WASHINGTON — A mosque established and funded by basketball star Hakeem Olajuwon gave more than $80,000 to charities the government later determined to be fronts for the terror groups Al Qaeda and Hamas, according to financial records obtained by the Associated Press.
Olajuwon said he had not known of any links to terrorism when the donations were made, prior to the government’s crackdown on the groups, and would not have given the money if he had known.
”There is no way you can go back in time,” Olajuwon said in a telephone interview from Jordan, where he is studying Arabic. ”After the fact, now they have the list of organizations that are banned by the government.”