Council suspends funding to schools linked to Hizb ut-Tahrir
Schools run by members of the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir have had their public funding suspended and will be placed under investigation after the payments were exposed by The Sunday Telegraph.
Government grants totalling £113,000 were paid last year to the Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation, which runs a nursery and a primary school in Tottenham, north London and a primary in Slough, Berkshire. The grants continued this year, although no figures are available.
The foundation’s lead trustee and “proprietor” of the Slough school is Yusra Hamilton, a leading member of Hizb ut-Tahrir and wife of the group’s main press spokesman, Taji Mustafa.
The public money – from the Government’s Early Years Fund – was paid to help run the nursery school and two Islamic primary schools where children are taught key elements of Hizb’s ideology from the age of five. It was administered by the local authority, Haringey.
In a statement, the Home Office said: “Haringey Council has decided to suspend its allocation of Early Years Funding, to the schools concerned, pending an investigation.”
Hizb regards integration as “dangerous”, says that British Muslims should “fight assimilation” into UK society and opposes all involvement with the “corrupt” state. It wants to create a global Islamic superstate, or “caliphate”, initially in Muslim-majority countries and then across the rest of the world. The former prime minister, Tony Blair, proposed to ban the group and the Conservatives have said that they will do so if they win power.
Other trustees of the Shakhsiyah Foundation who are Hizb members or activists include Farah Ahmed, the head teacher of the Slough school, who has written in a Hizb journal condemning the “corrupt Western concepts of materialism and freedom”.
On their website, the schools say their “ultimate goal” and “foremost work” is the creation of an “Islamic personality” in children. The creation of an “Islamic personality” is a key tenet of Hizb’s ideology. The schools’ history curriculum states that children are taught that “there must be one ruler of the khilafah [caliphate]”. The schools’ website says that “in the glorious history of Islam… the Sharia was the norm”. Children are taught Arabic from the age of three.
Center for Social Cohesion reports:
Hizb ut-Tahrir: Ideology and Strategy
The CSC published a new report on Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), a radical Islamist group that Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling MP recently promised to ban. Hizb ut-Tahrir: Ideology and Strategy, by CSC researchers Houriya Ahmed and Hannah Stuart, reveals how HT uses front groups to embed itself into communities and deliberately downplays its intolerant beliefs. Members of HT in the UK have founded schools to propagate the party’s ideology and even received government funding.
Based on extensive interviews with former leading members, over a year of fieldwork and previously unpublished internal strategy communiqués from HT’s global leadership, the report is the most comprehensive study of the group’s activities in the United Kingdom to date. The report concludes with a detailed analysis of the policies the government could adopt to limit the influence of HT in the UK.
Covering the report’s findings, the Sunday Telegraph revealed that the Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation, an HT charity that runs two primary schools – one in Haringey, North London and another in Slough, Berkshire – received £113,411 of government funds. Stuart is quoted as saying:
“Young people who get involved with Hizb ut-Tahrir’s fronts are tricked into believing its radical agenda represents true Islam.”
A week later, the Sunday Telegraph revealed that Haringey Council has now suspended government funds to the Foundation. Ahmed is quoted as saying:
“This suspension of funding is very welcome. It is quite wrong for the British state to be funding groups that want to destroy it.”
Michael Gove MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, asked
The report’s findings were covered by the Daily Mail, Evening Standard, Jewish Chronicle, Haringey Independent, National Secular Society, charity newsletters and numerous online blogs. The report has also been covered by leading press in Pakistan, such as the a parliamentary question regarding how much funding the Foundation has received in the last three years from the Government. Daily Jang. Ahmed and Stuart were also quoted in Pakistan’s News on Sunday about HT’s activities:
“Ideologically HT is no different to al-Qaeda. It is a dangerous and divisive organisation that aims to implement a totalitarian dictatorship that will use violence to spread its rule. HT’s strategy is to propagate its ideology amongst all levels of society and to indoctrinate the population with its extremist belief system, which it presents as ‘true’ Islam. The party’s claim is a lie. Its ideology must be challenged and totally rejected.”
Ahmed spoke about the report’s findings on LBC Radio with Nick Ferrari, and about HT’s activities on the US chat show, Secure Freedom Radio.
Other Reports on Hizb ut-Tahrir Organization:
White House Adviser Joins UK Interview with Anti-Democratic Hizb ut-Tahrir Group
Extremist Hizb ut-Tahrir Event Promoted with Beheaded Statue of Liberty
UK: Press Reports of “Furious Residents” over Extremist Hizb ut-Tahrir Conference
Canada: Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) Group to Meet in Govt-Managed Community Center
Chicago – IPT News: “Anti-Semitic, Anti-Christian Propaganda on Display at Caliphate Conference”
Chicago’s Moment of Freedom: Chicagoans Stand Up for Freedom Challenging Hizb ut-Tahrir
Black Flag of Caliphate
