24th May 2014
A leading Islamic charity is being investigated by the official watchdog amid allegations that its leaders promote anti-Semitism and have called for homosexuals and female adulterers to be stoned to death. The Islamic Education and Research Academy (IERA), which claims it works with two major British charities, lists among its advisers two preachers banned from the UK for extremist views.
Now the commission has announced a full-blown investigation after identifying a number of “regulatory issues” over its organisation of events and how it chooses speakers and preachers for them.
The investigation — likened by the commission to a police inquiry — coincides with a devastating 44-page report into IERA by the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB), an organisation set up to combat Islamist extremism.
IERA was founded by Abdurraheem Green, a Muslim convert, who is the charity’s chairman. He has been caught on camera preaching at Hyde Park Corner, calling for a Jewish man to be removed from his sight. “Why don’t you take the Yahoudi [Jew] over there, far away so his stench doesn’t disturb us?” he can be heard to say.
In a 2006 internet posting, according to the CEMB report, he described gay people as “vile” and “evil”. The report also says he suggested in a blog that women who commit adultery should be subjected to a “slow and painful death by stoning”. Two of the charity’s advisers are Bilal Philips and Dr Zakir Naik, have both been banned from entering the UK by Theresa May, the Home Secretary.
Maryam Namazie, from the Council of ex-Muslims of Britain, said the organisation should be stripped of its charitable status. “Clearly, the Islamist far-Right should not be granted charitable status but instead classified as a hate group – perpetrating hate against gay people, ex-Muslims, women, Jews, non-Muslims and the majority of Muslims who do not subscribe to their values.”
