The Billiken's Bluff

A mosque established and funded by former NBA star Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon gave more than $80,000 to charities the government later determined to be fronts for the terror groups al-Qaeda and Hamas.



The Olajuwon-founded Islamic Da'Wah Center in Houston gave more than $60,000 in 2000 and $20,000 in 2002 to the Islamic African Relief Agency, the center's tax records show. The government shut down the relief agency in October, saying it gave money and other support to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida. But the agency and its possible ties to terrorism had been in news stories years earlier, before Olajuwon's contributions.

Olajuwon also participated in a 1999 celebrity bowling tournament for the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which the U.S. government shut down in 2001, accusing it of sending money to Hamas.

[Via Newsday]