from the Free Speech Union
The Free Speech Union’s latest investigative briefing reveals that all five members of the Government’s Working Group tasked with drafting the official definition of Islamophobia have links to Islamist organisations.
Let’s start with the Chair: former Conservative MP and Attorney General Dominic Grieve KC. The story is extraordinary.
For many years after the 9/11 attacks, Grieve made a number of statements that were highly critical of Muslims — at times bordering on the racist — including comments about political corruption among Muslims in his former constituency.
He also suggested that some Muslims were seeking to change Britain in ways incompatible with a pluralist democracy, particularly in relation to freedom of expression.
So what changed?
In 2017, Grieve was appointed to chair a citizens’ commission on British Muslims, which produced a report on the challenges of Islamophobia. Among the advisers he relied on were individuals with concerning backgrounds — including the then-chair of the Muslim Council of Britain, an organisation successive governments since 2009 have pursued a policy of non-engagement with due to concerns about extremism. Another adviser was linked to Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND).
A year later, he wrote the foreword to the All-Party Parliamentary Group’s (APPG) proposed report that presented a definition of Islamophobia.
Although he insists his views have not changed, the record suggests otherwise.
Last year, then Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner appointed him to lead the Working Group tasked with drafting an official definition of Islamophobia — now rebranded as “anti-Muslim hostility”.
This definition risks stifling free speech and silencing legitimate criticism of Islam as a religion, its history and its practices.
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