Charitable and non-profit support involves legitimate organizations providing funds or aid that extremist groups misuse. These groups may exploit donations, grants or events under the cover of humanitarian work to gain resources and legitimacy.
Iran’s regime has instrumentalized Ja’fari Shia Islam, a mainstream Islamic legal school, to maintain ideological control, justify political repression and legitimize violence,19 and may also be using charitable and non-profit organizations to support its activities in Albania against the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK), who presents itself as a government-in-exile. Albania’s authorities suspect the Tirana-based Association for the Support of Iranians Living in Albania (ASILA), registered as a non-profit in Albania,20 of building an agent network to collect information on MEK members residing in Albania.21 In 2022, two German-Iranian individuals who had been invited to the country by ASILA were detained by Albanian police. They were suspected of planning terrorist activities and deemed to be national security risks.22
19Shahram Akbarzadeh and Arif Saba, The political system in Iran: theocratic electoral authoritarianism, in Shahram Akbarzadeh (ed),
Handbook of Middle East Politics, Elgar Online, 2023, https://doi.org/10.4337/9781802205633.00012; European Parliament Resolution of
23 January 2025 on the systematic repression of human rights in Iran, notably the cases of Pakhshan Azizi and Wrisha Moradi, and the
taking of EU citizens as hostages (2025/2511(RSP)), https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-10-2025-0004_EN.html.
20Registered in Albania as Shoqata ASILA, with identifier M12302455V.
21Gerta Zaimi, Iran’s Balkan front: The roots and consequences of Iranian cyberattacks against Albania, Middle East Institute, 22
December 2022, https://www.mei.edu/publications/iransbalkan-front-roots-and-consequences-iranian-cyberattacksagainst-albania; Arsen
Rusta, Spiunazh në shërbim të regjimit
25 iranian, SPAK kontrolle në shoqatën, banesat, zyrat dhe makinat e 20 ish-anëtarëve të MEK në Shqipëri, Shqiptarja, 15 July 2022,
https://shqiptarja.com/lajm/spiunazh-ne-sherbim-te-regjimitiranian-spak-kontrolle-ne-banesat-e-20-ishanetareve-temek-ne-shqiperi?
r=kh14; Suspicious transfers/ Anti-terrorinvestigated mujahedin for money laundering, CNA, 28 July 2023,
https://www.cna.al/english/kronika/transfertat-edyshimta-antiterrori-hetoi-et-per-pastrim-parash-i365928.
22 Gerta Zaimi, Iran’s Balkan front: The roots and consequences of Iranian cyberattacks against Albania, Middle East Institute, 22
December 2022, https://www.mei.edu/publications/iransbalkan-front-roots-and-consequences-iranian-cyberattacksagainst-albania.