Founder | Rashid Ahmed Ludhianvi |
---|---|
Headquarters | Karachi, Pakistan |
Area served | Pakistan and Afghanistan |
Affiliations | [1] |
Formerly called | Al Rashid Trust |
The Aid Organization of the Ulema (AOU), formerly known as the Al Rashid Trust is an NGO based in Pakistan. Beginning in 1996, it supported "charity and welfare projects in Afghanistan and Pakistan" while also providing "financial and legal support to Muslim militants around the world."[2] According to the United States Department of the Treasury, it began raising funds for the Taliban in 1999.[3] It was established by Islamic scholar and jurist Rashid Ahmed Ludhianvi.[4][5]
According to Alms for Jihad, the organization "provided financial and legal assistance to Islamists in jail, established a network of madrasas and mosques in Afghanistan, and coordinated its activity with the Wafa Khairia, an Afghan charity 'largely funded by bin Laden.'"[6] Its activities also included supporting publications that were "promoting and directly praising the Arab suicide bombers who attacked the twin towers and the Pentagon."[7]
It has been listed by the UN as a financial facilitator of terrorists in September 2001.[8] It was designated as a Global Terrorist Organization under the SDN by the United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, with operations in Afghanistan: Herat, Jalalabad, Kabul, Kandahar, Mazar Sharif; and in Kosovo and Chechnya. Its addresses listed in Pakistan included: Karachi, Mansehra, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Mingora, and Lahore.[9]
Although its bank accounts were frozen by Pakistan after 9/11, it continued its activities in 2001 by opening new accounts under different names.[10]
Despite UN Security Council sanctions against it, the group continued to operate openly in Pakistan until at least 2020.[11][12]
In 1996, ART started charity and welfare projects in Afghanistan and Pakistan to provide financial and legal support to Muslim militants around the world.
When President Bush initiated the financial war on terrorism in September 2001, the al Rashid Trust was among the first organizations named as a financial facilitator of terrorists. The organization changed its name to The Aid Organization of the Ulema (AOU) and remains active. The AOU is headquartered in Pakistan, and continues to operate offices there. They have been raising funds for the Taliban since 1999.
Before being banned by the Pakistan government after 9/11 the Al Rashid Trust, during its short life, had provided financial and legal assistance to Islamists in jail, established a network of madrasas and mosques in Afghanistan, and coordinated its activity with the Wafa Khairia, an Afghan charity 'largely funded by bin Laden.'[cited to PE "Anatomy of a 'Terrorist' NGO"]
Publications it controls have also been promoting and directly praising the Arab suicide bombers who attacked the twin towers and the Pentagon.
The Aid Organization of the Ulema (AOU) is based in Pakistan and is a successor organization to Al Rashid Trust, listed by the UN as a financial facilitator of terrorists in September 2001, under UNSCR 1333. Al Rashid Trust was among the first organizations designated as a terrorist financier and facilitator.
The Pakistani-based Al-Rashid Trust is one of the key organizations included in America's black book of terrorist groups...Pakistani banks, after President General Pervez Musharraf's spectacular pro-US realignment, froze Al-Rashid's bank accounts, but this does not seem to pose a problem: the trust opened new accounts in the names of individuals.
Pakistan's foreign ministry quietly issued two statutory regulatory orders on August 18 to enforce UN Security Council sanctions against ... terror groups, front organisations such as Al Rashid Trust that has been linked to al-Qaeda,
AL RASHID TRUST ... Banned in Pakistan since October 2001. Despite the closure of its offices in Pakistan in February 2007, it has continued its activities.
© MMXXIII Rich X Search. We shall prevail. All rights reserved. Rich X Search