Germany bans Islamist organisation, Ansaar International

Germany has banned the Islamist organisation Ansaar International and several of its sub-organisations.

“The network finances terrorism worldwide with donations,’’ Steve Alter, spokesman for Germany’s Interior Minister, Horst Seehofer tweeted on Wednesday.

Alter quoted Seehofer as saying: “If you want to fight terror, you have to dry up its sources of money.’’

The justification for the ban was that Ansaar’s fundraising was done with the intention of passing funds on to terrorist groups abroad, in particular to the Al-Nusra Front in Syria, the Palestinian Hamas and Al-Shabaab in Somalia.

Donors were apparently defrauded by the false statement that the funds were used exclusively for humanitarian purposes.