THE REFORMATION ROLLS ON:

Riyadh To Close Charities Oversees: Some of targeted charities have been established by royal decrees  (Fawaz Mohammad, March 29, 2004, IslamOnline.net)

Saudi Arabia is set to close all charities and relief organizations outside the kingdom and place their funds and properties under the control of a newly established governmental body, well-places Saudi sources revealed Sunday, March 28.

Among the targeted organizations are the World Assembly of the Muslim Youth (WAMY), the Islamic Relief International, the Islamic Waqfs and the Saudi Joint Committee for the Relief of Kosovo and Chechnya (SJRC), the sources, speaking on condition not to be named, told IslamOnline.net.

The activities of the yet-to-be dismantled charities would be exclusively run by the state-run Saudi Civil Council for Relief and Charity Work Overseas, which was set up last month by a royal decree by King Fahd.

The sources said the Saudi move is expected to have a domino effect on some 100 charities worldwide. [...]

Analysts believe the kingdom has yielded to Washington, which has been laying huge pressures on Arab and Islamic countries, particularly Saudi Arabia to regulate charity operations, claiming that funds usually end up in the hands of “terrorists.”