A New Europe recent report on the funding of Muslim Aid charity in the UK, found that the charity had received 1m Euro in financing from Qatar. Further digging into the charity, found that the European Commission gave the very same charity 14 million Euro between 2011 and 2014.
There is no doubt that working with Muslim communities is of paramount importance to Europe, and that funding charities can go a long way in achieving difficult goals, particularly in countries where access is limited.
But in the past, Muslim Aid, has been investigated by the governments of England, Wales, Spain and Bangladesh over its alleged funding of terrorist movements.
And while in the UK, the 2010 Charity Commission of England and Wales investigation cleared the organization, saying the claims were unsubstantiated, in 2014 the Charity Commission opened a new “statutory inquiry” whose results remain unpublished.
Most importantly, Muslim Aid was also banned in Israel in 2008 for supporting Hamas’ fundraising network. Hamas is on the EU’s terror list.
Did the European Commission do its due diligence before giving a very large amount of money to Muslim Aid?
More importantly, have they talked to the UK Charity Commission about their 2014 inquiry? After all, this is 14 million Euros worth of EU taxpayer money we are talking about...