faith groups

Waltham Forest’s Great and Good – from Dr. Stella Creasy MP, to senior police officers, via LBWF Leader Grace Williams – come a cropper about faith-based zealotry…yet again

October 17, 2024 Cllr. Grace Williams, faith groups, Stella Creasy MP 0

Over the years, senior members of the borough’s establishment on occasion have enthusiastically supported faith organisations – Christian and Muslim – which turn out to espouse unattractive values, values that no Town Hall officer or mainstream politician or police officer would express in public. A classic example occurred in 2016, when a clutch of Labour councillors, (including the no... »

The Charity Commission issues regulatory ‘guidance’ to Walthamstow charities Miftahul Jannah Academy and Masjid-E-Umer Trust after complaints about the content of their youth programmes

December 6, 2022 anti-semitism, faith groups

In the autumn of 2021, complaints were made to the Charity Commission about two Waltham Forest Muslim charities, the Miftahul Jannah Academy and the Masjid-E-Umer Trust (which runs Walthamstow Central Mosque). At the centre of the complaints was ‘Islamic scholar’ Muhammad Patel, who had taught young people at both charities from 2008 onwards, with live recordings of his weekly lectures then b... »

LBWF and faith groups: a ‘gay friendly’ council does business with a church that thinks same sex relations are ‘immoral and sinful’, and guess what gives?

November 3, 2021 Cllr.Sally Littlejohn, faith groups, Redevelopment

A recent post on this blog (see links), which broadly raised the question of how – if at all – LBWF should interact with faith groups that do not subscribe to its social cohesion and equity policies, brings to mind another troubling episode, which was briefly mentioned here in 2019, but in the light of events perhaps deserves a little more coverage. The bones of the story can be summarised t... »

Islamic extremism in Walthamstow: the Charity Commission investigates two Muslim charities over controversial statements made in youth programmes, but LBWF must intervene, too.

October 21, 2021 anti-semitism, faith groups, Prevent

As has been reported by various media outlets (most prominently the Times), the Charity Commission is currently investigating two Waltham Forest Islamic charities, the Miftahul Jannah Academy and the Masjid-E-Umer Trust (which runs Walthamstow Central Mosque), following a complaint about controversial statements in lectures that allegedly have been delivered as part of their youth progra... »