Baitulmaal, also known as AHED, was officially established in 2004 by a Palestinian-Jordanian named Hasan Hajmohammad. However, Baitulmaal claims to have actually been around since 1991, at one point operating under a group named the Islamic Trust of North Texas (which employed Hajmohammad as an imam and sponsored his visa).
During the 2000s, Baitulmaal claimed to be building mosques and "sponsoring Quranic schools in Palestine."
When asked, Baitulmaal did not disclose a list of its partners. In the Palestinian territories, however, grant recipients seem to be a little more open about their benefactors. The Unlimited Friends Association for Social Development (UFA) is a Gaza-based charity that claims to "provide relief, emergency and developmental services to marginalized areas and people in need." However, UFA openly works with senior Hamas officials.
In Gaza, UFA helps Baitulmaal hand out cash to the "families of martyrs of the Palestinian people," whom UFA has described as those killed resisting "the ongoing slaughter against the Palestinian people."
UFA has never been shy about its affiliations. It advertises in the prominent Hamas daily newspaper, Felesteen, in which it mentions its support from Baitulmaal. And on UFA's Facebook page, its officials have written: "We ask God to drive away the anguish of the heroic prisoners in the Nazi Zionist jails and to free Al-Aqsa Al-Sharif [the Noble Al-Aqsa] from the filth of the most dirty Jews."
To some extent, UFA appears to operate as a Palestinian affiliate of Baitulmaal. UFA's chief employees, in fact, have also identified themselves as Baitulmaal employees. And the clear majority of UFA's overseas donations come from the Texas charity.
Collaboration with Hamas appears to continue today. In 2022, multiple Hamas-aligned media outlets, including the terrorist group's own daily newspaper, Felesteen News, published details of job vacancies at UFA; not as advertisements, but as news stories.Hatred for Jews permeates UFA's efforts. In 2013, the charity published a social media post stating: "We ask God to drive away the anguish of the heroic prisoners in the Nazi Zionist jails and to free Al-Aqsa Al-Sharif from the filth of the most dirty Jews."UFA officials continue to promote such rhetoric. In April 2021, UFA director Jomaa Khadoura called on his own Facebook page for God to "cleanse Al-Aqsa from the impurity of the Jews."UFA appears not just to be an occasional partner of American Islamism, but an important outpost. UFA director Khadoura himself claims to have served as an employee of Baitulmaal USA, a wealthy Islamist 501c, and one of UFA's major partners.
Any aid sent by Baitulmaal goes to Hamas first.
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