Ibrahim Hewitt

Ibrahim Hewitt is a British journalist, chairman of the board of trustees of Interpal and a senior editor at Middle East Monitor. A Muslim activist from Leicester, Hewitt is a media and education consultant and has been the chairman of the Palestinian Relief and Development Fund (Interpal) since 1997.

Hewitt is also a school inspector and head of the Al-Aqsa School in Leicester. He received an honorary doctorate from the Islamic University in Gaza for his material support for both the university and the Palestinian people. He is also a trustee of the International Board of Educational Research and Resources (IBERR), founded by Yusuf Islam (aka, Cat Stevens), which distributes Islamic educational material around the world. Hewitt was also the Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain from 2004 to 2006, a UK consortium dominated by the Pakistani Islamist group, Jamaat-e-Islami.

Conversion to Islam Ibrahim Hewitt was born Brian Hewitt. In the 1970s he was a musician who featured regularly on the British club and orchestra scene playing the tuba and the trombone, among other brass instruments. He eventually obtained a position in a British Army band. He also had the opportunity to play with the British musician Sting in the Newcastle Big Band.

While touring the club scene in the UK, Hewitt became an alcoholic as a result of regularly performing in bars and being around musicians. Recalling this moment in his life he wrote, ""I lost days because of alcohol. When you wake up after a night out, it is terrible. Looking back, it is shameful".

Some of the more contentious sections from the book include referring to homosexuality as an "abominable practice", and comparing homosexuality to pedophilia: "The advice would be the same as, say, to someone who had sexual desired for minors or close family; that having the desired does not legitimate realizing them." He is chairman of Interpal, a Muslim charity which was added to the U.S. Treasury’s list of Specially Designated Global Terrorist Organizations in 2003. Interpal is alleged to have used their charity designation to funnel money to Hamas. Corbyn praised Hewitt and Interpal in 2013.

In his response, Hewitt claimed that while Interpal is specially designated in the U.S. for funding Hamas, the charity denies these allegations. According to him, Interpal was cleared by the Charity Commission in 2009 after over two years of inquiry. According to Hewitt, the charity commission report found that “there has been nothing brought to the inquiry’s attention that suggests that the charity’s funding has been siphoned off for inappropriate or non-charitable purposes.” He denied that his charity has ever funded Hamas and asserted that the United States never produced evidence to that effect, nor was there any due process, despite the designation. He claimed that lawyers for Interpal are currently working with the U.S. Treasury to have the designation removed.

Speaking about his 1994 book, What Does Islam Say?, Hewitt denies that his call for violent punishment for adulterers has any bearing on his personal view of the world, "In that book, the question of adultery and apostasy is dealt with on the bases of a Prophetic saying in two key texts after the Holy Qur’an. There are texts in the Old Testament that call for equally draconian punishment. These do not mean that I would advocate such actions. Of course I do not; If I did, I would rightly be arrested for doing so." He rejects news reports that refer to him as either a cleric or a preacher.

In regards to the allegations against Al-Aqsa school, Hewitt denies that child protection is based on sharia law: "Like all policies at the school, 'safeguarding children' is based on the regulations required by law for the school to follow."