More evidence of treason: the Obama administration has awarded more than a quarter million dollars to an Islamic charity linked to terrorism finance.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, the Department of Health and Human Services has provided a $270,000 grant to Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW), the largest Islamic charity in the world. The grant was awarded as part of a larger project to provide health services in Nairobi, Kenya, through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The problem is that the Birmingham, England-based IRW and Islamic Relief USA (IR-USA), the largest Muslim charity in the United States and an affiliate of IRW, are banned in many countries over its links to Hamas.
The United Arab Emirates and Israel, for example, both banned the charity in 2014 after investigations revealed its ties to Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other terror-financing entities. Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs determined as far back as 2006 that IRW “provides support and assistance to Hamas’s infrastructure" as well as serving as "a hub for donations from charities accused of links to al Qaeda and other terror group."
The charity’s “accounts show that it has partnered with a number of organizations linked to terrorism and that some of charity’s trustees are personally affiliated with extreme Islamist groups that have connections to terror,” according to an investigation written by terrorism analyst Samuel Westrop. For example, the organization donated thousands of dollars to a charity established by a terrorist affiliated with al Qaeda, according to Westrop.
Israeli authorities arrested the charity’s Gaza coordinator, Ayaz Ali, in 2006 after discovering incriminating files on his computer linking the organization with illegal Hamas funds and photographs of Hamas military activities.
RadicalIslam.org documented IR-USA’s ties to Hamas in an expose about the organization's CEO, an Islamist who became a USAID advisor to the Obama State Department. According to Clarion Project (a non-profit dedicated to exposing the dangers of Islamic extremism), the organization partners with a Hamas affiliate in Turkey named the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH):
Israel, Germany and the Netherlands have branded IHH as a terrorist entity. The U.S. has not formally done so, but a bipartisan group of 87 members of Congress including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) have requested its designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the State Department.
The State Department considered it but did not take action, even though a leaked State Department memo from 2009 shows that the U.S. government knows IHH is “providing material assistance to Hamas.”
Clarion Project also reported that at least four IR-USA officials have Muslim Brotherhood ties. "One appears to have been arrested in Egypt in 2009 and another has even defended Hamas as 'freedom fighters.'”
In 2013, an Egyptian newspaper published a list of 30 alleged Muslim Brotherhood operatives in the U.S. that included five current or former senior IR-USA leaders.
In August of 2014, an IR-USA official was elected by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) to be its new president. ISNA is a Muslim civic group which was an unindicted co-conspirator in the successful trial against the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) for financing Hamas.
Azeez’s election to such a high-profile position is somewhat surprising given the steady decline in IR-USA’s credibility and reputation over the last several years. IR-USA’s budget tumbled after the charity was revealed to have falsely inflated the value of its drug stockpiles, which represented a significant share of their total assets. IR-USA’s international affiliate—Islamic Relief Worldwide—has been banned by Israel and designated as a terrorist entity by the United Arab Emirates within the past several months. [Late 2014.]
HSBC Bank, headquartered in London, and one of the largest banking and financial services organizations in the world, ended its banking relationship with IRW back in January -- reportedly over fears of terror funding.
But none of that deterred the Obama administration from sending the charity over a quarter million dollars. Shocked? Neither are we.
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