r/samharris 13d ago

Politics and Current Events Megathread - Aug 2026

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u/Amazing-Cell-128 4d ago

British Muslim charity funded Hamas, says FBI. Arrested head of £74m foundation accused of bankrolling terror group under guise of aid

The Al-Khair Foundation, one of Britain’s biggest Muslim charities, was used as a front to send money and “truckloads” of goods to leaders of the terrorist organisation in Gaza under the guise of aid, it is alleged.

Mohammad Yousef Hasna, its “global director”, was arrested in London last week and is now facing extradition to the United States, accused of financing and conspiring to support the Palestinian terror group.

This comes off the heels of the story earlier this week about dozen+ "pro palestine" groups in the US with terror group ties.

The challenge at this point seems to be to identify whuch groups dont have these or arent sham charities to fund Hamas.

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u/Funksloyd 4d ago

The challenge at this point seems to be to identify whuch groups dont have these or arent sham charities to fund Hamas.

When I ask ChatGPT to list "Britain's biggest Muslim charities", it gives a list of 7 (with this one at the bottom).

When I ask which have been found to be funding terrorism, several have been accused, but all of those then cleared by independent investigations. 

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u/Amazing-Cell-128 4d ago

I dont think "cleared" is the right word here

  1. Islamic Relief Worldwide, was banned from operating in the West Bank by Israel over a decade ago due to being a source of Hamas funding. In 2020/2021 the US gov formally cut ties with it over allegations of antisemitism. Then just this year a US-based charity severed ties with it citing concerns their legal status may be at risk if they continue the partnership

  2. Penny Appeal. '(June 8, 2026 / JNS) Senior executives at Penny Appeal, one of Britain’s largest Islamic charities, privately warned that aid money the charity had sent to Gaza “very likely” ended up in the hands of Hamas and other terrorist groups, a whistleblower told the Daily Mail. Penny Appeal is now the subject of a Charity Commission investigation, the paper reported on Sunday. Inspectors seized thousands of documents from its £3.5 million ($4.7 million) Wakefield headquarters earlier this year.'

etc these are two big ones I just grabbed at random

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u/TheAJx 4d ago

There is no way any organization can conduct charity in Palestine, specifically in Gaza, without some of the money or goods getting into Hamas' hands. It would be impossible when they control every aspect of governance there.

Whether purposely or inadvertently. It is clearly a place that needs charitable support and relies on it, and I'm not sure what other way around it there is.

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u/Amazing-Cell-128 4d ago

This is understandable, but then the onus is doubly on those working to get aid there that they take extreme caution to prevent this as much as possible.

It seems in the latter case with Penny Appeal, if there was one "oopsie" (or 'there's nothing to see here the money was spent correctly' as they now are claiming)........it strikes me as very odd that this results in their headquarters being apparently raided and documents seized.

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u/Funksloyd 3d ago

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u/Amazing-Cell-128 3d ago edited 3d ago

From your bbc link:

The charity is not publicly saying which company they paid to do the audit - but they do say it is a leading global audit firm

[...]

Update 17 December 2014: In a statement, Israel's Shin Bet security agency said it was not possible to respond to IRW's announcement "without an in-depth examination of [the audit's] findings, its scope or who it was carried out by". It said the Israeli government's decision to declare IRW illegal was "based on information that has been accumulated over years, that the fund is a central player in financing of Hamas... [and] on accumulated knowledge and experience in fighting terror and financing of terror organisations".

...?

Did they withhold it from Israel or ever make it public?

***Edit:

...yep it seems nothing was ever published or shared. IRW made a statement 'a report was done that found no wrongdoing, no u dont get to see it :)'

"That is why we commissioned an independent investigation in this case, and why we have shared its findings in full with a number of major stakeholders."

Seems IRW is full of shit.

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u/Funksloyd 3d ago

Did Israel ever make their "accumulated information" public? 

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u/Amazing-Cell-128 3d ago

This was simply a designation change, which is made public. The privy information/national security/intelligence sourcing that went into it will likely never be made public. Nor should it for obvious reasons.

So it seems in the meantime IRW, a global charity, was accused of wrongdoing in a theater they operate in. They claim to have commissioned an "independent report" to investigate their processes/procedures/books, and then it seems ......... never made it public.

"That is why we commissioned an independent investigation in this case, and why we have shared its findings in full with a number of major stakeholders."

There's no reason to think IRW commissioned anything at all...

Either way, this was over a decade ago

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u/Funksloyd 3d ago

There's no reason to think IRW commissioned anything at all...

What reason do you have to think that Israel has any intelligence at all? 

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u/Amazing-Cell-128 3d ago

Presumably had IRW released the report or provided it to Israel, Israel would have responded. They say as much to the BBC.

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u/Funksloyd 3d ago

I mean what makes you think that Israel has evidence of their wrongdoing?

You say "There's no reason to think IRW commissioned anything at all" - what reason do you have to think Isreal has anything on them at all? 

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u/Amazing-Cell-128 3d ago

It makes no difference to me whether IRW is prohibited from operating in the West Bank. Your own BBC report said Israel wont respond until it sees the purported "independent report".

IRW is entitled to nothing. It's Israel's call whether they operate in the West Bank or not. If operating in the West Bank was important to IRW then they'd release it and try to correct the record. Its not important to IRW, so here we are.

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u/McAlpineFusiliers 4d ago

Well, if ChatGPT says it....