I would never, ever put money into an Islamic charity. This is because not only do I believe that it is wrong to throw bread at your enemy when they are a still a clear and present danger to you, but also because Islamic charities have a habit of being very poorly run.
A short while back I wrote about how a British Islamic charity was under investigation by the Charity Commission over management and fiscal irregularities, following the conviction of an Imam that was associated with the charity, being convicted of terror offences. But, as can be expected bearing in mind the nature of Islam, dodgy ‘charitable’ activities are not confined to the British Isles.
According to a report in the Daily Mail, an Islamic charity in Australia is being denied public funding, something it has had in the past, because of allegations of shady investments by those in charge of the charity. The report states that one million Australian dollars was funnelled into a company with which the president of the Lebanese Muslim Association had an interest. At the very least this looks like very poor organisational management and at worst it could look like fraud.
The Daily Mail said:
The Lebanese Muslim Association had taxpayer funding withheld after investing $1million in a company directed by its president, it can be revealed.
In 2016, the New South Wales government granted the LMA $750,000 under a programme called COMPACT to prevent extremism by educating young Muslims.
The first part of the grant – $374,000 – was awarded that year but the second half due in 2017 was not handed over after the LMA failed to meet compliance and financial reporting requirements.
Sounds like there are some seriously worrying financial shenanigans going on at the LMA. The phrase ‘failing to meet compliance and financial reporting requirements’ is merely another way of saying that this charitable organisation may well have been as bent as a fork or as ‘bent as a nine bob note’ for the benefit of my older readers. A charitable organisation has to run their organisation in a pretty bad way to have this sort of action taken against them.
The Daily Mail continued:
The LMA in 2016 invested $1million in Maryum Investments whose director and majority shareholder is LMA president Samier Dandan, The Daily Telegraph reported.
But the charity did not declare Mr Dandan’s interest in Maryum in its annual financial report.
Mr Dandan, a moderate Muslim, has insisted the $1million was not taxpayer money and has denied any wrongdoing. He said the money has been paid back to the LMA.
Multicultural NSW, the government body who awarded the $750,000 grant to LMA, has confirmed funding was withheld – but did not say if it was because of the investment in Maryum.
Not declaring an interest in a company that a charity is investing large sums of money in is usually a serious offence in many jurisdictions. This interest should have been declared and it the charity had done so then it may have spared the charity a whole lot of further problems for an organisation that claimed it was working to reduce Islamic radicalism. Although there are questions about the source of the money that was invested in this company by the charity and the funds have been returned to the charity, it’s plain to see how this organisation has apparently played fast and loose with the Australian charity regulations. The fiscal irregularities such as the questionable investment and the other non-compliance issues that are alluded to in the report, do give the impression that the LMA may be a can of very stinky worms that is only just being properly opened.
This is just another Islamic charity that normal people would do well to avoid contributing to and which Western nations should play no part in funding with taxpayers cash. Funding Islamic charities is the ethical equivalent of handing ones enemy a weapon with which they can attack you and it’s time for these charities to come under much more scrutiny than they have been in the past.
