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Through “Qatar Charity”, Qatar supports associations that represent a strict interpretation of the Koran – including in Switzerland.
When it comes to financing terror, Qatar is often criticized. Particularly when it comes to the financing of Hamas, whose terrorist attack in early October cost the lives of over a thousand Israeli civilians. The focus is on non-governmental organizations such as “Qatar Charity”. According to the US, Qatar is funding global Islamist terrorism.
Qatar Charity operates worldwide and has a huge budget.
The French Middle East expert Georges Malbrunot and his colleague Christian Chesnot evaluated confidential documents from the Qatari charity in 2019 and published their results in the book Qatar Papers.
For Georges Malbrunot, “Qatar Charity” works in a gray area: “Qatar Charity operates worldwide and has a huge budget. The organization is undoubtedly doing an excellent job, but there are also problematic areas. It promotes Islam through clubs, but only the one that suits them, which is more conservative than most European countries would like – including Switzerland.”
Money for Islamists in Switzerland
Qatari millions also flow to Switzerland, Islamic institutions and mosques for charitable and cultural purposes. This also applies to the construction of the Islamic cultural center near Lausanne. The documents from Malbrunot and Chesnot show: Qatar Charity contributed 1.5 million francs to the cultural center in 2011. Spicy: In 2019, the center promoted an appearance by the Egyptian hate preacher Omar Abdel Kafi.
He explicitly congratulated Hamas’s recent attacks on Israel on YouTube. 1.6 million people have viewed this YouTube video. The Islamist preacher has around 10 million followers. Neither the cultural center nor “Qatar-Charity” responded to SRF’s inquiries.
Saïda Keller-Messahli is an expert on Islamism. People like Omar Abdel Kafi often appear in Swiss Morschen – also thanks to Qatari money.
Legend: Saïda Keller-Messahli is an expert on Islamism and is very critical of Qatari investments. Keystone/CHRISTIAN BEUTLER
This is extremely sensitive, she says: “These so-called investments that Qatar is making in Switzerland have always been suspicious to me because they are not normal investments that we are used to. But it is always connected to a worldview. It is always linked to their Islamist ideology.”
IZRS with ties to Qatar
The self-proclaimed Islamic Central Council of Switzerland with its exponent Nicolas Blancho is an old acquaintance of the Swiss Salafist scene. Blancho and his colleagues were convicted by the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona in 2018 and 2022 for spreading Al-Qaeda propaganda. The verdict is not yet legally binding.
Nicolas Blanco maintains excellent relations with Qatar. He was a member of various associations with the purpose of promoting a strict orientation of the Koran. Abdulaziz Abdul Rahmani, the former head of Qatar Charity, presided over two such associations. These clubs are no longer active and some of them have been officially dissolved.
«Blancho knows Arabic. He can communicate. He is a welcome guest and an instrument for Qatar,” says Saïda Keller-Messahli, “he can win a lot of sympathy with his discourse about ‘Switzerland is Islamophobic’ and ‘Switzerland is anti-Muslim’. As a European who converted to Islam, he is a colorful character there and arouses a lot of interest.” Neither the IZRS nor Blancho responded to SRF’s inquiries.