JEDDAH, 28 November 2002 — An official of Al-Haramain Foundation has emphasized that there is no evidence to link the charitable organization with terrorist financing, Al-Watan newspaper reported yesterday.
Al-Haramain Foundation is based in Riyadh, with offices in more than 50 countries. Its activities include building mosques, financing and administering schools and sponsoring orphans.
Describing efforts to associate the foundation’s name with terrorist financing as another example of agencies hostile to Islam bringing unfounded accusations against Muslims and Islam, Bandar ibn Al-Otaiby, regional director Al-Haramain in the Eastern Province, said, "the charitable organizations in the Kingdom, including Al-Haramain Foundation, have not been deterred by the smear campaign unleashed in the Western media against them."
The United States has focused on Islamic charities as a possible link in terrorist funding following the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
Al-Otaiby also referred to a recent commendation on the foundation’s activities by Interior Minister Prince Naif as the best attestation to its laudable services both inside and outside the Kingdom.
Saudi officials have vehemently dismissed the suggestion that welfare associations based in the Kingdom might be involved in political or terrorist activities. The NGOs active in the Kingdom are affiliated to the Interior Ministry.
The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, the Kingdom's central bank, has said that it was applying strict measures to "follow up on and control money laundering and the illegal transfer of funds.
Replying to a question on the foundation’s present focus on internal charitable activities, he said, "It is quite understandable that we should attend to the needs of the poor in the country more than that of the people outside."
He also said the foundation is planning to set up an endowment project, which is aimed at looking after orphans, sinking wells, printing books, constructing mosques, sponsoring preachers and launching websites for religious propagation, establishing Qur’an schools and sending relief to refugees.
The project, which would be launched with an initial investment of SR20 million, requires generous support of philanthropists, he added.
Oqail ibn Abdul Aziz Al-Oqail, director general of the foundation, said in Riyadh that the foundation plans to collect Zakatul Fitr, the obligatory charity to be made on the occasion of Eidul Fitr marking the end of Ramadan fasting, in cash to distribute among the deserving people in the Kingdom. The foundation is carrying out the project in the Kingdom for the first time.
The charity undertook a similar project abroad seven years ago, but had to discontinue it after two years because of involvement in other activities, Al-Oqail added.
He said the foundation will collect the zakah at the rate of SR10 per person. It will bear the cost of transportation, packing and distribution through its branches across the Kingdom, he added.
