Muhammad Isa al-Bakr (Arabic: محمد عيسى الباكر, romanized: Muḥammad 'Īsā al-Bākr) is a Qatari activist who served as a coordinator of the defunct Madad Ahl al-Sham online fundraising campaign and currently works as an employee of Ooredoo.
While al-Bakr was serving as a coordinator of Madad Ahl al-Sham, the group conducted shipments of humanitarian aid supplies to rural neighborhoods in Syria.
[1][3] Madad Ahl al-Sham was an online Qatar-based fundraising campaign purportedly created to provide humanitarian supplies to Syrian citizens in need.
[3] In 2013, it was reported that as many as 31 tons of food and household medical items were transferred to Syrian citizens and refugees through the Turkish border in the sixth, seventh, and eighth installments of an assistance program funded by the donations collected by Madad Ahl al-Sham.
[6] According to the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Counterterrorism, the Madad Ahl al-Sham online fundraising campaign was shut down by Qatari authorities in 2014.
Since its emergence, Madad Ahl al-Sham was identified as a fundraising source for violent extremists including the al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda's Syrian branch.
[5] In 2014, the U.S. Department of State described Madad Ahl al-Sham as an "online fundraising campaign that was suspected of sending funds to violent extremist elements in Syria.
[10][11][17][18] In 2014, CNN reported that al-Kabi's WhatsApp Messenger profile included a Madad Ahl al-Sham flyer calling for donations "equal to $1,500 to prepare a fighter by arming, feeding, and treating.
[4] On March 22, 2013, Muhammad Isa al-Bakr and Mansour bin Rashed al-Matroushi were arrested by plain-clothes officers while returning from a family trip to Mesaieed in the Southeast of Qatar.