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On September 26, 2025, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced Ahmed Shehata, CEO of Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA), as its newest Eminent Advocate. The UN praised Shehata for his “strong commitment to advocating for refugees,” recognizing him during a ceremony at the 80th session of the UN General Assembly.
The appointment should spark outrage, as the organization Shehata leads is the American arm of a group that has been banned or blacklisted by multiple nations for alleged terror financing and links to terrorist outfits, including Hamas. By honoring Shehata, the UN appears to have learned little from its own scandals involving staff with extremist affiliations – including UNRWA employees fired in 2024 for suspected involvement in the Hamas-led October 7 massacre – or a Nazi war criminal, Kurt Waldheim, serving as its Secretary General.
Indeed, this isn’t the first time the UN has embraced Islamic Relief. For decades, it has collaborated with the organization, overlooking mounting evidence of its extremist ties.
Islamic Relief’s Global Bans and Terror Allegations
Islamic Relief, headquartered in the UK and operating in over 40 countries, has long been accused of financing or abetting terrorist activity:
- Israel banned the group outright, describing it as a front for Hamas and arresting its Gaza Program Manager, Ayaz Ali, in 2006, for providing funding to Hamas.
- Russia accused Islamic Relief of supporting Chechen terrorists – with contributions reportedly totaling in the millions of dollars.
- HSBC Bank, Britain’s largest bank, severed ties in 2014, citing concerns about “terrorist financing.”
- The United Arab Emirates placed Islamic Relief on its official list of terrorist organizations, alongside al-Qaeda and ISIS.
- Bangladesh’s NGO Affairs Bureau banned Islamic Relief out of concern that the group would conduct terrorist recruitment among Myanmar refugees.
- The U.S. government cut funding to the group, over charges of antisemitism and terror ties.
Extremism Within Islamic Relief USA
Islamic Relief USA has attempted to portray itself as an apolitical charity focused on disaster relief and other humanitarian endeavors, but senior figures within the organization have expressed or supported extremist ideologies.
Former IRUSA Chairman Khaled Lamada used social media to praise the Muslim Brotherhood and defend Hamas. In June 2016, Lamada posted on Twitter that it was “absurd” for an Egyptian judge to classify Hamas “as a terrorist organization.”
Current IRUSA board member Esam Omeish has, in the past, openly advocated for violent jihad. In December 2000, Omeish told a crowd of DC-area Muslims that they were there “to tell our brothers and sisters in Filistin” that they “have known that the jihad way is the way to liberate your land.” He further urged attendees to “share in… their jihad.” The speech, exposed by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, led to Omeish’s resignation from Virginia’s Commission on Immigration.
Sponsoring Radical Speakers at Radical Mosques
Islamic Relief USA’s partnerships also reveal troubling associations. The group routinely sponsors events that give platforms to radical preachers and activists.
One such event took place this month at the Islamic Association of Raleigh (IAR) in North Carolina. It featured Sami Hamdi, a London-based lecturer notorious for praising Hamas’s October 7 massacre.
On the day of the attack, Hamdi described the slaughter – which included rapes, beheadings, and the burning of families – as “unprecedented,” “a defiant display of force,” and “the most consequential attack on Israel in decades.” He declared, “The scale of the Palestinian attack is an explosive reminder that the Palestinians are still here and… still matter.” He later added that the massacre “inspires” others. Days later, he exclaimed to a crowd, “Celebrate the victory!”
Hamdi’s sentiments have been echoed at IAR.
Less than a week after the massacre, on October 13, IAR board member and former IAR Youth Director Hisham Sarsour repeatedly praised the Hamas perpetrators as “disciplined fighters.” He animatedly told the congregation, “This shook the foundation of the Zionist entity!” and, “What the Gazans have done in six hours, the Arab countries failed to do in 75 years!”
Also on the 13th, Sarsour warned his congregants that, if they wished to donate money to Hamas, Hezbollah, or Palestinian Islamic Jihad – what he called “so-called terrorists” – they could wind up “in jail for long time.” He advised, instead, giving to Islamic Relief or similar groups, because they are U.S. government approved – “you can send money through them, and you have no issue.”
During his talk, Sarsour offered the following chilling message/threat: “They need to know… that for the Jewish children to have peace in Palestine, the Palestinian children need to have peace in Palestine.”
A Disturbing Pattern: The UN and Islamists
In August 2024, the United Nations confirmed that nine employees of its Palestinian relief agency, UNRWA, were fired for possible involvement in the Hamas assault that killed 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 250. The UN’s internal investigation followed Israeli intelligence reports that UNRWA staff had taken part in or supported the attacks.
The episode was a severe blow to the UN’s credibility. Israel’s defense spokesperson said the report proved UNRWA had “hit a new low.” The revelations prompted most nations to suspend funding for UNRWA, until a full review could be completed. Even after some governments restored funds months later, the scandal left an indelible stain.
That history of violent activity using the UN as cover makes the UN’s decision to honor the head of Islamic Relief USA – the American arm of a network accused by several countries of aiding Hamas and other terrorist entities – all the more alarming. It demonstrates that the UN continues to overlook Islamic extremism under its aegis and even reward it.
A Longstanding Alliance
The Shehata appointment is not the UN’s first connection to Islamic Relief. In fact, the organization has partnered with UN agencies for decades. Islamic Relief obtained consultative status with the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), in 1993, and has since developed close working ties with multiple UN bodies, including UNHCR.
UNHCR’s American fundraising arm, USA for UNHCR, boasts of its “strong relationship” with Islamic Relief USA, and they have co-sponsored several humanitarian campaigns. The Shehata appointment therefore does not mark the start of cooperation – it formalizes a longstanding alliance that risks laundering the reputation of a network accused of terror financing through the United Nations itself.
A Moral Collapse at the UN
The United Nations defends its partnerships with NGOs like Islamic Relief as essential for humanitarian work, yet its record shows a repeated failure to vet extremist ties.
By elevating Shehata, the UN has whitewashed extremism, instead of honoring true humanitarians. The same institution that fired staff for ties to the October 7 massacre – the same organization that once had a Nazi war criminal as its Secretary-General – now celebrates a man leading an organization accused of funding the very ideology that inspired the attack.
The body entrusted with maintaining world peace is now honoring individuals accused of enabling those who destroy it.
Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.
