Quilliam Foundation
This article is part of the Counter-Terrorism Portal project of Spinwatch. |
The Quilliam Foundation is a London based think-tank purporting to challenge Islamic extremism in the UK. Incorporated as a limited company on 20 November 2007, the Foundation was launched on 22 April 2008 recieving significant financial assisstance and media attention. Even though the exact figure is unknown, it has been reported that the Quilliam Foundation received £700,000 as part of the government's Preventing Violent Extremism Programme, £400,000 of which was given by the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism.[1] From January 2009 till January 2010, the Quilliam Foundation were given £138,890 by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.[2] Moreover, the co-Director of the Quilliam Foundation, Ed Husain, was sent to Cairo and Alexandria on an FCO funded trip entitlted 'Projecting British Islam' from 7-11 July 2008 to 'build partnerships between prominent British Muslims and like-minded Egyptians to highlight positive messages about modern Islam and counterbalance the extremist ideology and narrative'.[3]
Contents
Low key government support
Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain wrote in Guardian Online's Comment is Free blog, that the Department for Communities and Local Government had hinted to UK Islamic groups that if they were prepared to work with the Quilliam Foundation, they could obtain financial support from the government:
- "Some representatives of various UK Islamic groups were invited to see senior officials at the Department of Communities and Local Government recently to discuss the work they were doing with young people. Strong hints were dropped that they could obtain financial support from the government, but only if they were prepared to work with - and thereby help lend credibility to - Ed Husain's soon to be launched Quilliam Foundation."[4]
At the Foundation's launch, advisor Abdel-Aziz Al-Bukhari reportedly argued in his speech that Muslims should 'love, obey and respect' the government[5]. Former ambassador Craig Murray sees a party-political reason behind the New Labour government's support of the Foundation. He has described it as 'the branch of New Labour tasked with securing the Muslim vote and reducing British Muslim dissatisfaction with New Labour over the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.'[6]
Activities
The Foundation's first publication, "Pulling Together to Defeat Terror: Recommendations for Uprooting Islamic Extremism", says that if Muslim leaders "must realise that the foreign policy of the British government will not be held hostage by any one community," and argued that the editors of "liberal newspapers" should "think twice before allowing column space to Hamas and its supporters while they remain committed to the destruction of Israel".[7]
Funding
On the day of the launch in May 2008 the director Maajid Nawaz told Newsnight: "We have absolutely not received government money ,despite being offered it by the Preventing Violent Extremism Pathfinder Fund, and we have said that it is not appropriate for us at the moment - although I would emphasise that I don't have a problem in principle in receiving taxpayers' money for a good cause, as long as it comes with no strings attached."[8]. However, according to Craig Murray the government has underwritten the Foundation's operations to the tune of £1 million in taxpayer money.[9] Co-director Ed Husain has stated that the Foundation is receiving private Kuwait funding.[10]
FCO Funding
The FCO has funded the Quilliam Foundation £138,890 from January 2009 till January 2010.[11]
Personnel
The Quilliam Foundation consists of 13 members:.
Maajid Nawaz – Co-Director & Co-founder | Ed Husain – Co-Director & Co-founder | Ed Jagger - Head of Operations | Anya Hart Dyke - Senior Research Fellow | James Brandon - Senior Research Fellow | Lucy James - Research Fellow | Mohammad Ali Musawi - Research Fellow | Sophie Thompson - Research Fellow | Ghaffar Hussain - Head of Outreach & Training | Talal Rajab - Trainer | Cassandra Hamblett - PA to directors | Fatima Mullick - Pakistan Project Manager | George Readings - Communications Officers | [12]
Original List of Advisors
The following is a list of Quilliam Foundation's original Advisors that was available on the Quilliam website, before it was removed sometime before 27 May 2008.The images on the right are screengrabs of the original list of advisors to the Quilliam Foundation that are no longer viewable on the Quilliam Foundation website but were instead retrieved using an archive wesbite.[13] By the 27 May 2008 the page had been removed and was replaced by an announcement that the Quilliam Foundation had removed the advisor list 'to save them the indignity of constant Islamist-Wahhabite harrassment'.[14]
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Current (2010) Advisors
- Canon Dr Giles Fraser
- David Goodhart
- Iqbal Wahhab - Head of Quilliam Advisory Board
- Michael Gove MP
- Dr Catherine Fieschi
- Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui.
- Dr Musharraf Hussain Al-Azhari
- Dr David Green
- Professor Timothy Garton Ash
- Sheikh Dr. Ali al-Saleh al Najafi[16]
Contact Information
Registered office:
- 34-36 High Holborn
- London
- WC1V 6AE
- email: information@quilliamfoundation.org
- Tel: 020 7193 1204
references
- ↑ Vikram Dodd Spying Morally Right, says Think-Tank, Guardian.co.uk, 16 October 2009,
- ↑ Freedom of Information Request No. 1121-09, 22 January 2010
- ↑ [http://spinprofiles.org/index.php/Image:FoI_1121-09.jpg FOI REQUEST 1121-09 – COPY OF PREVIOUSLY RELEASED INFORMATION 1. Ref – 0967-08 Questions on the use of the Quilliam Foundation by the FCO in the last twelve months: FCO Visits by Quilliam Foundation and FCO funding for Quilliam Foundation.]
- ↑ Inayat Bunglawala, 'Abandoning banning', Guardian.co.uk, 17 April 2008
- ↑ Ziauddin Sardar, 'To lionise former extremists feeds anti-Muslim prejudice', The Guardian, 24 April 2008
- ↑ Craig Murray, New Labour Corruption and Quilliam, CraigMurray.org.uk, April 2009
- ↑ Susannah Tarbush, 'The Quilliam Foundation', Al-Hayat, 26 May 2008
- ↑ Susannah Tarbush, 'The Quilliam Foundation', Al-Hayat, 26 May 2008
- ↑ Craig Murray, New Labour Corruption and Quilliam, CraigMurray.org.uk, April 2009
- ↑ Susannah Tarbush, 'The Quilliam Foundation', Al-Hayat, 26 May 2008
- ↑ Freedom of Information Request No. 1121-09, 22 January 2010
- ↑ Quilliam Staff, accessed 21/02/2010
- ↑ Screengrab of Waybackmachine highlighting changes to Quilliam Foundation website regarding Advisors. Captured on 21/02/10 using ‘Way back machine’ on www.archive.org. Original available at http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://quilliamfoundation.org/advisors.html
- ↑ Screengrab of Quilliam Foundation Advisors Note. Captured on 21/02/10 using ‘Way back machine’ on www.archive.org. Archived date – 27 May 2008
- ↑ Advisors, accessed 21 February 2010.
- ↑ Quilliam Announces New Head of Advisory Board, 19 January 2010 accessed 21/02/10
