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NO TERRORISM AGAINST AMERICA BUT CHARITY FOR BOSNIAN and CHECHEN FREEDOM FIGHTERS IS A "CRIME"
ENAAM ARNAOUT SENTENCED TO ELEVEN YEARS in PRISON

New Trend commentary: In one of the most ridiculous decisions aimed at destroying Muslim charities, a Judge in Chicago has sentenced a Muslim charity organizer to ELEVEN YEARS in prison. The prosecutors couldn't find Enaam Arnaout guilty of any connection with terrorism but they had to punish him for helping Muslim women and children. So they found that out of the money his charity had collected, he had donated about 10% to get shoes and uniforms for Muslim freedom fighters in Chechnya and Bosnia.

Thus any work done to help Muslims who fight is a crime in the U.S. The most ridiculous aspect of this sentencing is that THE DONORS WHO GAVE THE FUNDS TO THE CHARITY DID NOT COMPLAIN. The prosecutor went ahead and punished him in any case. [According to the Qur'an, which is the basis of Muslim charity, funds can be given to help strugglers like those in Bosnia and Chechnya.]

The U.S. has CLOSED DOWN HOLY LAND FOUNDATION, the biggest Palestinian charity. It has closed down GLOBAL, the second biggest Muslim charity, and DEPORTED its Director. And now the third Muslim charity, BENEVOLENCE, has been hit so hard that its Director has been treated like a common criminal and sentenced to 11 years.

There can be little doubt that these attacks on Muslim charities are meant to cripple Muslim efforts to help the needy. By CONTRAST, AMERICAN JEWS are funneling huge funds every year to the criminal state of Israel

Below is the way the sentencing of the Muslim charity leader was reported in the U.S.
[Note that Enaam had met Osama in the 1980s when Osama was not fighting America. That meeting is being used as a way of painting Enaam as a "terrorist."]
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Muslim Charity Leader Sentenced to Prison

Monday August 18, 2003

CHICAGO (AP) - A Muslim charity leader linked by prosecutors to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network was sentenced Monday to more than 11 years in federal prison for defrauding donors.

Enaam Arnaout, 46, a Syrian-born U.S. citizen who says he has met bin Laden but opposes terrorism, was calm as the sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Suzanne B. Conlon.

The government's investigation of Arnaout and his BenevolenceInternational Foundation, based in suburban Palos Hills until it was shut down in 2002, has been a major component of the war on terrorism.

Attorney General John Ashcroft traveled to Chicago to announce the charges against Arnaout when he was indicted.

Arnaout (pronounced ARE-not) pleaded guilty to a racketeering charge, admitting that he diverted thousands of dollars from his Benevolence International Foundation to support Islamic military groups in Bosnia and Chechnya.

Conlon sentenced Arnaout to 11 years and four months in prison. He must serve nearly 10 years before he is eligible for parole.

She gave him a term longer than the eight to 10 years called for in sentencing guidelines because, she said, the $200,000 to $400,000 he funneled to military groups deprived needy refugees of important aid.

But the judge had earlier declined a prosecution request to boost the sentence to 20 years, on the basis of Arnaout's ties to members of bin Laden's al-Qaida network. She said the links supplied grounds for suspicion but didn't constitute evidence that he backed terrorism.

She ordered Arnaout to pay $315,624 in restitution and recommended that it be turned over to the United Nations for refugee work.

Arnaout, looking tired after more than a year in solitary confinement, spoke briefly before the court, saying he had been kidnapped by the government. He insisted he was innocent.

"I came to this country to enjoy freedom and justice," Arnaout said. "I came to have a peaceful life."

Arnaout claimed to have answered all the questions put to him by prosecutors in their investigation of al-Qaida. His attorneys said he met bin Laden in the 1980s when the terrorist mastermind was part of the U.S.-supported struggle of Afghan fighters to expel the Soviet army. But they say he has had nothing to do with bin Laden in recent years.

Prosecutors say he lied about his associations with bin Laden and his supporters.

Among other things, they said one of bin Laden's top aides, Mamdouh Salim, traveled to Bosnia with papers showing that Salim was a board member of Benevolence International. They also said that a man described by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald as "a famous member of al Qaida" was hired by Arnaout to serve as the charity's top man in Chechnya.
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2003-08-20 Wed 17:47ct