Othman Moqbel

Othman Moqbel is British non-profit executive. Since 2010 he has been CEO of Human Appeal International, a UK-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) that has provided humanitarian assistance to over twenty countries over the last quarter century. Under his leadership, Human Appeal has become one of the fastest growing charities in the United Kingdom. He is also treasurer and a trustee of the Muslim Charities Forum, of which Human Appeal is a member.

Moqbel earned his BA and MA in Islamic Studies from the University of Jordan (Amman) and holds a diploma in Muslim Chaplaincy from the Markfield Institute of Higher Education (Leicester). He previously served as a Muslim faith adviser to the University of Nottingham.

Prior to his work with Human Appeal, he worked as a project manager for another charity, Muslim Hands. He has also served as president of the Federation of Student Islamic Societies in the UK and Ireland (FOSIS), and as a facilitator for youth leadership and development courses with the Muslim Student Trust.

In his role as CEO of Human Appeal, Moqbel has been the subject of controversy in the United Kingdom, stemming from allegations that the charity has had or maintains ties to terrorist and extremist Islamist organizations.

In 2013 the Jewish Chronicle, the largest Jewish newspaper in the United Kingdom, paid an undisclosed amount of libel damages to Othman Moqbel and two trustees of Human Appeal after accusing the organization of having ties to terrorism.

However, as recently as 2015, The Telegraph has reported that Human Appeal maintained ties with Hamas and other extremist organizations, citing a 2003 FBI report and a leaked U.S. State Department cable. These allegations were made despite the fact that following an investigation by the Charity Commission in 2009, Human Appeal was cleared of all alleged connections to the Union of Good (an international network designated a terrorist organisation by the US for its ties to Hamas). As a result of the paper’s allegations, Britain’s Conservative Party cancelled an event at its party conference in October 2015 which was to feature Moqbel and discuss the role of Muslim charities in Britain. According to The Independent, the party was “accused of an ‘astonishing’ attack on free speech and ‘demonising’ Muslims” as a result. Human Appeal “categorically” denies any link to Hamas and the Charity Forum confirmed that Human Appeal was not “under any investigation”.

As the Middle East Eye established, the Conservative Party had based their decision on a newspaper article that “contained a number of serious errors” and demonstrated a “pattern of abusive or contemptuous behaviour towards Muslim organisations at Conservative Party conference”.