Qatar Charity UK’s projects in Britain and in Europe

In 2014, with the help of a £99,151 ($120,000) loan from AMAL, Qatar Charity opened an office in London “because of the need for direct supervision of Qatar Charity projects in Britain and in Europe generally, especially with the development of these projects and their increase in size,” according to Chairman Sheikh Hamad bin Nasser Al Thani.  He said more than QR500 million ($137 milllion) had been spent since 2010 on projects in Europe, “which has included a number of projects for the benefit of the Muslim communities there”.  The new office’s managing director, Salman Kaldari, said the primary goal was to support the social and economic progress of the most disadvantaged in the UK and other European countries, but in reality the London outfit appears from company documents to be more focused on Islamic projects.  QCUK’s website is currently suspended, but elsewhere it has described itself as “a non-faith-based charity that is focused on making a sustainable and meaningful impact to communities regardless of religion, ethnicity, gender or colour. However, the charity also receives and distributes donations that are specifically earmarked for projects related to Ramadan and other Islamic traditions.”

During its first full year of operations, 2014-15, QCUK’s income was £4,457,191 ($5,447,935), of which 99.5% consisted of grants from Qatar Charity in Doha.  £3,979,451 of the total took the form of restricted donations, of which just 3.1% was spent during the year; a further 5.1% was accounted for by a net loss on foreign exchange.  £85,400 from Doha was spent on helping local organisations in the UK to provide Ramadan meals for the poor in the community, and £38,768 of Doha money was used to alleviate food shortages among the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar (a cause also strongly promoted by Qatar’s Al Jazeera TV).  Money from general unrestricted funds was used to help establish a centre for rape victims in Bosnia.  Also, under the working name of ‘Nectar Trust’, QCUK partnered with Mosaic, a youth project of the Prince of Wales’s charitable trust, as part of a strategy to build relations with reputable charities and other organisations.

The unspent 92% of restricted funding, which is to be disbursed once due diligence processes are complete, was earmarked for projects including:

£2,139,139 for three “community centres”, two in the UK and one in Europe, including facilities for marriage functions, sports and day care centres, prayer areas, shops, and classrooms for teaching Arabic; £802,437 for the IEHS imam-training centre at Chateau Chinon in France  £695,696 for the Emaan Trust in Sheffield, northern England, founded in 2004 with the objective of “establishing a major Islamic centre”, which has twice been visited by Dr Ahmed al-Hammadi of Qatar Charity’s Ghaith Initiative, most recently in July 2016; one of Emaan’s trustees, Ahmad al-Rawi, was formerly president of the UOIE; £92,933 for Swansea University Campus; and £61,576 for a multipurpose centre in Mulhouse, northern France; the money was due to be reassigned, once permission from Doha was confirmed, as the trustees decided after due diligence not to go ahead with the project.

In addition, £3,188 – a rather small amount for a major humanitarian charity, and also unspent – was earmarked for Syrian refugees.

During the financial year 2014-15 QCUK paid back in full the £99,151 loan from AMAL; the trustees’ annual report duly noted that QCUK’s director-general, Ayyoub Abouliaqin, was an AMAL trustee.  It also noted, under ‘related party transactions’, that QCUK’s chairman, Yousef al-Kuwari, was CEO of Qatar Charity in Doha, and that one of QCUK’s other trustees, Mohammad al-Ghamdi, was the Doha charity’s executive director for international development.  Since February 2016 there have been no British trustees on the board, and al-Ghamdi has stepped down, leaving Yousef al-Kuwari in charge along with fellow-Qataris Mohammed Saadon al-Kuwari and Salah Ahmed al-Hammadi.

Qatar Charity and its UK operation, which has the blessing of the Qatari embassy in London, clearly has big ambitions.  QCUK’s stated vision is to be “the main charitable partner for Qatari investors in UK and Europe” and “provide opportunities for Qatari investors and businesses in the UK and elsewhere to demonstrate and increase the effectiveness of their corporate social responsibility”.  While broadly philanthropic in nature, however, its plan of work is also strongly oriented to spreading and strengthening the Qatari brand of the Islamic faith in Europe, and hardly transparent about doing so.  We will discuss further below whether, or to what extent, activities of this kind should give rise to concern.