Canada's Revenue Agency (CRA) has suspended the Islamic Society of North America-Canada (ISNA-Canada), the Global News reports.
Federal auditors say ISNA-Canada "failed to conduct any meaningful due diligence" for $136,000 it sent to an Islamist charity about a decade ago that may have gone into the hands of a terrorist group operating in the conflict-ridden Kashmir region.
Although the findings from the 2011 audit were communicated to ISNA-Canada in 2014, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) only sanctioned the organization on Sept. 5, the report said.
The one-year suspension took effect Sept. 12 and includes a $550,000 penalty.
During 2007-09, ISNA-Canada "gifted" $90,000 to the Relief Organization of Kashmiri Muslims (ROKM). ROKM is the "charitable arm" of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Pakistan and its armed wing, Hizbul Mujahideen, is a designated terrorist group in the United States and Europe. JI is a South Asian Islamist movement that seeks to promote a rigid interpretation of Islam in the U.S. and other secularly-government nations. Its leaders have defended terrorists and rationalized attacks against Western targets.
The audited records showed that ISNA-Canada gave an additional $46,000 to the Kashmiri Relief Fund of Canada that CRA earlier alleged raised money for ROKM.
According to the Global News, top Canadian officials have visited ISNA-Canada. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke there in 2013 and Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale was photographed there in April 2017.
"Providing resources to organizations operating in support of a political purpose, including the achievement of nationhood or political autonomy, are not recognized at law as charitable," CRA documents obtained by Global News said.
"In addition, Canada's public policy recognizes that the tax advantages of charitable registration should not be extended to organizations whose resources may have been made available, knowingly or unknowingly, to a terrorist entity."
CRA has acted against ISNA-Canada before. ISNA's Islamic Services of Canada and ISNA Development Foundation lost its charitable status after audits revealed possible funding to the Hizbul Mujahideen.
Lawyers representing ISNA-Canada acknowledge that "not all of its practices may have been in complete compliance," but pin the blame on "unauthorized actions" by a former secretary-general who resigned in 2011.
Corporate records show that ISNA-Canada was the "Islamic Society of North America (ISNA)" until October 2014, when it changed its name to "Islamic Society of North America Canada." ISNA is a leading Muslim Brotherhood group in North America and its conferences routinely feature rhetoric in support of terrorist groups and other radicalism.