The role of Qatar as a hub of terror financing is becoming more and more widely publicized as the Islamic State advances on Kobani and Baghdad.

The following article from last week’s Jyllands-Posten was translated by Nicolai Sennels at the request of the Qatar Awareness Campaign:

International pressure on getting Qatar to shut down terrorist money Terror: Danes in the Islamic State were helped in their war by extremists drawing their funding from Qatar. Now there are demands for plugging the terrorists’ financial pipeline by Thomas Vibjerg, Henrik Thomsen, Jyllands-Posten correspondents OSWALD / LONDON Qatar is under growing international pressure because of millions of terror dollars allegedly being pumped into the Islamic State and other radical Islamist movements from offices in the wealthy emirate on the Persian Gulf. Huge amounts from generous supporters and ransom laundered by the small oil state are channeled, disguised as humanitarian charity, to terrorist movements such as Islamic State, without the regime in Doha dealing effectively with the problem, say Western leaders and analysts. And according to a report from the Danish Treasury Department, some of the 100 Danes with the Islamic State got help from an extremist who is funded from Qatar. Qatar’s central role as a kind of financial Mecca of the Islamic State has led to calls for economic sanctions, and that may put Denmark in a difficult dilemma. Denmark’s largest company, AP Møller-Mærsk plays a key economic role in Qatar, where more than a third of the country’s oil production — 300,000 barrels a day —is purchased by Maersk Oil, according to the company’s website. Important base for the United States Although Qatar does not contribute any fighter jets, the regime in Doha is officially supporting the coalition against the Islamic State, and the United States has an important air base in the country. But at the same time the Qatar government — according to critics in the West — ignores traffickers who use Qatar to launder terrorist money. Critics argue that the regime in Qatar could easily stop the flow of money, if they wanted to. But it does not happen. “Qatar should be thrown out of the alliance. We are at war with the Islamic state, and we can not have someone on the team that is also on the other side,” says Søren Espersen, foreign policy spokesman for the Danish People’s Party, but he rejects sanctions against Qatar. “If the players ride several horses, it is very appalling. For reasons of principle, I am against sanctions — whether it’s against Russia, Burma or Qatar — because it always hits our own business people. And in this case, I do not think that sanctions pose a real threat to Qatar because the country is so rich that it can ignore such things,” says Søren Espersen.