Muslims News has reported that the Charity Commission has “vehemently” rejected claims made by Gordon Brown, prime minister, that the main objective of its new Faith and Social Cohesion Unit is to stop the exploitation of Muslim charities by extremists.
The newspaper reported that a spokeswoman for the Charity Commission said: “It is absolutely not true that new Unit will focus exclusively on one faith or will fight extremism.” The paper did not disclose the source.
She added: “We’ve worked in a wider and board level with many Muslim Organisations including Mosques and Imams National Advisory Body and the Muslim Council of Britain.”
Brown said in his national security speech on November 14 that the new Unit will “ensure that charities are not exploited by extremists”.
The Charity Commission says its new unit was a product of a two year programme of workshops with representatives from over 800 faith-based organisations across 11 different faiths.
Comments (1)
A very informative article. Especially noteworthy is the Charity Commission spokeswoman's use of the past tense when speaking of the Muslim organisations with which it has worked. Given the present discredited status of the Muslim Council of Britain, there are, doubtless, many Muslim organisations ON which the new unit will now be working.
Posted by J. Isaacs | December 25, 2007 3:38 PM
Posted on December 25, 2007 15:38