Viktoriia Ivakha
Wschodnioznawstwo (Eastern Studies), Volume 17, 2023, pp. 417 - 438
https://doi.org/10.4467/20827695WSC.23.024.18742Terrorist organizations based on the ideology of Islamic fundamentalism are increasingly involved in various criminal activities in order to generate income for their own functioning and continuation of terrorist activity. These include: money laundering, human trafficking, drug and arms smuggling, cybercrime, illegal tax systems, extortion, robbery, trade in cultural monuments etc. Al‑Qaeda and the Islamic State are the most prominent examples of Islamist terrorist groups with extremely extensive and diverse financial systems. The aim of the article is to analyze the process of financing fundamentalist terrorist organizations of Al‑Qaeda and the Islamic State from the sources coming from organized crime. The study also attempts to describe and analyze financing of terrorist activities, its classification, as well as sources of financing of Al‑Qaeda and ISIS, with particular emphasis on criminal proceeds and their comparison in terms of similarities and differences.