Islamic Relief: the NGO Accused of Terrorist Links That Spreads Across Catalonia

Maximum alert due to the presence in Reus of an Islamic organization under suspicion for its alleged connections with terrorism. It is Islamic Relief, a controversial charitable organization due to its connections with the terrorist organization Muslim Brotherhood. The German government cut its funding in 2020, and it is also under suspicion in the United States and Great Britain.

Islamic Relief organized an event last Sunday in Reus to prepare the Muslim community for the arrival of Ramadan. They had previously passed through Lérida and Gerona.

Vox unsuccessfully requested “the immediate suspension of the fairs convened by the radical Islamist organization.”

This is the second time in a short period that radical Islamism has attempted to have a presence in the Tarragona area. In September, Vox did manage to abort an Islamic congress in Torredembarra, where radical Islamic leaders were going to participate. For instance, the preacher who called women who wear perfume “fornicators,” or a former informant who indoctrinates young people about pure behaviors.

This time, Islamic Relief has received authorization to hold its fairs in Catalan cities. What is behind this charitable organization under suspicion and with an expansionist plan in Catalonia?

Radicalism Dressed as Charity

Islamic Relief is a charitable organization founded in the eighties in the United Kingdom and funded by Islamist regimes in the Persian Gulf. They use volunteering and cooperation to proselytize the most rigorous visions of Islam. In 2017 it reached two million followers in Spain and initiated an expansionist plan to continue adding followers.

They began touring large cities dressed in blue vests and asking for donations for refugees in Syria and Palestine. They also started a food distribution campaign for people living on the street.

But the organization's connections with Islamist regimes and the Muslim Brotherhood raised alarms. European and Spanish intelligence services began to track them.

Their leaders have repeatedly denied their links to terrorism. But a National Police report in 2002 accused them of financing Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. Not only that, but they provided logistical support to jihadists and posed a risk for the radicalization of young Muslims in Western countries.

Although they deny it, there are suspicions that the Muslim Brotherhood is pulling the strings behind Islamic Relief. What has been proven is that Islamic Relief has a relationship with the Islamic League for Dialogue and Coexistence. The latter groups all the Muslim Brotherhood communities.

Even the president of Islamic Relief, Ibrahim El-Zayat, was a co-founder of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe. This is an extension of the Muslim Brotherhood in the old continent.

Anti-Terrorist Alert in Catalonia

It is no coincidence that the NGO reproduces the same strategy as the Muslim Brotherhood, which has conquered its dominance in Arab countries with social and charitable policies. Israel has accused Islamic Relief of acting as a covert agent of Hamas in Palestine. The latest reports rule out that it is a threat in Spain. Even so, they warn of the use of charity to implant a radical vision of Islam.

This is not the first time this organization has provided coverage to jihadists in its events. In 2017 they gave a platform to Yasir Qahdi, a preacher who defends corporal punishments like cutting hands. In 2020 the leadership resigned en masse after messages were discovered on social media against Jews and in favor of jihadism.

The presence of this entity in Catalonia is unsettling amid the rise of radical Islamism and the jihadist threat. In recent weeks the police have expelled three people accused of radicalism in Catalonia. The police maintain the reinforced level 4 anti-terrorist alert following the latest attacks in Europe.

Additionally, the event was held in Reus, and the province of Tarragona is one of the hot spots of Salafism in Catalonia. It should be remembered that radicals control one in three mosques in Catalonia.