Where do Government Funds Go?

Although the Muslim Community has had a vast and increasing presence in Britain for over two decades, when we talk of Government Funding and the Muslim Community we seem to focus primarily on the post 9/11 & 7/7 initiatives; more specifically, on the four “Ps” strategy launched as part of a ‘tackling violent extremism’ agenda – Prevent, Pursue, Protect and Prepare.

Money has since been invested in community projects in excess of £43 million. The projects include very successful efforts, such as the MWN (Muslim Women’s Network), which is a community initiative that branches out into a national body of Muslim Women rolling out area specific projects in their own communities. It has worked well for empowerment and social responsibility and also provides a central network for the women to engage from.

Other projects that have been somewhat criticised by Muslims from within the community include the heavily funded Quilliam Foundation. The group was set up by two “former leading ideologues of UK-based extremist Islamist organizations” Ed Hussain and Majid Nawaz. The Quilliam Foundation carries out research, provides training on issues of extremism, and holds public events and runs media campaigns. Inayat Bunglawala writes in the Guardian last week about the organisation along side another, the Sufi Muslim Council, stating that these outfits have “little or no support among UK Muslims.” He questions the objectivity of these groups and why they are receiving Government support.

Also the MSF (Muslim Safety Forum) has highlighted concerns over another pilot project called ‘Operation Channel’. The members of the group are in conversation with officials from Scotland Yard; looking to challenge the vagueness and potential personal damage to individuals should this be rolled out on an even larger scale. The ‘Operation Channel’ allows for any individual members or groups of a community to identify individuals who could be at risk of radicalisation. Indicators include a change in personal or social circumstances. The individuals are ‘reported’ following which, specially designated centers such as the local youth center are alerted to put into action a plan of engagement for the individual so to ‘channel’ them into mainstream activity.

The MSF’s main concerns are the lack of transparency of the project as a whole. There is no mention of any data that would be kept of these people, if the data is available to the police, the very broad indicators available ‘ change of circumstance’ and the wide spectrum of people that can make reports.

Difficulties that have thus surfaced lead to a growing mistrust of the Government amongst the Muslim Community. Another area that has recently been highlighted more so is that the Prevent strategy is focused singularly at one community.  There have been suggestions that the Prevent Agenda ought to combat far right extremism as well. This argument is further strengthened by the growing membership of the British National Party and a statement made by the police authorities predicting a terrorist spectacular by far right extremists which will aim to stir things up for community relations. In light of these instances Labor Minister Shahid Malik made a recent announcement stating that the Government may indeed be branching out to access far right fringe groups too. It remains to be seen if this suggestion will be realised.

Government Funding for regeneration and Community Cohesion has always been targeted at minority groups, not necessarily religious minorities but those that are under represented or those concentrated in high poverty areas. Many of these areas have a strong Muslim presence, hence in other ways the Muslim community hasn’t been subject to Government funding for the first time. It’s more the political climate in which it is highlighted and under the banner it is currently distributed.

I can’t see Muslims raising a brow if the money were for the development of education or employment opportunities or for improvements to transport or the health service or bettering race relations amongst all communities etc. I think it’s quite heartening that the Muslim Community are calling for a re-evaluation of Public expenditure, they want it productively distributed, after all millions of Muslims in Britain contribute to our Public Fund budget by way of taxes.

What’s your take? You can add your comments below to start a discussion – AND – attend the ‘String’s Attached’ Government Funding and the Muslim Community event on the 19th – AND – vote here on whether you think there are indeed ‘string’s attached.’