The State Department included Fuqra/MOA in its annual Patterns of Global Terrorism reports in the 1990s but did not designate it as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. The State Department described Fuqra as an “Islamic sect that seeks to purify Islam through violence.”
The State Department said in 2002 it has not been included in any terrorism reports since 2000 because of its inactivity:
“Jamaat ul-Fuqra has never been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. It was included in several recent annual terrorism reports under “other terrorist groups,” i.e., groups that had carried out acts of terrorism but that were not formally designated by the Secretary of State. However, because of the group’s inactivity during 2000, it was not included in the most recent terrorism report covering that calendar year.”[1]
The three criteria for being designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the State Department are:
(1) It must be a foreign organization. (2) The organization must engage in terrorist activity… or terrorism…or retain the capability and intent to engage in terrorist activity or terrorism. (3) The organization’s terrorist activity or terrorism must threaten the security of U.S. nationals orthe national security (national defense, foreign relations, orthe economic interests) of the United States.[2]
[1] State Department Daily Press Briefing: Taken Questions, January 31, 2002.
[2] Foreign Terrorist Organizations. United States Department of State.
