Sunday, June 29, 2014

How Can People Be Sure That Their Donations to Widows, Orphans and Other Refugees in Syria Aren't Going to the Bad Guys?

They can't:
Donors and everyday citizens from the Persian Gulf and other sympathetic corners of the world, witnessing the humanitarian crisis in Syria, have been funneling money to the most effective forces fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad there, namely Qaeda-affiliated groups and ISIS. Smartly, these groups have realized they must match their brutal militancy with charitable services, akin to the governance and charity models of groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. This makes it difficult to differentiate funding to alleviate the suffering of Syrian refugees from support for terrorism.
In light of this, one wonders what percentage, if any, of Islamic Relief Canada's emergency funds for Syria are ending up in the pockets of jihadis.

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