(IPT) Three U.S. House members have asked the State Department to investigate a prominent New York-based Islamist network and its charitable arms for possible terror financing.
In a Nov. 1 letter to the State Department’s Coordinator for Counterterrorism Nathan Sales, U.S. Reps. Jim Banks, R-Ind., Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., and Randy Weber, R-Texas, asked “to further investigate the potential terror finance links between groups like ICNA [Islamic Circle of North America] and HHRD [Helping Hand for Relief and Development], and U.S. and UN Security Council designated terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen.”
Connections between ICNA, HHRD and South Asian radicals are well established.
ICNA is a leading “domestic affiliate” of the South Asian Sunni revivalist movement Jamaat-e-Islami (JI). HHRD, ICNA’s overseas charitable arm, reportedly has ties to U.S.-designated terrorist groups Hizbul Mujahideen and elements of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which was behind the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that left 164 people dead.
