Combating the Structures Financing Terrorism

Abstract

Terrorism is a phenomenon connected with using violence by people, national groups and criminal organizations in order to achieve political, social and economic targets. It has been present in the life of man since the beginning of the civilization. Internationalization of terrorist actions has consistently introduced humanity into the age of terrorism.

The 1990s and the beginning of the 21^st century have brought an uncontrolled outbreak of world terrorism, whose background has been Islamic radicalism. Terrorist attacks in New York, Bali, Istanbul, Madrid and London continue to be a proof that terrorist groups have great resources, owing to which they can put their plans into effect.

Gathering funds designed for terrorist activities in the world of Islam is done in a lot of ways. One of the most effective ones is using the havala system of transferring money without actually moving it and without any traces left on paper. Apart from that financial means are gathered by Islamic banks, charity organizations, and also achieved in the criminal way: smuggling and drug producing.

Preventing the practice of financing terrorism is one of the main tasks of the United Nations Organization, however, despite the fact of passing the Convention and numerous resolutions condemning international terrorism there are no determined actions aimed at eradication of the practice. Weakness of the UN was revealed when they did not assume a determined attitude towards the invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies, which resulted in destabilization of the situation in the Middle East and gave the terrorists a perfect training ground for the struggle against the West.

Globalization of Islam leads to internationalization of jihad, and effects of this process were revealed both in Madrid in 2004 and in London in 2005. Hence it seems that the war against terrorism has to be waged on two levels: a short-term one, that is conducting military, political and financial actions in order to prevent terrorist attacks, and a long-term one – effecting democratic changes and preventing internationalization of jihad. This is the only chance to stop terrorist offensive by Islamic groups.