An explosive investigation by the Middle East Forum has uncovered that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and affiliated Mormon charities transferred at least $140.6 million to Islamic organizations with extensively documented ties to Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other designated terrorist groups—making them among the largest American benefactors of Islamist extremism.
The investigation shows that funding flowed through three primary channels: Globus Relief, a Mormon-run charity that provided over $119 million; Lifting Hands International, which transferred $19.5 million; and LDS Charities, the church’s official humanitarian arm, which contributed at least $2.1 million in confirmed donations. However, because LDS Charities operates under the church’s tax-exempt status without filing public tax returns, the actual total remains unknown and could be substantially higher.
This revelation is particularly striking given the Mormon church’s immense wealth. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ranks among the world’s wealthiest religious institutions, with a total net worth estimated between $265 and $293 billion as of 2024.
The Mormon church also operates the Jerusalem Center on Mount Scopus, whose humanitarian programs raise further questions. According to James Kearl, assistant to the president for the Brigham Young University Jerusalem Center, the facility maintains “an ongoing and substantial humanitarian program” partnering with LDS Charities, with projects “mostly into Palestinian communities in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.” The center’s executive director for over 15 years has been Eran Hayet, who previously served as spokesperson for the left-wing Israeli organization Peace Now.
The Jerusalem Center has established strong connections to the “Palestinian position” according to an interview with Latter-day Saint attorney Carolyn Homer, who works full time for CAIR. “The BYU Jerusalem Center makes a point, because it’s technically on the Palestinian side of the border… it makes a point to have equal amounts of cultural events between Israel and Palestinians, and that often the BYU students come home feeling more sympathy to the Palestinian position.” It remains unclear which Palestinian organizations receive funding through Jerusalem Center partnerships.
According to the Middle East Forum investigation, the single largest recipient of Mormon charity was Islamic Relief, which received $64 million from Globus Relief plus undisclosed amounts directly from LDS Charities. The scope of Islamic Relief’s terrorist connections is staggering. Israel banned the organization in 2014 after the Shin Bet intelligence service determined it “funnels millions of dollars a year to Hamas institutions.” The U.S. State Department severed all ties with Islamic Relief in 2021, citing “blatant and horrifying anti-Semitism and glorification of violence exhibited at the most senior levels.”
Islamic Relief branches have repeatedly partnered with senior Hamas officials, including Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas politburo member who promised weeks after the October 7 massacre to repeat the attacks “time and again until Israel is annihilated,” and Abdul Salam Haniyeh, son of Hamas’s late political leader and October 7 architect Ismail Haniyeh. The organization’s leadership is thoroughly infiltrated by Muslim Brotherhood operatives, with its CEO admitting the group’s Muslim Brotherhood origins.
Another major recipient, Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HHRD), received over $19.5 million from Lifting Hands International, a Mormon-run charity. HHRD serves as the U.S. arm of Jamaat-e-Islami, the South Asian Islamist movement responsible for the 1971 Bengali Genocide that killed hundreds of thousands. HHRD’s chief partner, Al-Khidmat, donated $100,000 to Hamas for “just Jihad” in 2006, and the organization sponsored a 2017 conference alongside Lashkar-e-Taiba, the terrorist group responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.
LDS Charities’ opacity raises additional concerns about the full extent of church funding to Islamist organizations. The confirmed $2.1 million to Medglobal is particularly troubling. Medglobal was founded by Zaher Sahloul, former president of the radical Hamas-aligned Mosque Foundation. Sahloul boasts of knowing LDS President Dallin H. Oaks since 2012 and publishes photos of their meetings in Salt Lake City. Medglobal operates in “close contact with the Hamas authorities” in Gaza and explicitly promises donors it works “with the Ministry of Health in Gaza”—a Hamas-controlled entity. The organization advertises in Hamas newspapers and has partnered with Islamic Oasis, an open supporter of the Taliban regime whose head praised the October 7 attacks.
Additional recipients of Mormon charity include American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), which received $2.5 million despite coordinating beneficiary selection with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry; Muslim Aid, which received $16 million and once admitted to funding Hamas front organizations; and United Muslim Relief, which received over $10 million despite funding Hamas proxies and employing staff who have called for killing Jews.
The Middle East Forum investigation reveals a disturbing pattern: despite overwhelming evidence of terrorist connections—including government investigations, international bans, FBI criminal cases, and congressional inquiries—Mormon charities provided $140.6 million to organizations with documented, extensive ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, even as the church sits on nearly $300 billion in assets.assets.
