Centre for Social Cohesion

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The Centre for Social Cohesion Logo circa 2010, Source: Facebook

The Centre for Social Cohesion (CSC) was a think tank set up by Civitas 'following widespread and longstanding concern about the diminishing sense of community in Britain'. According to a BBC Newsnight programme on 5 September 2007 the CSC was a 'right leaning think tank'. Its main focus has to do with discussing and analysing the best means to integrate or assimilate ethnic minorities and what implications this has for the wider society. A major focus of CSC is trends in Muslim society in the UK, how they are integrating or not, and the radicalised sections of that society.

CSC and its orginal parent Civitas have been claimed by Tim Montgomerie and Matthew Elliott as part of the infrastructure of the conservative movement in Britain.

The Centre for Social Cohesion (CSC) merged with the Henry Jackson Society in April 2011. CSC director Douglas Murray joined the Society as an associate director.

Organisation

Establishment

Civitas spent £274,669 on the Centre for Social Cohesion Project Fund in 2007. According to its annual report this fund was "set up to encourage racial and religious harmony."

David Green initiated the Centre's blog on 5 April 2007 with a post announcing:

Civitas has established the Centre For Social Cohesion because of widespread and longstanding concern about the diminishing sense of community in Britain. Work has begun and we are now actively recruiting new staff.

In June 2007, a Civitas newsletter announced that the CSC would be based at Great Peter Street in Westminster with a staff of six under the direction of Douglas Murray and had already hosted an event with the Syrian dissident Wafa Sultan.

In an interview that month with Regeneration and Renewal magazine, Murray argued that the new centre would be independent despite perceptions of Civitas, a Tory think-tank, saying that "There's a difference between being ideologically perceived to be right wing and being party political."

Murray went on to argue that radical Islam was the greatest threat to community cohesion in the UK:

Activists from all sides, he says, 'get the problem' - and it rapidly becomes apparent that, as far as the Centre for Social Cohesion is concerned, 'the problem' is the rise of radical Islam.

Murray believes that radical Islam poses a very real ideological threat to British society. He acknowledges that other factors contribute to problems with community cohesion, but 'the main organised undercurrent behind disaffection is radical Islam'.

Also that month, "the Centre was represented at a conference in California which brought together many of the world's experts on Islamic extremism, including Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Wafa Sultan, Ibn Warraq and Mark Steyn." This would appear to refer to the Collapse of Europe Conference held at Pepperdine University in Malibu which Murray attended.

The Centre's first email update, dated 1 July 2007, announced the recruitment of David Conway, James Brandon and Salam Hafez as senior researchers.

Incorporation

The Centre for Social Cohesion was incorporated as a private company limited by guarantee on 3 June 2008. Its original directors were Hannah Stuart and Douglas Murray.

According to its original memorandum of association, the centre's objects were:

For the public benefit, to research issues of social cohesion, extremism and radicalism by such means as are appropriate to the attainment of these Objects;

to advance, for the public benefit, education in relation social cohesion, extremism and radicalisation, by such means as are appropriate to the attainment of these Objects;

For the public benefit, to promote greater understanding of how the Mosaic faiths can strengthen a democratic, secular society, and

The doing of all such other things as are incidental to the attainment of these Objects.

The Memorandum of Association was amended on 9 December 2008, and the objects changed to:

(a) monitoring abuses of human rights;

(b) research into human rights issues;

(c) educating the public about human rights;

(d) raising awareness of human rights issues;

(e) commenting on proposed human rights legislation;

(f) promoting popular support for human rights;

(g promoting respect for human rights among individuals and corporations;

(h) international advocacy of human rights;

(i) eliminating infringements of human rights.

Baroness Cox, Dr John Marks, and Ruth Dudley Edwards were appointed as a directors on 5 January 2009.

Murray and Stuart stepped down as a directors on 7 January 2009.

Activities

• It seeks to analyze why certain groups become radicalized, and in the process seeks it advocates banning some books, and not funding certain activities or resources.
• Analyze the role schools play or should play in integrating minorities or fomenting "patriotism".
• Analyze the role and effect of religious schools.
• Analyze and debate what the UK's immigration policy should be and what possible effects extant policy will have.

A-Z of Muslim organisations

The Centre's first publication, in July 2007, was an A-Z of Muslim Organisations in Britain which appeared on its website..

By April 2008, the A-Z had been replaced by the message: "The UK Islam A-Z is temporarily off line. The Centre for Social Cohesion is currently updating the UK Islam A-Z in advance of its forthcoming publication, a Guide to British Muslim Organisations, due to be published next month. The Centre apologises for any inconvenience."

According to a parliamentary submission by the CSC, a draft copy of the guide was circulated to organisations profiled on 26 March 2008, and received a libel threat from solicitors Carter-Ruck on behalf of InterPal on 2 April 2008. As a result the report was not published.

The A-Z section on InterPal highlighted allegations by BBC Panorama that InterPal was funding charities in the Occupied Territories linked to Hamas. It also cited documents to this effect allegedly recovered by the IDF, and noted that the matter was under investigation by the Charity Commission.

In 2009, a Charity Commission report on the allegations concluded:

The Inquiry could not verify the material suggesting that certain local partners funded by the Charity may be promoting terrorist ideology or activities, so the material was of insufficient evidential value to support these allegations.

Hate on the State

The CSC's first full length report was Hate on the State: How British libraries encourage extremism by Douglas Murray and James Brandon. This criticised the London Borough of Tower Hamlets for stocking 'several hundred books and audio-tapes by radical Islamists' in its public libraries.

The study was the subject of a BBC Newsnight report by Richard Watson on 5 September 2007. Among those interviewed were Murray and Ed Husain who grew up in Tower Hamlets.

In a statement to the programme, Tower Hamlets council said:

"The Islamic book stock came from a narrow range of publishers, thereby not reflecting the broad range of Islamic thought.

"We recognised we needed to improve the balance of the Islamic literature in our libraries, which has resulted in us buying extra books more widely representative of Islam."

One Telegraph report said the study was published jointly by CSC and Vigil, and carried commentary from Patrick Mercer, a conservative MP who had worked with the latter group. However, a (presumably later) online version of the same report retained Mercer's comments but made no mention of Vigil. The study itself includes Vigil among those acknowledged for their assistance and cooperation.

Matthew Elliott of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said of the report: "The idea that our money is being used to buy books that incite people to attack us is outrageous."

The Telegraph's Damian Thompson praised Murray for recognising "the major threat to social cohesion in this country: Islam."

Hirsi Ali - Husain debate

The CSC hosted a debate between Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Ed Husain on 20 November 2007.

Crimes of the Community

On 4 February 2008, the CSC published Crimes Of The Community: Honour-based Violence In The UK, by James Brandon and Salam Hafez.

The report appeared shortly before a speech by Archbishop Rowan Williams on Sharia, a fact which was picked up by several of the Archbishop's critics. Christopher Hitchens wrote:

By a nice coincidence, a London think tank called the Center for Social Cohesion issued a report just days before the leader of the world's Anglicans and Episcopalians capitulated to Islamic demands.

One Muslim woman critical of the report, Fauzia Ahmad of the University of Bristol, said that:

"There is little to argue against in these explicit examples of abuse let alone that such abuse requires addressing, but the ‘Muslim/Asian woman as victim of her own culture and religion’ approach framing the report and informing it throughout is deeply problematic and negates the possibility of any form of female empowerment or agency through religion.

Glees report on Universities

In April 2008, CSC's Robin Simcox wrote that the centre would soon be publishing a report by Professor Anthony Glees on Saudi and Muslim funding of British universities.

The Sunday Telegraph published details of the findings:

Prof Glees's report claims that over the past five years, 70 per cent of politics lectures at the Middle Eastern Centre at St Antony's College, Oxford, were "implacably hostile" to the West and Israel - an allegation denied by Oxford.

The report also claimed that the Government's chief adviser on Islamic studies Dr Ataullah Siddiqui had links to extremist groups:

Dr Siddiqui said: "These claims are false. I deny completely that I have any organisational or ideological links with extremist organisations. I also deny that the Markfield Institute has any such links with extremist organisations."

As of March 2010, no report by Professor Glees appeared on the list of publications on the CSC's website, although Simcox's A Degree of Influence covered similar subject matter.

In a December 2009 article on the funding of Islamic Studies, Professor Glees wrote that "One might expect certain think tanks to support investigations, but they too are terrified of lawsuits."

Virtual Caliphate

On 22 May 2008, the CSC, the Henry Jackson Society and Patrick Mercer MP hosted a talk by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty analyst Daniel Kimmage on Al Qaeda and the internet.

The CSC published Virtual Caliphate:Islamic Extremists and their Websites, by James Brandon and Douglas Murray on 11 June 2008. The study was largely based on material appearing on the islambase.co.uk website.

Like the previous CSC report, Virtual Caliphate was praised by the Telegraph's Damian Thompson, who reported that "there is even more controversial material to come later this year."

Vigil's Dominic Whiteman was among those credited in the report. Whiteman's own Westminster Journal site had itself featured two articles on Islambase in January and February 2008. The site was also a target for the Cheerleaders blogger "Princess Calamity". The Ministry of Truth blog would later suggest that individuals linked to the Vigil network may have contributed to a spurious People story linking Islambase to a threat against the singer Madonna, arguing on the basis of circumstantial IP evidence that Paul Ray, an associate of former Vigil member Glen Jenvey, may have been responsible for an attempt to incite Muslims on another forum ahead of the story.

Post-Christian Europe and Resurgent Islam conference

The CSC was represented at the Post-Christian Europe and Resurgent Islam conference in Vienna in May/June 2008.

Walid Phares visit

The CSC and the Henry Jackson Society co-hosted a lunch-time seminar for Walid Phares, director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington on 7 July 2008.

Islam Expo Withdrawal

CSC director Douglas Murray withdrew from an engagment to speak at Islam Expo in July 2008 after one of the organisers sued the Harry's Place blog. In an open letter to Islam Expo, Murray wrote: "I will not come on a platform hosted by people carrying out legal action against a deeply admirable and informed proponent of free speech."

Islam on Campus

Islam on Campus: A survey of UK student opinion, was published by the CSC on 27 July 2008. The report was based on campus visits, interviews, and an online survey carried out by YouGov. Its authors noted that "Britain has over a hundred universities", but add "We chose to focus our research on a dozen high profile universities with significant Muslim student populations and active Islamic Societies."

The first key finding highlighted in the report's executive summary was that:

Just under a third of Muslim students polled (32%) said killing in the name of religion can be justified - the majority of these said killing could be justified if the religion was under attack, and 4% of all respondents supported killing in order to preserve and promote that religion.

This finding was headlined in a number of newspapers. The Telegraph headlined it as:

Killing for religion is justified, say third of Muslim students

It appeared in the Daily Mail as:

One third of British Muslim students say it's acceptable to kill for Islam.

However the original poll question asked of Muslim students did not mention Islam, but stated:

Is it ever justifiable to kill in the name of religion?

Yes, in order to preserve and promote that religion 4%

Yes, but only if that religion is under attack 28%

No, it is never justifiable 53%

Not sure 15%

A number of commentators have suggested that this question was itself misleading. Blogger Martin Robbins wrote:

I'm curious to know what percentage of Christians would give similar answers, and what proportion of human beings in general if we substitute "religion" for "philosophy" or "way of life". Would you be willing to fight an opponent to the death to protect your family's way of life from attack?

Although a similar question was asked of non-Muslim students, these were not broken down by religion.

Campaign against Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation

CSC has led a campaign against the Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation, alleging that it is a front for the Hizb-ut-Tahrir, based on the fact that one of its trustees is married to an HuT member and has in the past been a member herself. The research was used by David Cameron to attack the New Labour government in parliament. However, the Conservatives admitted some of their allegations turned out to be false. Houriya Ahmed, co-author of the CfSC report, appeared on BBC's Newsnight claiming that the state is funding a school allegedly run by HuT.

A Degree of Influence

David Shariatmadari of the Guardian has criticized CSC for its 'relentless Islamophobia', which he argues has 'spread poison and whipped up anti-Muslim paranoia at every turn'. Commenting on the CSC publication "A Degree of Influence", Shariatmadari concludes that it 'makes a mockery of these legitimate concerns by presenting trumped-up arguments to push a barely disguised anti-Muslim agenda.'

CSC and the Anglican Communion

A strand of opinion within the conservative-evangelical wing of the Church of England which is strongly critical of Islam was heavily represented on the CSC's 2007 advisory board.

Examples included:

• Lord Carey: Religious commentator Damian Thompson wrote of the former Archbishop of Canterbury in 2006 that he had gained stature among Anglican conservatives in part because he had "developed a knack that eluded him in office: of talking common sense. He was the first senior churchman to attack moderate Muslim leaders for not condemning Islamic suicide bombers "clearly and unequivocally".

• Michael Nazir-Ali: Thompson wrote in June 2008 that the former Bishop of Rochester was "building a creeping power base inside the Church of England" which was "almost entirely the result of his brave stance against the creation of islands of Sharia law in Britain."

• Caroline Cox: Baroness Cox spoke along with Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali at the launch of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans.

Opposition to Rowan Williams

The Centre and its director closely reflected the views of this group and its opposition to the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

Following a February 2008 lecture by Williams which addressed the relationship between Islamic law and the civil law CSC director Douglas Murray called on Williams to resign.

Murray wrote that "The beautifully hostile press reaction to Rowan Williams' disgusting views is the only aspect of this story that could provide any hope", and accused the Archbishop of "calling for the institution of Islamic sharia".

A statement issued on the Archbishop's website stated that "The Archbishop made no proposals for sharia in either the lecture or the interview, and certainly did not call for its introduction as some kind of parallel jurisdiction to the civil law."

Support for Muslim faith schools

The CSC's conservative religious roots have occasionally been reflected in tensions with more secularly inclined groups. In May 2008, the CSC took issue with Yasmin Alibhai-Brown after she accused the government of "pandering to Muslims" in a speech at the launch of British Muslims for Secular Democracy.

Many of us will certainly want to respond to this part of Ms Alibhai-Brown’s remarks by saying: ‘Amen to that, sister!’

However, the specific issue she picked on to illustrate the sort of favourable government treatment of Muslims to which she was taking exception gives some cause for concern. For the specific example of such pandering that she claimed ‘would only damage us in the long run’ was the government’s acquiescence to Muslim demands for separate faith schools.

The problem with her choice of example is that this is precisely an instance of Muslims seeking parity of treatment with other faith groups, rather than any especially favoured treatment.

CSC and the Quilliam Foundation

The Centre for Social Cohesion has a complex relationship with the Quilliam Foundation (QF), another think tank working on Muslim issues.

In May 2008, the CSC defended Quilliam against criticisms by the Muslim Association of Britain. Robin Simcox hailed the think-tank as one of two muslim groups committed to democracy to launch in two weeks. The other being British Muslims for Secular Democracy.

After joining Quilliam, former CSC researcher James Brandon strongly criticised Douglas Murray's approach to Islam in a January 2009 Comment is Free article:

My time there was a constant struggle to "de-radicalise" Murray and to ensure that the centre's output targeted only Islamists – and not Muslims as a whole. This October, however, I had finally had enough of this constant battle and resigned. To his credit, Murray has privately retracted many of his more noxious comments – but he apparently lacks the courage to do so publicly.

Brandon particularly criticised Murray's claim that: "conditions for Muslims in Europe must be made harder across the board."

Murray responded to this in a Comment is Free article in October 2009, stating:

Some years ago, in a speech in the Netherlands, I said I wanted the culture of extra rights to stop, and for the rights of Muslims to be brought in line with those of all other people. Long after the fact and purely for positioning reasons, QF has condemned me for this.

He went on to accuse Quilliam of "using public money to advocate increasingly totalitarian attitudes towards the general public and judging Muslims by their own early standards."

Around the time Ed Husain came to public notice, I recruited him to work with me (through Civitas, the organisation that originally hosted the Centre for Social Cohesion). He liked my views and I had great hopes for him to become a source for real reform. This gave him the time and financial freedom to set up QF. But the increasing oddness of his opinions (particularly relating to my own freedom of speech) meant that eventually we parted ways. What is scandalous is that QF – set up to counter extremists such as their former colleagues in Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) – has done nothing substantial to challenge HT in the UK or radicalisation on UK campuses, the things it was actually set up for.

Ed Husain himself contributed to Comment is Free a week later, with an article which described Murray as an 'acolyte' of journalist Melanie Phillips, and called on them both to "cease attacks on Muslim scripture that were based on bin Laden's understanding of Islam".

People

• David Green – Chairman
• Douglas Murray – Director
• David Conway – Senior Research Fellow
• Salam Hafiz – Senior Research Fellow
• John Thorne – Senior Research Fellow
• Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens – Researcher
• Hannah Stuart – Researcher
• Houriya Ahmed – Researcher
• Robin Simcox – Researcher

Company Directors

• Baroness Cox of Queensbury
• Dr John Marks
• Ruth Dudley Edwards

Advisory Council

• Lord Carey of Clifton (former Archbishop of Canterbury)
• Baroness Cox of Queensbury
• Frank Field MP
• David Goodhart (Editor of Prospect Magazine)
• Neill Lochery (University College, London)
• Denis MacEoin (University of Newcastle upon Tyne)
• John Marks
• Michael Nazir-Ali, The Lord Bishop of Rochester
• Andrew Roberts
• Robert Rowthorn (University of Cambridge)

Authors

• Edmund Standing – Author of the Center's 2009 report on BNP's online activities.

Former Staff

• James Brandon- former Senior Research Fellow

Publications

• James Brandon and Douglas Murray, Hate on the State: How British libraries encourage Islamic extremism, 2007.
• James Brandon and Salam Hafez, Crimes of the Community: Honour-Based Violence in the UK, 2008.
• James Brandon, Virtual Caliphate: Islamic extremists and their websites, 2008.
• John Thorne and Hannah Stuart, Islam on Campus: A survey of UK student opinions, 2008.
• Douglas Murray and Johan Pieter Verwey, Victims of Intimidation: Freedom of Speech within Europe’s Muslim Communities, 2008.
• The West and the Future of Islam: A debate between Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Ed Husain, 2009.
• The Beth Din: Jewish Law in the UK, 2009.
• Robin Simcox, A Degree of Influence: The Funding of Strategically Important Subjects in UK Universities, 2009.
• Edmund Standing, The BNP and the Online Fascist Network, 2009.
• Houriya Ahmed and Hannah Stuart, Hizb ut-Tahrir: Ideology and Strategy, 2009.
• Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens and Edmund Standing, Blood & Honour: Britain's Far-Right Militants Blood & Honour: Britain's Far-Right Militants, 2009.
• Robin Simcox, Hannah Stuart and Houriya Ahmed, Islamist Terrorism: The British Connections], 2010.
• Robin Simcox, Control Orders: Strengthening National Security, 2010.

Affiliations

• Civitas
• Based in Clutha House, 10 Storey's Gate, London where Policy Exchange is based
• Henry Jackson Society – has co-sponsored events

Resources, Contact and References

External Resources

• WHY THE CENTRE WAS FOUNDED, Centre for Social Cohesion, via the Internet Archive, as archived 20 December 2007.

Contact

Centre For Social Cohesion

77 Great Peter Street

Westminster

London SW1P 2EZ

Tel: +44 (0)20 7799 6677

Fax: +44 (0)20 7799 6688

Web: www.socialcohesion.co.uk