The entire board of the largest Islamic charity in Britain resigned on Saturday following an investigation that revealed one of its directors posted anti-Semitic and pro-terrorist sentiments online.
The Birmingham-based Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) charity announced in a blog post that “the entire board will not stand for re-election, and will be replaced by a new board” after it was revealed that Dr Almoutaz Tayara, a director of the charity and chairman of Islamic Relief Germany, described the leadership of the Palestinian terrorist organisation, Hamas, as “great men” who took up the “divine and holy call of the Muslim Brotherhood”.
Dr Tayara also called the military wing of the terrorist organisation, the Izz al-Din al-Qassem Brigades, “heroes” who “did not graduate from the military academies of the UK and the U.S., unlike the rulers and royals of the Arab world who, there, were nurtured on cowardice and allegiance to the foreigners — the UK and the U.S.,” according to The Times.
In 2015, the former director also posted an image on his Facebook account that depicted Barack Obama wearing a tie emblazoned with the Star of David. On his lap were depictions of the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and Yemen’s rebel leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi.
In Arabic, the figures said respectively, “Death to America . . . Death to Israel”; “Death . . . Death”; and “Death to America”.
Islamic Relief Germany admitted that they were aware of the posts from Dr Tayara since 2017 but he was allowed to keep his position with the charity after he deleted the posts and apologised. The British arm of the charity said that they were unaware of his posts until this week.
“Dr Tayara’s deleted posts in no way reflect the views or position of Islamic Relief Worldwide, which is a purely humanitarian organisation with no political affiliations. We work to uphold the highest humanitarian standards of neutrality, impartiality and independence, assisting people of all faiths and none, without discrimination by race, religion, gender or sexual orientation,” the charity claimed in a statement.
“We reject and condemn terrorism and believe that all forms of discrimination – including anti-Semitism – are unacceptable. These values are fundamental to our organisation, our donors and the people we serve,” they added.
In July, Islamic Relief Worldwide came under fire after another investigation revealed that another director at the charity, Egypt-born Heshmat Khalifa, had posted praise for Hamas and anti-Semitic screeds online.
Khalifa was forced to resign from the charity after posts calling Jews “the grandchildren of monkeys and pigs” and describing Hamas as “the purest resistance movement in modern history and a symbol of honour, resistance and the real Islam” came to light.
From 2009 to 2018, the Islamic Relief Worldwide charity received millions in funding from the likes of the United Nations, which gave the charity £24.1 million.
IRW also received money from the European Commission, some £20.4 million, and from the British government, which funnelled £8.2 million into the charity’s coffers until 2015.
The investigation revealed that while the charity earned praise from then Labour government minister David Miliband, the IRW faced allegations “that its funds were sometimes passed to questionable recipients” and that it has “for many years… been forced to deny claims of ideological ties with Islamist organisations.”
The IRW was banned in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2014 over alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, and Israel has accused the organisation of “using donations to support Hamas, the militant Palestinian organisation, and banned it from working in the West Bank.”
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