An Al-Qaeda linked terrorist group raised funds by using fake charity boxes in various places according to Indonesia police.
A group of Indonesian police discovered that Jamaah Islamiyah, a terrorist group with links to the Al-Qaeda network raised funds by deploying fake charity boxes in various locations. On Dec. 9, the authorities unveiled their discovery that the terrorist group used the proceeds from the said charity boxes to fund terrorist activities in different parts of the world, The International Christian Concern reported.
"The funds collected are used to send people to Syria, to fund military training, help wanted terrorists to evade capture, and to purchase guns and explosives," said Brigadier-General Awi Setiyono, National Police spokesman.
According to Setiyono, the group used 13,000 charity boxes to collect funds to finance the operation of the terrorist group. They allegedly put the boxes under the BM ABA foundation to disuise them as a collection intended for a charitable cause. The boxes were intended to deceive unsuspecting shoppers and drop donations without knowing that every amount of money they dropped helped fund the group's activities that threaten public safety.
Officers found out that the leaders of the said foundation were the people in the upper leadership of the Jamaah Islamiyah.
"They created legal organizations in the form of NGOs, orphanage foundations, to charity organizations. Foundations created by these radical groups have spread under the guise of social activities," Ken Setiawan, founder of the Islamic State of Indonesia (NII) Crisis Center, a deradicalization organization, said.
The officers discovered the terrorists' fundraising strategy through an interrogation with former Jamaah Islamiyah group members. Indonesian police were able to capture a total of 24 members of the group over the past two months. The authorities further discovered that the group had been using fake charitable boxes for a long time.
Setiawan, a former terrorist recruiter, revealed that the Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group had been making money out of counterfeit charitable boxes for two decades now.
Jamaah Islamiyah was the alleged terrorist group behind the Bali bombing in 2002 that claimed the lives of 202 persons and left 209 others seriously injured. Reports say that the group wants to establish an Islamic State in Southeast Asia.
Earlier, the group was allegedly behind the burning down of Christian homes and a Salvation Army post in Sulawesi Indonesia. About 10 members of the groups carried out the attack slitting the throats of three Christians and beheading one.
The ICC said that they saw a video showing parts of the execution scenario. The footage showed the burned body of one of the victims pulled from the smoky pile of ruins. "The fowler position of the body suggests the agony and pain endured by the victim before death," ICC reported.
Although the archipelago dominated by the Muslim population operates under the Pancasila principle, there are extremist groups in the country who oppose the principle and Christianity as well.
Indonesia is home to the world's largest Muslim population. Its Constitution is based on the doctrine of "Pancasila," which upholds the nation's belief in the one and only God and social justice, humanity, unity, and democracy for all. Nevertheless, there are some groups opposing this doctrine, as well as the spread of Christianity in the Southeast Asian country, the Christian Post reported.
