Counterterrorism Blog

Saudi Arabia's involvement in the Bali bombings

By Olivier Guitta

Even after the October 2002 Bali bombing, the madrassas where most of the terrorists were trained, are still up and running spreading their hatred and breeding new jihadists. On top of these Koranic schools and radical mosques, Jemaah Islamiyah can count on the financial support of numerous Islamic NGOs.
According to Richard Labeviere, expert on Radical Islam, JI's legal and non-legal activities have been financed since the 1980's by big Saudi banks based in Kualu Lumpur and Jakarta. After a pause around September 2001, financing has resumed. Also Labeviere points out that Saudi financiers are more and more present in South East Asia. And they are not really hiding their Wahhabi proselytism in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and South Thailand.

Saudi Arabia has not been clamping down on its charities, especially the big governmental ones such as the World Muslim League, and not enough is being done to cooperate with US authorities.