It is ironic that the regulator of charitable societies in the UK has now become aware of the hazards of activities carried out in the garb of “charity.” Many elements are using such noble fronts for terrorist activities and organized fraud.

According to UK officials, they have discovered something fishy about those organizations forcing them to probe into their activities. Many organizations are allegedly financing violent terrorist organizations in Syria, Somalia and elsewhere.

In this regard, there are four noble and worthy causes that have been tainted and made notorious: Religious proselytizing, human rights, education, and charitable societies.

Terrorist groups have been creeping into these areas since the 1990s because the West has allowed them and because they are popular and receive official support. Unscrupulous elements crept into the society on the pretext of helping the destitute.

Helping others is the very essence of Islamic teachings. Terrorist outfits exploit religious sentiments for their diabolical designs.

It’s the lethal combination of money and proselytizing that enabled an organization like Al-Qaeda to gain currency among the people and carry out subversive activities. They used the money to buy explosives and suicide bombers. In the late 1990s many Muslim countries moved to stop these activities, when they proved to be the lifeline of the terrorist organization. After 9/11, the world moved to act against such fake charitable organizations and as a result dozens of people were arrested and sent to jails. But the hydra is raising its head again, this time by using more sophisticated money-raising methods and tapping the resources of isolated demographics that are not within the reach of Muslim governments, like the Muslims in Europe. They were very active in Kuwait, to support the extremist terrorist organizations in Syria and elsewhere. Two years later, an American delegation came to the region, demanding an end to these activities, and threatening sanctions.

What about the UK, the Netherlands, or Sweden? Many extremist groups are operating in the European countries. They may not themselves be involved in violence, but they do encourage it, by benefiting from the liberal atmosphere and the laws that protect freedom of speech.

But there organizations are pitting Muslims against each other and they are sabotaging the very fabric of the societies in which they live. How can this be charity?

The UK regulator is mistaken if it thinks the problem is that easy. A proposal has been sent to the British prime minister seeking a ban on those convicted of terrorism from entering the field of charity work. It’s not the convicted people that pose the threat. It’s the supporters of the extremist groups that pose the threat.

I do not think that transferring money out of the UK to ISIS in Syria or Al-Shabab in Somalia is the source of real danger. These activities can be controlled through better financial and security measures. What is really serious is the spending of money that is raised in the name of the poor and the orphans, the money that goes to finance the extremist organizations in the UK or France or other countries in which Muslims live as an isolated minority.

To finance promoters of extremist thought may not be punishable in the West, although it is a serious offense in Arab countries. But its outcome can be damaging to the generations of the Muslim young people for many decades to come. For more than 100 years, Muslims have lived in their newly adopted countries like North African Arabs in France and the Yemenis in the UK. They were not known for extremism, until a decade and a half ago. Future indicators are troubling and unsettling.

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