Are UK banks targeting Muslim charities?

[Jefferson23]

London, United Kingdom - Some Islamic charities in the UK have considered moving their financial affairs abroad amid concerns that they could be frozen out of the British banking system after several Muslim organisations and individuals linked to them had their accounts closed without explanation.

HSBC, the UK's largest bank, faced accusations of prejudice against Muslims after sending letters last week to a London mosque, a Gaza-focused aid charity, and the leader of a prominent Islamic think tank notifying them that they were outside the bank's "risk appetite" and giving them two months to withdraw their money.

Those who received the letters included Anas Altikriti, the head of the Cordoba Foundation think tank and a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, who said that HSBC had also written to members of his family, including his 14- and 12-year-old sons.

In a statement, the Cordoba Foundation said that those affected had been "confronted with a wall of silence" when they had sought further clarification from the bank and called on HSBC to issue an unequivocal apology.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/08/are-uk-banks-targeting-muslim-charities-20148582932885804.html

[Igel]

1. Probably, to some extent.

Then again, they're the ones most likely to be funnelling money to organizations like Hamas, or intermediaries whose finances are even less transparent.

Give money to Hamas, does it go to feed kids or built rockets?

Give money to a charity in Gaza, will there be an "overhead" charge to it that'll go to help Hamas or will 100% of it go to feeding and clothing those who really need it? Or will charity A be shown that the expenses for the poor are at least equal to the money given by charity A? And at the same time charity B will be shown the same information, as will charity C--but the total spent on the poor may be less than what A, B, and C gave in toto so it's clear some money had to go elsewhere. Not only is it often difficult to figure out where the money goes, but some donations are almost certainly intended to support fighters--if you can't wage jihad, and believe it's incumbent upon all Muslims to do so when confronted with an enemy, then financial support might be an acceptable alternative (while there is "only one Islam," belief systems and practices vary considerably; it's rather like saying there's only one model of "Ford," but some of that model are 2-door compacts and others are trucks or SUVs; some go only on roads, some on rugged terrain, and some are amphibious; some run on gas, some on diesel, some on batteries, and some on natural gas ... all the same model, really!).

This was a problem back in 2001, 2002, 2003. A lot of Islamic charities in the US had given money with ties to organizations with ties to the Taliban and Taliban supporters. Others merely failed to have safeguards in place so they couldn't say what, exactly, happened to the money after it was handed over to some international or foreign Islamic orgnaization. Informal currency transfer networks allowed money to be sent to such organizations--even if it wasn't clear how much money went that way, some did, so they were shut down.

It makes little sense to target Catholic organizations for this particular purpose. *They* were targeted, mind you, during the unrest in N. Ireland because some were funding the IRA and other groups. Not much targeting of Muslim organizations in funding the IRA (even if there were connections between the IRA and PLO for a while, the PLO wasn't all that "Muslim&quot .