France arrests a "very moderate" imam for terrorism financing EDITED 6- 22

By Olivier Guitta

In fact Dahou Meskine along sixteen other people were arrested on Monday and Tuesday for allegedly financing Islamic terrorism. The most probable organization that benefited from this money is the Algerian terrorist group GSPC.
In fact, investigators found out that hundreds of thousands of Euros were funneled through some organizations and corporations owned by Meskine and his son to dubious NGOs. Nonetheles one of the persons in charge of the investigation acknowledged today to daily Liberation that it will be tough to prove that this was done solely to finance terrorism.

But what's even more troubling is the pedigree of Meskine. He is of Tunisian descent, ex member of the Islamist group An Nahda, founder of the UOIF (the French branch of the Muslim Brotherhood). But he had a change of heart and cut off all ties to UOIF because they were too close for comfort to the Muslim Brotherhood. He had been pushing since for interreligious dialogue between Christians, Jews and Muslims. He had defended France's secularism when it came to the banning of the hijab at school and has been consulted many times by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy on Muslim issues.
Finally he is the founder of the first private Muslim middle school and Secretary Genereal of the Council of Imams of France.

If allegations are correct, then the change of heart of the "very moderate" imam did not reallly occur and the taqqiya was total. That is why being on the lookout and reading between the lines is quite important. Fortunately, it looks like French authorities have been doing a tremendous job in dismantling terrorist cells.

Thanks to Jean Charles Brisard for the following additional info:
Meskine activities in France have largely been funded by Saudi institutions. As a matter of fact, his "confessional Success School" was financed by donations of at least 15,000 Euros made by the Al Haramain Foundation (SDGT). In addition, he received donations from the Muslim World League and was the official translator of Abdullah bin
Abdul-Mohsin Al-Turki, Secretary General of the Muslim World League during his French visit in October 2002.

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