Terror Links Could Derail British Member of Parliament’s Visit to U.S.

British MP Allegedly Has Ties to Hamas-Linked NGOs

MEF Action Alert: Call on U.S. authorities to block terror-linked British MP Naseem Shah from visiting the United States. Sign up here: https://middle-east-forum.quorum.us/campaign/Ban-Shah/
A Republican congressman from Florida has urged the U.S. State Department to bar Naseem (Naz) Shah, above, a member of the British Parliament, from entering the country due to her alleged ties to charities affiliated with Hamas.

A Republican congressman from Florida has urged the U.S. State Department to bar Naseem (Naz) Shah, above, a member of the British Parliament, from entering the country due to her alleged ties to charities affiliated with Hamas.

(YouTube screenshot)

Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) has launched an effort to block British Labour Member of Parliament for Bradford West, Naseem (Naz) Shah, from entering the U.S next week. In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Mast urged the denial of Shah’s entry, citing ties to U.K. networks of the designated terrorist organization Hamas.

U.S. Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), has urged the U.S. State Department to bar a British MP from entering the country due to her alleged ties to organizations that fundraise for Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.

U.S. Representative Brian Mast, (R-Fla.)

He wrote: “There is substantial public evidence that MP Shah has connections to known terrorist organizations. It is imperative that the United States send a clear signal to the world that politicians who support terrorists are not welcome on American soil.”

Naz Shah is visiting the United States to give the keynote address at a D.C. conference on November 13th organized by the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), a prominent American Islamist organization.

In 2021, Naz Shah spoke on a Panel organized by the NGO Palestine Return Centre. Its Director, Majed Al-Zeer, was recently designated a Global Terrorist by the U.S for links to Hamas. Al-Zeer is close to senior Hamas officials, including the terror group’s late chairman Ismail Haniyeh.

Mast also highlighted that Naz Shah also raised money for the NGO Friends of Al-Aqsa. Following the October 7th attacks, one Friends of Al-Aqsa official declared that “we must normalize massacres as the status quo.” Friends of Al-Aqsa collaborates closely with Interpal, a leading Hamas charitable institution. The U.S. Department of Treasury designated Interpal as a terrorist organization in 2003, declaring, “Interpal is the fundraising coordinator of HAMAS” and that the organization helped formulate Hamas’s public relations policy.

Shah now finds herself at the center of a diplomatic controversy, but is no stranger to this at home in the U.K. In 2016, Shah was suspended by the Labour Party for antisemitic remarks. In a Facebook post, Shah shared a graphic of Israel’s outline superimposed on a map of the U.S under the headline, “Solution for Israel-Palestine Conflict – Relocate Israel into United States,” with her comment: “Problem solved.”

Majed Al-Zeer, director of the Palestine Return Centre stands alongside the late Ismail Haniyeh, chairman of Hamas’s Political Bureau, at a meeting of the United Nations Committee on Nongovernmental Organizations in 2015.

Majed Al-Zeer, director of the Palestine Return Centre stands alongside the late Ismail Haniyeh, chairman of Hamas’s Political Bureau, at a meeting of the United Nations Committee on Nongovernmental Organizations in 2015.

Shah also faced significant backlash after claiming she “accidentally” liked and retweeted a post that suggested child victims of the Grooming Gang Rape scandal should “shut their mouths for the good of diversity.”

Shah has also repeatedly appeared on the Islam Channel, a major Islamic TV station in Britain fined thousands by the U.K. government-approved regulatory authority because of antisemitic and violent extremist content.

In 2022 Shah made an impassioned speech, lamenting the British Government’s decision to boycott the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB). A previous Labour Party government blacklisted the Islamist organization after it signed the Istanbul Declaration, which a government minister declared “supports violence against foreign forces – which could include British naval personnel” and advocates “attacks on Jewish communities all around the world.”

A copy of Rep.Brian Mast’s letter to Secretary of State Blinken:

Anna Stanley is a research associate at the Middle East Forum. Anna previously worked as an Open-Source Intelligence Analyst at the British Foreign Office and as an Intelligence Researcher and Investigation Practitioner for UK Police. She has delivered OSINT training internationally. Her writing has been featured on UK Television, The Spectator, The JC, JNS, Fathom, The Telegraph and Ynet.