One of the primary purposes of zakat, Islamic almsgiving, is for jihad, so Syed Hoque and his accomplices most likely thought that what they were doing was completely acceptable, and within the bounds of what constitutes “aid for Syria.”

“Terrorist sympathiser used Syria aid-convoys to send cash to extremists to fund terror,” by Nicola Harley, Telegraph, December 23, 2016:

A terrorist sympathiser used aid convoys to Syria to send thousands of pounds to his extremist nephew fighting alongside Al Qaeda in a bid to set up a team of ‘night snipers’ in Syria.

Former probation officer Syed Hoque, 37, sent £4,500 in 2013 to his relative who was fighting with Islamic extremists against the regime in the war-torn country.

One of the targeted aid missions included Alan Henning, the Greater Manchester taxi driver who was later kidnapped and murdered by militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

In one transaction Hoque sent £3,000 through an aid convoy, and in another he sent £1,500 with the help of aid worker Mashoud Miah, 28, who worked as a fixer travelling to and from Syria.

Hoque had also discussed with his nephew the possibility of buying weapons – including a Dragunov sniper rifle, an AK assault rifle and a nightscope.

The terror funding came to light after Hoque and his wife were stopped at Heathrow Airport in August 2014 as they returned from Bangladesh, and their phones were seized.

Although no extremist material was found on them, later examination revealed Hoque had been communicating on WhatsApp with a man known as Sayyaf, who was using a Turkish number.

This turned out to be Hoque’s nephew Mohammed Choudhury, who was fighting for Jabhat al-Nusra, a terrorist group representing the wing of al-Qaeda in Syria.

The messages showed Hoque had been sending money to his nephew in 2013.

Hoque, of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, was convicted at the Old Bailey of two counts of funding terrorism.

He was cleared of one further count of terror funding, which he was jointly charged of along with Miah, Mohammed Ibrahim Hussain and charity fundraiser Pervez Rafiq, who had accompanied Mr Henning to Syria and later appealed for his release.

The charge alleged they made material available with a reasonable cause to suspect it was for terrorism between December 2012 and May 2014.

Miah, of Mile End, east London, was convicted of one count of funding terrorism, involving the £1,500 transaction. He was cleared of three further counts….