Qatar Charity

Qatar Charity (QC) is an NGO founded in 1992 for the development of the Qatari community and those communities in need. The QC projects address issues ranging from disaster relief to income generation initiatives, to education and health care. It acts locally (and popularly) with the general public with counters setup specifically in various shopping malls in Qatar.^[1][2]

Once known as "Qatar Charitable Society", Qatar Charity is today Qatar’s largest NGO,^[3] one of the non-governmental leading charities in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and at a global level.^[4] Sheikh Hamad bin Nasser al-Thani is the current chairman of Qatar Charity, which is active in more than 25 countries and has subsidiary offices in UK,^[5] Pakistan,^[6] and Indonesia.^[7]

Management

As of 2015, Qatar Charity is headed by its president,Hamad bin Nasser al-Thani,^[5] and its CEO, Yousef bin Ahmed al-Kuwari.^[8]

Major projects

Among QC’s major long-term projects are “Tayf,” a charity program to collect in-kind donations,^[4] and the annual “Iftar” project for the month of Ramadan, which aims to provide meals to thousands of fasting Muslims in targeted countries.^[9] In July 2015, Vodafone Qatar and Qatar Charity created a partnership. Employees of Vodafone helped feed workers at camps in the Ras Laffan Industrial City with Iftar meals during Ramadan. Vodafone promised to donate $275 per hour that each employee volunteers. The donations will go to Qatar Charity’s Family Sponsorship program. The program helps low-income families throughout the Gulf area.^[10] Recently, Qatar Charity has also launched a website (“Travel and Aid”) to attract participation in charitable work.^[11]

Qatar Charity is at the forefront of relief work in the face of major natural disasters. This was the case in Nepal, where Qatar Charity distributed $100.000 in food, blankets, mattresses and other non-food items including hygiene kits.^[12] In Sierra Leone, the charity supported the purchase of vital equipment at an Ebola Treatment Center (ETC) in Lunsar.^[13] It also played a part in the 2008–2009 Gaza Strip aid delivering around $140,000 worth of medical supplies. In other international efforts, it had raised around QAR 2 million as relief for the 2010 Pakistan floods.^[14]

In Niger, Qatar Charity is supporting local efforts to combat drought and improve the overall desperate conditions in the villages of Sowna and Aichign by funding the installation of modern solar-powered artesian wells.^[15] In southern Mali, it opened shelters for displaced children. During 2014, Qatar Charity’s long-standing commitment to the people of Somalia was renewed as the charity provided QAR 25.5 million ($7 million) in life-saving relief, recovery and rehabilitation programs and activities.^[16] QC launched a project to construct the village of 'Doha Alkhair' in Djibouti at an estimated cost of QAR 4 million in September 2015. One-hundred houses, basic amenities and public utilities were among the planned infrastructure.^[17]

QC recently sent relief convoys to refugees in South Sudan, and it is currently funding programs in support of Syrian refugees in Lebanon.^[18] As of October 2015, the organization has carried out four housing projects in Syria, during which it has repaired and built new villages.^[19] The most notable housing project is Al Rayyan, an under-construction village designed to accommodate 7,000 people.^[20] QC has also deployed around 400 pre-fabricated housing units in Syria.^[19]

Moreover, the charity actively promotes engagement, employment and enterprise development for young people in the Arab world. One of the latest such efforts includes the renovation project of Al-Quds University at a cost of QAR 4.5 million.^[21]

Allegations

Qatar Charity is accused of acting as a financier and agency for terror in several countries.^[22] In an article published by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the case of the Qatar Charity is presented as an example of Islamist funding to the advantage of terrorist groups across the MENA region masked under the label of “aid work.”^[23] Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Aaron Y. Zelin claim that Islamic charities are exploiting humanitarian aid in countries with active Islamist movements in order to provide a plausible cover for their militant activities and strengthen the dependence of the populations on their services.^[23] The charity is also blacklisted by Israel since January 2011 as an international charity suspected of supporting terrorism.^[24]

Support to Al-Qaeda

As evidence submitted by the U.S. government in a criminal trial noted,^[25] Qatar Charity was mentioned by Osama Bin Laden in 1993 as one of the several charities used to fund al-Qaeda’s operations overseas. In 1995 Bin Laden reportedly complained that al-Qaeda’s ability to use charities to fund operations may have been compromised by the failed attempt to assassinate the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak who was travelling in Ethiopia, during which Qatar Charitable Society funds had been used.^[25]

The former al-Qaeda member and former member of the Qatar Charitable Society Jamal Ahmed al-Fadl confirmed the relation between Qatar Charitable Society and al-Qaeda.^[26] In February 2001 al-Fadl testified that QCS’ leader at that time, Dr. Abdullah Mohamed Yusef, was a member of al Qaeda as well, and a member of the Sudanese political group the National Islamic Front (or “NIF”) that harbored Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s.^[26] As a Justice Department brief later explained, “The money for al-Qaeda operations would nevertheless be listed in the charities’ books as expenses for building mosques or schools or feeding the poor or the needy.”^[25]

Allegedly, Qatar Charity has also funded al-Qaeda in Chechnya.^[22] In 1999 the Russian Interior Minister accused QCS of funneling income to Chechen qaedist groups.^[27] The allegation was denied as false by Hamad bin Nasser al-Thani in an interview with Al-Jazeera. Al-Thani claimed that the Qatari government would not interfere with the funding because Russian actions in Chechnya were “painful for us as Qatari, Arab, or Muslim citizens.”^[27]

In Northern Mali, Qatar Charity contributed to fund and arm jihadists in parallel with rebel fighters.^[23] Moreover, French military intelligence reports accused the charity of funding Ansar Dine, the militant Islamist group suspected of having ties with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, at the time of France's January 2013 intervention.^[28]

Implications in Syria, Sudan, and Somalia

Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Aaron Y. Zelin reported that the Syrian Islamic Front (SIF), a group of six organizations that is considered one of the main jihadi elements within the Syrian opposition, has benefited from Qatar Charity’s funding. In January 2013, the group has announced its foundation through a video which showed SIF members providing aid to Syrian civilians with boxes and flags bearing the logos of Qatar Charity.^[23]

In February 2015, Yahia Sadam, a humanitarian official in the Sudan Liberation Movement-Minni Minnawi (SLM-MM) charged Qatar of helping the Sudanese government troops to implement the ongoing “genocide” by channeling its “petro-dollars” through Qatar Charity. Sadam argued that Qatar Charity is “building housing complexes in remote and isolated areas to harbour and train extremists groups to destabilise security and stability in Africa and some Arab countries.” He further added that Qatar supported the “scorched earth policy” carried out by the Sudanese troops towards that goal.^[29]

Recently, speculations have been made that the Sudanese President Bashir is hosting Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS training camps in Darfur with Qatar’s support.^[30]

Finally, Money Jihad has inferred that the refugee camp established by Qatar Charity in Mogadishu, Somalia, within the framework of Eemaar project “is the latest demonstration of Qatar’s attempt to shop for influence in unstable countries that are ripe for Islamist coups d’état.”^[31]

References

External links

• Qatar Charity website (English language)
• Regular updates on the work being undertaken by Qatar Charity