by Nicole Lampert, UnHerd
A new organization established by a charity that claims the Prevent anti-extremism strategy “actively harms Muslims” has been awarded a £2.5 million Government contract to monitor Islamophobia.
The newly formed British Muslim Trust will be funded by two foundations set up by African-born Muslim billionaires Asif Aziz and Shabir Randeree. It won the bid to take over from Tell Mama, a group that had monitored anti-Muslim hate crimes for 13 years. Tell Mama’s funding was abruptly cut earlier this year, which it described as part of a “malicious campaign” to discredit its work.
After a six-week bidding process, the British Muslim Trust won the Government contract and is due to begin work in early autumn. Announcing that it had won the bid, Lord Khan, Minister for Faith, said: “The rise of anti-Muslim hatred in this country is alarming and deeply concerning. That’s why we established this new fund: to ensure we’re doing everything we can to deeply understand the situation our Muslim communities are facing.”
But questions are already being asked about exactly who will be monitoring hatred and how they will define it. “This government has just given a huge amount of money to organizations with no measurable background of monitoring anti-Muslim hate at a national level,” says Tell Mama founder Fiyaz Mughal, an expert in extremism and hate crimes.