Charity Commission may investigate booklet on ‘The Islamisation of the UK’

Tuesday, 16 August 2011 14:57

A booklet published by the Barnabas Fund has been brought to the attention of the Charity Commission following a complaint over its contents.

The booklet entitled ‘Slippery Slope: The Islamisation of the UK’, “claims that DVDs featuring radical preachers are "widely disseminated" in mosques and says that on one such DVD a speaker argues that "if a girl refuses to wear the hijab, she should be hit.

It also features claims of radical Muslim preachers saying that "women are created with deficient intellect".

The Charity Commission is reportedly looking into whether it has a regulatory interest in the booklet given that the Fund is a UK registered charity.

The Barnabas Fund is a charity ‘dedicated to supporting persecuted Christians’ and is lead by Dr Patrick Sookhdeo. Sookhdeo, whose other publications include 'Global Jihad: The Future in the Face of Militant Islam' and 'Islam the Challenge to the Church,' has frequently written articles which distort Islamic texts and teachings to give the false impression that Islam is an aggressive, usurpatory religion.

In an essay he wrote for the Spectator entitled ‘The myth of moderate Islam’, Sookhdeo argued that in the Qur’an one could “find texts which specifically command terrorism, the classic one being Q8:59-60, which urges Muslims to prepare themselves to fight non-Muslims, ‘Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies’”

He went on to state: “Though jihad has a variety of meanings, including a spiritual struggle against sin, Mohammed’s own example shows clearly that he frequently interpreted jihad as literal warfare and himself ordered massacre, assassination and torture.”

On Muslims in the UK, Sookhdeo likes to popularise the ‘Islamisation’ thesis with remarks such as this:

“Muslims have "consolidate[d] and create[d] a parallel society in the UK...It is said that within 10 to 15 years most British cities in these areas will have Muslim-majority populations, and will be under local Islamic political control, with the Muslim community living under Sharia."

It is strange indeed that Sookhdeo should dedicate his work to the alleviation of hardships and persecution of one religious group, Christians, while actively engaging in hatemongering against another. Hardly a display of Christian charity and “love of one’s neighbour” is it?

UPDATE: In October, the Charity Commission concluded that the campaign material referred to in this article “fits within the aims of the campaign. Sources are quoted in the booklet for statistics used and other claims made...The campaign does not appear to be inciting racial hatred and the charity believes that it has public benefit in that it "is committed to maintaining Christian values of freedom of conscience, speech and religion for the next generation in church and society.

We are therefore content that the charity, in carrying out this campaign, is operating within its objects and within the terms of our guidance."

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