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A Turkish al-Qaeda cell operating in Azerbaijan was led by the head of a Turkish-Azeri business association and founder of controversial charity group the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (IHH), which has links to Turkish intelligence agency MIT, a Nordic Monitor investigation has found.
According to a review of court documents, Hüseyin Büyükfırat, former IHH representative for the Caucasus, had run the operations of the IHH under the pretense of charitable work while keeping in contact with a Turkish al-Qaeda group called Tahşiyeciler. Turkish law enforcement kept tabs on Büyükfırat and was wiretapping his phone when he spoke to indicted al-Qaeda group leader Mullah Muhammed (real name: Mehmet Doğan) about plans and funds transfers.
Büyükfırat, 48, is one of the founders of the IHH and had represented the charity group in the Caucasus between 1994 and 2000. Although he later left the official position with the IHH and set up a chain of local stores in Azerbaijan, Büyükfırat kept working for the IHH in an unofficial capacity. He often used the code names Abdurrahman and Abu Abrar. He was deported from Azerbaijan for radical activities in 2003 but managed to return few years later.
A Turkish prosecutor who had investigated Mullah Muhammed, a radical preacher who openly called for armed jihad, declared his support for Osama bin Laden and urged the beheading of Americans, listed the Baku-based Büyükfırat as a suspect in his investigation. Authorities who monitored Mullah Muhammed’s phone contacts identified Büyükfırat when the two had phone conversations between May 15, 2009 and June 3, 2009 and talked about transferring funds….
In Islam, zakat — the alms required of every Muslim — can and should be given to further the jihad. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that there are so many jihad-linked charities.
