Millions in taxpayer cash were directed towards an Islamic organisation with alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood by the German government, reports have revealed.
According to reports from Berlin’s Federal Audit Office, obtained by paper of record Die Welt, Germany’s Federal Foreign Office (AA) gave Islamic Relief Germany (IRD) nearly 8.5 million euros ($9.9m) between 2013 and 2016 and millions more on top of that.
This is despite the group’s parent organisation, Islamic Relief Worldwide, having been classified as a terror group in 2014 by Israel, which accused the group of having funnelled money to Palestinian Hamas terrorists, a charge the supposed charity denies. A 2009 report from Germany’s Baden-Württemberg Office for the Protection of the Constitution also accused the group of being tied to the radical Muslim Brotherhood, which seeks to impose Sharia on the world.
A later 2019 government report found that the IRD had “significant personnel connections to the Muslim Brotherhood or organisations close to it,” following which the Foreign Office ceased funding the group.
The reports from the Federal Audit Office concerning the grants provided by the German government to IRD were classified and withheld from the public for over five years, with the government arguing that the release of the information could “lead to polemics” and would risk public discourse that would not be “conducive to the welfare of the federal government.”
However, the findings were finally disclosed following a lengthy lawsuit from attorney Seyran Ateş and the Institute for Secular Law. According to Die Welt, the first report found that the Foreign Office was “unable to explain on what basis” it had decided that Islamic Relief Germany was a reputable charity and worthy of millions in government grants.
It also claimed that the Foreign Office had ignored a “clear and binding directive” from 2009 to not work with the organisation.
A second report found that financial support for the IRD was done “blindly” by the Foreign Office, “without first verifying the legality and economic efficiency of the previous funding.”
Representing Islamic Relief Germany, the law firm Höcker said: “Our client has no contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood, does not see himself as part of or a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, and has absolutely nothing to do with the Muslim Brotherhood.” The firm also denied any connection to Hamas.
The law firm maintained that the IRD was institutionally independent of the parent organisation, Islamic Relief Worldwide, and said that Islamic Relief Germany was only interested in raising funds for charitable endeavours.
The disclosure of the reports comes amid increased focus on the operations of groups like the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe. A report produced last year by the French intelligence community found that since the 1950s, the Muslim Brotherhood has “designed the matrix of political Islamism adapted to be established in the West,” with the ultimate goal of subversion and implementation of a theocracy.
The report found that about 280 Islamic associations in France had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, including charities. The report also found that Germany and Austria were hotbeds of Muslim Brotherhood activity, given that they were “historically the first lands of establishment of the movement” in Europe.
The report prompted the government in Sweden to launch its own investigation into Islamist infiltration, in a bid to “strangle foreign funding of religious communities, where states fund radical mosques” and to push back against “Islamist and undemocratic forces.”