Aid Organization of the Ulema

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]

Organization of the Ulema
FounderRashid Ahmed Ludhianvi
HeadquartersKarachi, Pakistan
Area served
Pakistan and Afghanistan
Affiliations
[1]
Formerly called
Al Rashid Trust

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]

See also

References
  1. Pakistan. Mapping Militants. Stanford University.
  2. "Mapping Militant Organizations: Al Rashid Trust". Stanford University. 19 July 2012. Retrieved 22 February 2022. In 1996, ART started charity and welfare projects in Afghanistan and Pakistan to provide financial and legal support to Muslim militants around the world.
  3. "Designation of 10 Terrorist Financiers Fact Sheet". United States Department of the Treasury. 19 April 2002. Retrieved 24 February 2022. 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.
  4. "Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 895/2013 of 18 September 2013 amending for the 202nd time Council Regulation (EC) No 881/2002 imposing certain specific restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities associated with the Al Qaida network". legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  5. Zahid Ur Rashdi (13 October 2006). "الرشید ٹرسٹ کی فلاحی و رفاہی خدمات". Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  6. Collins, Robert O.; Burr, Millard (2006). Alms for jihad : charity and terrorism in the Islamic world. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521673952. 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"]
  7. Know Thy Enemy: Profiles of Adversary Leaders and Their Strategic Cultures. USA: USAF Counterproliferation Center. 2003. pp. 81–82. ISBN 9780974740300. Publications it controls have also been promoting and directly praising the Arab suicide bombers who attacked the twin towers and the Pentagon.
  8. "Protecting Charities". United States Department of the Treasury. Retrieved 24 February 2022. 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.
  9. "THE AID ORGANIZATION OF THE ULEMA". sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov. Retrieved 9 September 2022.
  10. Escobar, Pepe (26 October 2001). "Anatomy of a 'terrorist' NGO". Asia Times. Retrieved 22 February 2022. 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.
  11. "Pakistan tightens curbs on Dawood, Hafiz Saeed". Hindustan Times. 23 August 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2022. 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,
  12. "UK Government has ordered to freeze assets of additional 300 persons related to ISIL and AL-QAIDA". The Financial. 3 October 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2022. 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.
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