Islamic Relief Worldwide
Other names: Islamic Relief/IRW
Type: Charity Organisation
Founded: 1984
Organisation Ideology: Pan-Islamist, Islamic Supremacism
Online Resources
Official website: Islamic Relief Worldwide - Faith inspired action (official English website of Islamic Relief)
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Overview
Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW), an “independent humanitarian and development organisation” that operates in over 40 countries. A British registered charity located with Headquarters in Birmingham, IRW is active in lobbying the United Nations. According to its website, IRW “regularly visits the UN Headquarters in New York to speak with Member States, offering them expertise on humanitarian issues and faith sensitive approaches to complex topics” and “organises side events with UN agencies and Governments at global forums such as the Commission for the Status of Women and the UN General Assembly.” IRW provides disaster-relief, emergency response and the distribution of clothing, food and health support to conflict, or disaster-struck areas across Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Ties to Extremism
According to a 2017 report by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency on the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood, IRW plays a prominent role in providing credibility to the global Muslim Brotherhood. The report also revealed that Haytham Rahmeh, an official of the Muslim Brotherhood, is a member of Islamic Relief Sweden, a branch of IRW, and noted that “Rahmeh was involved in supporting militias linked to the Muslim Brotherhood in the Syrian conflict, through lobbying and weapons purchases.” The report argues that recognising MB-related charity organisations as representatives for Muslims and Islam creates political and social polarisation that pits an imagined ‘Us vs. Them’ mentality.
Although the work of the IRW is focused solely on charity, various members of IRW’s leadership over the years have consistently made controversial statements on political issues, and shown support to the MB, or MB-affiliated militant organisations. The below outlines multiple instances when the senior leadership of IRW made controversial statements, despite IRW stating that those comments were unacceptable or inappropriate:
July 2020: The Director and Trustee of IRW Heshmat Khalifa was forced to resign following an expose in The Times regarding his past antisemitic comments, “labelling Jews the ‘grandchildren of monkeys and pigs’ and calling Egypt’s president Abdel Fatah El Sisi a ‘Zionist pimp’.”
August 2020: The entire board of IRW resigned following statements made by its new chairman praising “Hamas as great men who were answering the divine and holy call of the Muslim Brotherhood”.
August 2020: Abdul Mannan Bhatti, a fundraising coordinator with IRW deleted a Facebook post that included posts from Sayyid Qutb, one of the MB’s leading members in the 1950’s and 1960’s that often endorsed violence to achieve political aims.
Besides the senior leadership’s often controversial statements, some employees within IRW also posted controversial social media posts, with one employee sharing a conspiracy theory that the coronavirus was planned ten years ago by the Rockefellers. IRW has gone to great lengths to distance itself from reports that it has ties to the MB, following a crackdown by the German government in 2020 over fears that IRW maintains strong links to the MB. In December 2020, the German government ceased funding IRW and Islamic Relief Deutschland (IRD) over links to extremism. The German government began accusing IRW of having ties to the MB in April 2019, with Germany’s Federal Government stating that both IRW and IRD had “significant personal connections” to the Muslim Brotherhood and related organisations. Germany’s government further added that the aid organisation would be subject to an ongoing audit by the Federal Audit Office. IRW denied the charges levelled against it by the German government, issuing a statement on its website denying it maintains any links with the MB, and denying that it is controlled by any foreign organisation or political movement.
Germany is not the only country to have raised suspicions over the charity’s links to the MB. In 2021, The Netherland’s Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation stated he would block any further payments to the IRW - citing the organisation’s suspected links with the MB as the reason behind the move. In 2017, Bangladesh banned IRW alongside another international charity, Muslim Aid, from operating in Rohingya refugee camps citing the potential radicalisation of vulnerable Rohingyas by charity groups with potential extremist ties. Financial institutions have also had a history of severing links with IRW over its ties to the MB and terrorism. In January 2016, the UK-based bank HSBC announced that it was ending all links to IRW, “amid concerns that cash for aid could end up with terrorist groups abroad.” Four years earlier in 2012, UBS - a Swiss investment bank and financial services company - closed down IRW’s accounts as well. Both banks cited money laundering and counter-terrorist financing legislation as reasons behind their decision to halt business with IRW, also citing the risk as becoming too high.