Hassan Shibly goes poverty pimping in Africa.
Welcome to a world where pimping and scamming are good.
Hassan Shibly, the former CAIR-Florida Executive Director, recently appeared on a social media video supporting a nonprofit called Najam Institute. In it, he claimed to be in a remote village in Kenya with many orphans and needy women. The video then depicts these poor people shouting about how Andrew Tate is the “Top G” (for Gangster).
https://twitter.com/HassanShibly/status/1696805139649118607?s=20
You are lucky if you are fortunate enough not to know who Andrew Tate is by now (he was the most Googled man for at least part of last year). He has become popular with segments of the Muslim community globally. By his admission, however, Tate has been a pimp and a scammer who moved to Romania to avoid rape charges. These are facts that only serve to endear him to his fans. Charitable megalomania in Africa (if he did make this donation) is perhaps one of the least harmful things he has done.
Shibly points out that the meal he put on display may be one of the only hot meals these people will get throughout the year. It may be the case that there is a lack of access to fire in Africa, causing most of the year’s food to be cold, yet somehow, orphan and needy women's access to Rumble and other social media platforms preferred by Tate is on point in the continent. I was not on the trip. However, I am skeptical of Shibly’s claims for the reasons below.
Najam Institute (Updated)
The organization Tate allegedly donated to for this African stunt with Hassan Shibly, Najam Institute, has no track record in Africa and is a small charity. They raised too little money to warrant filing an IRS form 990, so one is unavailable.
Shibly got Najam Institute to make a donation link and tweeted it out with this claim:
Following Tate’s example by donating to Najam makes it sound like Tate donated to Najam. As of today, only about $150 was donated through this link (now disabled by Najam)- I have no idea where these thousands of dollars Shibly was talking about came from or went. In my conversation with Mufti Samir Wahid of Najam Institute following the publication of my initial newsletter article, the Tates did not donate to the organization. Shibly was not being honest about what was taking place.
Hassan Shibly’s Record of Dishonesty
Shibly left his job at CAIR-Florida under a cloud of scandal for his alleged personal and professional misconduct. I don’t know the veracity of these allegations, but they were enough to cause him to leave. However, if Hassan Shibly rebuilds his brand by tying himself to the mast of Andrew Tate’s ship, it might be an upgrade.
I know Hassan Shibly from years before these scandals when he was the CAIR Florida Executive Director. CAIR-Florida took a unique position by actively and publicly opposing CAIR National’s opposition to countering violent extremism (CVE). CAIR Florida unsuccessfully applied to a federal government grant program premised on the dangerousness of Muslims under the CVE Grants Act. Many corrupt American Muslim leaders were willing to go along with a self-evident scam. I had written about CVE extensively during that time. Hassan Shibly then denied involvement in CAIR-Florida’s rogue CVE program and application.
Shibly threw another employee under the bus for CAIR-Florida’s CVE application in my conversations at the time (he did this with others as well), claiming he did not know about the application until after a staffer submitted it. That was a lie, one of several he told various community members, including me. He was in on the whole thing. Shibly has tended to claim to be against CVE while working for the interests of the national security state and against the interests of the Muslim community, his organization at the time (CAIR), and his staff.
Najam Institute appears to have been used.
Najam Institute’s management has informed me they have no relationship with the Tates. They did open a donation link at Shibly’s request to serve as a conduit for a foreign organization (Help Yateem). Unfortunately, they were misled by Shibly, as were others. I will be writing about this further in another edition of the newsletter.
Discerning donors who care about the quality of the organizations they donate to and the quality of the leadership of the Muslim community should understand Hassan Shibly has no business taking a position of trust in the Muslim community. Muslim leaders should be wary.
Allah knows best.
Thanks for this article. I wish people could understand that the actions of anyone who seems to get this much validation and actual money from their social media presence (as the person named here does) should always be viewed with some healthy skepticism. I imagine that to some, involving a bunch of international villagers in a hot take they probably don't know or care about is ok since it's for a "good cause".
Assalamualaikum,
I just want to point out that one of the key people behind Najam Institute is Ibrahim Memon Madani, the subject of a MuslimMatters expose in 2021 by one of his former students (https://muslimmatters.org/2021/11/10/the-case-for-the-north-american-muslim-community-to-divest-from-darul-uloom-al-madania-and-darul-uloom-canada/). Among the allegations in the article against Madani's institutions are charges of financial corruption. Najam purports to be both a humanitarian aid organization and an Islamic educational institution. I would be skeptical of what they say.