Tony Blair Faith Foundation
Tony Blair Faith Foundation is an interfaith foundation, founded by Tony Blair in 2008 and predominantly financed by the work completed by Tony Blair Associates.
Contents
Projects
- 'Supporting the Next Generation' - educating over 120,000 children, between the ages of 12 and 17, in over 20 countries to help prevent religious conflict and extremism.[1]
- 'Supporting Leaders' - working with 30 universities around the world, educating graduates with the 'knowledge, analysis and skills to navigate the complexity of religions impact in the world'.[2]
- 'Support for Collaboration' - provide opportunities for faith communities to collaborate, increasing dialogue and understanding and reducing religious tensions. They claim to have visited 290,140 households, reached 2,054,416 people and trained 15,121 volunteers.[3]
People
- Tony Blair, founder
Executive team
- Charlotte Keenan, executive director and CEO. Left the corporate finance and investment banking sector to join the Foundation, having worked in Jefferies and Company and JP Morgan Cazenove.
- Matthew Lawrence, director of programmes. Has worked in the investment banking industry, as a director at Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan Cazenove.
- Perry Martin, director of finance and operations and treasurer for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation-US.
Trustees
- Dame Gail Rebuck, widow of Labour politician Philip Gould and chair of publishers Penguin Random House UK.[4]
- Robert Clinton
- Robert Coke
- Jeremy Sinclair
- Sir Michael Barber, an adviser to global education organisation Pearson and a former partner at law firm McKinsey & Company.[5]
Directors and Officers
Religious Advisory Council
- Dr Ismail Khudr Al-Shatti, Advisor in Diwan of H.H. the Prime Minister of Kuwait and former President of the Gulf Institute for Futures and Strategic Studies
- The Right Reverend and Right Honourable Richard Chartres, Lord Bishop of London
- The Reverend David Coffey OBE, Global Ambassador BMS World Mission, Past President of the Baptist World Alliance
- The Reverend Joel Edwards, Director of Micah Challenge International and former General Director of the Evangelical Alliance
- Professor Jagtar Singh Grewal, former Chairman of the India Institute of Advanced Study and former Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University
- Roshi Joan Halifax, Abbot of the Upaya Zen Center
- Right Reverend Josiah Idowu-Fearon, Bishop of Kaduna
- Imam Umer Ahmed Ilyasi, Chief Imam of India and President of the All India Organization of Imams of Mosques
- Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin
- Anantanand Rambachan, Professor and Chair of the Religion Department at St. Olaf College, Minnesota
- Rabbi David Rosen, Chairman of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations
- Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Former Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth
- H.H. Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji, President and Spiritual Head of Parmarth Niketan Ashram, Rishikesh
- Bhai Sahib Bhai Mohinder Singh, Chairman, Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha
- The Reverend Dr Rick Warren, Founding and Senior Pastor of Saddleback Church and Founder of the P.E.A.C.E Coalition
Controversies
Charity Commission
In 2014 the Tony Blair Faith Foundation were investigated by the Charity Commission after a former employee claimed Blair was using it as a "think-tank" for his private office. The Commission said it was "assessing" the concerns raised and will publish a report. Martin Bright worked for the Foundation as a website editor for five months and claimed Blair still works from a ministerial 'red-box system' (a sort of suitcase used for carrying documents around which are embossed with the Royal Cypher), employs five communications officers and operates a "government-in-waiting". Bright claimed Blair's "strident" positions on world affairs were "affecting the ability of his charities to work independently". A spokesperson for the foundation has denied Bright's claims and stressed that the Foundation is an "independent entity" governed by a board of independent trustees that meets its charitable objectives and abides by all regulations.[6]
Muslim Brotherhood
The foundation was criticised in 2014 when it was claimed that two advisers had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, an organisation that has been declared a terrorist group in Egypt and Saudi Arabia and who opened an office in the UK but moved to Austria after David Cameron asked MI5 and MI6 to investigate them. The two men in question are Dr Ismail Khudr Al-Shatti, an adviser to the Kuwaiti government and a leading member of the Kuwaiti branch of the Brotherhood and Mustafa Ceric, a Bosnian Muslim cleric who is linked to the global Muslim Brotherhood through his membership of the European Council for Fatwa and Research.[7]
Contact
- UK Address: PO Box 60519,
- London,
- W2 7JU,
- United Kingdom
- US Address: 409 Prospect Street,
- New Haven,
- Connecticut,
- 06511
- Phone: +44 (0)203 370 1959
- Email: info@tonyblairfaithfoundation.org or mediabids@tonyblairfaithfoundation.org
- Website: http://tonyblairfaithfoundation.org/
Resources
Notes
- ↑ Tony Blair Foundation, Supporting next generation, accessed 4 February 2015
- ↑ Tony Blair Foundation, Supporting Leaders, accessed 4 February 2015
- ↑ Tony Blair Foundation, Support Collaboration, accessed 4 February 2015
- ↑ Lucy Fisher Dame Gail Rebuck, widow of Philip Gould, announced as new Labour peer New Statesman, 8 August 2014, accessed 4 February 2015
- ↑ Pearson, Sir Michael Barber, accessed 4 February 2015
- ↑ Lizzie Dearden Tony Blair Faith Foundation 'assessed' by charity watchdog after concerns raised about former PM's influence Independent, 07 September 2014, accessed 04 February 2015
- ↑ Wills Robinson Tony Blair's religious charity's 'links to extremism': Advisers claimed to be tied to the Muslim Brotherhood which is being investigated by British spies Daily Mail, 13 April 2014, accessed 4 February 2015
