Islamists, Prominent Arab Figures Say French Company's Guilty Plea For Paying ISIS Proves West's Involvement In Founding, Funding ISIS

On October 18, 2022, French industrial company Lafarge Cement Syria (LCS) pleaded guilty to providing material support to the Islamic State (ISIS) and Al-Nusra Front in the form of monthly payments "in exchange for permission to operate a cement plant in Syria from 2013 to 2014, which enabled LCS to obtain approximately $70.3 million in revenue."[1] According to the U.S. Department of Justice, LCS agreed to "pay financial penalties, including criminal fines and forfeiture, totaling $777.78 million."

In reaction to this announcement, Islamists and prominent Arab figures widely shared the news arguing that it further supports their claim that the West was behind the creation and the funding of ISIS. Some have accused the West of applying double standards when dealing with Islamic relief organizations that were suspended after supposedly falsely been accused of funding terrorism. Several commentators conflated the large amount that Lafarge was fined by the U.S. government with the amount that Lafarge paid ISIS and Nusra in Syria.

On October 19, 2022, Egyptian Islamist cleric Muhammad Al-Sagheer, who is also a member of the Qatar-supported International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), posted a tweet to his 1,300,000  followers, saying: "After the confession of French company Lafarge before a U.S. court that it had paid the salaries of ISIS group in Syria, and after ISIS took the lead in fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan after the U.S. defeat, the role of the group has been exposed as well as those who are behind it. It further stresses ISIS danger on the ummah and that French crimes are cross continents."[2]

On October 20, 2022, Adham Abu Salmiya, spokesman for the National Committee for Breaking the Siege on Gaza falsely wrote that "Lafarge French has funded ISIS with $ 778 million" and then commented: "They created this group to push their vicious plots against our ummah and our region and to turn it into a trap for thousands of youths who are emotionally driven to their fates. This news is part of the scene and surely the unknown is even worse and most importantly, it presents an opportunity to reexamine the events once again."[3]

Iraqi Journalist Mohammad Al-Hamad went even further to claim that "terrorist groups are funded by the West to ensure the security of the Zionist entity"[4] in a tweet he published to his over 45,000  followers on October 19, 2022.

Saudi journalist Hussain Al-Gawi, who has almost 500,000 followers on Twitter, hinted that the U.S. had provided support to both the Houthi militia in Yemen and to ISIS fighters in Iraq. He wrote: "2014, U.S. Defense Department lost track of a weapons shipment valued at $500,000,000  that was believed to have obtained by the Houthis by mistake. 2013, U.S. weapons were airdropped to ISIS in Iraq by mistake."[5]

On October 19, 2022, Saudi social media influencer Abdallah Al-Bander commented on the reports of the Lafarge guilty plea as "an important news item that reveals part of the reality of ISIS."[6]

Qatari Twitter user Fahad Al-Malki wrote on October 19, 2022: "Lafarge of France was implicated for funding ISIS in Syria with hundreds of millions of dollars. They fund terrorism and then accuse Islam of terrorism."[7]

Several Al-Jazeera journalists also commented on the Lafarge guilty plea by posing questions that aimed at accusing the West of applying a double standard and doubting that the French government was not aware of the Lafarge payment to ISIS.

For example, former Al-Jazeera CEO Yasser Abu Hilalah wrote on October 20, 2022: "The irony is that the offensive cartoons and the banning of hijab and niqab and ISIS and other groups' terrorist attacks in France and other issue did not prevent ISIS and Lafarge from engaging in a profitable business partnership. You can imagine if Lafarge were a Saudi or a Turkish [company] and the reaction of Western media and politicians."[8]

On October 19, 2022, Algerian veteran Al-Jazeera anchor Khadija Benguennak published a series of tweets casting doubt on whether the French government was unaware of Lafarge payments to ISIS. She asked: "Now, the question is: Was Lafarge's funding of ISIS an isolated incident that the government was unaware of?... Is it possible for a giant French company to fund ISIS without the knowledge of the government?... These are confusing questions..."[9]

In an article published by the Qatari daily Al-Sharq on October 25, 2022, Qatar-based pro-Syrian opposition Islamist journalist Dr. Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan, the former head of the Al-Jazeera offices in Pakistan, accused the West of applying a double standard when dealing with Islamic relief organizations that have been accused of funding terrorism. According to Zaidan, while Lafarge was fined for funding terrorism, organizations such as the Kuwaiti Islamic Da'wa organization, which was later named Rahma, when it was accused of funding terrorism, its assets were confiscated, and it was banned from its activities. Later on, Zaidan noted, it turned out, the designation of the Rahma organization was incorrect. Zaidan also repeated the same argument presented by Abu Hilalah, saying that if Lafarge had been an Islamic company, it would have faced more scrutiny by the Western media and politicians. Zaidan concluded by accusing the world of being hypocrites "whose justice and fairness cannot be trusted as there is a special treatment for the French Lafarge and the non-French Lafarge."[10]