Government pours even more taxpayers’ money into the pockets of “faith groups”

The Charity Commission is launching a ‘Faith and Community Cohesion Unit’ that will have £1.2 million of Government money and £200,000 per year of its own budget (provided also by the taxpayer) with which to operate. The Charity Commission says that its new unit will respond to “calls from faith-based charities for tailored regulatory support and understanding to promote high standards of governance in faith-based charities”.

The initial money will be doled out mainly to Muslim charities — particularly mosques — to help them to learn how to ask for even more public money.

The Charity Commission, in a briefing to parliamentarians, says that it will “Engage with faith groups, organisations and places of worship, with mosques as a starting point, which are not currently registered with the Commission to promote the benefits of charitable status and encourage registration where this is appropriate.”

Explaining its focus on Muslim charities, the Commission says: “Our research has identified around 1,200 mosques in England and Wales, of which around 300 are registered charities… it seems many faith groups do not realise they could be registered and receive the benefits of charitable status… As well as financial advantages, including tax incentives, there are reputational benefits from being a registered charity.”

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: “If this is some kind of roundabout way of finding out where the money that supports mosques is coming from, then there must be easier and more effective ways of doing it. Mosques, and other places of worship, should be made to register and declare all their financial interests in detail, including the source of their funding. Certainly those mosques that have something to hide won’t be rushing to register themselves as charities. There must be a more direct way of discovering what is going on.”

This month a question was asked in parliament by shadow Home Secretary David Davis about how many mosques were receiving funding from Saudi Arabia and how many were promoting Wahhabism. The Government replied that it did not collect such information.

14 December 2007