Each month, U.K.-based charity Human Appeal receives roughly a quarter of a million visitors to its website. In 2024 alone, the organization drew in an estimated $110 million in donations.
Yet, for nearly three decades, the charity has appeared in U.S. intelligence assessments, government investigations, and terrorism-financing inquiries. And for good reason.
A May 2026 report by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs found that Europe-based fundraising campaigns raised millions for entities tied to Hamas and other Muslim Brotherhood Islamist organizations. Of the European countries examined, the United Kingdom accounted for the largest share with more than 11 million pounds, approximately $14 million. Examining campaigns organized by 45 organizations, 23 were found to have connections to Hamas or other terrorist groups.
Human Appeal was among the most significant organizations identified. The organization sits inside the European Muslim Brotherhood ecosystem, a network that has long understood its role as the financial lifeline of Hamas, the Brotherhood’s chapter in Gaza.
Since 2020, the organization has transferred at least 4.7 million pounds, or approximately $6.03 million) to the Islamic Zakat Society in Gaza, a charity that partners with Hamas and pledges “steadfast soldiers” in their fight against Israel. At a co-sponsored event, Hamas officials claimed that students trained by IZS will “return our lands” through “the power of jihad.”
According to Human Appeal’s 2021 Charity Commission filings, the group provided 200,000 pounds, approximately $275,000, to the Bayader Association for Environment and Development. At a joint event with Islamic Relief, another organization with documented ties to the broader Muslim Brotherhood network, Bayader was honored by Abed al Salam Haniyeh, son of the late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Another 3 million pounds, approximately $3.8 million, went to the Al-Zakat Committee of Jerusalem, which distributed funds to families of Hamas activists and the families of “martyrs.” In December 2023, an Israeli district court ruled to dissolve and ban the committee for its support of terrorism.
Questions have also followed Human Appeal’s leadership.
Mohamed Ashmawey, chief executive of Human Appeal since 2019, previously led Islamic Relief, an organization that works with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.
Before that, Ashmawey was the president of the Muslim Arab Youth Association, a group that openly associates with Islamist militant figures. During his tenure, MAYA events included appearances by al Qaeda co-founder Abdullah Azzam and Hamas official Muhammad Siyam.
From 2016 to 2018, Ashmawey was a senior management consultant for the International Islamic Charity Organization, a Kuwait-based charity known to meet with and praise senior Hamas figure Ismail Haniyeh. Notably, the IICO was created at the recommendation of longtime Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf Qaradawi.
Human Appeal’s Australia director in Gaza “held several positions and management posts in the [Hamas] movement.” A Human Appeal staffer in Gaza, Bilal Shehadeh, celebrated Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.
None of this should come as a surprise. As early as 1996, the CIA claimed that Human Appeal supports “extremist/terrorist activities,” and “probably acts as a fundraiser for Hamas.”
A 2003 FBI document confirmed a relationship between Human Appeal and Hamas, reporting that the charity was a “major recipient of funding” from the Holy Land Foundation, an organization that was later shuttered by the U.S. government for fundraising for Hamas
A leaked State Department cable from the same year alleged that “members of [Human Appeal’s] field offices in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Chechnya had connections to al-Qaeda associates.” A Senate Finance Committee letter to the IRS commissioner, dated December 2023, called for an investigation into Human Appeal alongside other organizations suspected of terrorism financing.
Today, Human Appeal is also a member of the Muslim Charities Forum, an umbrella organization of U.K.-based charities widely regarded as one of the key Muslim Brotherhood entities in Europe. Several of its member organizations were members of the Union of Good, a coalition of organizations the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned in 2008 for Hamas fundraising.
Nonetheless, the organization somehow remains active in the U.K.
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This exploitation of Western institutions has always been a hallmark of the Muslim Brotherhood. Their goal is to outlast scrutiny, survive investigation, and hide in plain sight. What has allowed it to proliferate, however, is a regulatory framework unequipped to act and a political culture unwilling to try.
Until now, Britain has proven structurally unable — or unwilling — to address this. With the new American initiative to battle the overseas chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood, there is an opportunity to work together with a trusted partner. The U.K. and the United States work better when they work together.
Mariam Wahba is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow her on X @themariamwahba.