Sheikh Eid bin Mohammad Al Thani Charitable Association


Sheikh Eid Bin Mohammad Al Thani Charitable Association is a NGO and considered to be one of the largest charitable organizations in the Middle East, and was established in 1995 in Doha, Qatar. The organization was named after Sheikh Eid Ibn Mohammad ibn Thani ibn Jasim ibn Mohammad Al Thani.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, it is one of several Qatari charities that comprise a “fairly well-developed sector providing aid and support at home and abroad.”
The association is alternatively known as the Sheikh Eid bin Mohammad Al Thani Charitable Organization, or the Eid Charity Foundation. Its mission, as described by the Gulf Times, is “to execute charitable and benevolent projects, develop volunteer work, and preserve noble values through skilled human resources, dynamic administrative systems and strategic organization.”
The Eid Charity Foundation has been described as a Government Organized Non-Governmental Organization with close ties to government institutions.

Relief and Humanitarian Efforts

Eid Charity provides a wide range of services to people in need in Qatar and elsewhere in the Middle East from food collection and distribution to the poor to supporting drug awareness and rehabilitation programs. It has also supported relief efforts in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and the Palestinian territories.
In August 2016, Eid Charity announced that the organization has obtained contracts to build 335 mosques in 17 countries around the world. According to reports, some of the 335 mosques have been built while others will be built throughout 2016. The construction of the mosques will cost about QR 21 million.
Eid Charity has also been active in supplying humanitarian aid to Aleppo during the 2016 Aleppo campaign. In August 2016, Eid Charity sent QR 1 million of humanitarian aid to Syrians in Aleppo. Earlier in 2016, Eid Charity had announced that they had 40 ambulances and approximately 150 paramedics operating in northern Syria.
In September 2016, Gulf Times reported that Eid Charity had successfully distributed sacrificial meat to approximately 500,000 people in 35 countries. The project cost QR 5.76 million and reached citizens in Myanmar, Yemen, Syria, the Palestinian territories, Somalia and others.
In 2015, Eid Bin Mohammad Al Thani Charitable Association has conducted relief and development projects with a total cost of QR454 million during 2015 in 59 countries around the world. The association carried out more than 5700 projects. Relief aids topped the list of these projects, with an amount in excess of QR 118 million. The majority of the amount was directed towards Syrian refugees.

Nawaf Alhamadi is the Director General of Sheikh Eid bin Mohammad Al Thani Charitable Association.

Ali bin Khaled al Hajri is the Executive Director of Foreign Projects at Eid Charity.
Abd Al-Rahman al-Nuaimi, is a founder of the Sheikh Eid bin Mohammad Al Thani Charitable Association in addition to previously serving as a President of the Qatar Football Association, and a history professor at Qatar University, In 2013, the U.S. Department of Treasury added al-Nuaimi to its list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists and described al-Nuaimi as a “a Qatar-based terrorist financier and facilitator who has provided money and material support and conveyed communications to al-Qa'ida and its affiliates in Syria, Iraq, Somalia and Yemen for more than a decade.” The announcement also claimed that al-Nuaimi had provided financial support to a charity headed by Al-Qaeda financier and SDGT Abd al-Wahhab Muhammad Abd al-Rahman al-Humayqani. Similar designations from the UN Security Council, EU, UK, and Turkey followed. Al-Nuaimi is also the Secretary General of the Global Anti-Aggression Campaign, an NGO that has repeatedly hosted Hamas leaders, and a founding member and former president of Alkarama, a Geneva-based human rights NGO that works with the UN to advocate for civil rights in the Arab World. In 2013, the Washington Post claimed that Alkarama “lobbies on behalf of Islamist detainees around the world”, including Islamist militias active in Syria, and accuses Western and Arab governments of undermining groups that promote Islamic rule. Humayqani is also an Alkarama founding member.
Hashim bin Mohammad al-Awadhy serves as the adviser to the Director General of Eid Charity. Al-Awadhy is a Qatari businessman and the owner of Rabea TV, a TV network broadcast from Istanbul in support of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Hashim al-Awadhy’s son, Mohammed bin Hashim al-Awadhy, led an Islamic charitable organization and was reportedly killed while fighting with ISIS.

Controversy

The association has been accused by Israel of funneling funds to Hamas through its charitable endeavors in the Gaza Strip. Most notably, Israel banned the association and 35 other member organizations of the “Union of Good,” which the Israeli government considers “a roof organization for foundations operated by Hamas around the world, especially in Europe and the Persian Gulf countries.” The Chairman of the Union of Good is Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Qatari-based cleric who is the “spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
In 2013, one of the founders of the association, Abd Al-Rahman al-Nouami, was named a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the United States Government for his alleged role in facilitating financing and communications for Al-Qaeda affiliates in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia. He was similarly sanctioned by the United Nations, European Union, United Kingdom, and Turkey in 2014, resulting in a freeze of his assets.
While he has denied the allegations, subsequent media reports noted his connection to the government-backed charity and other humanitarian organizations.