New Lawsuit Against Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) Raises Fresh Questions About Charity’s Operations
By Lorenzo Vidino
Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) is one the world’s “largest relief and development charities.” It has an annual budget of nearly $400 million, partnerships with global bodies such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food Program, and operates in more than 100 countries.
At the same time, IRW has long faced scrutiny for its leadership and funding.. A number of Middle East countries have designated the charity a terrorist organisation and formally banned it from operating inside their border. And its critics have accused IRW of maintaining ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and promoting extremist positions, charges IRW has always staunchly denied.
A new lawsuit filed by IRW’s U.S branch in the Southern District of New York is providing the charity’s donors and partners with important new insights into its inner workings. Specifically, Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA), the IRW’s largest and wealthiest branch, seeks to sever its ties due to allegations of fraud, illegal fundraising and potentially sanctions-busting. The IRUSA complaint reads:
Certain allegations regarding the conduct of IRW would be viewed by relevant governmental and other authorities and entities as attributable to IRUSA and such alleged conduct would affect negatively IRUSA’s well-deserved good reputation in the U.S. Loss of reputation would, in turn, threaten to end IRUSA’s ability to fund and provide for humanitarian assistance in the U.S. and globally. IRUSA was told by U.S. governmental entities that its tax-exempt status would be threatened if it continued to maintain any operational or institutional relationships with IRW. IRUSA informed IRW in detail of these risks, yet IRW has not only refused to cooperate in taking steps to avoid such existential risks but took further steps to increase those risks to IRUSA, which in turn threatened its ability to provide relief to its beneficiaries worldwide. IRW’s conduct has harmed IRUSA and increased the urgency for IRUSA to take necessary and immediate steps to sever any such relationships or perceived relationships going forward.
The IRUSA complaint lists some of IRW’s alleged improprieties.
“First, IRW wrongly and illegally sought donations from U.S. persons in multiple states, including within the State of New York, which, by law and contract, it is not permitted to do.”
Second, “in an effort to damage IRUSA’s reputation, and to punish IRUSA for its independence, IRW illegally and fraudulently created records supporting the false inference that IRUSA had affirmatively through its own staff taken actions to abandon the benefits for and sponsorship of hundreds of orphans.”
“Third, IRW violated its contractual obligation to comply with U.S. laws, including laws and regulations promulgated by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), when it caused the exportation of sewing machines from Iran to Afghanistan for purposes of executing an earthquake relief project.”
The 113-page complaint provides a list of other alleged IRW infractions, which The Program on Extremism has no way of independently verifying.
This isn’t the first instance in which the IRW has created problems for its subsidiaries, either in the U.S. or elsewhere. Comments and writing by members of IRW leadership have sparked accusations that the organization promotes and condones extremism. In 2020, articles in the European press uncovered a disturbing pattern of antisemitic and pro-extremist views promoted in the social media posts of the organization’s upper echelons. These investigative pieces ultimately led the IRW’s entire board of trustees to resign and eroded the charity’s relationship with many of its donors, partners and stakeholders.
In response to the scandal, the German government ceased funding the IRW’s local branch, the IRW (Islamic Relief Deutschland), stating that both maintained “significant personal connections to the Muslim Brotherhood or related organizations.” (Both organisations have denied this claim.) The Dutch government also announced it would cease funding IRW’s local branch. The Netherlands’s Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Sigrid Agnes Maria Kaag stated that she personally investigated claims that IRW had links to the Muslim Brotherhood and “based on this information” concluded she would no longer “subsidize Islamic Relief Worldwide.”
In January 2021, the State Department Office of Foreign Assistance also announced that it would no longer partner with IRW. “Given what we know about IRW,” stated the U.S. body’s director, “the Department and USAID should act with extreme caution and avoid partnering with IRW in the future.”
The lawsuit filed by IRUSA in New York could further undermine the relationship between IRW and its subsidiary organizations worldwide. But it should also force governments and individual donors to even further scrutinize their relationships with charity and the funding they may provide it.