The website of a Ukranian Muslim Brotherhood organization has announced the opening of a rehabilitation centre and vocational training center financed by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) of Saudi Arabia. According to the report:
This Centre the first of its kind for Muslims and the population of Crimea, and includes a number of sections, such physical , computer art cooking , sewing, hairdressing , teaching, and other various sections, on each section about 100 people. In supporting and supervision by the Islamic Bank for Development and union of the social organizations in Ukraine “pioneer”, and in the ninth on Friday Simfiropel city in the Crima peninsula in southern Ukraine, Alra’ad opening ceremony of centre for rehabilitation and vocational training, which consider the third Islamic Union in the province, includes hundreds of thousands of Muslim Tatars in addition to tens of thousands of Muslim nations and other nationalities.The opening ceremony was attended by a number of political, scientific and religious figures in the region, the foremost among whom is Mr. Ramzey Khawaja vice-representative of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.
The report also provided some further details on the new facility:
This Centre the first of its kind for Muslims and the population of Crimea, and includes a number of sections, such physical , computer art cooking , sewing, hairdressing , teaching, and other various sections, on each section about 100 people.It also includes a huge Hall for lectures and conferences that are usually held extensively in the region, and discuss a various scientific, religious and others issues.The mosque with a capacity 500 prayer, one of the most important sections of the Centre, which included a special section for women and is equipped with the latest audio equipment, which is accepted by the Muslims of the city and its environs Simfiropl to perform prayers five and prayers Friday and holidays.
ARRAID is the Ukrainian member organization of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE), the EU-level umbrella group for the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe. A Canadian scholar has reported that an ARRAID fundraising brochure stated that the organization:
… aims at the increase of ‘the cultural, social and educational level of Ukraine’s Muslims,’ the spread of Islamic culture among, and financial assistance for them, and Islamic proselytism (da’wa) in the country, …. ‘By this, Ar-Raid will become an important breach (thughra) in confronting Christian missionary attacks and Jewish expansion, so assist and help it to be able to follow the way it began..’
The organization claims anywhere from 9-13 chapters throughout Ukraine.
In January 2007, a Boston newspaper reported that the IDB was financing the large mosque construction project in the city. According to the report:
The Islamic Society of Boston’s effort to build the region’s largest mosque has received at least $1 million in financing from a Saudi Arabia-based bank dominated by governments that critics of the mosque project say support Islamic extremism. The Islamic society acknowledged yesterday receiving a $1 million loan from the Islamic Development Bank in late 2005 — principal owners of which are Saudi Arabia, Libya, Iran, and Egypt — after opponents of the mosque project provided the Globe with documents showing that the bank paid about $500,000 in mosque construction bills late in 2005.
An earlier post discussed the role of global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi in the Boston mosque project.