The Canadian branch of a terrorist-tied Saudi student organization has lost its charitable status, Canada's National Post reports. An audit of the organization cited numerous breaches of standards as well as extensive links to al-Qaida funding organizations around the world.
The director of Canada's charity review board sent a warning letter to the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) Canada last summer, citing concerns that it "support[s] the goals and operations of its parent organization, located in Saudi Arabia, which has been alleged to support terrorism."
Information about WAMY's alleged terrorist funding and extremist education materials has been around for years.
In 2003 testimony submitted to the 9/11 Commission, Investigative Project on Terrorism Executive Director Steven Emerson said that WAMY actively linked itself to several jihadi fronts through educational programs, funding, and other forms of material support.
The group's American branch incorporated in Falls Church, Virginia in 1992 by Osama bin Laden's brother, Abdullah bin Laden. FBI agents raided that office in 2004.
WAMY invited Hamas political head Khaled Mishaal as a featured guest for its 2002 "Muslim Youth and Globalization" conference in Riyadh, and provided the organization with millions in funding during the last intifada. The Pakistani branch offered training and fighters for the jihads against Soviet Afghanistan, as well as Kashmir, a province disputed by India and Pakistan. Members were also trained to fight in Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo, and the southern Philippines.
It also produced educational materials extolling jihad and preaching violence against Jews and other infidels, which were used by branches across 6 continents. Another WAMY document, "Military Lessons in the Jihad Against the Tyrants," was found in the possession of a participant in the first World Trade Center bombings and in the London apartment of embassy bomber Khalid al-Fawwaz. The document states that an Islamic global state will not be formed through peaceful means, but "through the written words and the gun, through the word and the bullet."