London, Dec 21, IRNA – British charity Muslim Aid has been cleared of allegations led by Israel and the US of channelling funds to terrorist organisations.
The Charity Commission watchdog vindicated Muslim Aid’s position that it did not unlawfully fund the Al-Ihsan Charitable Society. It also chose not to even bother to investigate seven other allegations made in the Daily Telegraph that are no longer online.
In a new report, the commission said “it found no evidence of irregular or improper use of the charity’s funds or any evidence that the charity had illegally funded any proscribed or designated entities.”
‘By publishing this report, the commission has given a public assurance that public allegations of links between the charity and terrorism are unsubstantiated,’ it said.
Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Muslim Aid, Sir Iqbal Sacranie, expressed his satisfaction with the process of the investigation and its final conclusions.
‘We are immensely grateful to our supporters and partners across the world for their steadfast trust in the integrity of the Charity and the belief that Muslim Aid complies fully with the national laws, including counter-terrorism laws,’ Sacranie said.
Muslim Aid, which works in over 70 countries, said the investigation had been prompted by “defamatory articles” published by the right-wing Daily Telegraph and its sister paper, the Sunday Telegraph, earlier in the year.
The commission only investigated allegations linked with Al-Ihsan Charitable Society, which was designated in the UK in June 2005 under the Terrorism (United Nations Measures) Order 2001, making it a criminal offence to fund it without a licence from HM Treasury.
On the other allegations, which are in line with Israeli attempts to starve funding to Palestinian organisations, it said it was “not provided with sufficient evidence to support the allegation.”
Last year, Britain’s top Palestinian charity, Interpal, was cleared by the Charity Commission for the third time of any alleged links with so-called terrorist organisations.
Previous inquiries in 1996 and 2003 also found insufficient evidence to support allegations that have been blamed on the Zionist lobby.