EU funding for an NGO linked to Islamic terrorists
9.12.2020
Question for written answer E-006734/2020
to the Commission
Rule 138
Mara Bizzotto (ID)
The NGO Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) professes to be a humanitarian organisation. It operates in over 40 countries worldwide. Following allegations and investigations into alleged links between IRW members and Islamic terrorist organisations, the NGO has been banned by Israel, the Arab Emirates, Russia and Bangladesh.
Last summer, The Times newspaper reported that, in Facebook posts, two senior figures in the NGO IRW had described Jews as ‘the descendants of apes and pigs’, Hamas as ‘the purest movement of modern times’ and the Muslim Brotherhood as ‘great men responding to the divine call’.
The Commission and the UN have provided substantial funding to the IRW for years now, and are still listed as supporting this NGO.
In Italy, IRW is able to receive donations through the 5x1000 mechanism, a de facto form of indirect state aid, while Germany recently suspended funding for IRW following a judicial enquiry.
Given that between 2015 and 2018 the EU financed hundreds of NGOs to the tune of around EUR 3.4 billion, and in view of the unacceptable anti-Semitic stances adopted by senior IRW figures and the measures taken by several countries against this organisation owing to its alleged links with Islamic terrorism, can the Commission state:
- 1.Whether it will disclose how much EU funding has been granted to IRW to date?
- 2.Whether it will stop funding organisations such as the IRW which, under the guise of humanitarian action, promote anti-Semitism, fundamentalism and Islamic terrorism?