard Burr and Robert O. Collins provides the most comprehensive look at the web of Islamic charities that have financed conflicts all around the world: Afghanistan, Israel, Kashmir, Chechnya, Bosnia, Kosovo, Indonesia and the Philippines. Burr and Collins, who together have written many books on Islam and Middle East politics, also offer a very good discussion of the philosophy behind and role of the various manifestations of charitable giving in Islam, including zakat, or obligatory almsgiving, sadaqa, or spontaneous gifts, and awqaf, or endowments. As they make clear, the problem is not that charity is distributed to the poor or those in need, but that, according to Islamic law, zakat may be used to finance "jihad in the path of Allah," which includes many distinctly non-charitable elements such as the salaries of mujaheds, arms and supplies.

Alms for Jihad chronicles the way Islamic charities took off with the run-up in the price of oil following the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, and the role of the Iranian revolution and the war in Afghanistan in fuelling their expansion. Burr and Collins lay out the key role of Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states in establishing the foundations and banks at the core of the network of Islamic charities. They explain how institutions such as the International Islamic Relief Organization, the Muslim World League and World Association of Muslim Youth have helped to spread a radical Wahabi and Salafi form of Islam that spawned groups like al-Qaeda. They name the 20 prominent, wealthy Arabs --with a collective net worth of $85-billion -- who are known within al-Qaeda as their "Golden Chain."

Burr and Collins stress the need for vigilance. "Trust, but verify," they counsel, but unfortunately they don't provide much basis for "trust." Following an earlier review of Islamic charities in North America, they starkly conclude, "Virtually every major Islamic charitable institution in the USA and Canada . . . had been infiltrated by Islamists."

This book is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the role of Islamic charities in the financing of global terror.

This book takes an honest look at not only how money makes it from charities into terrorist organizations but also the religious and cultural reasons why stopping the flow of this money is so hard. In addition the book takes a look at what is being done to stop the private financing of terror and to add accountability into the system of charitable organizations within the Islamic world.

It points out that most charities probably do provide money only for thier intended purpose of either humanitarian aid or community building. However many state one purpose and then use money to engage in a much more sinister one.

The book is fair to Islam and it's followers and does not accuse the religion as the problem. Instead is takes a look into the motivations behind the problem. My only problem with the book is that it might be too sensative to the Muslim community and not push the envelope enough. This book in fact does not make too many opinionated statements but rather tells the facts and let's you decide. Once you finish reading it you will not soon forget that this problem is still with us and will not go away soon. Terrorist organizations adapt and those who wish to stop it will have to adapt as well.

This excellent book shows how some Islamic charities have simply funneled money to rather violent and counterproductive terrorist organizations. These charities have become high-profile, and the money they handle may well exceed those handled by legitimate Islamic charities. Money that unsuspecting donors may think is going to provide food, clothing, or shelter to the needy instead goes for weapons, terrorist training, propaganda, and, um, bonuses for terrorist leaders.

Burr and Collins acknowledge contributions from the works of Olivier Roy, Steven Emerson, and Rita Katz. I recommend looking at their works as well: they look at the same problem from somewhat different viewpoints, and their warnings ought to have been taken more seriously.

There is a reason that I deducted one star from this otherwise fine book. The description of the 1948 Arab-Israeli fighting is misleading. It implies that Arab terror, right or wrong, is probably one of the results of this war, rather than one of the causes of the war. And it implies that it is implausible for the very existence of a liberated Jewish community in the Levant to be a cause of anti-Israeli terror. It further implies that the terror we're discussing is provoked by events that might at least justify lesser responses. I feel it is a serious mistake to give us readers that impression, as it distorts the nature of terrorist goals.

O.K. Maybe if we do not name the country, the review might remain, this time.

This book (along with two other titles with similar subject matter) is being removed from libraries and "pulped" due to pressure from the "Country We Cannot Name".

You know what country. The one that the Nation Builders and Free Traders claim as their greatest friend. (The Dictatorship that is helping "bring Democracy" to the Middle East.)

Did I say the 3 books were removed from our libraries due to "pressure" from that country? I did not say the books were removed due to terrorism from that country, did I?

It's shameful that Amazon refuses to stock this book! So much for freedom of ideas!