IHRC’s work on racism and Islamophobia has included research and campaigns on state attempts to socially engineer Islam.  The UK, behind the smokescreen of “Countering Non-Violent Extremism” has tried to do so using public policy to reshape the way that Muslims think and behave.  Part of its efforts have been through the regulation of registered charities.  Many, if not most mosques in the UK have this status. 

The body that undertakes this function is the Charity Commission.  It has been accused of disproportionately targeting Muslim charities (of all types) by many observers, for many years.  Recently, mosques have been particularly targeted.  If we do not challenge this discriminatory behaviour we will effectively be leaving the way open for many more mosques to be targeted.  Targeting has included sanctions such as removing all a mosque’s trustees and imposing new managers, including non-Muslim managers.

We cannot allow the Charity Commission to harass and attack our mosques in its quest to help engineer a state-compliant Muslim community. We will find mosques self-censoring what they preach and teach and being careful about which speakers to invite out of fear of sanction. The room to criticise political and social injustices will narrow.  Mosques have already been targeted and sanctioned for preaching about Palestine, and discussing homosexuality.  Complaints are often based on the flimsiest of contexts but are used to justify wide-ranging and intrusive investigations. In many cases, the complaints are part of a concerted campaign by Islamophobes or pro-Israel advocates who wish to silence Muslims. 

We have received many reports from mosques and Muslim organisations that have felt the long arm of the regulator for alleged infractions of the rules governing their charity status.

It is not the business of the state to attempt to dictate to Muslims the content of their religion or to tell them what parts of it are permissible to be publicly expressed. Islam has a fourteen-century-old tradition of scholarship that has defined the religion for its adherents and it does not need outsiders, let alone an Islamophobic state, to interfere in that role. The British state does not do this for other religions and it should not be allowed to try and do it for Islam either.

Campaigners are encouraged to use the materials here to educate themselves and their community of their rights; to demand a change in UK government policy; and to call for redress and compensation for previous discriminatory acts.