U.S. Government Funded Gaza University; Ties to Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood

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The Chicago Tribune reported last month that the U.S. government authorized almost $1 million in foreign aid to the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) with links to Hamas and to the Muslim Brotherhood even after multiple vetting of the school for ties to terrorism. According to the report:

Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) asked USAID’s inspector general to conduct the audits after a Washington Times report detailed some of the aid payments to Islamic University earlier this year. He said in an interview Tuesday that the failure to detect terrorist ties at the school suggested “either incompetence or a complete breakdown of the vetting system as run by the State Department.”…The audit concluded that the vetting process, initiated by the U.S. Agency for International Development and conducted by the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, found no “derogatory information” on the Islamic University in Gaza between 2002 and 2006 — even after Hamas claimed a parliamentary majority in Palestinian elections in 2006. Several times, university officials certified that they provided no material support for terrorism. A companion audit found that USAID’s operations in Gaza and the West Bank have largely implemented policies to keep future aid out of terrorist hands.

The newspaper report also notes that the Hamas’ prime minister sits on the Islamic University’s board of trustees and that Palestinian security forces seized assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades during a raid of the university in January 2007. IUG is also known to be a favorite recipient of donations collected by organizations comprising the Union of Good, a worldwide collection of charities collecting money for Hamas and headed by global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi.

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