Mormons are among the most patriotic Americans.

So, why are they the new financiers of Islamic terrorism and instruction for young children in beheadings?

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the Mormon Church, is the single largest donor to the U.S. branch of Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW), also known as Islamic Relief. In the past year, it donated $1.6 million to the charity.

But Islamic Relief is not just any charity. The Israeli government says it is a Hamas front group. It is also under investigation by the American government.

IRW was founded in 1984 by Dr. Hany El Banna. He is a relative of Hassan El Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist group--from which Hamas, Yasser Arafat, and Al-Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman Al-Zawahiri emanated.

In May, Israel deported Ayaz Ali, IRW's chief of operations in Gaza, after three weeks in jail. Israel said Ali gave money to Hamas and Al-Wafa and Al-Tzalah, both outlawed by Israel for laundering money to Hamas. He also stored images of Osama Bin Laden, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, Senior German Nazi officials, Nazi swastikas, and a "God Bless Hitler" banner on his computer.

Upon Ali's deportation an Israeli government statement said:

He also admitted that he worked in Jordan and cooperated with local Hamas operatives. . . . Incriminating files were found on Ali's computer, including documents that attested to [Islamic Relief's] ties with illegal HAMAS funds abroad--in the UK and in Saudi Arabia--and in Nablus.

The IRW's activities in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip are carried out by social welfare organizations controlled and staffed by Hamas operatives. The intensive activities of these associations are designed to further Hamas' ideology among the Palestinian population.

These associations' educational and religious institutions incite against the State of Israel and advocate terrorist actions against it and its citizens.

In 1999, IRW's British headquarters received $50,000 from a Canadian group that the Treasury Department says is a Bin Laden front, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Investigator Bill Warner notes that IRW's registered agent in the United States, Kazbek Soobzokov, is the son of Nazi Waffen SS officer Tscherim Soobzokov and was the lawyer for deported accused terrorist and Islamic cleric, Imam Wagdy Mohamed Ghoneim. Regarding Ghoneim, Immigration and Customs Enforcement official Bill Odencrantz said, "Frankly, our task is not to sit around and wait for people to blow up buildings."

At an Islamic Relief fundraiser I attended last Friday, Misbah Shahid, the organization's Detroit representative, announced that IRW publishes and distributes school textbooks to children in Palestinian refugee camps. But textbooks distributed in the camps are riddled with anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and anti-American rhetoric, according to Molly Resnick of Mothers Against Teaching Children to Kill and Hate.

Shahid also told the audience that his organization is one of the key Non-Governmental Organizations currently distributing aid to Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, including UN and U.S. aid. But those camps are known as breeding grounds for terrorists.

Given all this, why are Mormons pouring millions into Islamic Relief? They aren't alone.

Islamic Relief's brochures show Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour accepting Katrina aid from IRW, last year. It is a consultative member of the UN. It was founded in Britain with the continued financial aid and assistance of the British government, whose ambassador to Israel convinced the Israeli government to allow Islamic Relief to open its HAMAS-friendly Gaza office.

Almost five years after 9/11, we will never end terrorism if the West continues to sanction its funding.