The International Islamic News Agency is reporting that a Bahraini organization linked to the global Muslim Brotherhood raised over $370,000 at at event featuring British politician George Galloway who auctioned a signed copy of his book “The Fidel Castro Handbook”: According to the report :
A charity event in Bahrain raised around 140,000 Bahraini Dinar in a single night to help the besieged Palestinian people, organizers confirmed yesterday. British politician George Galloway was the star of Monday’s Palestine Support Society dinner and auction, which attracted more than 500 people. The Respect party MP, who represents the London constituency Bethnal Green and Bow, has been an outspoken critic of the treatment of the Palestinian people for more than 20 years. Palestine Support Society vice-president and event organizer Hisham Sater said the money raised included BD90,000 from table bookings and BD38,950 from the auction. Another BD11, 000 was also received in cash and cheques, given in donation envelopes placed on all the tables at the event, in the Crowne Plaza hotel. The auction featured 12 abstract paintings created by several of Bahrain’s top artists, while a signed copy of Mr Galloway’s latest book The Fidel Castro Handbook went for BD10, 000 to Bahraini businessman Tariq Al Kooheji – in the highest single bid of the night. A painting drawn especially for the occasion by a Palestinian woman, who was born in Jerusalem and was forced to flee to Bahrain, went for BD6, 000. The money will go towards providing essential emergency medical equipment identified by Health Ministry officials in Palestine. Sater was delighted by the response. “We sold around 570 chairs on 55 tables and we had 20 people on the top table,” he said. “One of the paintings was sold for BD7, 000, another for BD6, 000 and a third for BD5, 000.”George Galloway’s book went for the highest amount and raised BD10, 000. “The number of calls I have been receiving since the event has been incredible.”We had some people from Europe who attended and there were some donations in US dollars, British pounds and euros. People staying in Bahrain only for a short time also contributed to the cause.
The Palestine Support Society is a member of the Union of Good, a worldwide coalition of charities head by global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi. Many of the member charities also have links to local Muslim Brotherhood organizations and the network as a whole functions as a fund-raising mechanism for Hamas. Earlier posts have discussed the falling out between maverick politician Galloway and the Socialist Workers Party, both important players in the so-called Respect Unity Coalition, a U.K. political party whose members included Galloway, the Socialist Worker’s Party (SWP), and the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), formerly the most important Muslim Brother organization in the U.K. As noted, a far left-left organization views the tension between Galloway and the SWP as a product of Galloway’s desire to focus more on developing a Muslim constituency. In the latest development, Galloway has launched a new movement called Respect Renewal which, according to another left-wing analyst, will “strengthen the weight of the Islamists in Respect Renewal, some of whom have links to Jamaat-e-Islami.”